PayPal Holds eBay Seller's Money for 2 Months

According to one eBay seller, PayPal has not deposited his funds into his bank account in spite of their promises to do so. For at least 2 months, PayPal has, apparently, been sitting on approximately $20,000 belonging to this powerseller with feedback numbers totaling more than 7500 and with over 12,000 transactions since joining eBay on Feb-23-99.

This South African eBay seller says, in part:

"I made arrangements with Paypal some years ago to transfer funds to my US bank account and have been doing so without problems for years. Two months ago the system disallowed this. After numerous phonecalls, emails etc on a few occasions I was told by staff that this would be allowed but they would need to transfer the funds instead of me doing it on the system. I completed and faxed the necessary forms, they acknowledged receipt and said it would be attended to - I have this in writing from them on more than one occasion."

He is desperate for answers and assistance. Following many sleepless nights, he states:

"I have now decided that my only course of action is to highlight my problem to the financial authorities in the US and Singapore as well as financial editors of major newspapers in the US."

He has now become suspicious of PayPal's reasons for holding his funds. [See post #5]

Another longtime eBay member gives him this advice:

"File embezzlement charges against PayPal, and file them now. It is apparent that they have no intention of giving you access to your money. A friend of mine from Okayama (Western Japan) had GBP 6,000 stuck for months (request to withdraw to a Japanese account was stalled, PayPal came up with new excuses on a daily basis). Embezzlement charges remedied the situation."

Is this what it takes now to withdraw your funds from a PayPal account? You must threaten to sic law enforcement on them? First the 21 Day Hold on some sellers' money, using the Safer Payments excuse... now this BS?

No wonder so many people think PayPal sucks.

100s Lose Money While eBay and PayPal Do Nothing

One of the biggest sellers on eBay Australia has not delivered possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise to his buyers. Complaints were made to eBay weeks ago yet this seller's account remained active. Why didn't eBay shut it down? What was PayPal doing while this was going on?

From The Sydney Morning Herald:

"In the past three months ebusiness-supplies sold over $1 million worth of goods. It is the seventh biggest Australian eBay user in terms of the number of items sold.

eBay was made aware of complaints about the seller weeks ago but did not disable the user account.

Over 450 eBay users who bought items from the seller - often at a price seemingly below cost - have left the company negative feedback in the last 30 days."

PayPal Australia managing director, Andrew Pipolo claims that those who paid the seller using PayPal "will be entitled to refunds through a new fund set up specifically to deal with this incident."

A new fund? Where was all the PayPal buyer protection which eBay leads buyers to believe is already in place? If it exists, why the need for a new fund? And what about those who didn't use PayPal in their transaction with this seller? Many Australians do not like or trust PayPal and may be left hanging with little or no recourse.

If this is what eBay calls "safe trading," I want no part of it. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident.

Additional Note: For a glimpse into some of the reasons why eBay members in Australia dislike PayPal, read the article from apcmag.com titled "eBay boss: 'not offering PayPal is like buying heroin.'"

UPDATE: Andrew Pipolo explains why they initiated the "new fund" referenced above, "We're actually not liable for it but it's something that, because of the circumstances of this particular seller, the impact on such a large number of buyers, we've made the decision to make a fund available to cover the expense. "

Ah Ha! It certainly sounds like he is admitting that the Buyer Protection eBay and PayPal are so fond of bragging about isn't much good, doesn't it?

Additionally, the number of buyers affected appears to number in the thousands, according to the abc.net.au transcript linked directly above.

Why I Think PayPal Sucks

To see why I think PayPal sucks, you only have to check out eBay's PayPal discussion board and PayPalSucks.com. There you will find many, many reasons why PayPal is not a company I will trust with my money or financial information.

A quick glance at the PayPal message board shows these issues:

Chargeback Issued Against Me - What To Do Next

PayPal "Buyer Protection" is a USELESS SCAM!

PayPal reverses payment to buyer, I'm left empty-handed.

Must use PayPal - WHY?????

$600 disappeared while transferring it from Paypal to my bank account?

Cannot Access Paypal Account VERSIGN ID Incorrect

These are just some of the problems that eBay members who are also PayPal users are having today alone. Unfortunately, those problems are typical of what one sees on a daily basis when checking the discussion board.

One personal reason why I no longer have a PayPal account involves $25 that suddenly and mysteriously disappeared from my account leaving behind no evidence that it had ever been there.

A commenter on this blog has her own PayPal Sucks story to tell. She also has money missing.

Read about PayPal Horror Stories, including ongoing and current ones:
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