November 5, 2009 Thursday
What I need: return my PayPal account back to normal standing.
I am angry at PayPal for withholding my money.
Here is a little snapshot of my PayPal account:
1. Opened two years ago for personal shopping.
2. Two months ago, I started accepting PayPal on my website.
3. One month ago, I started selling on eBay and accepting PayPal payments.
4. Now, about $3,500 USD on hold at PayPal. I can continue to accept payments, but can't move any money out, nor make payments with my PayPal account.
5. 100% good feedback on eBay and over 100 points.
6. Started my own website about 10 years ago accepting only credit card payments.
7. No pending PayPal or eBay disputes.
Humiliating demands from PayPal: your SSN, vendor contact information, financial information regarding inventory, invoices showing procurement of inventory, delivery confirmation for a list of PayPal payments I received, etc., etc.
I refuse to provide all this sensitive information. My reasoning: Some confidential information is the livelihood of me and several people I hire. And my merchant account provider, Merchant Warehouse, never asked for such information. I mean, who is PayPal? What do they think they are, demanding such private and confidential information? Why no authority has not gotten involved yet?
What's more, I have close to zero inventory, as we are a trading firm. Our inventory model is VMI, Vendor Managed Inventory. We handle only the trading part, and all fulfillment and logistics services are outsourced to outside vendors – I have provided proof to PayPal about this aspect. Laughably some girl called Aimee at the PayPal Appeals department obviously has a hard time understanding this business model. Is the PayPal appeals department adequately staffed???????!!!!!
As for the request for tracking IDs for all the PayPal transactions, I am sorry to say I have none. It's not economically possible to provide tracking in my business, or I would be losing money. But look at my PayPal account history: close to a thousand transactions, and no pending claim whatsoever. There were a few claims filed by buyers, but all were amicably resolved. I do have tracking IDs for a few high-value and Express shipments, which I provided to PayPal.
With all this frustration from small businesses and sellers like me, as I read about them on the internet, I am surprised there has been no viable competitor to PayPal. I am sure there will be. I have signed up with Google Checkout and will ditch PayPal if my account is not returned to my full control.
I don't mind PayPal take a 40% or 50% collateral of each of the payments I receive. PayPal can hold the money until it sees fit to release it. Why this painful "we limit your account, provide us your SSN and other sensitive information" process?
As I see it , the PayPal appeals department is understaffed and under trained. I have serious doubts about the education about these people, judging from the demands that they make. They need education in business models, financial accounting, legal business entity types, etc. They even lack common sense sometimes.
November 6, 2009 Friday
I just got notice that PayPal closed my account, and is holding $3,706.49 for 180 days AT LEAST.
I dislike the extremely unprofessional practice at PayPal, that every time I get a response from them, it's from a different person. I feel I am being treated like a small ant. Being treated like trash.
How could ten different people handling the same case, each one getting only a piece of the information, get a whole picture of my operations and my business????????? Not to say to understand my specific needs?
My fledgling eBay account is being destroyed. It has 125 points positive feedback. Now I have buyers waiting to pay with PayPal, and are angry at me for not taking PayPal payments.
My Merchant Warehouse merchant account, which allows me to charge my customers tens of thousands of dollars each month on credit cards, never had such issues.
PayPal is, apparently, disproportionately skewed towards the consumer instead of the seller. It's pro-buyer, pro-consumer. I would advise any small business owner who need to charge customers to open accounts with merchant account providers like Merchant Warehouse. But strangely I don't have a single negative feedback on my eBay profile, and not a single case of PayPal claim pending.
I am REALLY REALLY ANGRY AND FRUSTRATED.
This is also posted at : getsatisfaction.com
Keywords: PayPal account limited; requested to provide sensitive and highly confidential business information
What I need: return my PayPal account back to normal standing.
I am angry at PayPal for withholding my money.
Here is a little snapshot of my PayPal account:
1. Opened two years ago for personal shopping.
2. Two months ago, I started accepting PayPal on my website.
3. One month ago, I started selling on eBay and accepting PayPal payments.
4. Now, about $3,500 USD on hold at PayPal. I can continue to accept payments, but can't move any money out, nor make payments with my PayPal account.
5. 100% good feedback on eBay and over 100 points.
6. Started my own website about 10 years ago accepting only credit card payments.
7. No pending PayPal or eBay disputes.
Humiliating demands from PayPal: your SSN, vendor contact information, financial information regarding inventory, invoices showing procurement of inventory, delivery confirmation for a list of PayPal payments I received, etc., etc.
I refuse to provide all this sensitive information. My reasoning: Some confidential information is the livelihood of me and several people I hire. And my merchant account provider, Merchant Warehouse, never asked for such information. I mean, who is PayPal? What do they think they are, demanding such private and confidential information? Why no authority has not gotten involved yet?
What's more, I have close to zero inventory, as we are a trading firm. Our inventory model is VMI, Vendor Managed Inventory. We handle only the trading part, and all fulfillment and logistics services are outsourced to outside vendors – I have provided proof to PayPal about this aspect. Laughably some girl called Aimee at the PayPal Appeals department obviously has a hard time understanding this business model. Is the PayPal appeals department adequately staffed???????!!!!!
As for the request for tracking IDs for all the PayPal transactions, I am sorry to say I have none. It's not economically possible to provide tracking in my business, or I would be losing money. But look at my PayPal account history: close to a thousand transactions, and no pending claim whatsoever. There were a few claims filed by buyers, but all were amicably resolved. I do have tracking IDs for a few high-value and Express shipments, which I provided to PayPal.
With all this frustration from small businesses and sellers like me, as I read about them on the internet, I am surprised there has been no viable competitor to PayPal. I am sure there will be. I have signed up with Google Checkout and will ditch PayPal if my account is not returned to my full control.
I don't mind PayPal take a 40% or 50% collateral of each of the payments I receive. PayPal can hold the money until it sees fit to release it. Why this painful "we limit your account, provide us your SSN and other sensitive information" process?
As I see it , the PayPal appeals department is understaffed and under trained. I have serious doubts about the education about these people, judging from the demands that they make. They need education in business models, financial accounting, legal business entity types, etc. They even lack common sense sometimes.
November 6, 2009 Friday
I just got notice that PayPal closed my account, and is holding $3,706.49 for 180 days AT LEAST.
I dislike the extremely unprofessional practice at PayPal, that every time I get a response from them, it's from a different person. I feel I am being treated like a small ant. Being treated like trash.
How could ten different people handling the same case, each one getting only a piece of the information, get a whole picture of my operations and my business????????? Not to say to understand my specific needs?
My fledgling eBay account is being destroyed. It has 125 points positive feedback. Now I have buyers waiting to pay with PayPal, and are angry at me for not taking PayPal payments.
My Merchant Warehouse merchant account, which allows me to charge my customers tens of thousands of dollars each month on credit cards, never had such issues.
PayPal is, apparently, disproportionately skewed towards the consumer instead of the seller. It's pro-buyer, pro-consumer. I would advise any small business owner who need to charge customers to open accounts with merchant account providers like Merchant Warehouse. But strangely I don't have a single negative feedback on my eBay profile, and not a single case of PayPal claim pending.
I am REALLY REALLY ANGRY AND FRUSTRATED.
This is also posted at : getsatisfaction.com
Keywords: PayPal account limited; requested to provide sensitive and highly confidential business information
