Watch out using PayPal!

[Blues Dues]

After two years of using PayPal with no major problems, they are applying software monitors on your accounts that make totally illogical decisions on your account status.

Get this:

In the past couple of weeks we attempted to purchase two guitars that were listed on eBay. The first was a fixed price. We purchased it and immediately paid for it using PayPal.

The seller (shady, I think) replied with an email indicating that the guitar was "out of stock". He offered to reserve the next one for a $300 deposit with delivery in 2 months or a refund.

I opted for the refund which he made to our account.

We then won an auction for another guitar of interest. Paid for it using PayPal. This seller replied that the guitar had been sold locally without his knowledge and he refunded our payment to our account.

So far, so good.

Then, this morning, I received an email from PayPal. They have put any payment MADE to our account on a hold status for up to 21 days due to a higher than normal occurrence of refunds. The fact that the refunds were made *TO* our account by sellers doesn't seem to matter to the software that PayPal uses.

This is after almost 2 years of using PayPal/eBay with a 100% positive feedback rating.

Go figure.

[papajohn]

Whoa, sorry to hear that! I am a die-hard PayPal/eBay junkie! This could drastically curtail my spending! Wait a minute, that might not be a bad thing. Seriously, thanks for the heads-up. I do use PayPal quite frequently and I certainly can't afford anything getting messed up with my account. Thanks again!
John

[tim]

Probably because when money is refunded paypal doesn't get their extra 3% cut of the transacrion going on the back flush.

Really though.... That's a classic shame Richard. But that story doesn't sound unusual. A friend of mine sells lots of stuff on ebay and uses paypal for 98% of the trades. Coming and going. He's been in many a hassle over charge backs and disputes, which he says are mostly in the buyers favor. But obviously not always.

[Blues Dues]

After three telephone calls to PayPal I finally spoke to someone who understood the issue and took action to correct our account status.

The first two calls were an exercise in futility and frustration.

All is good now.

[tim]

All is good now.

er... for the moment.