UBB.Developers Forums General Discussion Chit Chat PayPal warning!

I want to warn people using PayPal, that this company might block your account without any valid reason.
We ar running a satellite TV forum without any illegal content and do not violate the PayPal user policy or any international or European law.
We are a Dutch forum, so PayPal is not even able to read the content of our website.
Still PayPal has closed our account.
The reason for this was a user on our messageboard that was spreading illegal files via our board.
Off-course we banned this user right away!
This user then filed a false complaint at paypal, saying we are a illegal website and therefor in violation of the Paypal terms of use and bragged about this on another messageboard.
On this messageboard he even wrote he was responsible for filing the false complaints just to get back at us for banning him.
PayPal just closed our account (with over 300 euro on it) without even consulting us first.
I have spend at least € 30 on phonecalls and faxes but paypal does only respond to e-mail and this is an automated reply system which can not solve such issiues.
Finally after looking up some websites of other people dealing with PayPal problems I found a working telephone number where you actually get a human being on the phone.
I have spoken to someone at PayPal UK and this person promised a swift solution to our problem, but now (2 weeks later) and over 4 weeks after blocking the account, we can still not access our funds.

IF YOU CAN DO WITHOUT PAYPAL, I ADVICE NOT TO USE IT!

Please checkout the following websites:

http://www.ygoodman.com/paypal.asp

http://consumeraffairs.com/online/paypal_02.html

http://www.paypalwarning.com

http://paypalsuit.com/Phone.htm

http://www.paypalalert.com

http://www.paypalsucks.com

http://www.paypalsucks.com/faqs.shtml

All people with simular problems with PayPal!

Ron

Some people have bad luck, some have good luck with PayPal. For over 4 years, our account has done over $15,000 in transactions through them, and not a single issue.

Yeah, my whole income comes from PayPal, so I've done quite a bit more than Jeremy - so far no problems. <knock on wood>

Hey cut that out - said Pinocchio

Paypal works for me generally... there's a glitch occasionally when I buy something from ebay - for some reason paypal doesn't recognize my address as verified.

Your site may not condone illegal activity, but operates in a gray area... people will go there to trade illegal software and/or links to illegal software/cracks for pay content. Yes, you may close threads that have links to the above, but it'd actually be better if you moved them to a 'junk' forum that only moderators and admins had access to and deleted the accounts of those participating. I'm not telling you how to run your forum... It's up to paypal to decide if they want to operate in that gray area with you and apparently they choose not to.

Did you guys by any chanche check out the links I put in my posting? I am not alone!
Our website is 100% legal and 100% conform the PayPal terms of use. Still they blocked the account just because somebody filed a false complaint. ( I could block the threadsdev paypal account saying illegal software is being sold by the owners of this forum)
It's nice you guys never had an issue with them, but at the issue part is where the trouble starts! You can not get a hold of them and they do not personally respond to support e-mail. Only automaticly generated answers.
The telephone number on their website is just a voice respond system telling you the same sh*t as on the support pages on the paypal website and there is NO faxnumber!
I wast just lucky there where other people having the same problems and share the "non-plublic" PayPal fax and telephone nummers. I received an e-mail just now (2 weeks after the tel. conversation) that our account issue is now under review and we will receive an answer shortly.
I will keep my fingers crossed.
As soon as I have access again, I will empty and close the account and never use paypal again!

Ron

Yeah, that can be rough - particularly a false complaint.
Maybe the phone number is different for your area, here in the US every time I've called them I've been able to talk to a real person. (I had trouble with my Debit Card once).

I've also gotten good email responses (usually within 24 hours) - but the "customer service" departments are probably different than the department that closes accounts. They may work slower.

Hopefully things get resolved for you.

I have seen all of those pages before, it is nothing new. And I have no trouble calling paypal and talking to reps on the phone, we are under their merchant services, so we have a phone number to call that is available without digging. I've called them quite a few times and never had a problem with any issue.

With the amount of fraud on the internet, their "cancel now, ask questions later" attitude is common among most internet service providers. Myself included, if I find a client who is suspected of breaking a rule, using a fradulent card, etc.. I will suspend the account immediately, and resolve the issues later.

It doesn't matter if it is paypal, your own bank and merchant provider, or ISP, they will all likely do the same. You may not have broken any rules or terms of agreement, but if they have any suspicion at all, they would rather just not assume any risk, and I don't blame them.

That may be, but I had to spend al lot of money on international phonecalls because they where NOT responding to the standard support e-mail on the paypal.com website and the only phonenumber on the website is 100% a voice responce system. If you follow he instructions on that system you will NOT get anyone on the phone.
I should know, since I am the one who spend over €30,- trying:-(
There is no local paypal office. Since just a few months there is a paypal europe (UK) but they do not have their own tel. no. on any website. If you visit paypal.co.uk you will be redirected to paypal.com and see the international (US) phone .no.

Ron