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From: "Craig" <craig.keddie@home.com>
My PayPal horror story is currently in development but it looks like the ending will not be in my favor. I run a successful internet business and thanks to the freedom of the internet I can work from where ever I please as long as I have a net connection but this seems to be a major problem for PayPal and something they are willing to give up lots of business because of. I woke up Thursday morning to have find my PayPal account restricted, which up until that moment was my preferred method of payment which I encouraged my clients to pay me with. This of course was a very large surprise to me as I have never had a single complaint, chargeback or issue of any sort with my account in the 2 years that I have held it. So with a couple thousand dollars now being held by PayPal and sales being rejected as I can no longer accept payments I of course called there appeals department right away. I was greeted my the most surly customer service representative I have ever talked to and told that they have been tracking where I log in from and I have been logging in from a country they do not provide service to. No I am not logging in from some problematic country known for fraud and terror but a civil, stable Central European country. After trying to explain to the Appeals department that just because someone is in one country for the moment I don't see how that means they are providing service to that country. I have a confirmed USA address and Bank Account registered with them and I am a US account holder, not a customer from the country in question that I am currently spending time in. At this point the employee of PayPal which last time I checked was not a government agency of any sort proceed to grill me on how long I was planning to stay in this country, do I work here, why am I here, what do I do here, when will I be coming back to the USA etc. Although I found this to be completely out of line I answered the questions only to be told that I could not be given an answer on my appeal and was instructed to fax in my ID, Current Bank statement and Utility bill from my USA address and they would then consider unrestricting my account. I told her the ID and Current Bank statement I would fax in right away but as I am currently spending most of my time out of the USA, I rent a space and the address I have on file is current and I can be reached at, it is where my bank statements go and most of my Mail to get forwarded onto me but I do not have a Utility bill in my name as I am renting the space. Her suggestion from that point was "Ok.. Then your car insurance papers" ???? I guess she didn't understand our whole conversation as I had already told here I am not currently in the USA and maintaining anything more than a mailing address and my bank account. Those were the only 2 options she would provide and finished the conversation repeating many times that I must fax in those exact documents if I want my account unrestricted. So the story up till now leaves things at I have faxed in what I can, they are still holding my money and keeping my business from accepting payments from eager customers and PayPal is not answering any of my requests for further information now that I have faxed in what I can. Half my customers liked using PayPal to pay me.. The other half thought I was crazy. I guess I know who was right now. The craziest thing is 30 min before I found my account restricted I was telling a customer what a great service PayPal was and recommending they use them&. I have since rescinded that recommendation and will be telling my list of over 4,000 webmasters, all of which potential if not current customers of PayPal that my PayPal recommendation has most definitely changed. World Traveler
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