Account is on "Temporary Hold", and I'm confused.

[ShellyCole]

HI all,

 As the title says, I'm confused.  I've been googling and searching these archives for about 5 days now, trying to find some answers (I won't call, because I've called before, and PayPal phone support is hirrendous, and not somethign I want to put myself through again) - but all answers that are even closely related to this issue seem to have to do with good being traded, usually on eBay.  

I don't fit that bill.

I've ued PayPal for a long time (please don't ask how long - it's been a long while since I've opened an account) to do my business.  I run a small web deveopment company, and merchant account services are too expensive for me right now, so I chose to use PayPal because I've never had an issue with them.  Recently, my business has grown - like surprisingly so.  (Not so much that it's like I'm rolling in the dough, though, but  last year I made almost double the profits I did in 2010.)  Now, a lot of my clients like to pay me via check, but I prefer to use PayPal.  So, unfortunately, at least 75% of my transations don't go through PayPal.  but I've been pushing my clients to go through PayPal instead, and they've been coimplying over the past few months.

Now enters my issue.  Last week (Tuesday) I landed a new client, and - per our contract - she sent a 50% retainer for my services to my paypal account.  My account was IMMEDIATELY put on hold. Now, this amount was a little larger than what's normally put in there, but not HUGELY big - maybe a couple hundred dollars.  It fit in with the usual payments I get through PayPal - it's just a BIG project, so the amount was slightly larger than my average.  I immediately complied wiht the email to supply information from PayPal, and I've heard nohign since.

yesterday I got an email from  someone at "e.paypal.com" - that wanted me to download an .html file, open it in my browser and put in information t help me "quickly resolve me dispute." (Which there is no dispute - if they'd email the "buyer" of my services, she would, indeed, verify she sent the money and wanted me to have it.  I even have emails from her attesting to this.)  I'm pretty sure the email was a spoof, so I sent it to the security people here.

However, when I logged into my account this morning to check the staus, there's a new link on the page - that says "Accept billing agreement and activate monthly billing".  I have no idea what this is abount, and when I click the link, it takes me to a page that pretty much gives me an option to agree or not.  I have NO IDEA what I'm supposed to be agreeing to, and be billed for (nor how much).  There's nothign that provides this information. If I click the link, all the page says is this:

Reactivate monthly billing agreement

You're about to reactivate your monthly billing agreement and resume monthly billing fees. Are you sure you want to reactivate now?

button to reactivate / button to cancel

Now, a LONG time ago (maybe two or three years ago?), I opened up a business account.  The sole purpose was ONLY to test out some functions that I was doing for a site design for a client who wanted to use it.  There was no other purpose.  When I completed the site, I canceled the business account. (Actually, I waited a couple of months because I wanted to see if it was useful to keep the account, and it wasn't - I didn't make enough money, nor did I utilize the features enough to justify the expense.)

So I'm confused.  I thought this whole thing was supposed to *tell me* what was going on, and what I needed to do to move the process along.  I understand the ned for these "random holds" that PayPal likes to do on people - at least the need how it appears on papaer.  Whatever.  But this system of NOT telling me what's going on, and assuming I can read between whatever lines are being put up, is giving me a headache.  

Am I now *required* to have a business account?  I'd like ot know *why*, when I dont' make enough money (or do enough transactions through PayPal), and what benefit it is to my busienss to do so?  Where's the agreement?  How much is the bill?  What is the purpose?  If I reaticvate this account, will I get my momey?

I'm reading horror stories all over the place about all of this, and everythign I've read has basically said "if your account gets put on hold, you might as well kiss that money goodbye, because you'll never see it again."  

Can someone please tell me what's going on, how long I have to wait for this process to finish, and how long it'll be before I get my money?  (I see PyaPal has already taken out a big chunk of the money for processing fees - somethign I'd expect if the transaction were considered legit, and I could get my money - but what happens if they decide to refund the client? Are they keeping those "transaction fees"? Who pays for them? ME, simply because I decided to use the service?)

I just don't know what's going on here.  Does anyone else?

[Martymax]

Contact the other party and see if they can do the transaction via another means. Basically PayPal (in the name of security obviously =/ ) is holding not only your money but the other parties as well. A few days in their banks times the billions that they do it with generates a ton of money for free so to speak.
They tried that on me last week and I did what I just recomended. It worked wonderfuly. 

Marty

[PayPal_Adrian]

ShellyCole -

The description you're providing has me a little concerned as to the details of everything.  You have a lot of information there, so let's tackle it a bit at a time.

The Email with the HTML Form

That's definitely not us - we don't operate that way - and is a phishing email.  Please forward it over to spoof@paypal.com so our fraud teams can register it.  For more information on spotting these types of email, please see this post in our Tips from Moderators section.

The Billing Agreement Prompt

As for the billing agreement item you're seeing upon login, it sounds like you're receiving a prompt to re-activate your old Website Payments Pro and/or Virtual Terminal agreement.  I would say it's safe to ignore it at this point, and I regret any confusion it may be adding into all of this.

The Payment

As for the payment and the hold, I would urge you to take a look at the Resolution Center.  Do you see a case there?  It should start with something like PP-.

If you do, then this is not a payment hold (a payment hold would instead show the funds in your pending balance).  This means there is a problem with the transaction, but not necessarily with your account.  The case should have details as to what the issue is with the payment.  Make sure you respond to it if you haven't already.

Accepting the Payment via Other Means

If there is a case in the Resolution Center, I would also strongly suggest against accepting the payment via another method or through the Send Money feature (and encouraging you to do so would be irresponsible).  If it turns out the payment you received is fraudulent, instructing a fraudster on additional methods to send you funds could lead to even more complications down the line. 

Additional Thoughts

I would also mention that it's curious you received a phishing email shortly after all of this started.  Is this individual a regular client?  We can't comment on account specific information here, so regrettably, there isn't a way for the Community to know unless you tell us more.

A Final Word

Looking at everything here, I'm willing to guess that there's a hold on the funds because there is a claim, chargeback, reversal, or investigation in regards to the payment. 

Since you said it happened immediately, it sounds like it was placed under review because PayPal has reason to believe the payment was sent fraudulently or wasn't authorized. 

If you're selling goods or services, this is really a good thing - since it was held immediately, your chances of having provided those services or goods are minimized, and potential loss for your business is reduced immensely.  That's one of the best features of PayPal - we're always on guard against online fraud.

Let us know if you see a case in the Resolution Center, and what it says there. 

Thanks,

Adrian

[ShellyCole]

Thanks so much for that 🙂  I've been using PayPal for about 10 years (give or take) and this is really the first time I've had anything like this ever happen to me.  I really thought it as something *I* did.

However, after talking with many colleagues (all who use PayPal), they've said pretty much what you all have said: it's *her* end, not mine.

For the record, I immediately sent the HTML email to the "spoof" email address.  I deal with spam A LOT, and I checked the message headers (the "@e.paypal.com" ending to the email it was sent from is one of the thigns that got my attention that it was fake - the headers just verified it.  I could see where it was sent from, and it wasn't you all.)

Yes, I've been checking the Resolution Center every day to see if there's any update.  So far, nothing's happened since the day I recieved notice that the payment was on hold.  My response to the inquiry is the last thing that's happened.  I already know that it's *this* transaction, NOT my entire account - because I had another client (a regular one) send me a payment yesterday (and I'm expecting another one today), and it came through no problem.  Its already on its way to my bank account. 

The person who's transaction in on hold right now is a verified PayPal member.  What my colleagues are telling me is that the payment she sent me is probably *much* larger than hat she's ever sent before, and that cause you all to flag and investigate it.  So I'm chalking it up to that.  To answer your question, no - she's not a regular client of mine, she's a new client - but I've been talking with her (and her boss) for about two weeks now, getting everything sorted out prior to the contract, and I've vetted them properly.   So she is legit. (I am also hoping to get the signed contract today - if it helps to send a copy of it to you all, I'd be happy to do so.)  I'm willing to bet it's what my colleagues are saying - she's just never used her PayPal account to send this much money before.

In any case, I'm happy to know it's not something *I* did, and perhaps there's something better I can do to make the process a little easier.  Typically, I just give clients my email address and just have them send me the payment through that.  But maybe actually *invoicing* them instead would keep stuff like this from happening in the future.

Thanks so much for your help (and I'm *seriously* glad to hear it's not something *I* did myself to put my entire account on hold!)

[PayPal_Adrian]

ShellyCole -

Thank you for following up, and I'm glad to hear everything is making much more sense now.  It sounds like you've been in regular contact with the client; I would recommend asking them to give PayPal a call.  Oftentimes, we may just need to hear from them, especially if they weren't available to receive our call when the investigation started. 

Thanks again!

Adrian