My account has been limited!

[Louise48]

I'm new to PayPal. I was just trying to raise some extra funds for a trip to Disneyland. So my daughter began selling off a few of her unwanted items. We'd only sold three items and made £54, which was in a pending balance for 21 days. But I logged in yesterday to discover I can't use PayPal anymore. My funds have been withheld for 180 days! That's outrageous! I have tried calling PayPal for an explanation, but but it's just an automated reply and they do not call back despite having left my number. It's really frustrating. I have sent out the parcels, so providing tracking numbers, all customers received with no issues. I was only selling unwanted clothes on Facebook market place. We fly to Disneyland in 8 days and I can't access my daughters spending money as greedy PayPal are withholding it for no good reason. Really upset right now. I just wish I had sold my items by bank transfer payments rather than nasty PayPal.

[kernowlass]

@Louise48

Try phoning again but its unlikely they will give you a reason, they rarely do.

When you get through either don't say anything until you get put through OR say agent a few times.

That sometimes works in getting you through more quickly.

[Louise48]

I tried that, and automated message advised average call wait time would be 3-5 hours! I just don't understand how they can get away with withholding customer's money. Banks would never get away with that, and and they'd have to pay interest. Does this sort of extortion happen regularly with PayPal?

[kernowlass]

@Louise48

Paypal don't want to limit accounts, they lose money by doing so.

They make their money by you using a paypal account and either buying from sellers that pay a fee or you pay a fee as a seller yourself.

So you must have violated their policy quite badly for it to be a permanent ban. If it was something simple they would just ask you to go to the resolution centre to resolve any issues.

Have you had a paypal account before that had issues on it or someone under the same IP address has?

Or do you have more than 2 paypal accounts of the same type etc?

[Louise48]

Exactly, and it must be something serious for my account to have to been limited all of a sudden. But I am new to PayPal, so I I've never had a PayPal account before so I just wish they'd explain their reasoning behind it all. I have done nothing wrong, but I just sold a few unwanted clothing items to raise a bit of pocket money for my daughter to spend in Disneyland, but seems PayPal can put a stop to that and keep my money with no realistic explanation. I spoke to someone on the PayPal online chat today, and as expected they refused to give me a reason why my account had been limited. Just stated the decision was final and nothing can be done about it. Just glad I didn't sell more items or I'd be more out of pocket right now. I thought about refunding my buyers and requesting they pay by direct transfer to my Bank account, so which would have been a risk I know, as they've all received their purchases. But PayPal won't allow me to refund the money back to buyers. Seems like one big scam to me. I'd gladly close my PayPal account but I don't find it acceptable that they get to withhold my money, my daughter's holiday money at the end of the day!

[kernowlass]

@Louise48

Give your daughter the money and pay yourself back when 180 days are up.

[Louise48]

If I had the money in the first place I would not have had to resort to setting up a PayPal account and selling on Facebook market place. Six months is a long time to have to wait to receive payment for goods you have sold. Lesson learnt, never use PayPal again!