Forcing me to upgrade to a Business account??

[beautymark]

Why is Paypal trying to make me to upgrade to a Business account??  More importantly, why do you send me emails saying that I have to upgrade in order to "claim funds"... when I go to my account the funds are already in there... why does this seem fraudulant to me??  If I truly do need to upgrade for whatever reason, why is Paypal going about this in an underhanded way??

[JHNickodemus]

I am having exactly the same concern and question. Makes me extremely suspicious.

[beautymark]

Yes!  Are you getting emails with every sale too??  What's weird is that the emails come from the payee's email address, not directly from Paypal...  So is it phishing, or a scam, or is Paypal trying to avoid any connection to these by routing them through hotmail or gmail?  And why hasn't anyone from Paypal chimed in here... ? 

[PayPal_Adrian · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone!

By any chance, are you selling on etsy.com?  I moderated a thread on here awhile back and some of our etsy sellers were receiving this email.  I worked with our engineers on the issue and the email is going to be changed or deleted in the future.

The good news is this - your payments should still be coming through just fine.  There is no need to upgrade to claim the funds.  My apologies for any confusion in this matter.

Hope this helps,

Adrian

[beautymark]

Thank you for clearing that up for me.  It's good to hear that it's not a scam or hacker or whatever, and obviously that we are still receiving our funds as normal.  And yes, I do sell on Etsy, so that totally confirms everything.  Thanks again!

[pbjmom]

Adrian - Thanks for the update. I was getting very unhappy with this requirement to collect payments already made also.  Felt like pressure and questionable practices at work.  Hope this message gets out to all Etsy users!  More people will feel  comfortable indulging in other PayPal offers when they feel comfortable with their current affiliation.

[zorgie44]

Hi I'm getting payments from Bandcamp.com and I am getting that message as well.   Thanks for clearing that up, you may want to add Bandcamp.com to the list of comanies to fix this issue. Cheers

Janet

[xswtiex]

I am receiving this message forcing me up upgrade to a business account which I don't want to do in order to claim my funds. How do I make the balance in my account not say $0 and say the ammount in which I am owed. Please help me!

[inkenflea]

Hello Adrian,

This helps me to understand a little bit, but hasn't solved the problem.  I am a seller on Etsy and have been receiving the "upgrade required" spiel with every single payment notification starting in November 2010.  If, as you said back in January, Paypal was going to fix this issue, why hasn't it taken effect?  I have yet to find a way to stop receiving the phony "upgrade" notice.  I do think it is a rather cheap way of trying to market to people; rather underhanded and scam-y as others have commented.  I was alarmed the first time, and actually reported the e-mail to Paypal (which garnered only a automated reply).  Now I've simply come to know it as a necessary annoyance.  This isn't a good way for Paypal to treat patrons; I highly doubt I'm the only individual still experiencing this issue.  

Perhaps the worst part is that Paypal offers no explanation for why I should upgrade, only that I need to in order to accept the payment -- and, while I know it's false, I still haven't actually found any information explaining why I would be targeted for such solicitation.  Don't business accounts cost more to upgrade anyhow?  I've had a hard time finding a straightforward answer to that on the PayPal site as well.

Advertising is one thing, and perfectly acceptable.  This upgrade notice, though, is pretty sketchy and a poor approach.  Also, if Paypal wants me to upgrade, Paypal should at least make it easy for me to find out all the information I need in order to make a decision I'd feel good about.  That's my user feedback.

Why is this happening?

How can I stop this notice from being sent?

Thank you for your time.

- inkenflea