I tried to buy some art from an artist whose work I saw online. He lives in Romania. I told him I could send him the money using Paypal, because I didn't know any different. He said okay, but there was trouble right away. First he complained that he had to pay 75 euros to open a Paypal account. I don't know what this means, unless he meant that he didn't have a bank account, so the 75 euros was a bank depost. But there's a language problem, so I'm not sure. Anyway, he thinks I'm responsible to pay him this amount, in addition to the fee for the art. Next, I sent him 250 euros, 350 some dollars, via Paypal to pay for the art. (Was going to wait on the 75 euros, which I'll need to ask more about.) He's hysterical, tells me the money is frozen. I ask him for a screenshot of what he's looking at in Paypal, and sure enough, it says I sent him the funds, but they're being held. I scoured the Internet for help - didn't find much, but I picked up some info that Paypal doesn't work in Romania. Is this true? I can't get a straight answer from the phone reps. I tried to send him the money via Monegram online. My account set up didn't work, so I called them. Monegram told me they discourage the sending of money for goods, because there's no mediation process or recourse to recover lost funds if the transaction turns out to be fraudulent. The Moneygram guy recommended Paypal. (sigh) I also tried to wire the money to the guy via my bank, but they said the info he provided wasn't complete. So - does Paypal work in Romania or not? Just want this nightmare to end...
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