Urgent pay pal question!!! Please help?

Question

I've sold something on ebay and usually when ever i sell something i usually sent an invoice... This time the person who bought the product used "buy it now" service and paid with their credit card.. So when i went to ebay to see if i sold anything i saw that it says that waiting for paypal payment.. There is a link where you can see click here to see the pay pal payment details; whenever i click it , it takes me to a 'page not found ' page.. So i gave two days for the transaction to go through.. And now i received a letter from pay pal saying that if i dont cash in by jan first week my sale would be cancelled.. And they gave me a link in the mail... But whenever i click it ; it takes me straight to that page not found b.s... And i am freaking out coz i did make a good sale... I even upgraded my account to premier hoping that would help but it didn't... SO pleaseeeeee helpppppppppp

Answer 1

This scares me John. I did $22k in less than a year using Paypal several years ago with a little hobby biz I started. I stopped because through a long and complicated series of events they decided to "lock" my account while I had a balance of $8k.

Problem was, they "linked" me to some guy in Mexico. I didn't know the guy, nor did I ever have a transaction with him. Paypal suggested that I was laundering money. Huh? I was selling Diablo II LoD gaming equipment. Digital bits really, but in the form of weapons and armor etc. that people would actually pay cash money for. I know it's commonplace now, but it was a new idea back then. Paypal couldn't understand why I didn't need a shipping address to complete transactions, etc.

Numerous emails were sent by me. Several days later I would get responses that sounded as if they didn't even read my email. I'm guessing those folks are overworked and that department at Paypal is grossly understaffed. Meanwhile, my little hobby biz was dying, and there was nothing I could do about it.

At one point they said if I paid the money they (Paypal) lost from the Mexico guy's account, they would reinstate me. It was about 200 bucks. I hated it, but it was cheaper than going to court, so I did. Also, when I agreed to pay, they required that I send a cashiers check to some Paypal place in Colorado. They wouldn't debit my Verified bank account or take any of my credit cards. They said the Colorodo Cashiers check thingie takes 3 weeks. A**holes! I was closer to a heart attack over this than I'd ever been and nothing has insensed me as much since.

I waited my three weeks, and still my account was "held." It took several more days to learn that I had apperantly mispaid by 80 cents, so they couldn't release my account. I'm tellin' ya, I considered going postal on them! Holding $8000.00 over an 80 cent discrepancy? Unbelievable!

Oh, and the best part... I had to get a cashiers check for 80 cents, send it to Colorado and wait another three weeks.

Finally, it was time to go to court. I sent a letter of demand explaining my situation, and putting them on notice, registered mail. My final sentences were something like "$8000.00 held over an 80 cent discrepency? Let's see how the Federal Trade Commission, The State Attorney General's Office and the District Attorney of Orange County feel about your shrinkwrap User Agreement."

All of a sudden, I got a TELEPHONE call. I didn't think Paypal owned a telephone. The next day, my Paypal account was open. I quickly removed all of my money and prayed it reached my bank before some other idiotic thing happened.

Two and a half months. My business was dead. And I paid $200 of some guy in Mexico's debt. I have full and complete documentation of these events, but no stomach or time for proceeding. This attrocity effected my health and I just couldn't relive it in court. I hate Paypal.

I really hope things go better for you than they did for me. I have learned that Paypal only understands hardball. If you can't get satisfaction from them and you're willing to use the court system to get it, overnight them a letter of demand.

Best of luck!

Answer 2

Well, an immediate solution to your problem would be to ask your buyer if they would mind sending a payment that isn't funded by a credit card. Write them and tell them you're having problems with PayPal. I've found buyers will usually bend over backwards for you if you're upfront with them.

I'm not sure, but your buyer may be able to withdraw their payment as long as you haven't accepted it yet. Try PayPal help pages. Or, again, ask your buyer. And make sure you tell them your sorry for the inconvenience. Be nice, but be professional and don't grovel, and it should be all right.

If you have further problems with PayPal and their help section doesn't have the answers then you should call them. I'll dig up the number if none of your other responders have done so yet.

Good luck!

Answer 3

I was an eBay power seller for a while. My advise to you is this. Do not accept pay pal. Period. They are a pain in the @ss to deal with. and they can freeze your account and funds indefinitely for ANY reason. It happened to me when an international buyer made a claim that they didn't receive their item. Paypal says you have to prove they received it not prove you sent it. they didn't pay for a confirmation service of insurance. so I lost the funds for that sale and the product. a few thousand sales later someone from the states said they never got it. so they froze my account pending an "investigation" into my legit business. I still have over $3000.00 in there frozen and that was like 4 years ago. I'll never see it. It'll cost me easily double that to get a lawyer anywhere with there powerhouse legal team. read the terms and conditions fine print it says it all. pay pal is now owned by eBay. oh and BTW they can still earn interest on your funds.

Good luck with them, it's almost impossible to get any help on the phone either. you can look up sites like paypalsucks.com and what not for help. many people (mainly merchants) have had similar problems with their service. the smart merchants stopped using them.

Answer 4

Did Paypal write you a letter or an email? If it was a letter, I doubt it was really from Paypal. Paypal would email you. It sounds as though the person who bought the item from you is scamming you, and if they have your postal address from ebay, I'd be very suspicious that it was the buyer who wrote you the letter with the same problem link you've found before. Contact Paypal and check with them.

Answer 5

That almost sounds like a scam. I would be carefull. Normally paypal and ebay wont give you a time limit on things sold. Hmmm... I would call Paypal directly and talk to a customer services person.

Sorry about your troubles and Happy Holidays!

Answer 6

You should be able to review all credit and debits on your paypal account by loggin onto paypal directly.

Go to www.paypal.com and login in.
Be real careful of email coming to you from Paypal it may be someone phishing for you login information etc.

Also be sure to go directly to ebay's sight. DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS FROM AN EMAIL FROM EBAY. It is most likely a scam.....

Answer 7

Here is the customer service number for paypal. It has been a while since I had to use it, and I remember it being very hard to find. 1-866-648-5872.

Answer 8

you might want to try two things -

first, check your cookies - under Tools, then Internet Options, go to Privacy, then sites and make sure paypal isn't blocked

then try to open the page from another browser, so if you use AOL, open with IE, or vice versa

Hope this helps :)

Answer 9

I hate PayPal