Please reconsider my friend's ban - did he the same as Putin?

[cimpok]

Hey PayPal,

Some time ago last year you have banned my friend's account, ha cannot even post here, that's why I'm writing. This was a punishment, a life-sentence ban for violating your rules:
He sold his used e-cigarette and got paid thru PayPal for it.
We got it, your rules prohibit selling any tobacco and related products, it includes e-cigarettes although it is a widely recognized healthier alternative to smoking. He was not aware of this rule, neither was me, I admit, I have not read you 452 pages or whatever long rulebook, I think very few of your customers did. We are just normal, law abiding citizens of our countries, using, buying, selling e-cigarettes is not a crime in our countries. He thought it is enough to abide the law and be honest, he did this terrible violation in good faith.

Now in the the wake of this terrible war in Ukraine, we both read about your ban of Russian customers, which we welcome and hope this and all the other sanctions will help to bring that Putin's regime down sooner and you will soon be able to restore your services in Russia under a new, democratic government. We really appreciate your commitment and sacrifice for humanity.

...but there was a strange thought we both had immediately when we heard these news, I even joked with my friend, he got the same punishment from you as the mass-murderer Putin. 

What a sick logic is it?

Could you please reconsider my friend's sentence or another alternative would be to punish Putin harder, I don't know.....    but definitely he doesn't want to sit in the same virtual prison cell with Putin for selling a damn e-cigarette.

regards,
Laszlo

[kernowlass]

@cimpok 

You need to contact customer services to resolve any limitation or account specific issues.
Click help / contact bottom left of Paypal pages for options available for your country.

Or have you considered contacting Customer Service via Facebook or Twitter?
You can send them a personal message from their Facebook or Twitter pages.
It's: https://www.facebook.com/PayPal and @AskPayPal for Twitter.

[cimpok]

Of course, he did contact customer service right after the ban, after two rounds of 'review' PayPal insisted on the lifelong ban.

This was PayPal's final decision, selling a damn e-cigarette deserves this punishment, so he is not any more a customer of PayPal (while he was banned) so being not a customer, no customer service applies to him any more.

I thought it was clear that it is not a customer service issue any more, a closed case . I think it is a pure embarrassment, shame for PayPal. And my friend can at least place himself now in PayPal value system: same as Putin.

Thank you PayPal.

[kernowlass]

@cimpok 

Well its a bit odd writing to Paypal to reconsider a ban when you don't expect the ban to be overturned and this is not Paypal but a community forum !!!

[cimpok]

I do not expect the ban to be overturned, I just hoped for it in the wake of what I wrote.
How do you suggest he could apply for customer service not even being a customer any more?

The other thing I wrote this is about the PayPal's value system, is it something which we should leave unsaid?

[kernowlass]

@cimpok 

I don't expect him to be able to access customer services as he is banned but my point is that it is ONLY customer services that can do anything about it.

Posting on here is totally meaningless as this is not customer services.  

[cimpok]

This forum title says 'Suggestions for PayPal', what do I get wrong here?

isn't this the very right place to suggest for PayPal to not treat my friend or anybody for a damn e-cigarette the same as Putin deserves it for killing tens of thousands innocent people?

[kernowlass]

@cimpok 

Wasn't a general suggestion, it was an account specific issue which is why I advised you or him to contact customer services.

[cimpok]

No, you got it wrong again, my friend's case is just an example. If you google for 'banned from paypal e-cigarette' you get 1370000 results, read some.
There are a plethora of similar cases, thousands I guess, so it is a general question, a general suggestion for PayPal from me

What I have complained about is that my friend (and thousands of other customers - general, got it?) were not even given the opportunity to stop the violation. My friend was prosecuted many months. almost a year after the 'violation', for selling a single e-cigarette with many other harmless, ie. not e-cig transactions in between.

He was given PayPal's harshest sentence: ban for a lifetime.   Do you really think it is OK?    I guess many others complaining in those google search results (thousands, got it?) were also banned for this, so it is my general suggestion to not treat them as criminals.

[kernowlass]

@cimpok 

Well that's a shame but paypals acceptable use policy is not hundreds of pages long its one page.

So my ''suggestion'' is always read the small section on seller protection before you start to sell + read the one page acceptable use policy.

Then as per millions of others your friend would not have been banned.

https://www.paypal.com/de/webapps/mpp/ua/acceptableuse-full?locale.x=en_DE