I am wondering if anyone has heard of this as a recent problem on eBay. “Using a different payment method” is ineffectual advice here as I cannot use PayPal anymore, and each credit card I successfully use becomes unusable on eBay a few days after using the card, so there is no point in trying any more cards.
(1) I am entering the credit card information correctly. eBay accepts it as valid when I click “Done.” It is when I click “Confirm and Pay” that the error message occurs. Multiple eBay representatives have confirmed that the failures are not due to incorrect card information or being declined by my bank.
(2) Trying a different credit card does not work as it just becomes unusable on eBay within a few days.
(3) None of my credit cards were ever used or registered on PayPal. I only used my bank checking account on PayPal, although it is true the two cards I have used are from the same bank. But PayPal says the cards are OK to use on eBay.
(4) Clearing cache/cookies does not work.
(5) Using a different device does not work.
(6) Using different browsers, all in private mode, did not work.
(7) Unlinking PayPal from my eBay account did not work.
(8) My bank says there are no blocks or merchant-specific restrictions on my card. In fact, the bank is not seeing eBay attempting to charge my card at all when the failures occur, either at the bank end or the Visa end, so the card is being stopped within eBay—I suspect by PayPal.
(9) I occasionally buy out-of print items on eBay when neither Amazon nor any third-party seller on Amazon has the item available, so saying “just use Amazon” does not solve my problem.
PayPal dropped me as a user with no specific explanation as to what I did wrong on September 24, 2019. I looked through the recent payment history I could see and the only purchases were a recurring Hulu payment (which I have now changed), the purchase of two DC Comics action figures on eBay, and the purchase of a book on eBay. All seemed innocuous. Messages sent within the PayPal system and emails to the aup email address were simply answered with automated boilerplate responses. I called PayPal to ask why I was dropped. All the representative could do was open a ticket. This resulted in an email from someone at PayPal saying “Appeal denied,” even though I had not asked for an appeal. The email could not be replied to. So neither phone calls, messages, or emails were effective in trying to find out what I did wrong. I sent many subsequent emails, worded very politely, to the aup email address apologizing for whatever I did wrong and asking for reconsideration. I did not receive a reply from any of them.
So I switched to using a credit card on eBay. The card was never used or even registered with PayPal.
I successfully bought three Hallmark ornaments on eBay with the card, all within about a fifteen-minute period.
Several days later, I tried to buy something else (credit cards were an accepted payment method) and got the error message:
“We can't process your payment. Try again, or select a different payment method to check out.”
There is plenty of available credit on the card — over $4000, and I was trying to buy an item costing $8. Afterwards I used the card to order pizza, buy groceries, buy on Amazon, etc. The bank said there were no blocks on my card.
I called eBay customer service. The representative cleared all my saved payment methods and still when I reentered my card, I got the same error message. The representative had me try clearing cookies and cache. It still did not work. She had me try from another device. That did not work either. She recommended having the seller send me an invoice.
The card failed with the same message when trying to pay the invoice. I spoke to an eBay supervisor this time. He had me unlink my PayPal account. That made no difference. He asked me to check with my bank to make sure there was no merchant-specific block on eBay.
So again I called my bank. No merchant-specific block on eBay. Again the bank said the purchases that failed on eBay did not appear in their system as having even been attempted to be charged to the card by eBay.
I called eBay again and spoke with another supervisor who was very friendly and helpful. She had me try another card, which I had been reluctant to do, as if PayPal was blocking the first card, I did not want the second card getting added to their block list. But I agreed to try another card—this time my bank check card, which is also a Visa. The purchase was successful—a board game—and the supervisor said she was glad she could resolve the problem. I said it might not be resolved if that card also started failing. She did acknowledge that she thought she saw some messages in the system that my first card was failing due to PayPal. So she set up a conference call between Paypal, herself, and me for the next day.
During the conference call the next day, the PayPal representative said they were not blocking the first credit card, especially since it was never used or put on my PayPal account—he confirmed that. He said they were not allowed to block my cards. So after he got off the call, the eBay supervisor said there was not much more that she could do, and I agreed to wait and see what happened with the second card I was now using.
Today I tried to buy another Hallmark Christmas ornament, for which credit cards were an accepted payment method, with the second card, and now it is failing too:
“We can't process your payment. Try again, or select a different payment method to check out.”
I called eBay tonight and spoke to a supervisor and he checked with other agents and said they had been getting lots of calls about problems with credit cards and PayPal since September 20—perhaps not coincidentally, just four days before PayPal dropped me as a user.
I don’t have a lot of confidence that what the PayPal representative told the eBay supervisor and me during the conference call, that PayPal is not doing, is actually what they are not doing. I have successfully used my first credit card on Amazon, at local stores, and on other web sites since it became unusable on eBay. I have also used the second card—the Visa debit card—successfully elsewhere since it became unusable on eBay. The failure of each card on eBay occurred within a few days after successfully using it on eBay.
My eBay account is obviously known to PayPal, and I suspect PayPal algorithms are detecting that within a few days after I use the card successfully on eBay, and PayPal is adding the credit card to some kind of block list. Or they may be using my mailing and billing address to detect me as one of their personae non gratae. During the conference call, the PayPal representative said a guest PayPal account is created when I pay on eBay with a credit card, so it is essentially anonymous. But surely my eBay account name and email address, and my mailing/billing address, is entered in that transaction, so PayPal has access to it. If that is the case, even creating a new eBay account would not help, as I am not going to enter a false mailing address. Even if I were dishonest, I would not do it, as I am disabled and homebound—I am only getting out of the house about once every 10 days. I need to have items delivered to where I live.
I am not expecting anyone in these forums to necessarily have a solution. I am just wondering if someone here has heard of these types of incidents, or if they know if my PayPal suspicions are correct, or if they know if, now that I am persona non grata with PayPal, PayPal is legally allowed not to honor my credit cards on eBay. All the eBay representatives and supervisors I have talked to say my eBay account is in good standing, which is confirmed by the successful purchases I am able to make before each credit card becomes unusable.
Thanks,
Robbie <removed>
