PayPal has locked my account without any warning, funds frozen for 180 days.

[Calvoman]

I have been with eBay and PayPal for the last 11 years. In the last 4 years as a business (UK registered business). As passion took over my other job we have been trading used Swiss watches since 2013. Sales were good in the last months as within years we've got very good feedback on eBay, more contacts, more goods to sell. All of a sudden yesterday after I logged in to my PayPal account I found this message:

We recently noticed an issue with your account. For information on what you can and can't do while your account is limited, go to the Resolution Centre.

Why is my account access limited?

Your account access has been limited for the following reason(s):

28 Jun 2017: We identified activity on your PayPal account that violates the terms of our User Agreement. As a result, you'll no longer be able to use your account.

As stated in our User Agreement, we may hold the funds in your account for up to 180 days in case any actions, like chargebacks or buyer complaints, are filed against you. If you still have an account balance after 180 days, we'll email you to let you know how to receive your funds.

If you want to request refunds for your buyers, you can email xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with the date, amount and buyer's name for each transaction. We'll review your refund requests on a case-by-case basis, but we can't guarantee that a refund will be granted.

(Your case ID for this reason is PP-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx.)

This limitation cannot be appealed against.

And that's it. Plus in the resolution centre there is a number of the actions to be taken = 0. Not even an email being sent. Over GBP 1,700 locked there for 180 days and God knows if we ever get it back? I have kept this 1,700 pounds for our employees' June's pay and I was about to witdrawn it now after receiving the positive feedback after the most recent sales.

Plus the paypal email addressed used on ebay is not valid any longer hence we cannot sell, we cannot even edit ebay ads (on ebay.co.uk) as it says the paypal email is not matching like the account never existed. I contacted by email paypal business support  yesterday and want to see what they say if they respond at all. They always did but seems like not at this time. No message so far. (nearly 24 hours) I am still to upset to call PayPal especially after I've read online about users being treated in the same or even worse way. I understand now that PayPal can do whatever they want and I was not aware of it all. Being genuine does not seem to be enough. I did not realize it. I regret now I have kept the funds on the PayPal account. My mistake I've trusted PayPal so much for nearly 11 years. Over the years it was never an issue and our feedback proves who we are too. I have now goods listed but cannot even edit them on Ebay. Ebay told me to try to open another PayPal account but I also read that with our details we can be banned for life anyway. I would maybe open another PP account and don't use it but just to be able to advertise on Ebay too. We're here on UK ebay:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/adriansluxurywatches

Only yesterday I realized reading on some sites how many users around the world have been treated in this unjust way so PayPal can use the funds for half of a year (some lose their businesses having 20,000+ dollars being locked!). I am terrified really. For years we've had a 100% positive feedback and many happy customers. Shame really to be treated this way especially when there is no issues ongoing with our items.

What to do? Can anyone advise please? How to receive the money being locked? What to do re eBay if they require a paypal account to be able to sell?

Thank you in advance!

[kernowlass]

@Calvoman

As we have no inside knowledge on here, the only thing that I ''may'' have caused the limitation is this >>

(220 pounds selling fees apply to us for this sale and those are included in the price you offer but we cover those so it is no extra cost for you)

>> so what you are saying is that you have added the cost of the fees to the item price? This is against Paypal rules as you are not allowed to surcharge buyers on Ebay sales.

If its not that (nice watches by the way), all I can say is that you don't have to accept paypal to sell on Ebay (although of course that is the way most buyers want to pay).

[Calvoman]

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@kernowlass wrote:

@Calvoman

As we have no inside knowledge on here, the only thing that I ''may'' have caused the limitation is this >>

(220 pounds selling fees apply to us for this sale and those are included in the price you offer but we cover those so it is no extra cost for you)

>> so what you are saying is that you have added the cost of the fees to the item price? This is against Paypal rules as you are not allowed to surcharge buyers on Ebay sales.

If its not that (nice watches by the way), all I can say is that you don't have to accept paypal to sell on Ebay (although of course that is the way most buyers want to pay).

---

Thank you very much for this but it has nothing to do with PayPal. In the last 4 years we had this note to be fair with our buyers (as some sellers we know pay very small fees, so sometimes buyers were thinking we're trying to rip them off on the prices asking why some watches are cheaper at some other ebay adverts) and Ebay never questioned that. Plus some buyers (rarely), but when new they were not sure how the fees system works and if they will be charged afterwards (rarely but such questions happened). The problem is that this is PayPal that locked our account and it is commonly known that paypal fees are 3,5% and 4% for foreign transactions. Ebay is more than happy to run our business further but they say we need a paypal account to do it. And now: 1) our paypal account is locked (the Ebay system does not accept our PP email address anymore). 2) funds are frozen for 180 days (!!!) 3) not even sure if we could open another paypal account ONLY to be able to advertise on Ebay without even accepting paypal as payment options. It is worse than a horror really! We consider moving to another platforms that don't use PP payments if this cannot be solved soon. But if one has an account in a bank for 11 years, no overdrafts, no complaints, quite often large sums of money in the balance and all of a sudden is treated in this way - it does hurt. I had no idea until I read more here and there. Lots of stories here too: http://www.paypalwarning.com/paypal-excuse-illegal-actions-user-agreement/

[Calvoman · Accepted solution]

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@kernowlass wrote:

@Calvoman

As we have no inside knowledge on here, the only thing that I ''may'' have caused the limitation is this >>

(220 pounds selling fees apply to us for this sale and those are included in the price you offer but we cover those so it is no extra cost for you)

>> so what you are saying is that you have added the cost of the fees to the item price? This is against Paypal rules as you are not allowed to surcharge buyers on Ebay sales.

If its not that (nice watches by the way), all I can say is that you don't have to accept paypal to sell on Ebay (although of course that is the way most buyers want to pay).

---

Surprisingly I think I've got the things sorted. Sometimes it happened Ebay users contacted me about selling directly through Paypal only as they were short of money etc. etc. Once or twice I've agreed and as Ebay and PayPal is simply the same owner (I was not even aware of that), first PayPal locked my account and a few days after Ebay did the same. In the meanwhile I filed a complaint on the PayPal site that they have locked my funds that were stored there for our monthly wages and I was waiting for the response. When Ebay suspended my account I obviously contacted the Customer Service and then I was explained why and I have understood my mistake. I apologized and my Ebay account was restored. Then something came over me and I logged in to my PayPal account to see if there is maybe any response to my complaint, when I only saw a one time short message "Your PayPal account has been fully restored" (!). So the mystery's solved now. However it does not change the fact that there are many horror stories online written by people having their funds locked for 6 months and this is scarry, I never heard about those stories until I myself was locked without a detailed explanation.

I hope other stories and other users' problems will be solved too as in fact it is not PayPal's money that are locked but those are buyers' money who paid the sellers for goods that they had received. It is a true fact, isn't it? I am glad I understand now what my mistake was. Recently Ebay has become very very strict about Ebay sales being made on Ebay only and more likely paid through PayPal. I hope that my story will help some other sellers whose accounts are locked and they (like myself) are not fully explained straight away why. Let's all be fair, pure and honest - simply like that. I do still believe if we sellers follow the rules, PayPal and Ebay will treat us just and fairly. Good luck!