WA Paypal Withholding My Money - What to Do?

[boris]

My complaint is with Paypal.

I have been with them since the beginning of 2016. I have bought items on ebay through Paypal; about 30 items, no problem .

Last month, I decided to sell a few unwanted items mainly bike and car stuff I had in shed for past 20 odd years. I sold in total 8 items which I posted and paid extra for insurance. Everyone's happy except Paypal they said my verification needed questioning, so I provided them with bank statements, credit card verification, drivers licence, and proof of address - that was fine, but they wanted receipt of purchase for items I sold. So I wrote and said I am not a dealer and items I sold are over 30 years old; I don’t have receipts

After that they put my account on hold and cancelled as they have reason to believe I broke their agreement and my activities are listed as suspicious and I cannot remove my account from Paypal or receive money ($724) for 180 days, in which they may or may not give money back to me if the case is not resolved. But here’s the catch - they won’t tell me exactly why, so if I can't resolve, then I can't receive money

I believe it is illegal for Paypal to hold money as its not theirs nor are they a bank.

They gave me a address in Sydney where I can get hold of their legal department for them to answer my question, so I can resolve this, but the only address they have is snail mail (PO box). No email address, no phone number.

Paypal is conducting illegal activities and getting away with it. The longer they hold my money, they can charge fees and keep all interest and I can't question them about it.

I am a carer pensioner and a third of that money was in freight, so now I have no money in savings.

So can anyone give me some positive help where to go from here?

 

[dickybeacholdalbion]

ATO and the government we elected is pushing for places like ebay to cut down on illegal dealers and traders operating without an ABN number.

The simple way would have been to send a statutory declaration, saying the stuff you sold was old and next time keep the serial numbers so you can show how old the stuff is. Ask your federal MP to do their job and find out for you.

Saying you are a carer pension, you might also have to tell Centrelink of the income you got from selling stuff. Once ATO gets the info from Paypal, they will probably tell Centrelink, so maybe give them a call too to cover your behind?

The laws introduced recently and the ATO interpretations of their laws is why Paypal is acting the way it is.

 

[boris]

Thank you for your reply, but I did not come on this site naive. The stuff I sold are personal unwanted stuff that is not required by ATO or Centrelink to declare, i.e. do you declare to tax office if you sold all your unwanted baby stuff because your child has grown up?

I stated on paper that I declare that the items i sold were mine and have no reciepts due to the extent of time I had the items. The part I didn't explain to you guys on this post is that I used my son's ebay account but my Paypal account, although we have been using his to buy items for past 5 years.

I explained this to Paypal. Ebay took selling fees off my account (fine). Paypal took their $53 selling fees out of my account (fine). So I guess there was no confusion as to who bought what with their account.

My real problem is because they closed my account with no possible appeal or explanation as to what deteremined me to be breaching Paypals terms of agreement and, yes, I read it 3 times. They just cover their ass. They can keep charging me monthly fees and keep my money indefinitel or till my account reduces to zero.

180 days = 6 months. I believe this is blatant extortion and thievery. They are not a bank and I am not the only one in this position.

In America, they have won class action against paypal. In Australia, they are trying to fund a class action against Paypal's business behaviour. There are also cases where 90% of people that have taken Paypal to court have won.

I need someone who understands the law and Paypals interpretation of their illegal contract.

Regards

 

[boris]

Just an update:

Paypal seems to be registered as a bank. I sent a letter to financial ombudsman services. They sent my copy of complaint to Paypal and asked to respond to me within 21 days as to exactly why they are withholding my money.

I got a reply from paypal in 20 days. They apologised for any inconvenience and restored my account with full access and money.

Go figure. Threaten them with class action and lawyers, they didn't care. As soon as I complained to a governing body, they backed away.

So my question is, if anybody can answer it - if it is illegal why is Paypal allowed to keep operating in this manner?

 

[xenon]

MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN TERMINATED BY DIRTY TRICKS
the first contact stated my product MIGHT BE not within their agreement , this is stupid as Ebay has no problem with it
The next was a statement that I must sign saying my products are not within paypal legal terms of sales and all connections from ebay must be removed
that's entrapment . I would not sign that The next was a statement that if I was to sign it, the account would be reinstated

I gave that to Ebay customer service department and they clearly stated if the product was signed by me not to be within paypal agreement , Ebay will terminate my account for security reasons ...
My paypal account is terminated but not ebay ,, but that's useless as the contract with Ebay states I can sell on ebay without Paypal and use a merchant server but that is out impossible for a small trader to use
I since read many web complaints in both USA and Up that this is happening a lot to small trader
apparently so it goes paypaol is now a separate company and the main reason is to convert most trader to a merchant server account and that's only possible with larger accounts
using a merchant account evenly get rid of a lot of problems with customer complaints