4 ms·

Sounds exactly like what happened with me and PayPal (guess they still share that). Transferred a few hundred bucks to a PayPal account I hadn't used in a whil

Sounds exactly like what happened with me and PayPal (guess they still share that). Transferred a few hundred bucks to a PayPal account I hadn't used in a while. Got banned with no option for reinstatement or explanation. They basically just kept my money and said there was nothing I could do about it kthxbai. I understand verification for anything flagged as risky. I hadn't used the account in years so I can see why it might show up that way. But no, there's no way to verify my identity or speak with anyone who can tell me anything. That money just went poof (for me at least).

pxx 4y ago
Usually PayPal gives you your money back after 180 days (after it is mostly chargeback-proof). Was that not even an option here?
iforgotpassword 4y ago
Dammit, there was this post here on HN a while back how someone got their account back through the forced arbitration process. So if you care enough about that money, that would be an option. Hopefully someone can find it again, I'll keep looking some more. EDIT: https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/i-fought-the-paypal-and-i-won https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/i-fought-the-paypal-and-i...
dehrmann 4y ago
You can report them to government agencies for theft.
jo6gwb 4y ago
Suggest you submit a complaint to the CFPB - there is a webpage and useful instructions for doing so. Ebay is a regulated financial institution and will have to answer to the CFPB as to how they will be resolving your complaint. You can also submit a complaint to your state financial regulator - they usually have more teeth than the CFPB but take a little bit more time.
PetahNZ 4y ago
Same kind of issue. Signed up for PayPal, instantly banned before I could even do anything. Email support just said there is no recourse and no explanation why. Ended up ringing the support phone number and they managed to unban the account.
FrameworkFred 4y ago
I had an issue with Paypal for 5-6 years because I paid a kid in Indonesia $50 for a sketch, realized Paypal had charged a transaction fee despite documentation showing they wouldn't, and tried to send another $10 to cover the difference. They asked for and got a bunch of documentation out of me until they kept asking for more and more and, eventually, I declined to participate in the process any further. It came up every year or so that it'd be nice to have a working Paypal account, so I'd try and fail to resolve it. Anyway, about a month ago, I tried again and got in touch with someone who was able to understand that there was no way that my largely inactive account would be "more secure" if I sent them credit card statements (since the card originally linked to the account was long expired and there was no way I was sending them statements for a new card when they clearly had internal information-handling issues...at least from my perspective). She verified my physical and email address and removed the block. By the time the CS rep had resoved the issue, I'd worked around the problem again, so I still haven't used the account, but, at least for Paypal, it does seem like they've empowered folks to fix silly problems. It might be worth trying again.

pxx 4y ago

Usually PayPal gives you your money back after 180 days (after it is mostly chargeback-proof). Was that not even an option here?

iforgotpassword 4y ago

Dammit, there was this post here on HN a while back how someone got their account back through the forced arbitration process. So if you care enough about that money, that would be an option. Hopefully someone can find it again, I'll keep looking some more. EDIT: https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/i-fought-the-paypal-and-i-won https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/i-fought-the-paypal-and-i...

dehrmann 4y ago

You can report them to government agencies for theft.

jo6gwb 4y ago

Suggest you submit a complaint to the CFPB - there is a webpage and useful instructions for doing so. Ebay is a regulated financial institution and will have to answer to the CFPB as to how they will be resolving your complaint. You can also submit a complaint to your state financial regulator - they usually have more teeth than the CFPB but take a little bit more time.

PetahNZ 4y ago

Same kind of issue. Signed up for PayPal, instantly banned before I could even do anything. Email support just said there is no recourse and no explanation why. Ended up ringing the support phone number and they managed to unban the account.

FrameworkFred 4y ago

I had an issue with Paypal for 5-6 years because I paid a kid in Indonesia $50 for a sketch, realized Paypal had charged a transaction fee despite documentation showing they wouldn't, and tried to send another $10 to cover the difference. They asked for and got a bunch of documentation out of me until they kept asking for more and more and, eventually, I declined to participate in the process any further. It came up every year or so that it'd be nice to have a working Paypal account, so I'd try and fail to resolve it. Anyway, about a month ago, I tried again and got in touch with someone who was able to understand that there was no way that my largely inactive account would be "more secure" if I sent them credit card statements (since the card originally linked to the account was long expired and there was no way I was sending them statements for a new card when they clearly had internal information-handling issues...at least from my perspective). She verified my physical and email address and removed the block. By the time the CS rep had resoved the issue, I'd worked around the problem again, so I still haven't used the account, but, at least for Paypal, it does seem like they've empowered folks to fix silly problems. It might be worth trying again.