Well al i can say from my experience is Paypal is almighty.
I once had an incident years ago with Paypal were i sold a domain in the $xx,xxx region.
As before that sale my Paypal transactions had been rather in the $xxx league and *because* i was aware about their automated unpredictable "red flag" system i called Paypal up, let them know about the soon to be expected payment that i would receive and all the other details of the sale.They assured me the red flag would not show up.
Fine.
Payment comes.
Guess what.
Instant red flag.
Meaning my account got instantly frozen with $xx,xxx stuck in it.
I will spare you the details but i can assure you to say it was a nightmare to get the account unfrozen again would be the biggest understatement ever.
I had to fax zillions of bank statement copies, ID's, house bills and whatnot to them.
Called them a zillion times.Had the buyer call them.And so on.
The worst part was first, despite what they had promised me before the transaction all the support staff that i had to deal with because of this acted either as if i had never informed them or - worse- as if they personally could not do anything.
Second, i could not count anymore how often i got their standard reply of "Sorry sir but i can't help you with this, this is our standard procedure".
Third - at least as worse as the above - was that everytime they wanted me to fax something over and i thought ok thats it and faxed it, there was something new they wanted me to fax; which of course they had not demanded or even mentioned the day before.
I finally decided to do, give, fax, write everything they would ever ask me to no matter what, no matter how stupid the demands were, no matter how often i already had explained something to them just because i sensed that otherwise they would just keep my account frozen.
Oh yeah, another reason was one of the numerous PP reps i had to deal with when asked if i would not comply would they keep my money then answered:
"Yes, sir."
I swear i can't remember when the last time had been i had felt so completely powerless and at someones mercy.
In the end, it took my i believe like 1 1/2 months to get the account unfrozen again.
And from what i've read elsewhere i was even lucky with that.
The only good thing about this was that - what irony - *after* all this mess i now had a personal Paypal rep with direct extension phone number that i could call anytime should something like this happen again.Of course it never happened again.
This was in the days when Paypal had not yet been bought by ebay and they had no german department.I wonder where i would have been with them if my english would not have been good enough - they probably would still sit on my money.
I never had a major problem with them again since, but that incident has been burned in my mind forever so i don't forget that Paypal is the almighty Big Brother and i am at their will.
Lessons learned:
- Paypal is almighty.
- Be prepared to spend days on the fax machine and on the phone in case you have a problem like i had.Better take off a week or two from work.
- Be prepared to repeat everything a hundred times to hundred different reps and to stay friendly now matter how ignorant they are.
- MOST IMPORTANT: Be prepared to do everything they ask you to.Don't even think about getting upset or not complying with their demands no matter how stupid those may be.Just give them what they want.Everything.
I ain't kidding i swear.
I once had an incident years ago with Paypal were i sold a domain in the $xx,xxx region.
As before that sale my Paypal transactions had been rather in the $xxx league and *because* i was aware about their automated unpredictable "red flag" system i called Paypal up, let them know about the soon to be expected payment that i would receive and all the other details of the sale.They assured me the red flag would not show up.
Fine.
Payment comes.
Guess what.
Instant red flag.
Meaning my account got instantly frozen with $xx,xxx stuck in it.
I will spare you the details but i can assure you to say it was a nightmare to get the account unfrozen again would be the biggest understatement ever.
I had to fax zillions of bank statement copies, ID's, house bills and whatnot to them.
Called them a zillion times.Had the buyer call them.And so on.
The worst part was first, despite what they had promised me before the transaction all the support staff that i had to deal with because of this acted either as if i had never informed them or - worse- as if they personally could not do anything.
Second, i could not count anymore how often i got their standard reply of "Sorry sir but i can't help you with this, this is our standard procedure".
Third - at least as worse as the above - was that everytime they wanted me to fax something over and i thought ok thats it and faxed it, there was something new they wanted me to fax; which of course they had not demanded or even mentioned the day before.
I finally decided to do, give, fax, write everything they would ever ask me to no matter what, no matter how stupid the demands were, no matter how often i already had explained something to them just because i sensed that otherwise they would just keep my account frozen.
Oh yeah, another reason was one of the numerous PP reps i had to deal with when asked if i would not comply would they keep my money then answered:
"Yes, sir."
I swear i can't remember when the last time had been i had felt so completely powerless and at someones mercy.
In the end, it took my i believe like 1 1/2 months to get the account unfrozen again.
And from what i've read elsewhere i was even lucky with that.
The only good thing about this was that - what irony - *after* all this mess i now had a personal Paypal rep with direct extension phone number that i could call anytime should something like this happen again.Of course it never happened again.
This was in the days when Paypal had not yet been bought by ebay and they had no german department.I wonder where i would have been with them if my english would not have been good enough - they probably would still sit on my money.
I never had a major problem with them again since, but that incident has been burned in my mind forever so i don't forget that Paypal is the almighty Big Brother and i am at their will.
Lessons learned:
- Paypal is almighty.
- Be prepared to spend days on the fax machine and on the phone in case you have a problem like i had.Better take off a week or two from work.
- Be prepared to repeat everything a hundred times to hundred different reps and to stay friendly now matter how ignorant they are.
- MOST IMPORTANT: Be prepared to do everything they ask you to.Don't even think about getting upset or not complying with their demands no matter how stupid those may be.Just give them what they want.Everything.
I ain't kidding i swear.
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