About two weeks ago, Paypal started placing my payments on "hold" - asking
me for additional information (as if I was a brand new store). I would submit
documents, wait a few days, then they'd request more. Finally I got the email
- store is "permanently closed" because I was engaging in activity they
don't approve of?
The account is (was) just used for Lego sales, mostly on this site. I've
been trying for days to get to a real person, but the one time I did - we were
disconnected mid-call after he asked me to screenshot almost everything on my
Bricklink profile. Almost every other time, their overseas support or their
AI filter basically tells me "sorry, too bad, review the TOS to have your
questions answered." I guess they don't like Lego?
Anyone have any experience with this, and have tips on getting it back? I am
not a huge store, but I've put a lot of work into it. No idea if only having
Stripe as a payment option is going to impact things, but I'd rather not
limit if I could.
About two weeks ago, Paypal started placing my payments on "hold" - asking
me for additional information (as if I was a brand new store). I would submit
documents, wait a few days, then they'd request more. Finally I got the email
- store is "permanently closed" because I was engaging in activity they
don't approve of?
The account is (was) just used for Lego sales, mostly on this site. I've
been trying for days to get to a real person, but the one time I did - we were
disconnected mid-call after he asked me to screenshot almost everything on my
Bricklink profile. Almost every other time, their overseas support or their
AI filter basically tells me "sorry, too bad, review the TOS to have your
questions answered." I guess they don't like Lego?
Anyone have any experience with this, and have tips on getting it back? I am
not a huge store, but I've put a lot of work into it. No idea if only having
Stripe as a payment option is going to impact things, but I'd rather not
limit if I could.
Was your PP account a business account or a personal account? PP requires you
to use a business account regardless of the size/income of your business on ANY
marketplace. That would constitute a ToS breach as you weren't using the
correct account type
Was your PP account a business account or a personal account? PP requires you
to use a business account regardless of the size/income of your business on ANY
marketplace. That would constitute a ToS breach as you weren't using the
correct account type
Sure about that? Where can one read more about that?
Was your PP account a business account or a personal account? PP requires you
to use a business account regardless of the size/income of your business on ANY
marketplace. That would constitute a ToS breach as you weren't using the
correct account type
It is a Business Account. Ironically, I was using a personal account for a very
long time, but finally migrated over to a Business Account several months ago.
Untrue. I do not have a business account, and have been running my BL store since
around 2014, as well as my ebay store from probably the same time, with zero
issues.
Miles
In Selling, Kevwar writes:
In Selling, ATravelingMan writes:
About two weeks ago, Paypal started placing my payments on "hold" - asking
me for additional information (as if I was a brand new store). I would submit
documents, wait a few days, then they'd request more. Finally I got the email
- store is "permanently closed" because I was engaging in activity they
don't approve of?
The account is (was) just used for Lego sales, mostly on this site. I've
been trying for days to get to a real person, but the one time I did - we were
disconnected mid-call after he asked me to screenshot almost everything on my
Bricklink profile. Almost every other time, their overseas support or their
AI filter basically tells me "sorry, too bad, review the TOS to have your
questions answered." I guess they don't like Lego?
Anyone have any experience with this, and have tips on getting it back? I am
not a huge store, but I've put a lot of work into it. No idea if only having
Stripe as a payment option is going to impact things, but I'd rather not
limit if I could.
Was your PP account a business account or a personal account? PP requires you
to use a business account regardless of the size/income of your business on ANY
marketplace. That would constitute a ToS breach as you weren't using the
correct account type
Untrue. I do not have a business account, and have been running my BL store since
around 2014, as well as my ebay store from probably the same time, with zero
issues.
Miles
It’s not so simple. There’s old accounts and new accounts.
You have an old account and you connected it to BL a long time ago. You have
been grandfathered in.
New personal accounts can’t connect to PayPal for Marketplace. It’s been proven
many times on this forum.
Some older accounts have had issues (among them the erroneous message “store
doesn’t ship to”) and either were disconnected or had to reconnect and couldn’t
with a personal account.
Interesting, and good to know. However, that doesn't change the fact that
the statement "PP requires you to use a business account regardless of the
size/income of your business on ANY marketplace." is erroneous.
I have thought about upgrading to a business account for a while now, but I've
not yet seen much benefit that would result, especially since I'll have to
open a new account for purchases (on any platform). Maybe I will, maybe I won't.
I might have to close my store here soon anyways, so it might be a moot question
for me.
Miles
In Selling, SylvainLS writes:
In Selling, C0lsanders_ writes:
Untrue. I do not have a business account, and have been running my BL store since
around 2014, as well as my ebay store from probably the same time, with zero
issues.
Miles
It’s not so simple. There’s old accounts and new accounts.
You have an old account and you connected it to BL a long time ago. You have
been grandfathered in.
New personal accounts can’t connect to PayPal for Marketplace. It’s been proven
many times on this forum.
Some older accounts have had issues (among them the erroneous message “store
doesn’t ship to”) and either were disconnected or had to reconnect and couldn’t
with a personal account.
I am still working it. I did finally get through to an American-based support
associate (the outsourced call center agents were no help at all), who agreed
it was likely a mistake. He asked for a bunch of documentation, which I sent
- but the call got disconnected. I never got a hold of that guy again.
I am back to "Message Center" exchanges, which aren't helpful. Last
message was that it might take 7-10 days to review the documents. I'm on
day 11 now...
In Selling, 1001bricks writes:
In Selling, SpaceODC writes:
Welcome to the club. To me, it happened out of the blue in 2016. Go ahead with
Stripe. There is life without Painpal.
You couldn't solve this with PayPal on the phone?
Because there is life without them, but here anyway, for 2024:
* PayPal 76%
* Stripe 10%
* IBAN 14%
So I really don't know how I would do without PayPal.
Buyers love to be protected and the other payment methods don't.
I am back to "Message Center" exchanges, which aren't helpful. Last
message was that it might take 7-10 days to review the documents. I'm on
day 11 now...
Good luck communicating with a non-existing support - famous for being the worst
on the net.
So I really don't know how I would do without PayPal.
Buyers love to be protected and the other payment methods don't.
That's not entirely accurate since the customer's bank / credit card
provider offers similar, if not the same amount of protection, customer can open
a claim via Stripe, just like with PayPal, their process might be a bit different
or less convenient though. Furthermore Stripe can also mess with you as a seller
but that's a different story...
Fingers crossed. I have no data on how many people decide not to use a store
because they don't use Paypal - figure most people are using cards anyway?
I'm still getting some orders, so it may not have hurt so far. But I am not
consistent enough in my sales yet to have data to compare against.
In Selling, SpaceODC writes:
Welcome to the club. To me, it happened out of the blue in 2016. Go ahead with
Stripe. There is life without Painpal.
For anyone curious - After a lot of back and forths, about a week ago, they told
me that the information I provided was insufficient, that the closure was upheld
and would be permanent and unappealable.
Mind you, over the course of this exchange, I sent them copies of my business
license, sellers permit, examples of sales on this site along with shipping tracking,
receipts from inventory purchases, and even a scan of the storefront.
I never did get an explanation of what they thought I was doing wrong, and just
decided to stop fighting. I was at a point where even if I did get my account
back, I wouldn't want to use it anymore. I was still making sales just on
Stripe, so that was just that.
This morning, they sent me an email letting me know that my account had been
restored. No explanation, no apology, no context.
I immediately went in and transferred out all of the money they were holding.
Turns out I did mean it - I am not reactivating Paypal on my store. F-em.
In Selling, ATravelingMan writes:
About two weeks ago, Paypal started placing my payments on "hold" - asking
me for additional information (as if I was a brand new store). I would submit
documents, wait a few days, then they'd request more. Finally I got the email
- store is "permanently closed" because I was engaging in activity they
don't approve of?
For anyone curious - After a lot of back and forths, about a week ago, they told
me that the information I provided was insufficient, that the closure was upheld
and would be permanent and unappealable.
Mind you, over the course of this exchange, I sent them copies of my business
license, sellers permit, examples of sales on this site along with shipping tracking,
receipts from inventory purchases, and even a scan of the storefront.
I never did get an explanation of what they thought I was doing wrong, and just
decided to stop fighting. I was at a point where even if I did get my account
back, I wouldn't want to use it anymore. I was still making sales just on
Stripe, so that was just that.
This morning, they sent me an email letting me know that my account had been
restored. No explanation, no apology, no context.
I immediately went in and transferred out all of the money they were holding.
Turns out I did mean it - I am not reactivating Paypal on my store.
What you may not have realized is that a huge part of what happened (closure,...)
was not my AI or ML algorithms but you got frustrated and angry against a mathematics
algorithm!
I strongly suggest you forget about this and continue using PayPal.
Not exactly related but here is what happened to me a few months ago:
I won an auction from a website in Sweden. I had bought multiple times from them.
I paid. The day after, I saw a red banner in my PayPal account that they needed
more information. What did they ask me? Here it is:
What is the date of birth of "Peter Anderson" (this name is not his real
name, just a fake example I am using here). I sent a message via that marketplace
to the seller that
"PayPal did not allow me paying you and messaged me asking me the date of
birth of Peter Anderson. So I guess your name is Peter Anderson"....
He replied that that was his real name and he did not know what that was about
and he barely used PayPal before. I messaged PayPal:
"This is an auction in Sweden sold by this seller (the link to his profile)
I am not sure why you asked me to provide you the date of birth of a seller I
never met and I did not even know his name. I just won this auction (the link
http://AA....A.com)" and want to Pay to get the vintage toys LEGO...."
At the end I paid by my credit card. I never found out the reason PayPal asked
me that and wanted to know his date of birth but I thought there could be some
serious yet accidental reason. For example, I thought a person with the same
name "Peter Anderson" was under US sanctions! The seller replied me that
he did some research and found out somebody with his same name was under US sanctions.
This is the last message of PayPal:
"
Dear XXXXX,
As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal
system.
PayPal is committed to complying with and meeting its global regulatory obligations.
One obligation is to ensure that our customers, merchants, and partners are also
in compliance with applicable U.S. laws and regulations in their use of PayPal.
PayPal's Compliance Department reviewed your account and identified activity
that may be in violation of United States regulations. We are returning your
payment to you and kindly request that you not attempt to resend this payment
using PayPal.
Please note that we reserve our right to close your PayPal account if we continue
to identify activity that may put us at risk of violating our regulatory obligations.
What you may not have realized is that a huge part of what happened (closure,...)
was not my AI or ML algorithms but you got frustrated and angry against a mathematics
algorithm!
I strongly suggest you forget about this and continue using PayPal.
Not exactly related but here is what happened to me a few months ago:
I won an auction from a website in Sweden. I had bought multiple times from them.
I paid. The day after, I saw a red banner in my PayPal account that they needed
more information. What did they ask me? Here it is:
What is the date of birth of "Peter Anderson" (this name is not his real
name, just a fake example I am using here). I sent a message via that marketplace
to the seller that
"PayPal did not allow me paying you and messaged me asking me the date of
birth of Peter Anderson. So I guess your name is Peter Anderson"....
He replied that that was his real name and he did not know what that was about
and he barely used PayPal before. I messaged PayPal:
"This is an auction in Sweden sold by this seller (the link to his profile)
I am not sure why you asked me to provide you the date of birth of a seller I
never met and I did not even know his name. I just won this auction (the link
http://AA....A.com)" and want to Pay to get the vintage toys LEGO...."
At the end I paid by my credit card. I never found out the reason PayPal asked
me that and wanted to know his date of birth but I thought there could be some
serious yet accidental reason. For example, I thought a person with the same
name "Peter Anderson" was under US sanctions! The seller replied me that
he did some research and found out somebody with his same name was under US sanctions.
This is the last message of PayPal:
"
Dear XXXXX,
As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal
system.
PayPal is committed to complying with and meeting its global regulatory obligations.
One obligation is to ensure that our customers, merchants, and partners are also
in compliance with applicable U.S. laws and regulations in their use of PayPal.
PayPal's Compliance Department reviewed your account and identified activity
that may be in violation of United States regulations. We are returning your
payment to you and kindly request that you not attempt to resend this payment
using PayPal.
Please note that we reserve our right to close your PayPal account if we continue
to identify activity that may put us at risk of violating our regulatory obligations.
Sincerely,
PayPal Compliance Department
"
I respect that, but I wasn't upset at the algorithm. I mean, I was - but
the horrific service was at issue. I had no way to reach out to an actual person.
Had someone actually contacted me and had a conversation, and asked for specific
documentation - I could have provided it. Instead, it was week after week of
every few days being asked for something vague - no reasons behind the request
and no feedback on whether or not the documents were what they wanted, or insufficient.
Just a new request, and a new 3 day window.
The account was locked up for a month, over something that could have been resolved
in a few minutes if they'd actually let me talk to someone, or communicate
asymmetrically with a single person. Instead, I was told over and over again
that the decision was not appealable, and that they would not give me a reason.
Automation exists for a reason, and I can understand using it to filter for suspicious
activity. However, how they handled it from that point forward was obscene, and
I am not going to reward that. I may not generate a ton of money for them, but
every little bit over time ....
USA, California
France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Italy, Trentino-Alto Adige
Austria, Wien
Canada, British Columbia