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"PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

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Re: "PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

#91

Post by yieldcrv »

gregjor wrote: post #30

Not enough information, no context. PayPal has terms of service and laws they have to comply with. Probably a story here but unlikely PayPal just shut him down and kept his money for no reason .

Very likely it was a dumb reason, an automated reason, a poor user experience of that reason, a completely optional experience, a poor corporate policy that substantially diverges from legal obligations, legal obligations being poorly thought out and misguided as well.

There's literally no reason to blame the victim here when HSBC can launder money for the literal cartel under the same legal regime that deputizes financial institutions to demonize transactions instead of a government agency demonizing an actual behavior and investigating that actual behavior. The party in power made a choice they shouldn't be in a position to make or shouldn't chose to do that way, the predictability of that choice occurring is not a factor at all.

Re: "PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

#92

Post by pbmonster »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #49
gndk wrote: post #44

I have nightmares about this. The comments here saying that PayPal is just for hobby projects and should be avoided are living in a different reality. For me (e-commerce business, mainly in Germany), PayPal makes up around 70-80% of revenue and isn't easily replacable. I'm sure some customers would whip out their creditcard (if they even have one) or enter their long IBAN bank account numbers for direct debit, but ma…

What about adding Stripe/Google Pay/Amazon Pay as a choice, or if you have enough revenue history VISA etc through a merchant account. The real issue is that if you start getting chargebacks - you will be liable for them. A bank might ask for payment, Paypal just grabs any money in your account and locks it. If you keep an eye on the level of chargebacks you should be able to sleep better!

> What about adding Stripe/Google Pay/Amazon Pay as a choice

Not even close in popularity in Germany. People just don't use it. Would be surprised if more than 10% of transactions would move to that if offered while PayPal is still there.

Re: "PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

#93

Post by madsbuch »

dewey wrote: post #63
madsbuch wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought it was common knowledge at this point that there is this risk using PayPal and it was generally not recommended for anything but hobby use. PayPal has been seen using several jurisdictions, eg. Luxembourg, France, Germany. When maltreated customer try to sue and get their funds back, they will ping-pong people around in different orgs across these jurisdictions. In the end you would need several very persis…

Paypal only being for hobby projects is a bit of an exaggeration if you see almost every e-commerce store at least in Germany supporting it.

Many people do risky stuff against recommendations. And yes, I am aware that PayPal is particularly popular in Germany.

Re: "PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

#94

Post by is_true »

SilverBirch wrote: post #13

One of the things that fascinates me about silicon valley is that there's this very clear playbook that goes along the lines of: We're going to 'disrupt' X industry with technology. And disrupt often has a veneer of technological progress, but really is primarily just regulatory arbitrage. Paypal: We're going to be a bank, but we're not going to adhere to banking regulations. Crypto: We're going to be a stock exchang…

The problem here is that Paypal wants to look like a bank to increase it's stock value.

Re: "PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

#95

Post by dewey »

madsbuch wrote: post #93
dewey wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paypal only being for hobby projects is a bit of an exaggeration if you see almost every e-commerce store at least in Germany supporting it.

Many people do risky stuff against recommendations. And yes, I am aware that PayPal is particularly popular in Germany.

Every third party integration a company relies on is risky, I just take an issue with spreading FUD and calling a probably top 5 by market share payment provider only fit for hobby projects.

If you are searching for Stripe or any bank you'll find an equal amount of horror stories which are of course always louder than the millions of accounts and transactions that go on without an issue.

Re: "PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

#96

Post by posting_mess »

beeboobaa wrote: post #62
mpeg wrote: post #22

Ok so I know a bit about this as I had the same exact thing happen to me in the past. The reason this probably happened is that their business was getting a high % of chargebacks from paying customers, paypal is not a specialist payment provider that wants to handle what they consider high-risk business like that, so they block your account and hold your funds for 180 days and during that time keep processing chargeb…

An $80k interest free loan sounds pretty nice

Any evidence it appears on balance sheet / they use it as capital for investments? or are you just parroting a line you heard someone say one? Parent comment makes it fairly obvious why they are holding the money, seems entirely sane and reasonable - or do you think PayPal should take on an $80K risk? Would you or your business? (in this very specific context)

Re: "PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

#97

Post by mpeg »

KomoD wrote: post #83
mpeg wrote: post #22

Ok so I know a bit about this as I had the same exact thing happen to me in the past. The reason this probably happened is that their business was getting a high % of chargebacks from paying customers, paypal is not a specialist payment provider that wants to handle what they consider high-risk business like that, so they block your account and hold your funds for 180 days and during that time keep processing chargeb…

> After the 180 days, Paypal will give you the remainder of the money back, so the title is clickbait, they will get back their money. Not always, they can take it sometimes as "damages"

Hence why I said the remainder. In my case they held about $10k and I got back most of it, they take back any chargeback amounts + a flat fee per chargeback

Re: "PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

#98

Post by droopyEyelids »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #67
emmet wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Literally every time these things come up it's because the person was doing something dodgy and refuse to admit it.

Why shouldn't the question be asked? Just because someone claims something it doesn't mean we should accept it at face value. Doesn't mean they're doing something dodgy but there may be more to the story. If we dig deeper we may learn something useful. If this guy wants unquestioning sympathy he should look to his loved ones, not the internet.

You can tell because the poster is evasive about what exactly they’re selling.

That is pretty strong evidence in itself, because everyone who isnt shady ties an explanation of their business into everything they talk about out of pride and desire for free marketing.

Re: "PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

#99

Post by ghusto »

gndk wrote: post #44

I have nightmares about this. The comments here saying that PayPal is just for hobby projects and should be avoided are living in a different reality. For me (e-commerce business, mainly in Germany), PayPal makes up around 70-80% of revenue and isn't easily replacable. I'm sure some customers would whip out their creditcard (if they even have one) or enter their long IBAN bank account numbers for direct debit, but ma…

> The convenience of PayPal is unmatched

Every time I see PayPal, I hit the 'nah, just let me fill in my card details'. I think you're overestimating their worth, and underestimating both your customers and the competition. As someone already pointed out: "Stripe/Google Pay/Amazon Pay" are available, to name just the most recognisable ones. There are others with better fees!

Re: "PayPal took $80k from me and banned me"

#100

Post by drcongo »

dewey wrote: post #95
madsbuch wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people do risky stuff against recommendations. And yes, I am aware that PayPal is particularly popular in Germany.

Every third party integration a company relies on is risky, I just take an issue with spreading FUD and calling a probably top 5 by market share payment provider only fit for hobby projects. If you are searching for Stripe or any bank you'll find an equal amount of horror stories which are of course always louder than the millions of accounts and transactions that go on without an issue.

It's not FUD if it's true. The fact that it's popular in Germany doesn't mean that they don't randomly shut down people's accounts and access to their funds. PayPal has a long and storied history of doing this.
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