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PayPal will hold money until I prove I shipped. I didn't sell anything.

7 points by dangban ↗ HN
Man, how far PayPal has fallen.

I created a new PayPal account. It's linked to a Bank account, and a Credit card of mine.

My sister "PayPalled" me some money (to buy something for her).

PayPal held it and told me I needed to provide evidence of shipping before they'd release it.

I emailed them to tell them I wasn't a "seller", this was a private transaction.

Received an auto-generated email telling me what "sellers" had to do.

Responded, telling them I wasn't a seller.

I got a reply from an apparent human referring to me as a "seller" and telling me what "sellers" had to do.

I finally gave up when I discovered there was no phone number I could call to resolve this.

Refunded the money to my sister (PayPal lost the 5% they were charging -- this was an international transaction), and am looking for alternatives.

Man, has PayPal fallen.

4 comments

[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 21.0 ms ] thread
DarkWiiPlayer
My opinion of PayPal was suffered a lot from that subscribestar thing. They are essentially turning away paying customers for dumb reasons; and it seems they are big enough that they can just do it without problems. This could mean that, when an alternative shows up, it will replace paypal instead of actually breaking the monopoly.
_Schizotypy
I have no idea what your response has to do with the current post.
_Schizotypy
Was it sent as a family/friend transaction? If so this should not happen.
dangban
I guess it wasn't.

I'll tell my sister about this to see if it helps. I did just now find an FAQ about "family and friends" transactions on PayPal, and it should be relatively easy for her to find.

Odd thing is that she's sent money to my previous PayPal account before without a hitch.