I contacted Jimmy a couple of weeks ago about a supplier I found out to be fraud....and now because of these people I may have to sue PayPal! This is my story....
I was doing research on the web looking for new dropship suppliers to re-open my Ebay store and restart my auctions. Through one of the suppliers I found here, I found an affilate called k-electronics.eu that was supposedly based out of the Netherlands. They had unbelieveably low wholesale prices. I contacted the company by email and began corresponding with someone named Michaal Van Maastret in customer service. I asked a lot of questions and everything seemed like it was on the up and up. So, I posted some listings in my Ebay store and at auction for some of their products.
I got great response to the listings...I had many bids and even sold three items with the Buy-It-Now option. I also had many questions on the other questions and so I began emailing Michaal again to get answers with no response. I began to get suspicious and emailed Jimmy and posted on the forum at SaleHoo. Jimmy was suspicious also and told me that he thought it might be a scam. I immediately emailed Ebay's Customer Service Department asking what to do about my listings. I heard nothing for two days and I became panicky because my listings were going to end soon and I didn't want to have to deal with explaining the situation to more than the three Buy-It-Now customers. I researched on Ebay and found something that told me that I could remove my listings...even the ones with bids..and Ebay would automatically cancel the existing bids. So, I cancelled all my listings on auction and in my Ebay store. I then sent letters to the three Buy-It-Now customers explaining that I had found out that my new supplier was a scam artist and that I could not complete their transactions. I told them I was extremely sorry and that I would refund the entire amount of their purchases through PayPal. The money from these people had been payed through PayPal and went into my PayPal account. I never ordered any items or had anything shipped because I had planned on drop shipping them through k-electronics.
Meanwhile on March 2, 2007, my PayPal account was put into limited access due to 'a sudden increase in you transaction volume'. Of course I had a sudden increase in my transaction volume....I hadn't had any selling activity for about 6 months because I had closed my Ebay store then temporarily.
Another hook was thrown into the water when I realized that when I had made a purchase from Ebay for my daughter's 21st birthday gift, instead of taking the payment directly from my checking account as they had done in the past when there was no balance in my PayPal account, PayPal took the $302.00 for the gift out of my PayPal balance which was the money from these three Buy-It-Now customers. To add to everything else, Frank Reed began to think I was scamming him...so he filed a complaint with PayPal.
I went on my PayPal account on March 9th, 2007 and refunded the first two Buy-It-Now customers with their money. When I tried to refund the third person, a Frank Reed for his $2,129.95 purchase of a Bose Home Theater System, my PayPal balance was short $302.00 because PayPal had used that amount to pay for my purchase for my daughter's birthday. Instead of taking the $302.00 from my checking account to add to the rest of my balance and to refund Mr. Reed, PayPal scheduled a transfer from my checking account for the entire amount of the refund...$2,067.88 (plus the refund of PayPal fees of $62.07)!! I immediately called PayPal's Resolution Department and spoke to a representative and he told me that there was no way to stop the transfer through PayPal, but that I could contact my bank and have them put a stop on the transfer of the entire $2,067.88. He told me that I could then transfer the $302.00 from my checking to my PayPal account and then the refund would continue as scheduled (complete on March 14th) and everyone would be paid off.
So, I went to my bank and told them that I needed to stop the transfer of $2,067.88 from my checking to my PayPal account. The man at the bank faxed me a paper to fill out and sign for the stop of the transfer. I filled it out and signed it and faxed it back to him. I then called my bank to make sure they received the fax and they told me they had and that the transfer would not be completed. I then authorized a transfer from my checking to my PayPal account in the amount of $302.00 to add to my PayPal balance so that the refund to Frank Reed would be completed on March 14th.
Meanwhile Ebay decided to suspend my account due to 'Abuse of Ebay', yet no one there could tell me exactly why or what that meant. They also said that they tend to go along with PayPal when there is a complaint filed.
I called PayPal's Resolution Department again and spoke to a Maureen in that department. The Resolution Department had requested information from me previously in order to 'remove the limitations on my account'. I faxed them all the information they asked for, excluding shipping information. I explained that the items purchased were never shipped because I was doing dropshipping and the items were intended to be shipped directly from the supplier. The items were never ordered....because I found out the company was a scam before it got to that point. I was trying to prevent an even bigger problem! I explained to Maureen the whole story, she wrote done the information and read each paragraph back to me to check that it was correct, and she said that she would send this information to review for removing the limitations on my PayPal account. She said that I would hear something within 24 hours.
I never heard anything from PayPal. On Friday, March 16th, 2007, my husband got his paycheck automatically deposited into our checking account. When I went to the store to buy groceries, my debit card was denied. I went home and looked at my checking account online and realized that the transfer that I had asked to be stopped went through anyway....and my husband's entire paycheck had been transferred to my PayPal account (2,067.88)!!
I then went into my PayPal account and tried to transfer the $2,067.88 back into my checking account, but because of the limitations on my account, it would not let me. I called PayPal again and spoke to a Ryan in the Resolutions Department. He proceeded to tell me that PayPal had decided to hold all the funds in my account for 180 days (6 months!)!!! I told him he was crazy.. that everyone had been refunded that needed to be and I had done everything they had asked and that they could not hold my money that was not authorized to be transferred in the first place! He told me that 'yes, they could' and this is where I am today! My husband just got paid, I have no money to live on for the next two weeks, my bills will not be paid, checks will probably bounce, and utilities will probably be shut off! I am so angry!!!! I will never, ever use PayPal again!!! Be very leary of them....if everything goes well ...they are usually OK. But if you have any sort of problem that is beyond your control....they will rake you through the coals!!!
