I keep hearing about Paypal problems. Should I avoid Paypal?

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Leo you don't get it PayPal won't help if there is a chance they could be out $$$$$$. Your are right when it works it works fine but if you have a problem you have a big problem. PayPal doesn't care, if it comes down to them loosing money or you it will be you no if ands or buts.
Greg

You must be on their payroll... paypal takes moeny from the small guy (seller) and passes it on to the credit card companines
have you sold anything with them?

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Yes, actually I have. And I do. A lot.

My wife's business accepts paypal, and it's been a great, even an
important addition to her ability to serve customers on the internet.
We've never had a problem. And their rates for business transactions are
comparable to the rates we pay to take credit cards via traditional
means. Perhaps slightly higher, but the convenience is well worth it, in
my opinion.

About the only thing I do is make sure to transfer money from Paypal to
our regular business checking on a semi regular basis. That's free.

Leo
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Ha ha. Sure PayPals fine for the first few years you use it, then one day you'll run into a problem and realize how horrible their company really is.

I have been on Paypal for many years with no problems. My account is linked to my Credit card account and I use it to buy Postcards which I collect on Ebay. I settle up with the card provider monthly. Two days ago I got two Paypal debit notifications, sent at almost the same time, from one of those US virtual world sites, for two amounts of 30 USD debited to my Paypal account. I thought it was a scam but I looked up Paypal and the debits were there on my account. I called up my credit card provider and they confirmed but said they couldn't remove them until the statement came out at the end of the month and I queried it. I don't know what was purchased by the scamster as the details are blank, but I assume some sort of virtual money for the virtual game world. Meanwhile I have notified Paypal and the virtual world game company that they are fraudulent transactions and I have changed my password. What puzzles me is how the fraudsters they got my details, I never respond to phishing exercises or click through from another site to Paypal. I have an unusual first name, an unusual address, neither would be picked up on a random combination of names, and an unusual alias. I have never been a member of the virtual reality game which debited me or any of its associates. It really looks as though someone has either hacked into my ISP service provider or into my Paypal account. I will keep you posted on the outcome.

Leo. Ask Leo?
To be honest I wouldn't ask you if it was raining outside.
Any pompous ass can set up some ego massaging site of no or little value. The first thing you state in this trite little article is "another on line banking service" even though you then go to explain it's not a bank. Sheesh. Before you give half witted opinions masquerading as fact, take some time to check what you are commenting on; Check the volume of problems experienced by customers of paypal. Check out the £9 million class action settlement. Observe the quotes from Paypal MD that they "deliberately hid contact information' from customers. With paypal, if it's okay, it's okay. If there is a problem then you are helpless. Decisions "cannot be appealed" etc. Accounts locked for a minimum 180 days. Decisions taken solely at Paypals discretion (or lack thereof).
As for your ridiculous, useless advice "If Paypal suddenly decides to restrict access to your account, (typically as part of some fraud investigation) just make sure that they're not holding a lot of your money while things get sorted out." How, precisely, are people supposed to achieve this. Paypal has proven it freezes accounts with distressingly regularity upon large purchases etc. Do you have access to an excellent psychic advisor? Quite frankly Sir, it is blatantly apparent you are next to clueless on financial realities. Just because you eat a lot of pies, it does not make you a master baker.
Your advice is clueless, incorrect, and most importantly, potentially dangerous.
Your opinions are not based on recognised facts. They are merely unfounded opinions based on pompous, delusional opinions of self worth. Blowhard buffoons like yourself are one of the major irritations of the net.

Hi Leo, some of the above comments have a very true side. If you have problems with PayPal you have huge Proplems. They answer e-mails after 5 days but the answer is rubbish. So you need to write again - wait another 5 days just to get rubbish again. My friend has GBP 6,000.00 parked (frozen) by PayPal even though he regularly transfered the money away from them. Why such a high balance? Well he has a high cashflow (now frozen cash flow)from selling stuff on EBay. Now the account is frozen he has zeeeeero cash flow. He still needs to pay for Postage, storage, Rent and food but has NO income whatsoever anymore as PayPal has frozen his account. You can all help him by spreading the word and linking to this blog: http://paypalproblems.wordpress.com/ Perhaps a PayPal employee with a heart and a brain will read it and will help. Thanks a lot for your help guys. André

I found this site while searching google for paypal troubles, in hopes of solving my own. Fortunately it's a small amount of money (80 EUR), but seems that I will have to wait 6 months to get it back.

I will NEVER use paypal again, ever!

Leo,
This article seems to interest a lot of people. I have so far not read 1 positive response. Is this now the time to rethink your initial article? The reason I found this site is because I was looking for the Term "PayPal Problems" and it seems not only I am suffering from an incompetent Customer Care Centre there....

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No, I'm standing by my position, with the addition that I do make sure to keep
the amount of money in my paypal account "low". If it's an income generating
account, I regularly widthdraw into my bank account (which is free to do.)

I wouldn't expect positive comments on an article like this. People who are not
having problems with paypal have no reason to come here. And I do, still,
believe that they are the vast majority.

I don't mean to ignore or belittle the very real problems that some people have
had. And in fact I think it's good for everyone to know that they can happen.

But my experiences, and the experiences of many around me, have been good.

Leo

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