PayPal Froze $10K In My Account - Here's How I Turned Finally Removed It

[xposed]

To my horror, PayPal froze my account last week and
now after 5 days I finally have it removed... Here is the story...

On March 20th an amount in the $XX,XXX range was
sent to me for traffic arbitrage. No goods sent,
no physical tracking for the services rendered, and
Because the amount was over 10K PayPal froze my account.

I submitted what they asked for and still nothing...
I called them the first time and they said that it will
be fixed in 24 hours. 24 hours went by and I called
again, "sir they needed more information, give it
another 24 hours."

So 3 days later I called again this morning, and was
told for the 5th time that they need more information,
so I gave it to them and they said,

"Ok the review team will review this in 24 hours."

By the fourth or fifth time when I was told this,
I finally said the following: (in a KIND and professional tone)

"Sir, I have heard that 4 times in the last 5 days.
Can you please transfer me to your supervisor?"

5 minutes go by, transferred to supervisor...
After getting the superiver, Here is my subtle
threat to them. (in a kind voice, peoples ears
shut off when you command, their hearts open
when you are kind)

Telephone service supervisor: "Hello how can I help you?"


me: "Hi, do you know much about the situation?"


Telephone service supervisor: "Just that this is a
buyer complaint"


me: "Ah no, not a complaint M'am, just a little stress
about this 5 day no end in sight limitation."

Now I can sense her voice is relieved, because I set
the tone that this is not another complaining whiny
customer that she has to deal with every call!):


Telephone Service Supervisor (TSS): "Oh, well how can I help?"


me: "I am having some stressful and frustrating days
with this PayPal limitation on my account. Do you know
how that feels for me?"


Telephone Service Supervisor (TSS): blah blah yes I do
(good she feels something for me now)


me: "I'd like to ask that you send the money back to the
sender, and I can just ask for checks instead. I think it's
time to take my business to a less stressful service."


TSR: "Ok, let me get that taken care of..."

(Now I'm thinking, oh crap this isn't what I want,
I want my money now I don't want to have to wait
for a check...)


me: "Perfect, thank you.... (pause) Now before we proceed, let me tell you what I really want.... (pause)

I'd like to continue using PayPal for my business, *and* with this review process going on for 5 days now - my hope is starting to dwindle."
(replacing any potential "buts" with "and")


TSR: "Yes I understand..."


ME: "I perform a legitimate business operation and I've given you what you ask for every time in 2 hours or less between each request. Is there anything you can personally do to keep my business at PayPal?"

(put me on hold for 10 minutes, and when they came back my account was lifted!)



I knew deep down that they could get it done right away, and when I finally got the supervisor on the phone, formed a connection, and asked for the lift to be removed - it was finally taken care of.

Now here's my personal curiosity: Who knows what would have happened if I just hung up with the first person I talked to when they told me another "24 hours" ?

Hope this message has helped someone out there... Ok I'm back to work but I wanted to share this first :-)

[c2uk]

Wow, thanks for sharing how you handled the situation, and well done!

Hope you don't have to go through this again.

[graedus_dave]

Totally great! Learning to communicate with people is one of the single best ways of getting things done, in situations far beyond sitting down and talking with clients. Your story should be a lesson to everyone.

[tke71709]

Hope this message has helped someone out there...

Moral of the story, never use Paypal when dealing with large amounts of funds...

[ramone_johnny]

To be honest, Im really concerned about Paypal freezing my account. I ensure that I do everything within their guidelines, but this still leaves me feeling uneasy.

Ive read some horror stories on the net about Paypal and I can only hope that I dont have the same frustrations.

$10,000 in one hit - let me ask....

What is it you do, and how do you do it!

RJ

[Dan Grossman]

How many of those horror stories occurred after the original suits were settled and eBay bought them in 2002? PayPal has been nothing but a class-A company the past 6 years.

My account's been open since July 2000, almost 8 years (verify). I process about $20,000 a month in and out of that account every month, with 4-figure (but not 5) transactions several times a month. I have had several thousand dollar balances in the accounts at times, and no balance at others. Never had a single problem and PayPal's customer service over the phone has always been excellent for me.

There's nothing more to worry about than any other method of accepting payments online. PayPal has no secret agenda against its merchants - the source of its income.

[jawzishere]

You are very intelligent when it comes to dealing with people and have a good understanding of the human psyche. Because of this you managed to get your account off the hook fairly easily. You're right, its all about staying calm and being nice even if you want to yell at them. It gets things done much more often.

Now if you had started yelling at the supervisor and complaining about how it was taking so long and that you needed your money now, your account would probably still be frozen. Lucky for you, you're aware of this unlike so many people out there.

Good post, hopefully some people will take this to heart and help make their lives easier when dealing with customer support.

[xposed]

Thank YOU for the comments guys. I'm glad this story helped someone.

I agree that PayPal is a class A company.

[imagineinternet]

I agree that PayPal is a Class A company, but...

For some reason, after 8 years with a flawless record, they have suddenly hit me with 3 disputes in a 2 month period. Granted, none were overly huge amounts, but I too move a decent amount of money thorough there and I'm now very nervous about having large sums of money with PayPal. Where I used to let money sit there, I now sweep it to make sure It doesn't get hung up for some reason.

Great post, xposed. I think I made matters worse for myself with an onslaught of choice words for some poor customer service rep. Oh the guilt.

[mikaelf]

@xposed
i like your way of communicating. communication is always an art. with less commanding speeches and intelligent *implied* statements, you can sort out the problem within minutes

another lesson is upper management level (usually) handles the problem better. that's what they are paid for

[Dan Grossman]

For some reason, after 8 years with a flawless record, they have suddenly hit me with 3 disputes in a 2 month period.

What do you mean they hit you? Disputes come from other PayPal members, not from PayPal. It's not their fault if someone that paid you is disputing it...

[rmleisure]

How many of those horror stories occurred after the original suits were settled and eBay bought them in 2002? PayPal has been nothing but a class-A company the past 6 years.

With all do respect, the same thing happened to me in 2005, which would be after eBay bought them. They still do this stuff every day. I don't trust them at all, but unfortunately I'm stuck using them still. When they froze my account, I had to threaten legal action to get them to give me my money back. I just make sure I don't keep a balance in my account anymore.