I’ve been a computer junkie since the days of Commodore 64. I was on the internet before Al Gore invented it. On the crest of the wave all the way. I was one of the pioneers who tested the ebay and Paypal waters. Both of these were, and still SHOULD be, magnificent! My ebay activities were revelatory (to me, at least) I was constantly running several items and the Paypal option made it very easy to take care of the money flow.
I became a self appointed spokesman for both. I utilized Paypal as a payment option for personal web sites (ipanic.com, weimaranerhunter.com, and others). I wrote articles praising their operation and tackled opposition on an almost daily basis. My internet presence flourished and life flowed on.
Out of the blue came a full on personal attack, outside of the internet, in the form of an SUV which hit me, going 75 mph. Wish I could remember it. I woke up 4 months later, minus my left leg, sense of balance and memory. In trade I received indescribable pain. As a result of this I was relatively non-functioning for a fair while.
Slowly and against all odds I began to recover. I’m still a long ways from 100%, but I am once again writing, making music, and back on ebay in an attempt to pay for living. It’s amazing how much getting your leg tore off and your brain scrambled can cost!
All was well and good. The transactions flowing nicely until I offered a large Mackie powered sub-woofer. This bad boy was heavy, valuable and not to be cheaply shipped. In the auction I included the shipping costs. The auction went well, the speaker sold to a feller in New Orleans! Perfect location for my old sub. Unfortunately, the payment notification came along with a message that the money was being held by Paypal! Go ahead monkeyboy ship that puppy without money! Had I a history of undependability I could understand but…
I called ebay, not knowing it was Paypal that was responsible for this. The tech looked at my record and said the only thing she could see was a several year gap in my activity. That maybe this was the reason. She referred me to Paypal, saying she expected that in view of my history, they’d simply release it.
Ha ha haaaa… No such luck. Turns out I’m at fault for listing an Item that I can’t afford to ship. Instead of clearing the payment, giving the purchaser’s money to me, I must wait 21 days… ?? In effect this gentleman who was depending on Paypal to exchange his money, get’s the knife because Bacon2 might be dangerous…
Naturally being the mild mannered biker type that I am, I calmly shrugged my shoulders and said, “oh dang.. live and learn Bacon…” ‘er somethin’. So… what to do now??
I’ve got it!! I will make it my life’s endeavor to damage Paypal in whatever way possible. Whatever pennies they made from holding on to MY money will be far outweighed by the expense.. So the research began. Turns out the truth about the magnificent Paypal folks should bury them nicely.
Typical of the hundreds of complaints I stumbled onto were:
- Limited or Frozen Account
- Money removed from Paypal Account, bank or credit card account with no permission. (Me too.)
- Money withheld for no apparent reason. (Me too!)
- Paypal protecting scammers.
- Paypal customer support being rude and condescending. (Me too!!)
- False allegations made by Paypal against user.
Even the Paypal Community Help Forum is full of such complaints and is where I found reference to many anti-Paypal resources. For example, under the heading “Horrible Idea to Hold Funds for 21 Days!!!” I found 544 comments. These included references to many other anti-Paypal resources:
So what to do… Well COMPLAIN! to:
There are a host of other avenues as well.
So.. Let’s say you’d like to see an absurdly self centered construct such as this one is, go down the drain, yet you have a need for the type of “service” they “provide”.. Are there alternatives??
Well, as a matter of fact:
and more…
Paypal… Yooouuurrr tiiimmmeee iiissss gooonnnaaa ccooommmmeee! ‘er somthin’.
ibaconi 
Furthering the story. I’ve made dozens of complaints to all the various agencies and Paypal is now responding to them. Turns out, it’s all Bacon’s fault. If you read the fine print in the original sign up, apparently you agree to be screwed by Paypal. I’m hoping there’s not a rape my wife clause in there somewhere.