Yup. I won't ever use PayPal again, buying or selling. Ever.
PayPal buries some interesting language in the agreement you accept when creating the merchant account.
Specifically it states they have the right, without warning or advance notice, to LOCK your merchant account at any time they deem you are in violation of their Terms of Service. They lock the account AND KEEP YOUR CURRENT FUNDS BALANCE for 180 days. Yeah, that's 6 months. Without warning. Put that text on their "Sign up for PayPal Today!" page and see how many new accounts they get......
There's no arbitration - you cannot speak to that department on the phone. You can only email them. I spent about 3 weeks sending emails 1-2 times a week without a single response from that department. On the 3rd week, I sent a very "blunt" email and had a call from them in 20 minutes. My account was unlocked during the call. I emptied the funds and haven't touched it since.
When they locked my account, all my pending authorizations failed to capture. Shipments that went out that day failed to capture and had to be recalled. I blew a fortune in recall fees and my own time trying to get access to MY cash, MY captured funds. Not to mention the embarassment and suspicion raised by my customers with outstanding orders paid via PayPal. I lost most of the orders that were outstanding - to them it had to have looked like I'd been raided by the Feds or something.
PayPal had no right to keep MY money from me. If I violate their terms, fine - lock my account. But when you deny me access to my own cash, you cross a BIG line in my book.
Thank god I didn't use them as my only payment gateway. If all my business cash had been in that account, PayPal would have sent me into bankruptcy and I would have lost Solunar. All because I sold tripods, rifle scopes and holsters. These are considered weapon accessories and are in violation of their Terms of Service. I used PayPal for 7 months before they shut my account down. Again with no warning, no opportunity to arbitrate and no access to existing funds.
No one company should ever have that much power over the financial success of my business. No one company ever will if I have anything to say about it.
Fortunately I've learned to move on and I'm not bitter about it at all
