TERROR: PayPal stole over $3,000 from my account!

Last week I had an extremely busy week and I once again struggled with the fact that it takes ONE day for PayPal to take funds out of my account, but it takes TWO days for me to move PayPal funds into my bank account.

Friday evening I was looking forward to the weekend and a couple days without major stress.  I checked my email and received two messages from PayPal with ominous subjects:

Please respond by 12/9/2011 regarding Case #PP-001-575-445-188

Stress!

The PayPal email:

Hello Christine Baker,

To protect you from problematic transactions, we sometimes request additional information about PayPal payments.

We need more information about this transaction. Please log in to your PayPal account, click the “Resolution Center” tab, and provide more information by 12/9/2011.

We recommend that you not ship the item until our investigation is complete. If you’ve already shipped the item, please log in and let us know where you shipped it.

We have placed a temporary hold on the funds until we complete our investigation. If you need to provide information by fax, click and print a cover sheet:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_complaint_resolve_tracking_fax&cid=PP-001-575-445-188.

Please fax proof of shipment or proof of refund to 402-537-5760.

———————————–
Transaction Details
———————————–

Buyer’s name: [redacted]
Buyer’s email: [redacted]
Transaction ID: 8B121727YN135674P

Transaction date: Nov 24, 2011
Transaction amount: $1,224.74 USD
Your transaction ID: 5Y457742WU109844U
Case number: PP-001-575-445-188

Thank you for your cooperation.

Thanks,

PayPal

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

PPID PP943

The other email was essentially identical, but referred to a $1,857.53  payment I received from the same customer on 11/29/11.

Background info on these transactions:

We have a buying club and last July a Chinese lady inquired about purchasing through us from the Frontier Co-op.  When she told me that her orders would be about $1,000 to $2,000 at a time, I recommended that she get a wholesale account with Frontier directly.  But her English isn’t that great and she offered to pay me 3% for placing the orders for her, have them shipped directly from Frontier to an address in the US and deal with Frontier with regards to her orders.

I was worried at first.  Was there any way I could get defrauded?

After careful consideration, I decided to go for it.  The Frontier Co-op has GREAT quality and organic products and they treat their employees and suppliers well. I want to give them as much business as possible.

My customer’s funds always cleared immediately, she sent a very nice spreadsheet with her order, I placed the order for her and then emailed her the order confirmation and the tracking info after it was shipped.   I also called Frontier to see when out of stock items would be available again and I would have dealt with Frontier if there were any problems with shipping because I have the Fed Ex tracking info.

Even if there was a charge-back, I could PROVE in any court that everything was shipped to the buyer’s designated address.

On Friday PayPal STOLE my money AFTER the orders were shipped without ANY complaint from the customer.

I immediately logged into my account:

At this point I still thought that I could resolve the issue immediately as I had proof of shipping for both orders.

However, I expected the Frontier order charge to be finalized at any time and since PayPal STOLE the funds in my PayPal account, it was about to deduct MORE from my bank account than I had in it.

To make matters worse, I paid a neighbor with a check for a box of delicious California dates.  That check should have cleared a week ago, but being 60 miles from the nearest bank, people don’t get to the bank that often and I’m still waiting for it to clear. And the very LAST thing I need is having checks to my friends and neighbors bounce.  NOBODY would believe what happened and that this was NOT my fault and that’s in part why I decided to post everything.

Here’s the PayPal “Resolution Center” screen shot:

Click for larger image

You can clearly see that my customer did NOT submit a claim, but PayPal CHOSE to inquire and to REVERSE the previously CLEARED payments!

I immediately submitted to PayPal that Frontier had already shipped the orders, but apparently PayPal requires that you ship to the customer’s PAYPAL address.  So I’m royally screwed and I was unable to get PayPal to promptly return the funds it stole from my account.

Here is the screenshot taken just now, Sunday afternoon:

Note:  I can NOT review the information I provided.

I had added a note explaining that the balance they stole from my account was supposed to pay for the already shipped Frontier order.

When I checked my email again, I got the email from PayPal informing me that they deducted  $848.01 USD from my bank account.

I cried.

I called PayPal. 

I HATE their automated voice recognition system with a passion.  I first encountered one of those hellish systems at HP support many years ago.  I’ve since bought 4 or 5 printers, but I will NEVER buy HP again.  FYI, I’ve been very happy with the Canon support.

It took a long time to get past PayPal’s recorded announcements and eventually I was transferred to Josh, ID 48063.  I explained the situation to him and that I have been ordering for this customer since August.

Any idiot can see that I have received these payments from the same person, that I always place the Frontier orders the same day and that there has never been a problem:

Josh couldn’t have cared less.

I explained that PayPal is trying to transfer more money out of my bank account than I have.  I requested the release of my funds and a $200 PayPal credit so that I could make the 60 mile trip to town on Saturday to keep my bank account from being overdrawn.

Josh declined to do anything for me.

He suggested that I call my bank and “explain the situation” to them.  What makes this moron think that anybody at my bank would give a rat’s ass about my problems with PayPal?

I told Josh that I was recording the call, that I would post everything on the web and that I would sue PayPal.  He gave me their legal department’s fax number.

I got off the phone and cried some more.

I decided to take his advice and I called my bank.

I didn’t  bother to explain why the terrorists at PayPal stole my money, but I chose the FRAUD department and asked whether I could somehow prevent the  PayPal withdrawal.

I was informed that for $30 I could place a stop payment on the withdrawal if I had the exact amount of the transaction.  That’s LESS than an NSF fee and a LOT less than multiple NSF fees if they pay PayPal and every subsequent debit incurs NSF fees, not to mention the embarrassment of having to explain to my neighbor why my check for the dates bounced.

She also told me that it takes 2 business days to ensure that it will work and I decided to take my chances.  She recommended that I “watch” my account.

Usually, PayPal bank debits hit my bank account the next morning when I get their email notice before 10 pm or so.    I got this email at 5:14 pm and I just checked my bank account again and it’s not there (yet).  I’ll continue to check my bank account.

Does anyone know why it takes TWO days for transfers from my PayPal account to my bank and only a few hours for PayPal to take money out?

Hopefully the STOP PAYMENT worked.

I lost my customer.

Of course I also had some emails with my customer.  I wrote to her right away on Friday and asked her to let PayPal know that the items were shipped.  I got a frantic response from her, apparently they “limited” her account and she indicated that she was very sorry and she wanted to pay me some other way.   I told her to wait until Monday.

Then she asked me to help her complete the Frontier wholesale application.   After looking it over, I don’t think she can do it from China, but she can use someone in the US.

I lost that business. 

We can’t do business like that.  You never know when PayPal will steal previously CLEARED funds for no good reason and I’m in no financial position and health to go through this again.  I’ll help her get set up with Frontier.

Keep in mind that she COULD tell PayPal that she never received the shipments and I’d be out thousands of dollars despite having all documentation for the shipments.  However, she wrote on Saturday that she called PayPal and told them that she received her orders.

PayPal has NOT returned my funds. 

They couldn’t care less.

Legal action against PayPal

As long time readers know, I’ve filed many lawsuits against credit bureaus, Fair Isaac (myFICO), Capital One and other creditors, penny stock scammers, junk faxers and spammers and scammers of all sorts.

Lessons learned:

I may lose in court, but still win.

After 5 years of losing in court against the credit bureaus and Capital One because they refused to report the credit limits, real lawyers filed multiple class actions and Capital One finally reported the credit limits. I didn’t personally benefit and in fact it was the most grueling experience you can imagine, not to mention the financial cost.

Ultimately, I got what I wanted because I PUBLISHED my litigation and the court filings.

I also put some small companies out of business and got the occasional settlement, but even when I got a few thousand, it was NEVER worth the stress and the many hours you have to work on the lawsuit UNPAID.  In America, only ATTORNEYS can get paid for their work on lawsuits.

I want to sue PayPal to DOCUMENT their terrorism and theft.

There are already countless PayPal hate pages and blogs on the internet and I’ve read about lawsuits and class actions.   PayPal had frozen my business account almost 10 years ago when my online bank decided to close ALL business accounts.  PayPal would not release my funds until I provided HARD COPY bank statements.  I had switched to another internet bank with electronic statements and PayPal would not accept electronic statements.  I put up with that crap because you just can’t have a SMALL business on the web without PayPal.

Don’t waste your time trying to establish a “business relationship” with large banks or with PayPal.

I opened my personal PayPal account in 2000 and I believe in 2002 I opened my business account. I’ve NEVER had a single legitimate complaint.  I think I had one customer who claimed an “unauthorized transaction” (identity theft) and PayPal reversed the charges. PayPal made a ton of money in transaction fees from my accounts.

In 2010 PayPal “limited” (froze) my account until I removed all PayPal buttons from my CreditFactors website as they changed their terms to no longer allow any credit related transactions.

Clients can’t just send me a check as we don’t receive mail here in the NW Arizona desert.  My mailbox and bank are 60 miles away and we only go to town every few weeks.   I checked every merchant account I could find on the web and they all do NOT allow credit related businesses or they have huge fees and require large volume.

I totally agree that most credit repair and debt settlement companies are FRAUDSTERS.

I’m a reputable consultant and you’d think that my long excellent account history with PayPal would have convinced them to make an exception. 

Not so.

E-Gold and other payment services have been shut down by the government.  American small businesses are at the mercy of a scummy outfit like PayPal.

In Europe, you can send bank transfers DIRECTLY to other bank accounts.

European businesses have their banking info on their invoices and letters so that one can pay them DIRECTLY and this is how I paid my bills in the 1970s.  It’s easy, it’s cheap (free to 1 Euro) and nobody takes a percentage!

A scummy outfit like PayPal is NOT needed to do business in Europe.  FYI, PayPal charged 3.9% + 30 cents on all funds received from my Chinese customer — they’re making a killing!

The American banking system was deliberately designed to require the use of checks, credit cards and 3rd party highway robbers like PayPal to maximize bank profits for NSF fees.

I know that I can’t survive doing business online because I don’t rip people off.  We just finished our new hoophouse and I’m now a lot more interested in organic veggies and local food production.

The emotional and medical toll.

I’ll post my fax to the PayPal legal department once my arm stops hurting.   And I better eat some cayenne pepper before I have a heart attack.

How many people DIED because bankers and PayPal ruined their lives and they either deliberately committed suicide or they got drunk or took drugs because they couldn’t stand the abuse anymore and they overdosed, had a fatal accident while driving drunk, etc.?

STRESS is a MAJOR cause of cancer and other fatal illnesses.  I’ve been about as stressed as it gets since PayPal stole my money.

Financial problems are the #1 reason for divorce.

Nothing causes financial problems like the PayPal theft of funds from people who did NOTHING wrong.

Which is of course why I’m so stressed.  If I had a few thousand dollars in my bank account that I didn’t need, I wouldn’t be nearly as stressed.   We live in an unfinished house and we have NO reserves. Every spare dollar goes into building or the gardens.

Just recently I reviewed a debt buyer’s “validation” for a client’s collection.  Bank of America charged four NSF fees for $1.50 ATM use fees in ONE day!  BofA cleverly arranged the debits so that they brought the account negative with the first large debit.  BofA just settled the class action over this vile practice, but essentially they just got a 10% fine.  They had to return a mere 10% of the NSFs to the customers.  And what good does THAT do for the people who incurred thousands of dollars in fees due to subsequent bounced checks, eviction, foreclosure, etc.?

And don’t forget the people who aren’t alive to collect their 10% refund for the BofA NSF charges many years ago.

Who will liberate us from the financial industry?