[STARWISE]

I'm so appalled at google's and now ebay and paypal's outrageous arbitrary, overreaching data/fee grabbing and fund withholding policies.

I have a friend who's been a successful ebay seller and buyer for nearly 15 years, and has also sold some unneeded items for me from time to time. It's not a business, she just does it randomly all these years with a sterling record. All of a sudden 4-5 months ago after she sold an item, she was told that she needed to have x # of current sales auctions, and her payment was being withheld until she reached that #, excluding totally her years of the perfect rating both as a seller and buyer. PayPal was of course the conduit of payment.

After much unleashed fury and outrage, a supervisor finally told her this was the policy but that she'd release the funds 'this one time.' These people are just mad with greed.

Found a cached post from ebay's site that's since been removed from the site:

SELLERS DON'T GET MONEY FOR 21 DAYS! OPEN MASIVE LAWSUITS NOW!

Feb 26, 2012 02:50 PM

EBAY&PAYPAL ARE 1 ! THEY MAKE INTEREST OFF OUR MONEY ALL YEAR LONG, IN THE BILLIONS! DO YOU?---NOPE!---- YOU GET CHEATED! URGENT READ!

ALL SELLERS HAVE NO ACCESS TO MONEY ANYMORE DUE TO EBAY & PAYPAL HAVE BEEN 1 ENTITY FOR YEARS THEY "BOTH" ARE OWNED BY THE SAME!

NOW THEY MAKE MONEY OFF HOLDING 3 WEEKS AT ALL TIMES ALL YEAR, OFF YOU, THATS RIGHT "YOU"!!

TAKE A STAND ALL SELLERS OPEN A MASIVE LAWSUIT NOW WE ALL JUMP ON BOARD & TAKE THEM FOR WHAT THEY ARE & HAVE BEEN TAKING FROM US!

SOME POOR SOULS HAVE NOTHING TO LIVE ON BUT THEIR SALES, YOU THINK EBAY OR PAYPAL GIVES A S**T!

*********************NO*************THEY DO---NOT!

NOW IT IS TIME TO OpEN LAWSUIT & ALSO REPORT THEM TO THE IRS THEY NOW MUST CLAIM ALL YEAR LONG OF HOLDING ALL OUR MONEY 3 WEEKS AS THEY (EBAY & PAYPAL) """MAKE INTEREST"" OFF OUR MONEY.TIME TO WAKE UP IS ---NOW----!

~~~~~~

If there are other reasonable and fairly run options out there, I'd love to pass them along to my friend.

[STARWISE]

.. Ping!

[Retired COB]

I keep getting an automated response from PayPal every time I make a purchase on eBay. They tell me that I'm approaching my $10,000 limit, and that if I want to eliminate that limit I need to either (1) Apply for their captive credit card or (2) Give them direct access to my bank account. It has taken me about three or four years to have my cumulitive online purchases reach this amount.

I routinely reply that I have never owed PayPal a single dime and that everything I buy online and charge through them is immediately paid for with the VISA card I have listed with them (by the way, it has a $15,000 limit). I further state that I have privacy concerns and do not give out my banking information (or Social Security Number for that matter) to anyone who doesn't have a legal need to have it.

So far I've not been able to make that problem go away, so I'm going to have to find another way to shop online....or maybe return to shopping locally.

[Lazlo in PA]

Swell. I have to give Paypal a cut off the top of an Ebay sale so I can have the privilege of having my information sent to who knows where. This type of stuff may turn enough people off that paypal will suffer the consequences. At least that is my hope.

[Yo-Yo]

When I opened my PayPal account a few years ago, I had to provide all of that information, as well as allowing PayPal to send a $0.01 transaction before they made my account “certified.”

eBay and PayPal offer buyer protection, so I’m sure they want positive buyer identification first so minimize fraud.

[CodeToad]

There is NOTHING that I NEED PayPal for. I have used it for a few online purchases but overall it could go away without any notice by me.

[Lady Lucky]

Sooner or later, Paypal makes every user miserable. It should be avoided like the scam it is.
Buy on ebay if you like, but sell on bonanza.com. Bonanza doesn’t require a Paypal account.
If you buy on ebay, ask the seller if he’ll accept a money order or check. If he won’t...don’t deal with him.
Paypal needs to be prosecuted but I’d settle for seeing it starved out of business.

[GVnana]

You friend's communications sound like an Occupy Snit, begging for a faux political response.

It's not the money or the delayed payments that worries me. It's the collection of identifying information.

[Minutemen]

I am no lover of Paypal. I hate them.
Paypal has never held my money (received payments from Ebay sales) for 21 days. Takes 3-4 business days for money to “clear” and be available for use. Where did you find that info?

[af_vet_rr]

These people are just mad with greed.

If Ebay and Paypal were "mad with greed" they wouldn't be doing everything in their power to piss off their customers.

Everything I've read lately makes me think that the folks running both companies are complete morons, because both companies depend on customer transactions and pissing off customers more and more and driving them to competitors is not the way to increase customer transactions.

I remember hearing that Paypal was founded by libertarians. I find that hard to believe, it's turning into something that sounds like it's run by Democrats.

My nephew used to buy and sell military memorabilia on there, and did quite a bit of business. From what he said over Christmas, Ebay has went from being an auction website to an overstock company, and he said they are doing their best to drive people like him away who sell unique items or only sell an item or two a day in favor or companies that are selling surplus crap out of China. He's been moving his business over to Amazon and a few other places. He said Ebay and Paypal are getting more and more hostile towards smaller sellers like him.

It now makes sense why Ebay bought Craig's List - Craig's List could have been a serious contender or alternative.

If I were a stockholder of Ebay, I would just be furious at the direction they are going. I would also dump my stock, because I can't see how Ebay can keep up their current financial performance if they are driving the smaller sellers away in favor of the overstock people. I guess Ebay thinks they can make a business out of people selling $3 USB cables or something.

Amazon on the other hand, it's easy as hell to sell on there, and they are run by some incredibly competent people who are looking down the road rather than at the next quarter.

[GOP Poet]

time to pull my paypal account

[Pride in the USA]

ping

[brityank]

Deal with Ebay/Paypal at your peril!

PayPal makes eBay customer destroy $2,500 violin, seller left empty handed (CBS)

Here's a heartbreaking case of botched communication, thanks to an eBay customer and PayPal policy.

This letter was sent to the blog Regretsy by a reader named Erica, telling of a transaction turned tragedy.

I sold an old French violin to a buyer in Canada, and the buyer disputed the label.

This is not uncommon. In the violin market, labels often mean little and there is often disagreement over them. Some of the most expensive violins in the world have disputed labels, but they are works of art nonetheless.

Rather than have the violin returned to me, PayPal made the buyer DESTROY the violin in order to get his money back. They somehow deemed the violin as "counterfeit" even though there is no such thing in the violin world.

The buyer was proud of himself, so he sent me a photo of the destroyed violin.

Picture at link plus the rest of the story.