PayPal promotes fraud by refusing to allow a claim to be investigated for any Services. I ordered Big Band Charts on the internet, they sent charts completely different from what they promised ON APPROVAL. When i finally realized they were fraudulent I filed a claim with Pay Pal & after spending an hour doing that was told that they refuse to do anything about any Service claims even though I have the pdf wrong charts & supporting emails from the seller promising different charts & on approval. So no matter how fraudulent the service provided, even if it can be easily verified by physical evidence, you are NOT Protected in any way by Pay Pal.

I used to love Paypal. Until the day they blocked my account and requested a proof of address from a country I wasn't living in anymore. They're holding $250 from me, nothing extravagant, but you feel bummed when you notice that $250 fell off your pocket, right ?

I gave it two stars because I still remember how easy it used to be...

The good old days of using ebay as a quick way to get some cash for old unused items has passed us by. Thanks to the new PayPal/Ebay hold policy, your payment for most electronic items will be held for up to 21 days! Yes that means that in addition to not getting the cash for the item you already shipped, you better be ready to pay the shipping expense out of your own pocket. Paypal offers "buyer protection" at the expense of the seller!

If you use PayPal to sell something, you will not get paid until the buyer is 100%, absolutely, positively pleased... and then they wait 3 days, just to be sure the buyer doesn't change their mind! GOOD LUCK! Not to worry though, I'm sure PayPal is putting your money to good use while you can't touch it.

Think you don't have to worry about this because you have all positive feedback? Think again! Check out my ebay account chris0x. I have all positive feedback and have had my account 4 years.

I think it is safe to say, the phrase "happy bidding" is dead!

0 - stars.

Absolutely horrible. The worst customer service... (been hung up on multiple times), lots of mixed answers from different people. Their automated system drives me insane. They don't actually back your funds. Paypal buyer credit is stupid. They make it hard for you to pay them back.

DO NOT USE PAYPAL!

I just bought something online from an overseas merchant. He was having a terrible time with he's paypal account. Now I needed the product and he was the only one who could ship in the time frame my costumers would be happy with.
I payed him with paypal for its the only form of payment he accepted. logged into my paypal account and created a payment to merchant's email address.
Payment seemed to go right away no problems. within minutes the merchant was able to see the payment and items where shipped.
Not soon after Paypal placed a hold on payment. and a return. Return to where I have no clue.
first of all that money never left my account. it changed to hold then return and nothing. Called their "costumer disservice line" where many people hang themselfs before a live person comes on. The agent picks the call up and I ask him to release payment. He tells me the charge is finalized and nothing can be done with it at this point. I would have to create another payment to the merchant if I wanted the payment to go through. Now I am an individual not a corporation with thousands of dollars in my account. I am placing this order knowing I have enough to cover it plus the ammount needed by me to last the rest of the week as in gas for the car to get to and from work, food. So I ask him is this first transaction you call closed going to fall into my bank account? he replyed no. I said are you sure because this is a lot of money and I have enough there to cover it once but not quite twice. if it fell in I would be overdrawn and will not be able to get to work or eat until I get payed. He said to me. the charge is dead and if you create an oder of payment now only that one will fall into account. so I believed him and did as he instructed.
making a long story short, my account was charged twicxe. and one of those charges according to costumer service is being held for processing and will be availabla in 3.5 business days.
I told them I could not do that. they are all eathing everyday however I can not. I have not the privilage of being treated like a real humanbeing. I after he messed up my live, and my account was withdrawn. I could not buy food for days, put gas in the car to get to work, or do anything but call this one and thatone to try and find someone who would help out until then. Thankfully I was able to get a loan from my 401k. Imagine. they say at the begining of the call this call may be monitored for quality assurance. but when one of them messes up someone's live where they are left with a negative bank account compiling bouncing fees all they can tell you is I'm so sorry and the money should be returned in 5 business days. hello! it was your mistake. and now I have to miss work and starve. you don't even take a single action. I try and remain calm and ask what about the bouncing fees I am compiling over the next 5 business days? they say we are not responsible for that. and will not pay it or send an email to you for the bank explaining that we F**** up or nothing. you are responsible for paying those. now 5 business days from the eveing it already bounced once. wait it gets better, they take the money and do not put it back where they found it. they put it in your paypal account and it's up to you to log in and move it to your bank where it now takes another 3 business days to even show up as pending. I have recorded these conversations for my quality assurance and am seriously thinking of calling the news channel. this is not about lawsuit I do what what is mine but I want them to be more respectful of people. they can not treat people like that. I had compiled now 8 business days total bounce charges. that is a total of $560 and will have to fight the bank to get it back. my weekly paycheck has to be eaten completely by it and now I do have the money they took but still lost $560 from my hard working money. not to mention 3 days of work, 5 meals. the rest the kindness of my friends who were able to help me a little or I would have been dead as far as they care. they should be shutdown and investigated by government agencies. please stay away from paypal they need to become more human the only way is to cut them down a peg or two.

Did not receive my order or a refund, Paypal said that they don't protect me the buyer, just my credit card information. They treated me like I was the one doing something wrong!! HORRIBLE COMPANY

The worst customer service ever. I had three accounts registered with them, not only did they have the primary account incorrect, but they also had the back up account incorrect for a transaction. I manually changed both. Than they took the money from the account one account that was no supposed to be part of the transaction? Overdraft fees. Do they care? No, they say the transaction has gone through and they can't do anything about it. So, what happens when I try and cancel my account? They won't let me, they say the transaction is still pending. So which is it? Transaction has already gone through, so they can't change it, or transaction is pending so I can't cancel my account?

I would not suggest paypal to anyone in the world, ever.

They are such a scamming organization that it's amazing that they are in business. I guess thats how it works right, the thieves make the money.

Their customer service is as bad as it can be for people who actually speak english, and their "security methods" are both botched and flawed so badly that I have no description for just how many problems there are.

Nothing says "inconvenience" like getting an email from paypal saying they are not authorizing your transaction and called some old number that was in your information from god knows when and failed to authorize. Really, what kind of crap is that? If something is time critical, don't go paypal: you'll be screwed.

Or lets get in to how they verify things, the information they store, the not even legally sound "privacy agreement".

I seriously pray that they go bankrupt.

PAYPAL IS TERRIBLE......They hold legitimate honest peoples money and then do everything they can to aid fraudulent criminals in stealing your money after they have told you to ship your item. PAYPAL is HORRIBLE and do not use them for anything on ebay or anywhere else. They charge outrageous fees and then help criminals steal your products you sell on ebay. Then, they even let the same person buy other items from you and use PAYPAL to pay for it.....at least until they claim unauthorized transaction and get the product and their payment back. PAYPAL IS FRAUD.

Paypal payment hold sucks. Website is misleading. First, without warning, they put a Payment Hold on payments I’ve received. WHAT? Neither they nor e-bay said they’d do this before I took the payment.

PayPal’s website says "money will be released sooner when we confirm item is delivered." Item was delivered 12 hours ago, but no release. So I called customer service, they said "no, we won't release funds until 4 days ***after*** item shows as delivered!" What?????????????

Totally misleading site. PayPal is essentially stealing my money by not letting me have access to it for “up to 21 days,” misleading people on when money will be made available, and making it completely impractical to use.

When I can't count on payments being received in a timely and predictable fashion it means I cannot use the service reliably for business.

With the fees they are charging they should be providing much better and clearer service.

As it is, I am done w/Paypal and will not allow my buyers to use this option. Shame on PayPal. Hope they go out of business immediately.

I used Paypal, they say they back your purchases. but I bought an item, seller closed their Ebay account, and paypal account. I never recieved item, nor got my money back from Paypal. No item, no nothing

ya it's a rip off

I have to second Numbah's sentiments regarding this. When I first got involved in buying stuff on ebay, I obtained a Paypal account, and the first couple of times it worked out fine. After that, however, something went wrong, and, like Numbah, I still have no idea what, but I was unable to resolve it, despite much effort exerted on my part and a great deal of frustration. Finally, I told them to cancel my account; there are enough headaches in life to deal with without getting them for attempting to buy crap on ebay. If I can't buy an item via money order or check, I don't buy it. Despite having cancelled my Paypal account years ago, I still periodically get emails from them. I understand ebay is making it so that the only way a buyer can pay now is through Paypal. I've cut down my ebay spending over the past few years anyway (how much useless crap can one middle-aged man buy?) but if ebay does implement that Paypal-only policy, they've lost a customer in me for sure. Which may not be a bad thing; means more money I can spend at Amazon.

PayPal froze my account last year and I still don't know why. Its really their loss, since that put an end to them getting a cut off of me buying Star Wars toys on Ebay...

Nothing but problems with Paypal after spending thousands of dollars and using credit cards with excellent credit rating, payment methods are changed without notice.

No to Paypal!!! I am totally against paypal, it worked for the first transactions but then you start getting overcharged for stufff that you sell or buy, they take to much and if you make a mistake like I did and do not buy tracking confirmation or lose number you automatically get charged and buyer keeps your item and you are baned until you pay back for what you have already sent!!!. They claim it is not their fault  for delivery getting  lost but they still take their cut. In all your just better off sending check or money order and buy delivery confirmation and keep in safe place in case of disputes, and you can resolve your self with out being charged. Good Luck

At first Paypal is your friend, maybe buy a few items on ebay, then you buy an expensive item, fork over a ton of money and never receive your item. Claim will work, right? Not always. I bought an expensive cell phone from some asshole who has a business called Sex Sells Clothing, I don't know what the fuck that means but the asshole never sent my item. This guy diapered off the face of the earth once the auction was over. Paypal did nothing to give my money back, other people who bought from the guy did but me. "We will wait for a reply from the seller by the 15th", its been a day wheres my fuckin money? Apart from not rembersing me, they made me pay with my bank account and I told them to pay with my credit card. I could be swimming in my money right now, because I could have canceled the order but no, paypal fucks with me and didn't tell me I was paying with a bank account. Don't use this useless site.

In theory PayPal is an excellent idea. In reality PayPal is definately Seller friendly. I had a dispute in which I paid for an item, I paid to insure the item, after not receiving the item I sent the seller an email, the seller never responded, I filed a claim, the seller responded to the claim and it was then he provided me with the tracking number, unfortunately I can't filed an insurance claim the seller has to file the claim, I offered to have the seller contact me to rectify the situation, the seller never responded, I escalated the claim, PayPal ruled in the sellers favor. So I have no merchandise, I paid for insurance, and I'm out the money.

Think about it the buyer doesn't pay fees, the seller pays the fees. So who do you think PayPal is going to rule against .........

Beware paypal nearly destroy my business, I will never use again!!!

I have website payments pro account to process payments for my business with then for the last 5 months the put 4 limitations on my account which we are unable to do northing. If you depend on Paypal to receive payments for your business this will put you in bad situation trust me very bad situation. the phone customer services is worst ever we deal with they will not resolve the issues on your account, will ask you to send email which take long to get reply back. Please dont do it the same mistake we did it, find another reliable company. They dont want small business to grow alone special because they belongs to eBay which they want every business to sale thought eBay ending up paying fees to eBay and Paypal

I hope this will open eyes for the people who are interest to use Paypal. I will not recommend this to nobody.

I'm not sure their services are worth it even as a buyer. I purchased an item through them, that I never received. The money was transferred from my credit card. Filed the claim they did their investigation and issued a refund. Guess what the fee they charge for receiving payments was charged to my refund. So I'm still paying on an item I never held in my hands!

Terrific concept but that is one clunky website. . .(update) had a debit card lifted and PayPal did refund the money/charges made against me, but PayPal helps you 'more' if you have specific information about your account. I did have to spend close to an hour on the phone, but I did get my money back.

I've used Paypal for a long time. Then someone stole my credit card information (I think it was a waiter at a restaurant, actually) and used it to set up a Paypal account in my name and charged $1299 in calling cards to Indy (YEZTELECOMM to be precise). I disputed the charges immediately and called Paypal customer service. They said they would remove the charges. I disputed the amount with my credit card provider (my bank) and thought everything was fine. My bank then disputed the charges to Paypal and Paypal refused to admit they were fraudulant charges. I've made four trips to my bank and countless phone calls to my bank and to Paypal and the charges are still on my credit card. Paypal is supposed to be the ultimate answer to security? The woman at customer service at Paypal says, "I do apologize, but as far as we are concerned they are charged correctly."

Never use Paypal for buying any software products...the Paypal policy protects the sellers and they have this all 'buy protection' plan to p0mote.
I closed my account after the customer service replied (an automated one ,i guess) within minutes of dispute saying we are responsible for only 'Physical products' ....in this internet age???

its time someone update them that we are in 21st century

Don't expect help if you have a problem. A merchant increased my payment authorization without my consent. My complaint to Paypal was denied. I don't think they even read the details of my complaint.

To all they wish to set up a Paypal account.
Think twice.
To all who already did
Think about it again.

Please visit www.nopaypal.com and read testimonial.

They will sound hard to believe. Indeed, I didn't
believe it myself until the day Paypal, without any
warning or just cause, decided to put a hold on my
account for 180days.
How much money?
Over 10,000$. That's right, over 10K is being held
by paypal without proper justification.

By doing so, they ruined my business. They destroyed
my finances and are basically forcing me to sale
my house and move with my wife and 4 kids.

Think again about opening an account with them.

My husband and I both have accounts with Paypal, and both are very unsatisfied. Unfortunately if you are a seller on Ebay, it is almost a requirement, if you want to attract buyers.
My husbands problems strted when all of the sudden Paypal decided to limit his account access. he went to their resolution center, and followed the simple instructions, to verify his phone # and email. he did this, Paypal then sent a letter, saying that they needed more info, and for him to complete more steps before the account would fully accessible again, the only reason they gave for this was that his account was connected to another email address. he informed that there was no other email, address, to please tell him which address they were referring to, and to give him the steps to resolve this. All they told him, was that they could give the email address, and he needed to resolve the issue with this "other" email. Well, he is kind of stuck, I mean what is he supposed to do, he cant send or receive payments and has no way to figure out to solve this.
My problem started when I ordered some items from a website accepting paypal. I mistakenly spent more money that was in my account, well this automatically takes money from your bank or credit card. Paypal charged my bank account, but I did not have enough funds. So, without my ever knowing, Paypal paid for these items for me. I had no idea that they did this, I hab=ve never read or heard anything about it. Well, now I owe Paypal this money, AND my bank because Paypal attempts to charge my bank account at LEAST twice a day, so my bank is charging overdraft fees, and paypal is charging, and this is just snowballing. I contacted Paypal, explained all of this to them, that I was never informed that they would pay for my order, and that as long as they were charging my bank, I couldn't pay them, because I could never get caught up, due to NSF fees, etc.. Paypal basically said too bad, my bank can't put a stop on it, because it is not an acrual paper check, and they cannot access it, and since my bank account is now overdrawn, I cannot cancel this account. I'm screwed as far as my bank and Ebay are concerned, and believe it or not, due to Paypal constantly tapping my account, I am now overdrawn in my account $1000! Paypal is a ripoff, they do not inform of littel fees and services they provide,are not willing to work with you on problems, and obviously do not care about their customers. Of course since EBAY owns Paypal, why does any of this surprise me?

PayPal will steal your money, invest it and reap the profits, while your business is destroyed. If you're happy with PayPal now, just wait - it will happen to you too. I headed this review "PayPal is evil", and I think that's a pretty accurate statement. Here's what they did to me: They froze my merchant account, without warning or reason, right at the height of the shopping boom only days before Christmas. Over $12,000 of my money is now frozen in this account and they won't give it back for, they say, SIX MONTHS. During the time the account is frozen, I am unable to receive money, send money, transfer money, or even issue refunds to my customers. They have essentially put me out of business, because of course, not only are my future customers not able to buy anything from me, but my existing customers who want refunds for items they returned or cancelled hate me because I can't send refund their purchases. The only correspondence I can get from PayPal about this is a series of form letters that don't relate to my specific issue at all. If I call the customer support number (not toll-free of course to further gouge me), after lengthy hold times, poor voice recognition software, and a few transfers to different departments, I finally talk to someone who tells me to send an e-mail to a certain address. I do as instructed, but the e-mail comes back undeliverable "You can't send e-mails to this address" it says. I call back, and am told the same exact thing. I demand to speak to somebody else because this doesn't work, and I'm told they don't take phone calls - you have to e-mail. They finally divulge a second e-mail address I can use. I try it, it comes back with a form letter response, and I never hear anything else. This continues for a month or so, every day, with dozens upon dozens of faxes, e-mails, phone calls, all at my expense, and countless misinformation and dead-ends. Finally I receive an e-mail that says "Your appeal has been denied. We're holding your money for 180 days and then we're closing your account". Later, my personal e-mail account was also seized (another $350 or so in their pocket) citing "You are too high risk" - what is high-risk about a personal account? This is total BS. I later read on such good resources as www.paypalsucks.com that this is common practice for PayPal - what they do is invest your money that they've stolen from you and receive a return on it while you are unable to access it. With so many customers, they get big bucks from fraudulent practices such as these, and they don't care at all about how many people's businesses and lives they ruin in the process. Check out www.paypalsucks.com, www.paypalwarning.com, and www.aboutpaypal.org and read dozens and dozens of other stories like mine. Or just search for "PayPal sucks" and see that you find 708,000 results on Google. Stay away from PayPal if you value your business, your good name, and your money. If this hasn't happened to you yet, it will.

It is convenient. However, it does make mistakes. I buy and sell using paypal. My annual sales are about $30,000. However, when paypal makes a mistake. buyer/seller beware. For example, I just paid for an auction, and paypal's software returned an error message (3004) stating that it was unable to process the transaction, and "click here" to try again. I "clicked here", and got the same error message again. Then I checked my account and--you guessed it--I had paid twice. Paypal's phone help told me there was nothing they could do. And that was that. Complete idiots if you need any help, even when it's their software that screws up.

When it works, it is convenient. But if there is a problem, they really suck. I sold someone a vintage Rolex watch on Ebay. The idiot had it for a week and then damaged it. I think he must have overwound the mechanism. Anyway, the watch broke. So, he filed a claim with Paypal that the watch was a "fake" Rolex. Paypal grabbed $1500 from my account and froze it while they supposedly are resolving the situation. What I hate about Paypal is that it is highly impersonal. No one with an identity contacts you; the communication possibilities are limited to their impersonal processes and they are merciless about just grabbing your money. I hate Paypal, but use it because, like I said, it is convenient. They must make a mint, taking fees left and right.

I've only recently opened a PayPal account, and so far I've been extremely satisfied. The registration and confirmation of my information was easy and quick, and the service allows nearly instantaneous purchases of items over the internet. Only time will tell if I run into any security issues.

Heres an example of how paypal sucks. I sold an item on ebay and somewhere along the line (thanks alot usps, i will rate you in a minute) the tape got lost. i offered the buyer a replacement free of charge...he declined stating, and i quote its cool man, usps sucks, save it for a rainy day..... Apparenlty three months later when i no longer was even using the email address i used for ebay, or ebay itself for that matter, this guy decided that he should have gotten an item he previously told me he didnt even want anymore. Whoever was in the wrong, it doesnt matter. He then filed a complaint with paypal and, without even any notification, let alone consent, the funds were withdrawn directly from my bank account. When i finally noticed what had transpired, it was too late and the timeframe where the complaint was active had run its course. I wrote numerous emails to all sorts of people at paypal. i have yet to recieve a response besides a standard form letter. Paypal sucks. 1(LUV)

When PayPal works, it works well. However, their buyer protection falls way short. I bought something that I thought was an iPod (as had more than half of the people to win similar bids). It was a misleading link to a site where I could get involved in a pyramid scheme, to get an iPod after I referred dozens of other people to the site to pay $40 each to get onto the list. I complained to PayPal. There response was that the seller emailed the information. They don't care that the information was intentionally misleading (or that there were other serious eBay violations). As long as the information was mailed to me, the seller had fulfilled his obligation. It didn't matter that the seller had either a) complained about being defrauded in this manner, so knew the add was misleading, or b) sold the items several times and recieved complaints about it being misleading more than half the time. Anyway, if anyone would like to contact me, my email address is lancent@comcast.net.

I have not had a problem with Paypal's service and have not had any problems with my payments. Also, Paypal will investigate problems of undelivered auctions. Twice I had to have Paypal investigate a seller I paid through them. Both times it was for undelivered merchandise. I reported the problem to Paypal and they did all the investigating and insured the seller refunded my money. If you are buying at auctions sites I recommend Paypal because it is more secure and can investigate problem sellers. Also, another bonus is paying by credit card through Paypal, because you also have the added protection offered through your credit card to investigate undelivered or damaged goods if Paypal could not rectify the problem.

SOOOOOO convenient!!! Great way to do transactions online!

Horrible experience with paypal. Bought 6 guitars on ebay, purchased paypal's moneyback guarantee. Guitars were of poor quality so I tried to send back. Paypal instructs you to send to their P.O. box, which UPS and FedEx will not send to. The package was too big to send with US mail. Paypal informed me that the item was too big to qualify for their money back guarantee program even though they had offered it. When I asked how was I to know without seeing the item if it was too big or not, they had no answer. Their customer service is the worst I have ever encountered. When I asked to speak to a supervisor they said they would have a manager contact me. This consisted of a form email asking me to do the same paperwork I had already done. I will never use their service again. Buyer beware!

worst on-line service available.. no customer skill. I have been jerked around for over a year... they put a "limited" access on my account... requested more info about me... I have faxed the requested stuff at least 10 times and they are still screwing with me... it is disgusting that you are treated with a form letter.. consumer beware... like I said, worst internet company out there

Incredibly easy way to pay for an auction on ebay (once you get set-up that is). The only drawback is that I had a friend get her bank account wiped out through this site, or so she says. I have never had any problems myself.

Being able to make purchases, etc. without personal info. being scattered around the world is very good, BUT I don't like being coereced into providing a checking acct. number in order to use the service beyond a certain level. (I reached that "unverified" $ limit). If the credit card is good and credit history is good, that should be enough!>>I've heard that some people who have provided checking acct. nos. have had Paypal initially deduct the amt. from both the credit card and checking acct. at the same time. This just doesn't seem to be good business.

I have used it more then 7 to 8 times a month. It is a great way to pay when I purchase something on ebay and better yet, when someone buys from me. If you want to buy from me, paypal is the best way to do it if you want your product NOW. Send me a check: 3-5 days to reach me, 2-5 days to clear, 1-10 days shipping it to you. I don't think that I have ever had more then a 1 day delay on funds tranferring from one person to the next. Fast, easy, and cheap.

It's a shame that a digital transaction can take a week or more...I could send a check in that time. It takes up to 3 days to perform an *electronic* transfer of money into your PayPal account (explain that!), then that much time again to pay somebody. PayPal claims that a deposit is dependent on the time frame of your bank. And I understand that banks will delay transactions to eke out as much interest out of your deposits as possible. Considering that PayPal is owned by the company that ran the online bank X.com, and operates PayPal as an interest-bearing cash account for you (and themselves), I wouldn't be surprised if they were party to the delays too. I don't know whose fault it is or what causes it, but PayPal is a little overrated when it comes to conveniently paying people.

My mom doesn't like Paypal, because the guy who she got a watch from wasn't that great at all, but when you e-mail Paypal, they answer you extremly quickly, and have someone e-mail you routinely to make sure that everything is fine. Paypal is a credit card company that makes Ebay 10 times quicker and faster.

I've had a PayPal account for about a year now and I've been extremely satisfied with it. It is unbelievably convenient for things like auctions, for which I have used it many times as both the seller and the buyer. It's also great for times when someone wants to send you money. For instance I bought some shoes for my father that he wanted but that I could get for a considerable discount because of an employee friend of mine, so I bought them and dropped them in the mail and he PayPaled me the money. From there it's just a click of the mouse to wire transfer it into my bank account and it's free. I have only two problems with PayPal: 1.) currently you can't use if for things like your average everyday purchase such as if I go to Amazon or some other etailer. I still need to use a credit card. I would much prefer to have an online account and just pay for it through that account which contains a finite amount of money and I can check whenver I want, updates immediately, etc. rather than have to keep a watchful eye on my credit card to be sure I'm not getting overcharged (which has happened) 2.) I was somewhat miffed to have to upgrade to another level of PayPal account recently because they instituted a policy whereby if want to receive more than $100 worth of funds from a credit card to your free account you either need to refuse the payment or upgrade. Upgrading was free but they then let you accept credit card payments above $100 but there is a 2.2% processing fee. This doesn't really bother me because I can understand the costs involved shouldn't be swallowed by them I just think it was kind of cheesey the way they did it, ie. waiting until I had money pending and then springing this on me as opposed to just requesting that I upgrade. Overall though PayPal is an excellent service and I would definitely recommend to anyone, in fact I do when someone involved in a auction doesn't use/accept it I will recommend they sign up. First of all they'll give you both $5 for the sign up and it just makes the whole transaction process so much faster, and safer than just seding off a cashiers check.