mestonian

Just thought i'd have a rant because im that way out...

Had my paypal account for about 2 years, no problems whatsoever, few days ago i was bored @ work and decided to put £25 on coral.co.uk and have a flutter, span £2.50 on madness slot and it came up "BIG WIN" and i'd won £1,863. Nice, so i withdrew to paypal and withdrew to my bank account. 2 days later, i get a message saying my account had been limited and i had to provide them with a tracking number and invoice for original purchase of the goods sold for £1,863, i obviously phoned them and after 30 minutes explaining to someone that this wasnt a sale, it was a win from coral.co.uk, i was told no problem and my account would be activated after 4 hours. 2 hours later i get an email saying:

For the safety and security of the PayPal network, we often review
accounts for potential risks. After reviewing your account, we have
decided to close it because of security issues.

Money in your PayPal account will be held for 180 days. After 180
days, we'll email you information on how to receive your funds.

After calling back and speaking to 3 seperate people including a so called manager, they would not budge an inch and kept saying this was due to potential risks against the paypal network. What a joke, no problems whatsoever for 2 years, completely verified in every single way and all of a sudden nearly £2k gets paid in and they close my account and are telling me they will keep the money for 6 months.

Really not impressed and quite frankly, i now see why there are tens of thousands of similar horror stories all over the internet.

Rant over

scixer6r

I would seek legal advice on that.Who are they to keep your money for 6 months.

mestonian

I already have done mate and it's in their terms and conditions, as it happens the solicitor i contacted has had (as she put it) "umpteen cases" in the last few months alone of paypal shutting accounts when a large deposit is received with no grounds whatsoever following years of useage with no problems, but because they state its a temporary hold (albeit 6 months!) and it's for "security" but wont elaborate any further at all, and that its in their T&C's that they are able to do this, no-one has a leg to stand on. No wonder there are dedicated sites setup to expose paypal, if it was a new account i could understand it, if id not verified it i could understand it, if it was from some random account (not coral.co.uk) i could understand it, but theres no reason at all to do what they have done other than to keep hold of 2 grand for 6 months. Shocked.

chopperman

Report them to the FSA.

mestonian

I asked the solicitor about this, she said the FSA wont touch it unless ive given paypal 8 weeks to respond with a final statement, so that's 2 months alone, and then the FSA drag their feet, so we're talking minimum 2-3 months even going that route. In my eyes its just robbery, how can these companies legally just withold all that money with absolutely no grounds to do so, no requirement to explain why they are doing so, and for so long. Makes my blood boil.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

yep thats why i pull my money out and only leave £20 or so in there, thieving *****.

Problem is they are so big everyone wants to use them, so if you dont have an account your scuppered for selling stuff on the internet, bunch of scammers and a law unto themselves.

chopperman

Bank are a law unto themselves mate. It's took a court hearing to force paypal to make their customer service phone number more visible on their website. Why were they so cagey about hiding their phone number? Faceless crooks that's why.
You could try speaking to your bank (the one to tried to transfer the funds too) and see if they can advise.

MattyB1983

iTrader: (51)

Imagine the amount of interest that company makes, there must be thousands of people in your situation.
They are making an absolute fortune out of people....!!

chopperman

money like this is supposed to go into a holding account where the bank can not use it or earn off it. Whether it does or not is anybody's guess .

marcevs72

iTrader: (5)

only ever use paypal as a guest to pay by credit card for items.dont trust them at all.opened account when joined ebay and sold some stuff only for paypal to state we are keeping your money for 21 days before you can withdraw it.bunch of crooks.not even a bank so dont have to comply with the proper rules,hence they can keep peoples money for ages whilst earning interest.

chopperman

I suspect this has happened due to anti money laundering laws. The bookies should have paid the money in as a payment to you rather than a return payment. It maybe worth contacting the bookies customer services.

mestonian

They didnt do it as a return payment, it was a "gift" payment straight into my account, i've contacted them and as far as they are concerned its been paid and that's that, they cant pull the money back, paypal wont refund it, i can still login and see the money in my paypal account, but it just says "this account is no longer active" and i just cant do anything about getting it.

sweden

iTrader: (2)

surely they will have to supply a valid reason for with holding the money and after 6 months when its paid out if no reasonable reason is given for holding it you would be able to claim 6 months interest on the money ?

Ryan@Indigo-GT

iTrader: (4)

I'd definitely take legal action against them over that one, it's your money at the end of the day, this service is pretty effective;

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

chopperman

If they said
They must be treating it as a return. If the payment was sent as a "gift" they would not be asking for an invoice for original purchase. The money must have been paid as a return in paypals eyes. It looks like you paid £2.50 and was then refunded £1863. That looks like money laundering. If it were paid as a gift theere would be no purchase involved.

How do you know it was paid as a gift (one way transaction)? Does it state this in your account?

AN07 PTN

nothing you can do mate been there.... ******* kept 6k of mine..

clapa929

Did the same to me. I did everything they asked to prove the account belonged to me and still the account stayed froze. I no longer use paypal.

scoobychris300

+1,bstds.
sorry mate looks not good!
hope you get somewhere with it all!
chris.

mestonian

Nah ive know ive read loads of sites, contacted 2 solicitors, etc, it seems everyone knows about paypal and what they do yet no-one is willing to do anything about them, i suppose on the upside (which is how ive got to look at it otherwise id blow a gasket) is i havent actually lost anything other than £25, and i will eventually get it, infuriating though to say the least.

worbs

iTrader: (8)

I had same kind of thing, sold a ppg g box to a guy in france for £2k and they shut my account, although i phoned them and after ranting and raving for over half an hour and threatening legal action, charges of interest,cost of calls and my hardship they opened up my account and released funds after 48hours.

Total total thieving *******! no other way to put it, they are blatantly scamming the interest of people, holding account my ****, they need to be put in there place and made to stop doing this kind of rubbish, i dont see how they can justify holding your money for 180 days its disgusting.

I hate paypal in case you didnt notice