Another day, another Paypal shut down

Introduction

Before I typed this up, I went back to my old post to see what happened to my last Paypal shutdown.  In there, I had written, “Other people have told me that when they called in, eyes on the account, led to a shutdown of their other Paypal accounts (and sometimes household accounts.)”  Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened today!

 

What happened?

This Paypal account is my longest Paypal account; over a decade old.  The account had been receiving small amounts of money, so little transactions and not that many transactions.  So what happened?  Well, the Ebay GC floodgates were opened, and I was traveling and had an issue with my wife’s account to make Ebay/Paypal purchases.  So I reverted to using MY account and unloaded a good amount of Ebay GC’s.  The next day, my account was limited and I got this email:

We are reviewing your account and unfortunately your account limitation cannot be lifted at this time.  We need more information about your account before we can proceed with the appeal process. Please complete the steps below:

– Upload or fax a copy of a recent utility bill, bank statement, or credit card statement showing your name and address exactly as they appear in your PayPal account.
Please provide information about how the gift vouchers come in your possession.

– Upload or fax your supplier’s contact information.

 

So I uploaded a copy of my utility bill, and there was no way to upload my supplier’s contact info since I didn’t know what the hell they were talking about.  I waited a few days and they sent me another email:

We are reviewing your account and unfortunately your account limitation cannot be lifted at this time.  We need more information about your account before we can proceed with the appeal process. Please complete the steps below:

– Upload or fax your supplier’s contact information.
 

I waited a few more days to no avail.  I then made the mistake of calling them up.

Phone conversation

Here’s how the phone conversation went.

Asshats – “Why did you use so many gift cards instead of paying directly with your checking account?”

Me – “Because I have a cc that gives me 5% back at grocery stores.”

A – “Well you can see how that activity is suspicious.  Most people will only use $500…”

Me – “Well is that against the rules to use that amount of gift cards?”

A – “Noooo… hold on and let me see what I can do.”

Note that this conversation was not the friendliest of phone calls because I’m sure he sensed my irritation at them.

 

Hammer Drops

After 10 minutes, he comes back and says that he found another account that was banned and so he’s going to permanently ban this account as well.  I asked him why the other account was banned.  He couldn’t tell me and mumbled something about “we didn’t like the activity in that account.”

 

Conclusion

F you Paypal!  Secondly, NEVER CALL Paypal and let it ride.  Most likely they would have found my other banned account, but maybe not.   Lastly, don’t try to trigger their suspicious activity sensors.