Hello everyone here on HostingDiscussion,

now we have a story for you...

On Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 we had received an email from paypal informing us that our account had became permanently limited... Oh great, usually it just means I have to give them a quick call. Well not in this case, I've never spoken to the level of ignorant and arrogant group/department of people in my life.

It was unbelievable, the whole reason and only excuse they could give me for the limitation was due to a prepaid credit card I had gave my friend in the past was matched on our business account, and his personal account which was a year and a half ago.. After informing them about that they replied 'oh, well your account is a risk to our systems. We would recommend you google another checkout service'. Strange thing is other companies have been posting threads on Webhostingtalk informing others that they had became limited as well almost seems they are removing companies/businesses who offer online services and non-tangeable items.

Anyways, we have had to move to alert pay and our business bank account & visa has also been moved. The thing that sucks, we have to wait 180 days to receive our funds from google. Recently we have been facing a few fraudulent orders, and we have been calling paypal and asking how we should handle them... They would also inform me just to give paypal a call and they would take care of the rest. We have had three disputes opened up this month, and we have been communicating with paypal on a monthly basis.

Anyway suggestions on how to get this lifted? - I'm truly sick and tired of being put through to the limitations department and I always get the same supervisor from the limitations department as well. I'm hoping someone here has the direct number for the risk team, as I was told they make all the final calls on accounts. I have been submitting emails through my paypal account, but no responses have been made and it's been 24 or so hours.

Anyways, it's been a hectic week so far and i'm hoping someone can be of assistance.

Thank You,

Tanner

Get out of paypal. Their are really stubborn when they want to. I know how frustrating it can be considering WE are their business!

PayPal generally takes more than 24 hours on responses, but they will respond. I'm not sure what waiting 180 days to get paid for Google has to do with things - did you mean PayPal, and if so, why are they holding funds for 180 days?

Some of the limitations that PayPal places on accounts have to do with the number of fraud transactions reported/processed versus the number of legitimate processing. Also, if you are setup on a subscription basis and the same person submits multiple chargebacks, that can affect things too.

With regards to you giving your friend a prepaid credit card, is the balance of that card now $0.00? If so, you should close it. If however the balance is not at $0.00, then I can see why PayPal might want to shut you down for delinquent payments etc.

Normal reasons for Permanent Limited access is for violation of their AUP. There should be a reason posted inside your login area as to the specifics. Duplicate accounts can be a cause for suspension.

You can also email "appeals@paypal.com" with further explanation of your case for review.

Hello,

thanks for the response. It's appreciated!

Yes, sorry I did mean they were holding the funds for 180 days then releasing it to us. Also, the balance of the card is 0 dollars. I have also got my account escalated to the Executive team and hope they will review the account carefully and throughly.

Also, our account has been limited in the past and we would normally call them and they would restore the account without any problems. This limitation is indeed different. Normally, the account would limit itself due to us signing into the account using our blackberry's, or tablets which caused some conflicts with the automated system.

See, what happened is that we started to market with adsense which I suppose brought the attention of some individuals who enjoying giving companies headaches.. such as us. They have been submitting fake addresses, stolen credit card information, and some even going to the extent of using stolen paypal accounts. We have since then added MaxMind, which has been awesome so far and has blocked a few fraudulent attempts.

I'll be sure to update the thread once I hear back from paypal, and I do hope that is soon as our business hasn't been doing so good since the limitation was added towards the account... We've had to stop orders with paypal, and that's the main method many of our clients checkout with.

Thanks, and will update once I hear back.

- TannerG

Similar story happened to us. We ended up calling 3 times talking to different people. This lady on the last call assisted us and was able to take limit off.

Try calling a couple times maybe this will happen.

keep calling would speed up on the fix. the paypal guys would not willing to be screamed at every day

They don't like customers with high fraud rates. Obviously Paypal are trying to get rid of you. Review your marketing strategy and your website - possibly there's something that attracts the bad guys.

Thanks guys, we are still working on this case and we hope to have this resolved shortly!

Good luck with this issue. Paypal is i believe the worlds most used online merchant, and everyone in the hosting market uses them. I would implement something in your system such as calling each customer individually and verifying them. No computer can ever do as good as a human on fraud check. Just simply tell them that they are part of your teams "selective verification process". If the order is legit they won't have any issues cooperating with you. Also let paypal know about your extra efforts to avoid fraud, this may help you in your battle.