I love magic. I love to buy new magic books and tricks. Often, I resell these items. The internet has made finding magic items easy and it is amazing the things I find that I never would have if not for Google.
EBay has been a great source of new and used products. EBay is also super-dee-duper for selling items I am done with. However, I have recently been stung by EBay-owned PayPal. Without warning or reason, PayPal recently froze my account.
What this means is that money customers have sent me is now locked away in PayPal's vault. I am still obligated to send the merchandise, but I cannot get my money out.
Even worse, and completely obscene, PayPal continues to receive money from my EBay winners. They will not let me have access to the money and they will not let me refund the money.
Imagine, you walk up to Joe on the street. Joe collects money for me on a regular basis, so you give Joe a fifty dollar bill to give to me. Well, Joe quit last week. He should say, "I don't do business with Dennis any more, you need to find another way to pay him." Instead, Joe pockets the money. You expect me to make a delivery to you, while I am wondering how I can run a business if my cash register is ringing up sales, but my deposits are not being made.
That is what PayPal is doing. Taking money under false pretenses from individuals who have come to trust me. PayPal is using my good reputation to line their pockets. Soon, the EBay complaints will start. I have notified all my customers to contact PayPal about where their payments went, but it is a sure thing, my EBay feedback will start having large amounts of negative reports, probably using words like scam and thief in reference to me.
Friends, if you are using the PayPal system to send or receive money online, PLEASE STOP! Stop now!
In researching this, I have found several websites with thousands of horror stories like mine. These include:
http://www.aboutpaypal.org
http://www.paypalwarning.com
http://www.paypalsucks.com
http://www.nopaypal.com
http://www.complaints.com/directory/2004/july/28/14.htm
An article from the Wall Street Journal: http://www.ygoodman.com/ppwsj.html
If you don't believe it, just type in "PayPal froze my account" into any major search engine. You'll discover thousands of businesses that were ruined by PayPal.
I am sending letters to the State Attorney General and the Better Business Bureau. Hopefully, they will help me clear up this mess. But again, I warn you, research PayPal and you will never use them again.
