Apparent conspiracy at PayPal results in permanent limitation / Ebay suspension

[Tilda]

First a little background, this is quite a tale but well worth the read I promise you.

This started approximately 9 weeks ago and has now reached stalemate. I really really need some help and / or some advice, please help me out if you can.

An ebay buyer contacted Paypal to complain about "not getting his item" from me 9 weeks ago. Strangely he had phoned me the previous day (got my details using ebays advanced search) stating that his goods were not what he wanted, could he send them back and have his money back, when I asked what he meant by "not what I wanted" he explained he had not had time to read the listing, I said that no he couldn't have a refund. Next thing I know is that Paypal had suspended my Paypal account due to a dispute, (buyer says he didn't get his item - the same one he phoned me about a day earlier) easy I thought, send them a copy of the recorded delivery slip that proves the package was signed for on delivery. Paypal contact me 2 days later and have found in the buyers favour - but they won't give me a reason why as they are not prepared to discuss it. Fair enough that's up to them so I spend the next 7 weeks faxing of different documents to Paypal as they want to see proof of my address, proof of my phone number etc etc, it starts to get silly - but I still comply with their requests, they still find in favour of the buyer despite all the evidence I have submitted, so I contacted the Financial Ombudsman and explained the situation to him, NEXT day I get a phone call from Paypal (yes they rang me) who tell me that following their review of my account they have decided to re-credit the funds they took as they are now satisfied the buyer has received his goods, access to my account had been fully restored. HOORAY 7 weeks but it's been sorted problems all over now. - Yeah Right.

Less than 2 hours later I won an auction on Ebay and went to pay for my goods, only I couldn't, Paypal have PERMANENTLY suspended my account because of suspicious activities!! Worse still they have also PERMANENTLY suspended my eBay account because of suspicious activities linked to my Paypal account, I have had the accounts (eBay and Paypal since July 2005) and have 898 Positive feedback 100% with no negs!

Obviously I am very unhappy with Paypals latest trick so I contact them to ask why they suspended both eBay and Paypal accounts. The only answer I can get is that they beleive my account is linked to a different account that was closed by them in February 2003, the funny thing is that this other account is in My name, at my address, with my telephone number and my email address WTF? I calmly explian that I didn't have a computer until 2005 and even then I didn't get internet access until July (ish) 2005, worse still I was made Bankrupt in July 1999 and was not discharged from that until July 2004 - so even if I wanted to I could NOT of had a Paypal account as I would need a bank account to register (which I couldn't hold by law until I was discharged).

In fact I couldn't even get a telephone installed until July 2005!

There are several problems with Paypals argument, firstly in 2003 I was living at a privately rented address which was different to the address they are disputing, secondly I didn't have access to a PC nor did I have internet access and I was also an undischarged bankrupt which meant I couldn't hold any form of bank account (during my meeting with the bankruptcy administrator I was informed that I was not allowed by law to apply for one and had not done so at any time during the period of bankruptcy) it would therefore of been impossible for me to open a Paypal account as you need a bank account to do so! In November 2004 I moved to the address that Paypal say is linked to this account which has suddenly mysteriously appeared, in other words according to Paypal I signed up for an account (AND they closed that account) over 2 years before I moved to the address I registered the account at!.

I moved again in December 2008 and changed my registered address to reflect this change, I am still at this address.

I remembered that there were some purchases made using my Paypal account just a few days after I originally opened it in 2005 and I think a couple of withdrawals to an account I did not recognise, I reported all these events to Paypal and my account was "reset" back to a zero balance. Of course Paypal know nothing of this and deny all knowledge - it isn't reflected in their records!

On Monday 07 September 2009 I received another phone call from someone at Paypal who called herself "a friend" she would not give me her name, she said that she had emailed me something I should read immediately, she wouldn't say any more and then put the phone down on me. Sure enough I checked my email and there was an email from Paypal (I checked the source ip etc and it appears to be genuine), the email states that the person (who I know the name of but obviously can't disclose here) who originally froze my account was overruled once I had contacted the financial ombudsman, and that further they had altered my records at Paypal to link it to this other account which I don't know anything about, this was done because I was to be "taught a lesson". As proof she had attached a dossier which showed all details of my account BEFORE it was altered and also all details of my account AFTER it had been altered.

I have contacted Paypal about this but they are not interested, they now say that the account date has changed from the date they originally told me and that there are several "other discrepancies" they are not prepared to discuss with me. Every time I have faxed them the proof they require, the dates or some other detail(S) have been changed when they go to check on my account records, which renders my evidence useless.

My accounts on eBay and Paypal STILL remain frozen and they won't answer any of my questions, perhaps someone here can explain these basic questions (I have a few more that are more complicated which I haven't asked here), I can only hope, as I don't know what to do next.

1) If this mysterious account was registered in My name, at my postal address, with my phone number and email and Paypal closed it in February 2003, then why did their system allow me to sign up for another account using the same details in 2005?

2) I would also like to know why, if I had this mysterious previous Paypal account in the same name and address I used to register my account in 2005, then why did Paypal not make ANY attempt EVER to contact me either at my residential address, via email, via the telephone or even carrier pigeon! At the very least I would of expected them to get their debt collectors to contact me. EDIT I now know the account is in debit by £1300.00 (can someone explain how that happened please, I thought you couldn't get a negative balance on a Paypal account).

3) If I was out to "rip off" Paypal or another eBay user, why haven't I done so in the 5 years I have had my account(s) remember 898 feedback all postive 100%

The net result of all this is that I now have to ask friends / relatives to buy stuff from eBay and give them the cash to pay for items using Paypal. I got snotty with Paypal yesterday as I've had enough, think about it for a minute, if I set up an account to rip them off, I would not be stupid enough to use my own name, address, email address and phone number and as I pointed out all they have done is to make it MUCH more difficult (if not impossible) to trace my eBay /Paypal usage as I will simply ask friends / relatives to buy items and pay for them with their account, what are they going to do? ban everyone in a 50 mile radius - I don't think so (they didn't like this at all BTW and threatened me with allsorts!).

Finally Paypal have been emailing me at my personal email address for the last 9 weeks now, but today they emailed me to say that they couldn't discuss anything further as I was not using my email address registered with them! A bit late really as I have 112 different emails at this email address, from Paypal!

I have now made 47 phone calls about this mess!

I have traded for five years on eBay and have 898 positive feedback with 100% rating, does this sound like someone who is trying to rip off Paypal? I have had 1 dispute with a buyer in five years (who LIED to Paypal), and eventually even this was found in my favour. I have done NOTHING wrong and certainly nothing to warrant the treatment I have been given by Paypal.

I have reported all this to the Financial Ombudsman, he informs me it could takes months or even years to resolve, I can't sign up for another eBay or Paypal account, they have banned my wife and even my children because they say that their accounts are all administered from the same IP address - even though I have pointed out that they all have different eBay / Paypal accounts and each of those is registered to bank accounts that are unique to them.

I could really do with some help / advice now as I really don't know what to do next.

[Modee]

Yes, quite a story. If everything is as you say, this would smack of quite a conspiracy at PayPal. For what it is worth, I believe you. While usually I assume that people leave out details in their problems in order to make themselves look better, in this case, your story seems ingenuous.

The financial ombudsman is something like the U.S. Comptroller of Currency I suppose. Unfortunately in the U.S. not even the Comptroller (which regulates banks) but rather the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) oversees PayPal, and most complaints to the FTC get back little more than a form letter response.

What you need is tech support to address this further. This is a rather unique situation, but I believe that properly approached we could get Ebay and PayPal to capitulate in your favor.

[cpm]

An ebay buyer contacted Paypal to complain about "not getting his item" from me 9 weeks ago. Strangely he had phoned me the previous day (got my details using ebays advanced search) stating that his goods were not what he wanted, could he send them back and have his money back, when I asked what he meant by "not what I wanted" he explained he had not had time to read the listing, I said that no he couldn't have a refund. Next thing I know is that Paypal had suspended my Paypal account due to a dispute, (buyer says he didn't get his item - the same one he phoned me about a day earlier) easy I thought, send them a copy of the recorded delivery slip that proves the package was signed for on delivery. Paypal contact me 2 days later and have found in the buyers favour - but they won't give me a reason why as they are not prepared to discuss it.

Your buyer has typically playing the system. If you provided proof of delivery via Recorded Delivery to PayPal and the item was delivered how can PayPal find in the buyer's favour?? PayPal find in the buyer's favour more often than not for "Significantly Not As Described" disputes, irrespective of how true such a claim may be. Unless your buyer actually filed a "Significantly Not As Described" not "Item Not Received"??

Obviously I am very unhappy with Paypals latest trick so I contact them to ask why they suspended both eBay and Paypal accounts. The only answer I can get is that they beleive my account is linked to a different account that was closed by them in February 2003, the funny thing is that this other account is in My name, at my address, with my telephone number and my email address WTF? I calmly explian that I didn't have a computer until 2005 and even then I didn't get internet access until July (ish) 2005, worse still I was made Bankrupt in July 1999 and was not discharged from that until July 2004 - so even if I wanted to I could NOT of had a Paypal account as I would need a bank account to register (which I couldn't hold by law until I was discharged).

In fact I couldn't even get a telephone installed until July 2005!

There are several problems with Paypals argument, firstly in 2003 I was living at a privately rented address which was different to the address they are disputing, secondly I didn't have access to a PC nor did I have internet access and I was also an undischarged bankrupt which meant I couldn't hold any form of bank account (during my meeting with the bankruptcy administrator I was informed that I was not allowed by law to apply for one and had not done so at any time during the period of bankruptcy) it would therefore of been impossible for me to open a Paypal account as you need a bank account to do so! In November 2004 I moved to the address that Paypal say is linked to this account which has suddenly mysteriously appeared, in other words according to Paypal I signed up for an account (AND they closed that account) over 2 years before I moved to the address I registered the account at!.

I moved again in December 2008 and changed my registered address to reflect this change, I am still at this address.

You see since PayPal and eBay now share more and more information, they can draw many more intersections in private data linking individuals than through just a previous PayPal account say. Some overlap in information must have come through a previous eBay account you may have used.

On Monday 07 September 2009 I received another phone call from someone at Paypal who called herself "a friend" she would not give me her name, she said that she had emailed me something I should read immediately, she wouldn't say any more and then put the phone down on me. Sure enough I checked my email and there was an email from Paypal (I checked the source ip etc and it appears to be genuine), the email states that the person (who I know the name of but obviously can't disclose here) who originally froze my account was overruled once I had contacted the financial ombudsman, and that further they had altered my records at Paypal to link it to this other account which I don't know anything about, this was done because I was to be "taught a lesson". As proof she had attached a dossier which showed all details of my account BEFORE it was altered and also all details of my account AFTER it had been altered.

What?? are you saying because you contacted the Ombudsman, someone at PayPal had a vandetta against you in person and changed your PayPal details. If so, PayPal are far less professional than they make out to be.

Does the Ombudsman take personal details of PayPal Customer Service reps working on customer cases? What was the process of dealing with the Ombudsman like?