PayPal

PayPal – pay how you desire, when you desire and where you want. At to the lowest degree that'south what the visitor claims.

Simply just how happy are the customers on the receiving finish of those payments? Not very, according to those who've been subjected to their and so-called "security checks".

Around Mid-Oct Emma Fox sold a bag through E- bay. When she and then tried to withdraw the funds a confirmation screen appeared to advise it would take iv hours, followed past a subsequent possible 2 hours.

After the 6 hours the money hadn't appeared in her account so they decided to email PayPal. Paypal did write back to say it was because of security checking reasons, although they couldn't tell them why the security checks took place and that it would take 72 hours for the money to reach our account.

PayPal'due south security processes are designed to combat fraud and money laundering. But in September a technical glitch in updating their systems led to additional checks and delays for a number of customers.

At the start of Oct, PayPal claimed it had fixed the trouble, and said all transfers should accept place within 6hours merely this was a surprise to Emma.

Afterward in October Emma had a farther 2 items to sell, i being a vehicle which was close to £1000 and they experienced the same trouble. They had to wait for three days for a lot of money to exist transferred into their business relationship.

"You want to know your money is safe and secure yet they cannot give you an explanation as to why they demand to hold onto information technology for that long."

At least Emma eventually got her money. But for others, PayPal's "fast, safety and simple" way of paying has been anything but.

Josh Sewell'southward friend owed him money for a holiday and decided to pay Josh dorsum by PayPal.

And so he sent £810 pounds into his PayPal account and withdrew it to his bank only within an hour or so Josh got an email saying it had been stopped and that there was an inquiry into this transaction.

PayPal said at that place was an "unusual pattern of activity" on Josh's account. Information technology held on to the money for 2 weeks – so sent it back to his friend, without permission.

Luckily for Josh it was a friend but if he was selling something on Due east-bay which was worth that much money and didn't know the person, then that could have acquired real problem.

"I thought the customer service was terrible...We made numerous emails and calls to the company but the people at the other end were like robots.. they only gave the same reply.. no one had any authority to deal with the situation."

Josh now has his coin after his friend paid him in cash only his problems continue as his account is still express. His girlfriend's account is also limited because they linked their accounts and idea they were the aforementioned person. And then neither of them can apply Eastward-bay or paypal.

Luckily for Josh, he doesn't rely on PayPal for his living. For online traders and businesses, a frozen account can spell disaster.

Jake Wright ran a business organisation selling video games through websites including East-bay and the money was handled by Paypal.

One day he got a notification that his PayPal account had been express and in turn his E-bay account had been suspended.

They had to send all company documentation such as supplier invoices, his own identification, bank statements to Due east-bay but were so told by them that this was not sufficient - because the documents were illegible. They checked and resent the files - once again to exist met by the same response every time.

PayPal told Jake his account was considered loftier run a risk and to brand matters worse Due east-bay contacted his clients direct.

Jake says, "E bay contacted all of our customers with a fraud alert notification. They told them they should raise a resolution in their resolution middle against us. Even though the customers had already received the products they'd paid for. Ultimately it meant we had to sell the assets of the company, and current of air down trading...there seems to exist no sensible appeals process."

No-one tin can doubt the importance of internet security to PayPal only past freezing accounts and holding onto thousands of pounds of customers' coin for months at a fourth dimension - for some customers at least, could it be that PayPal itself has become an online hazard?

Company Response

Watchdog has been in bear on with PayPal who have looked at the customers cases and sent us the following statement:

Most of our xv 1000000 UK customers notice that things become smoothly with PayPal, but nosotros don't always go information technology right. We recognise the need to improve and are investing significantly in our customer service centres in Republic of ireland, where nosotros are recruiting an actress 1,000 people by 2015.

We don't arbitrarily freeze accounts. Sometimes we have to apply restrictions in response to negative buyer feedback; to comply with financial regulations; or if at that place is an unusual fasten in payments. While our security measures can seem frustrating to some customers, they are essential tools that ensure our customers can brand fast and like shooting fish in a barrel payments.