Banned from Paypal

After having an account for 7 years and putting thousands of dollars through Paypal, I was just permanently banned for selling a $15 Cuban coin. I sold the coin through my own website rather than eBay, but Paypal saw the word 'Cuba' in the payment description and immediately froze the payment. I was informed by the Paypal 'compliance department' that my account was being investigated and that I had been reported to the Office of Foreign Assets Control for selling goods and services from a prohibited country. That was 2 weeks ago.

Over the course of the next 2 weeks, Paypal did not process or refund the payment, but kept it frozen the entire time. My customer had bought a few other coins as well, so he had $100 tied up in Paypal with no means of accessing it. There was also a helpful ticker in my Paypal account Resolution Center that showed how many days I had remaining to provide information about my account for the investigation, before my account was fully restricted. Unfortunately, there was never any explanation of what type of information I actually needed to provide.

In an effort to find out when the case was going to get resolved and to unfreeze my customer's payment, I called Paypal customer service 5 times and received 5 different answers. First I heard that the case would be resolved within 48 hours. After 48 hours had passed, I called again and learned that I needed to follow the instructions in the original email (there were no instructions in the email). I called again the same day, hoping to get a more helpful CS rep, and learned that my case would be resolved in the next hour. After a couple more days had passed, I called again and the ETA had been pushed back to 24 more hours. After another few days, I called once more and learned that I only had to wait 3 more days until the case would be resolved. At that point, I gave up calling Paypal customer service.

Yesterday, the case was finally resolved - the Paypal compliance department had finished their thorough investigation and determined that my egregious violation could not be excused. International criminals like myself, selling Cuban centavos to coin collectors, are not welcome on the Paypal platform. My account was disabled, and I was permanently banned from Paypal. What makes it even worse is that I have $300 worth of eBay bucks set to expire 8/2, that I can't use without a Paypal account. And if I had had any funds still in Paypal prior to the ban (thankfully I did not), that money would money would have been permanently lost. Fellow Cointalkers be warned, don't expect much when dealing with Paypal!

 

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That's pretty edited all around. I'd continue to call or speak to someone higher up, if possible.

I had to deal with a phone call to eBay a few weeks ago. Got transferred to different departments but I have to say all were nice and my issue was resolved despite long phone waits while the operator "investigated" the issue.

 

Any chance you can report it to the bureau of better business...have you kept records of dates/times of when you spoke with them? If anything, notify your congressman to see if they could help.

Sorry for your bad luck.. hope this gets fixed.
Funny thing, we can buy cuban cigars now..

 

Really?

Where?

 

Mexico.

 

I thought the embargo was lifted anyway? What happens when the embargo is passed and this is non-issue, will Paypal make it right?

 

That's incredible. And so amazingly, incredibly frustrating, I'm so sorry to hear that Volante.

Thank you for sharing this story.

 

I don't agree that you should have been banned, but normalizations between the two countries will probably take more of a trickle down effect. Before any transactions between you and anyone with a Cuban address take place you should have checked with PayPal to see if it was acceptable.

After a 50+ year banning normalization won't be an overnight occurrence.

 

that bites. I thought it was only if it came out of Cuba it was not ok. I have a few star Cuban coins. NFS. I see coins sold on Ebay all the time just not labeled Cuba but like "Peso" "Carribean Islands" "centavo".

 

That's an incredible tale.

 

I would certainly prepare a written resume of this with as much documentation as possible for when the "Office of Foreign Assets Control for selling goods and services" gets into the act. I suspect paypal banning might be the easier part and expense once everything is done.

 

That sucks! In another year, probably wouldn't be an issue.

 

ohh wow no way dude thats retarded

 

Just to clarify, I was selling a Cuban coin (pre-revolution, no less) to an American, not selling coins to a Cuban.

 

you can gert the 300 in credit back because paypal and ebay are teamed up call them and ask

 

volante , thats nutty bro.. cant yoju open a new paypal account??

 

An even more incredible tale...have you considered getting some legal representation?

I suspect Gem might be onto something.

I am thinking that you might need an attorney in case they are building a case against you in the event you actually broke a law.

 

PayPal does not require a social security number when you register, or at least it didn't way back when I started my account. Start a new PayPal account with the same first and last name, use a different credit card/bank account, and list an alternate address like PO Box or work address. Then use your eBay Bucks and walk away from both eBay and PayPal.

I would also demand to know exactly which statute(s) or administrative guideline(s) that you allegedly violated and how so. Regardless of your account status, I would check to see if PayPal acted lawfully in doing what they did in freezing your account.

 

I completely misunderstood. My apologies.

You definitely got screwed. You should be able to appeal the PayPal ruling.

 

i think if he goes throught court he can get all the money hes loosing back