Paypal Who Cried Wolf!!! (not the boy who cried it)
We all know of the story of the boy who cried wolf. After a few false calls, nobody took him seriously at all, and ended up in trouble.
Well, Paypal did the same thing to me. We all know about the fake Paypal emails. “We need to keep your account status current.” or “We need to verify your address to keep your account alive.”, “Urgent, your account may have been compromised, please click here…”
So anyhow.
One day I got an email from Paypal saying my account is in the arrears and urgent attention is needed to keep the account up-to-date. Needless to say, I deleted that email right away, after getting those scam emails for the last 3 years. But…
Well turns out there actually was a problem with my account. I remembered that I changed my bank account from one bank to another, and I did not update the Paypal end. The last payment I made through Paypal was supposed to come out of my chequing account, but when Paypal attempted it, the account was no longer there. And they, of course, had to make the payment to the vendor (I actually purcahsed the Simpleviewer Photo Gallery Script).
I discovered it recently when I tried to create an online payment gateway for my clients. I’ve been getting work from Victoria, Calgary, and Surrey (1 hour drive from Vancouver - still far enough) and I thought it would be awesome to add a payment page to my website. And of course, Paypal was the #1 option for it. However, when I tried to log in, I got the following screen.
So. I wrote an email to that appeal address and explained why I ignored their notifications thinking it was spam, and asked to unlock it. My client owes me $100, which he wanted to pay by credit card online instead of having to drive to downtown Vancouver or mail a cheque.. that would have more than covered the $45 USD deficit in my Paypal account.
The response I got, however, was this :
Dear Jeff Kee,
Thank you for contacting PayPal. We regret the delay in responding to your service request.
Thank you for your renewed interest in PayPal and our services. Your PayPal account has been locked from further use due to the fact it has maintained a negative balance of -$49.75 USD for an extended amount of time. As a result, your account has been sent to our collection agency, NCO Group.
You will need to contact NCO Financial Services to resolve this issue.
Please use the contact information below for more information:NCO Contact Information::
Toll Free Customer Service Number: 1-800-688-7929
Mailing address:NCO Financial Systems, Inc
P.O. Box 27141
Baltimore, MD 21230Physical Address (for certified or overnight mail):
NCO Financial Systems, Inc
Dept. 300
1804 Washington Blvd.
Baltimore, MD 21230Please let me know if you need further assistance.
Sincerely,
Danielle
PayPal, an eBay Company
Well. So I guess I need to call a 1-800 number, JUST to get my Paypal account back.
This is very annoying and difficult - because of all the idiot (or ingenious) spammers, I thought a valid notice was a scam, and now it got to this. I hope this does not affect my credit rating, and if it does, I’ll be ticked off.
Hey Jeff, thanks for the ping back
I’ve never had my PayPal account locked but it must be bad if you need it for business!
Oh it’s such a hassle, and the worst part is my credit rating concern..
Of course, Paypal doesn’t have much pertinent data about my personal information but you never know.
You hear about Paypal locking accounts like they’re out of control. They’re really worried about scams and it’s good they go a little overboard but I think their service to correct locked accounts could be better.
I appreciate the security, yes, but this is just too much work just to be able to accept payments via Paypal.
paypal sucks. but until theres another processor online that does it better then them, its who everyone will use.
sucks your account got frozen though. Paypal is also known for giving money back to a client, even WITH proof that they do not deserve it, and you have given them the work.
As an eBay Power Seller, I live and Die with PayPal. In fact, I also receive a ton of phishing emails on a hourly basis. It’s always best to be careful and check your PayPal account on a constant basis.
As you, know Phishing emails are pretty easy to spot and delete. I always log on to my PayPal, and eBay accounts before clicking on any related link within an email, especially when it looks legit. This is to ensure that I don’t need to enter my username and password after the click. It always pays to be paranoid when you make a living off the internet.