Happy Xmas from PayPal

[mycomputerbits]

Anyone considering PayPal Website Payments Pro would be wise to look elsewhere based on my experience... Having set up our website we signed up with PayPal to act as a PSP. Provided all the details and the account went live in October, with a trickle of sales through November. We have spent money on advertising and as a result we've had good sales so far in December, and then yesterday received a message from PayPal. They have limited our account due to "unusual activity". We can't use the card processing facility.

What the hell do they think we are going to be doing with the account? It's Xmas, we've advertised so we would hope to get some customers.

They have effectively closed us down without notice and with £1,500 sat in our PayPal account. I estimate at the very least that it'll take 7 days to get this sorted so we can forget the rest of the Xmas rush.

We're looking for a new PSP and would advise everyone to stay well clear of PayPal.

[Darren B]

Unfortunately you have been caught by the security measures they have in place

You will find that the activity on your account is similar to the way fraudster do business, i guess they want you to verify a few details before they will release your account

I hate paypal but unfortunatley it is a it is a source of income, not a big source but needless to say a source.

You may want to look at nochex then if you dont want a real psp

D

[RuralWeb]

This is normal procedure to counter money laundering - its all detailed in thier terms and conditions when you sign up. We all have to do it

IMO its good news as it keeps the scammers from using payapl and builds customer trust.

[mycomputerbits]

I have already been through all the money laundering stuff and have been using the account for a while. It seems it's down to the fact that I set an average of £5000 per month as turnover. PayPal don't know how to do averages so getting close to the limit already in the month means that I have exceeded a limit that they imposed based on a rough guesss I made.

I've never had this before and have used several PSPs. You would expect a proper business service to get all of the information it needs up front.

Now they want details on suppliers, invoices for purchase of the goods etc despite the fact that I have been through all of the verification procedures a month ago. Nothing has changed.

[RuralWeb]

There is an automatic limit at £4500 which triggers the next set of checks.

[mycomputerbits]

That's fine, as long as they tell you up front, which of course they don't. There are ways of doing this, they could request the information and suspend if they don't get it. Instead they use the brute force approach, with a typical e-mail response time or 48-96 hours to a department that cannot be contacted by telephone. Presumably because they upset so many businesses they can't cope.

[RuralWeb]

could request the information and suspend if they don't get it

Thats the way they did it with us.

[RuralWeb]

PayPal Website Payments Pro

I missread your original post - we use standard Paypal so that may be the difference.

[mycomputerbits]

Just to keep you up to date, we sent off everything they asked for, clock now at 3 days, and they have now flagged that the documents are "In Review". Expected response time, 3-5 working days! and they haven't confirmed they have everything they want yet!

[Tony Moore]

Yes they are arrogant and difficult to deal with, I have stopped using them. I prefer dealing with a PSP that I can talk to in a reasonable and constructive manner.