PayPal Permanently Limited My Account - Gunbroker

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:31 pm

Well it came down to it.. PayPal permanently limited my account because a buyer sent me PayPal money for a firearm purchase over gunbroker. I contacted PayPal several times via phone and email and they will not budge on reactivating my account. Shame on them considering it was a one time mishap. I've been doing business with them since 2004 on a very regular basis.

Since then I have opened up another PayPal account on a separate bank account and yes they caught it.

waxman · Post by **waxman** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:44 pm

Sorry to hear that Orion.
Where is PayPal going with all this? They just began holding Ebay funds for 21 days after a sale to be sure "both parties have no issues" with the transaction! Are there that many disputed sales on Ebay?
It sure looks like the PP folks just want to hang onto our money for a few weeks. That's got to add up to $$ in their pockets. Is that even legal?
I'm looking for an alternative to PayPal.
(Sorry for the rant)
What sort of "shooting supplies" are you looking for?

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 9:57 pm

According to their acceptable use policy, in which I admittedly did not read in 2004, PayPal prohibits the use of funds used for purchasing firearms.

PayPal is not FDIC insured, so they can do whatever they please with your account's balance. They are not a bank.

Keep in mind when you do transfer funds via PayPal through Gunbroker, do not put any information in transaction regarding "Gunbroker", "Auction #########", or any misc information that will trail back to a firearms deal. They will track it.

I'm going to try using a Netspend debit account and see if PayPal traces that back to me. I'll keep the forum updated..

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sun Jan 15, 2012 10:34 pm

I just purchased an item on eBay with an unused CC through PayPal using a new account. Paypal sent me a message after about 2 minutes afterwards, saying my new account has been limited for unknown reasons until further notice. It was probably my name, shipping address, IP address, ect...

matchguy · Post by **matchguy** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 7:27 am

I had the same problem with Paypal holding funds for Ebay sale. I contacted them to complain since I have 100% record going back 10 years. They dont' care. You're considered undesirable unless you have several hundreds or thousands of sales on Ebay. And for trying something else, Ebay only allows Paypal so you're stuck.

Glad you mentioned you're not supposed to use Paypal for firearm purchases. I bet most people don't know that as I didn't.

One other note, Ebay charges commission on shipping as well as the overall sale now. My last auction cost me 13% of the auction price not including the shipping.

waxman · Post by **waxman** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 8:34 am

I'm guessing the beancounters at PP decided they could still profit more even if they lost all the gun folks from using their services.
Here's some options to using PP:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/12/5- ... ypal/all/1

Freepistol · Post by **Freepistol** » Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:32 am

I don't think we should be giving any money to anti-gun companies in the first place, so it is good not to deal with PP.

X-Mark · Post by **X-Mark** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 5:20 pm

I knew about the PayPal rules, but am surprised to see e-bay now allowing sales of barrels and pistol magazines, at one time they forbid the sale of these:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... Categories

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... Categories

Gunbroker sales are best made using USPS money order.
Although collecting on a fraud through USPS might take months...

Mass Shooter · Post by **Mass Shooter** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 6:53 am

I believe the alternative payment method is a new service called GunPal. You can Google this and read about it. It sounds like many have all good feedback about it. ...

RandomShotz · Post by **RandomShotz** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 8:45 am

Mass Shooter wrote:I believe the alternative payment method is a new service called GunPal. You can Google this and read about it. It sounds like many have all good feedback about it. ...

I don't have time for serious research right now, but a lot of negative feedback came up from a Google search, and the names GunPal and GPal (which the company apparently changed to) led to dead links or security warnings. It looks like they tried to get something started and just couldn't get it together.

Roger

paw080 · Post by **paw080** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 12:13 pm

matchguy wrote:I had the same problem with Paypal holding funds for Ebay sale. I contacted them to complain since I have 100% record going back 10 years. They dont' care. You're considered undesirable unless you have several hundreds or thousands of sales on Ebay. And for trying something else, Ebay only allows Paypal so you're stuck.

Glad you mentioned you're not supposed to use Paypal for firearm purchases. I bet most people don't know that as I didn't.

One other note, Ebay charges commission on shipping as well as the overall sale now. My last auction cost me 13% of the auction price not including the shipping.

Hi Matchguy, It is NOT TRUE that you have to pay for a winning bid on ebay

using Paypal. You can pay with other methods if you first ask the seller if he/she

can accept your choice of payment method. I have been paying for winning bids

with money orders, for the last 10 years. I do ask the seller before I bid. I found

that most sellers do accept money orders and some sellers accept both MOs

and credit cards.

Tony