So... bought some sticks from someone. Well, almost 2 boxes full, actually. Bought them with enough time to arrive at my place on Friday before I leave for a good friend's wedding. Was maybe planning on bringing said sticks to the groom's dinner on Friday night.

Paid with my PP like I always do (no mention of ANYTHING at all in the subject/comments line.) I get a pm from the guy, saying there was a problem with the transaction. I check my account, and sure enough, they "limited my account" for a random security check. And opened an investigation. Okay, I thought. Easy enough. So I do all the crap like verify cc accounts, phone number, address, change my password and security questions. Should be good to go. NOPE. They still have my funds on temporary hold, and could for up to a week. Bastards. :-)

I guess it ain't such a big deal, as I got some other good stuff in on Monday. But still. I almost feel as if it my come off as me being untrustworthy towards the seller, which really irks me because I take great pride in my integrity. I mean, all he knows is that the funds are on hold, and he was sent a message to not send any merchandise until they've completed their investigation.

PP can suck it.

Just had to vent a little.

/rant
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That sucks Peter...I like PP usually as it makes things easy but when stuff like this happens makes me not like PP so much :-)
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Yea pp sucks. I have sold a few things on fleabay and pp ended up holding my funds for more then 2 weeks. I hate them. Sorry to hear about the trouble :-)
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I understand having security checks, but some people depend on those funds!! I am not a big PP fan!!!
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Yeah I've done a ton of transactions through poopal with no issues, but I sure am hearing more of these stories lately... very sad and sorry for your troubles. As soon as I have my first experience of them holding my funds for no reason, I'm jumping ship to Amazon and telling them exactly why.
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Have you called them to find out what the problem is? I had a problem with my account -- similar to yours -- a few months ago and I called them and they had everything working very quickly.
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I wonder if they are doing it to get the interest on the money. It would add up to allot of money.
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This. It sucks balls and they are actually have several class action lawsuits out over this very issue. However, if you call them and explain to them that you did in fact make those purchases and you would like your account to be unfrozen they will have it up and ready in about 5 minutes. I have had to do it twice now.
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Without knowing exactly why the OP's account was locked out, you cannot make a blanket statement about a class action law suit.

It was different for me... I had not used my account in a while so their "fraud protection" kicked in. I got through to someone very quickly and it was resolved very easily and my transaction was only delayed a few hours... As with any service the more proactive you about resolving a problem the faster it will be resolved.

BTW, my VISA does something similar -- if a purchase is outside "VISA's expected demographic" for me, fraud protection kicks in. I can wait for a call from them, or I can call them and get it resolved.

While I have had my share of problems with PP, when you look at the number of customers and the number of transactions they do, they really do provide pretty good service...

The bottom line is that if you wait for someone else to start the process you give up your control and you are at their mercy.
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Oh, sounds like the same thing to me though. The limited use on his account is what they do when they believe that someone has made a fraudulent charge. Which most of the time is due to periods of inactivity and then multiple charges. He said he just bought some sticks before, now he is trying to buy more, and then a few days ago he bought some pipe tobacco tins from me. Idk I guess this is all just semantics and the main point we both are trying to make is they are helpful and the issue gets resolved quickly. :-)
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Two little words for everybody who hates PP:

Amazon Payments.

Yep, basically the same thing. I haven't received payments through AP, but I've paid, and it's basically the exact same interface as PP.

I too hate me some PP, but unfortunately it's still the most widely used online payment accepted/used.
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Thanks for the advice guys. I'll give them a call in a bit. Unfortunately, I don't think that the shipping will take place in time for the wedding anymore. But that's neither here nor there.

Also going to check out Amazon payments.
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If there was ever a company that needs a serious competitor, PP is it.
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The good news is, out of everybody who really could compete, I think Amazon is big enough to really stand a good chance being significant competition to ppal.

I think the only other company I can think of off the top of my head that could really do that would be Google.
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Just sent a BOTL on here a PP payment for some beads. And it went through no problems. WTF.

Glad it went through of course, but still makes me mad PP is still holding $250 of my money for nothing. Haven't had a chance to call, but will shortly.
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Sorry to hear of your troubles and this is why I don't deal with them. As I was reading through these I couldn't help to not start laughing as every time the term PP came up I couldn't help to think "That just sounds wrong." Especially when Pektel said he sent PP payment for some beads.":-) Sorry, I'm running on 3 hours sleep and I am delirious at this point.:-)
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Actually not to be rude but I can as the class action lawsuits are over frozen assets and not being able to pay. This article explains one of them but now PP allows you to receive payment you just can't send. But the lawsuits are over any account in which a restriction has been placed without the owners consent. There are so many though that whatever his problem there is a lawsuit for it probably but I believe it falls under the umbrella of this one. It is an old one though but there are more current ones as well.

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-842240.html
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Just got off the phone with them. They did resolve it and release the funds. One positive thing I can say, is I was never on hold for more than about 3 seconds.

Still, I wish I would've been able to smoke an 04 Sig VI this weekend.
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Just more for later :-) Glad you got it resolved. :-)
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Sorry for the trouble Peter. I had this happen once before and I had to call them andthey took care of it.
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