"If you anticipate a possible refund from the merchant, do NOT use Paypal. It takes 3 to 5 days for the refund to be credited back to your Paypal account. Ridiculous! The funds were taken out of my checking account and I never even picked up the item."

"I have been a PayPal customer for many years. Yes, my account has been froze, they've mitigated disputes - some in which I'm the seller, some in which I'm the buyer. They have some really ridiculous terms and fees. But overall, I'm going to say that the convenience of their service entirely outweighs the hassles! I receive free gifts for being a PayPal Advantage member. I pay all of my bills with my PayPal Debit Card. I don't leave home without it. I use them online and in flesh., everyday. I use PayPal to make payments. I also use them to receive payments. I print my shipping labels through PayPal and get discounted rates. I'm happy with PayPal, overall."

"I dislike paypal, they hold onto money that is rightfully your, they overdraft out of your bank account, there is no way to cancel a transaction from your back account, so if you Overdraft by a few dollars and want to cancel that, you cant all you can do it wait a week until they finally let you use your money, then you have to wait 3-days until you can transfer it back.. all in all, just pay with a debit card."

"Transaction fee is crazy! I thought credit cards were bad!"

"Seller sold me open boxed goods that broke after 11 days and would not take it back. Paypal promptly denied my claim for a refund. The buyer's protection they offer is crap. Save yourself some money and buy from reputable merchants.

Ebay/Paypal, you've lost me as a customer forever."

"Such a scam. They are owned by eBay which doesn't care about customers. They stole over $200 from my and wouldn't return it. Do not use!"

"Update 9/6/11 I have changed back to a one star.

DO NOT USE PAYPAL FOR LANDLORD/TENANT PAYMENTS! Do not use paypal for any service, other than an item that you can hold in your hand. The remitter can lie as much as they want, and paypal will IGNORE substantial data. I have been happy with Paypal with Ebay transactions.

Indeed, their complex contract states this, so I have no recourse except for the Court which I will use with this tenant utilizing civil fraud.

I'm still unhappy with the complexity of the resolution and I will still keep the 1 star.

I sent Paypal by fax enough proof that the tenant had signed the lease, received a signed lease, that I had pulled it from the market and that the tenant paid rent/deposit by paypal.

Tenant Perrin Tellock then alleged "unauthorized use" and payal IGNORED all of my substantial data. Faxed signed copies of the lease plus copies of communication going from "I want it and have paid you" to "I can't take it" to "Unauthorized use of Paypal" is proof enough to convince a jury, but not Paypal. And a jury or judge will ultimately decide this.

Paypal rubber stamped "unauthorized use" even when documents show clearly that he was the one who paid.

In short: DO NOT EXPECT A FAIR JUDGEMENT FROM PAYPAL, regardless of the proof you submit.

Paypal is fine for Ebay, but in my opinion do NOT use it for Landlord/Tenant payments.


Update 8/24/11 I have changed my rating from a one star to a five star.

Summary: Tenant signed lease and sent me rent via Paypal. Tenant apparently alleged that he was being defrauded (probably alleging that I was defrauding him) thus Paypal put a hold on the funds.

I sent Paypal all communication and a copy of the signed lease arguing "buyer's remorse" is no reason to chargeback, and that the service was given upon receipt of the rent.

Much to my surprise Paypal agreed and freed the money sending it through to my account. So it goes to show if you have a problem do the leg/paperwork and send Paypal a clear history with documentation.

I'm so pleased that I'll give Paypal 5 stars, but they need to streamline their claim process as several emails asking for info, when used, were returned as unsendable. But I found alternative addresses.

From 1 start to 5...that's pretty impressive, I think.



Update: 8/19/2011

I am now led to believe that the tenant instituted a charge-back (or rather a hold) and may have alleged that I defrauded him.

I am dissatisfied with Paypal still since they will not divulge information. I have asked that the case be advanced to a claim. Tenant received the goods (signed lease, the apartment was pulled, advertising closed, and two tenants denied rental).

I believe that Paypal now has an obligation, since I acted in good faith and "sent the goods," to take the funds on hold and disburse them to me.

I will likely institute a court claim against the renter, and will ask the Court to grant a Court Order to force Paypal to divulge the entire chain of events.

This case does show that Paypal may not be a good idea for the receipt of Landlord/Tenant funds.

This will be updated. I have changed my rating to neutral for the time being.

The following is my original posting:

Beware! Do not use if you are a landlord! Your money will be held by Paypal.

I had a new tenant and suggested that he send me rent/deposit via Paypal. I've been with Paypal for many years with never a problem but this $1300 was placed "on hold" by Paypal (not by the sender!) as a "high risk transaction."

I am a verified Paypal member, so is the remitter--how this can be "high risk" is beyond me.

There is no way to contact a person that you can find on Paypal but I did find a person number: ***-***-**** and now I must jump through hoops and have my payment held up for who knows how long. Again, the sender did not do anything to stop this, the funds from his account are good, I did not do anything, Paypal put this stop on their own. Why? I haven't a clue. I will avoid using Paypal again this way.

Further the agent that I talked to was curt and bordered on the edge of being actually rude. I do not appreciate that sort of customer service and expect better.

Lastly in a recent foreign (Australia transaction) I noticed that the exchange rate was $1US to 0.944 Australian when the interbank rate at the time I sent was $1:0.994+ In my opinion a 5% currency translation is far too much.

I have used Paypal for many years when selling on Ebay. Years ago they would double charge your account (put a hold for $xxx) then actually charge $xxx, and the hold would not be released for many days, thus a $200 charge would deplete temporarily $400 from your account, once causing me to overdraft. I am not sure if that is still a problem.

I have not had any problems with Ebay/Paypal."

"Paypal's website doesn't work, trying to purchase something from macupdate.com and it sends me to paypal. Adding in my credit card does nothing. Doesn't let me purchase. Their website is full of bugs. Logged on directly, confirmed mr credit card, they charged me $2 to do so.

Paypal doesn't work. Would rate zero stars if I could."

"I used paypal to send a invoice to a buyer for ebay item 140541288566 then the buyer paid.
camera was delivered with signature conformation to the buyer.
over a month went by and paypal for NO reason went into my account and taken money from me and
sent me email saying for my protection they going to money from me they think this MITE be problematic transaction
do not ship this item. THIS TRANSACTION IS OVER A MONTH OLD AND CAMERA WAS SHIPPED AND DELIVERED
OVER A MONTH A GO AND SINGED BY THE BUYER USPS TRACKING 9121010521297949213420.
there is NO charge back
there is NO problem
there is NO claim
buyer left positive feedback on ebay they are totally happy
ebay item 140541288566.
THIS IS TOTAL THEFT BY PAYPAL
THIS ILLEGAL PAYPAL ACTIVITY NEEDS TO STOP.
PAYPAL RETURN MY MONEY NOW."

"PayPal holds money for EXCESSIVE periods of time and is of no value to the buyer nor seller, their fees are outrageous and customer service is a COMPLETE JOKE.

I will go COMPLETELY out of my way to ensure my friends/family AVOID PAYPAL at all costs, and will do anything in my power to avoid giving them more dollars of mine.

Unbelievable what this company gets away with."

"Paypal screwed me out of almost $1000 because their seller and buyer protection is a well concealed SCAM. They let scammers run rampant. Their user agreement absolves them of all responsibility. They don't care about their customers. They steal money. Their user agreement says they can access your bank account at any time. They don't do background checks on employees and have had tons of problems with employees stealing user's ID's. Their customer service is useless. If you call 5 times you get 5 different answers. Please educate yourself before dealing with this company. Type in Screw Paypal into google and examine the first site that comes up, it explains exactly how the user agreement screws you out of your money. PAYPAL is TERRIBLE. I wish I'd realized how bad they were BEFORE I got scammed.People who aven't gotten burned by them: just wait. Keep gambling until one day YOU GET SCREWED and paypal LETS IT HAPPEN. I will NEVER use this site again and urge others to do the same."

"PayPal failed to protect me when I received an item that was not as advertised. The items was 23 years older than advertised. When I asked for PayPal's help, they never read anything I wrote and all processes were automatic. I had to get EBay's insurance involved to get help. Stay away from PayPal."

"The buyer [protection plan is totally useless if you do not buy thru EBAY. You think you have some sort of recourse if you use this service but the only thing covered by the plane is merchandise that is not received. Check the complaints on the internet before you trust the "Buyer Protection Plan"
"

"So far, I've not had the issues that some seem to be having with PayPal. Hopefully that won't change and things will continue to go smoothly during all future transactions. It is wise to watch every step that you take very carefully when doing PayPal transactions because if you aren't paying attention, you can create some unintentional problems for yourself.

Based on my experiences with them so far, the rating given here must be a good one, but if things should change, I'll certainly return to adjust the score accordingly."

"I've heard a lot of PayPal horror stories myself and I, for one, prefer them over submitting my CC info directly to a site. If PayPal is offered as an option, I use it. There have been a few times where someone didn't ship the item as promised (never on eBay, knock on wood) and going through PayPal and filing a complaint was the only way to get them to respond. It's just easier to go this route than calling the credit card company. I think they're a must if dealing with smaller businesses online."