Colin sent a message to Dan Schulman – President and CEO of PayPal – Email Address that said:
Hi Dan,
I’m writing to you in the hope that, as the CEO of Paypal, you will be receptive, understanding and helpful.
A few months ago, my daughter’s account was limited and put under review. She is a young adult, just starting out in business and made a silly mistake after something she bought turned out to be a fake. She sold it on and, as a result, her account was limited. Numerous attempts to reinstate her account failed as she spoke to one person after another with the same inflexible approach. It seems that the purpose of the ‘review’ was not to investigate the situation with a view to reinstating the account but rather, to investigate it in order to obtain more details about why the account was limited and with no intention of reinstating it.
This approach demonstrates:
• PayPal are a monopoly and can afford to lose thousands, maybe millions of customers.
• Paypal has no interest in investigating the difference between genuine criminal activity and hapless mistakes
• Paypal has no interest in resolving the situation or giving the consumer a chance to put things right.
• Terms and conditions are deeply buried in a mass of small print
• The balance of rights is tipped towards the trader and well away from the consumer
• If a bank or shop demonstrated such a mercenary approach I would change bank or shop somewhere else.
After it became clear that my daughter’s account was permanently limited, she asked me to add my account to her DePop account so that she could buy something. Now, it would seem, as a result of that connection, my account has also been limited. This is like punishment without trial.
I think that my daughter and I should be given a chance to demonstrate that we trade honestly. Perhaps this could take the form of an agreed probation period. My daughter says that she made one silly mistake which was in no way typical of her nature or behaviour. She has learnt from it the hard way and appeals to your better nature to reinstate her account and to help her get back to the serious business of trading.
I hope that your position in the hierarchy of PayPal does not prevent you from paying attention to this email and offering my daughter and I some kind of solution to the dilemma we find ourselves in.
Yours sincerely,
Colin
