WELCOME TO CORPORATE INJUSTICE IN AMERICA

   A LITTLE BIT ABOUT US  

      
 MY NAME IS STONEY AND AFTER SPENDING MOST OF MY LIFE ON RANCHES AND RIDING RODEO, I SPENT SEVEN YEARS IN THE NITE CLUB BUSINESS. WHEN MY HEALTH GOT TO THE POINT THAT I COULD NO LONGER WORK THE 13 HRS. A DAY REQUIRED TO RUN THE BUSINESS, WE HAD TO SELL IT. HAVING DEVELOPED SOME KNOWLEDGE OF COMPUTERS, I LOOKED FOR WAYS TO SUPPLEMENT OUR INCOME BY STARTING A BUSINESS ON-LINE. LITTLE DID I KNOW WHAT WAS IN STORE.

HANNA, MY PARTNER IN LIFE FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS, CAME TO THIS COUNTRY FROM GERMANY IN 1960  AS A MILITARY SPOUSE.  HER LATE HUSBAND RETIRED FROM THE ARMY AFTER SERVING IN KOREA AND VIETNAM. BELIEVING IN THE AMERICAN SYSTEM, SHE HAS ALWAYS LIVED BY A CODE OF ETHICS.
BELOW YOU'LL READ A CHILLING STORY, THAT  WE CALL "WELCOME TO CORPORATE JUSTICE IN AMERICA"  P.S. THERE IS NONE.
I WANT YOU TO REMEMBER THAT WHILE THIS HAS HAPPENED TO HANNA AND I, WE ARE BY FAR, NOT THE ONLY ONES.
Two years ago after trying and failing at a few on-line businesses, a net friend told us that a lot of people on the web wanted to fund e-gold accounts they had, but because of the $3,000.00 minimum they needed some one who could sell them smaller amounts.  Some wanted to use it as a payment service and others wanted to invest in gold or other precious metals.  Hanna used her credit card and bank account to open a PAYPAL account.  We borrowed the money to buy the gold and started letting people know that we could help them fund their e-gold accounts.  We started in October and by December we were so busy we could hardly keep up with it.  A small problem with Paypal cropped up in November and we though we had it worked out. They told me we were one of their biggest accounts. They even went as far as to tell us we had a "red carpet" account. Come the middle of January, we started to realize the truth about Paypal.  Day after day, they sent  emails saying we had possible fraudulent funds, and asking for us to send information to them, which we did.  When they produced no results, I called customer service. The tone had changed and I was told because we dealt in e-gold we weren't covered by the SELLER PROTECTION PLAN and basically, they didn't want our business.  After making some $16,000 in fees off of us, they took some $30,000 out of our account over a period of app. 3 weeks, and by February our balance was in the red.  I called and emailed them to stop accepting money into our account (which they had locked) but no, they kept accepting peoples money.  Our customers soon started to ask why we hadn't funded their accounts.  We explained that Paypal had locked our account and we were not aware they had sent money to us.  You see, our customers had become so loyal and trusting of us, they just sent money and knew we would fund their accounts.
 
Now here's the problem as we see it.  Remember, if your a paypal user, that this occurred between Oct. 2000 and Feb. 2001.
Paypal's terms of use were and are still contradictory.  The one consistent thing about them is that they are written in a way to exclude the consumer of their rights and sets themselves up as God, judge and  jury over the unsuspecting customer.

Paypal boasts that you can send money to anyone that has an e-mail address.  They also had been backed by x.com, which was an online bank.  People like ourselves believed they were basically a BANK.
Paypal accepted credit cards from people and transferred the funds to other accounts as designated by the sender.  As we see it, people put money from their credit cards into their Paypal accounts, and then transferred the money from that account to our account.  After all, you had to have a paypal account to use your credit card.
Paypal sent us an e-mail saying, "you've got cash".  Meaning that money from a credit card was transferred into a persons account and then transferred to our account.  Paypal had an e-check system in which the funds took 5 days to clear.  Why would they take credit cards on an instant basis.
Paypal, under their privacy policy held all the account holders information confidential.
When paypal began sending us notices that we had "potentially fraudulent funds", we send back the information they requested for their investigation.  We were told this was needed to be covered under their seller protection program.  We never received any answer from them and didn't know what was going on until we saw money being deducted from our account. We called customer service and spoke to several people, that said they would look into it.  No one ever called us back or e-mailed us with any answers.  Finally I called the main office in California and talked with a very rude person named Jennifer Durham, who told me that e-gold was not covered under the SPP and their was nothing we could do about it. She said the credit cards were stolen and we were responsible for reimbursing Paypal for them.  She sent me an e-mail with a list of e-mail addresses and the dates and amounts of these transactions.  All of a sudden, this list had grown to almost 70 transactions.
To our amazement, when we searched our records and were able to contact several of these people, we found out that the money had been deducted from their credit cards.  So they didn't have the money and we didn't have it, which meant Paypal had it.  Later Paypal claimed "it was an honest mistake".  Several others proved to be "honest mistakes", only after we e-mailed all the supposed "fraudulent accounts".  My claims of possible "employee fraud" were denied and classified as "impossible" by Paypal exec's.
We found out later, that some of the credit cards were indeed fraudulent, Paypal had accepted them after they failed 2 or more address verification checks.  We also found that 1 credit card was listed on 3 separate accounts, with different names and states.  Paypal claims their fraud department is one of the best in the industry !!!!!!!!!!!!! Paypal's fraud manager testified, that the company had no training or training manuals, and that 90 days prior to becoming a fraud manager, he worked for a cement company.
The remaining, so called "fraudulent credit cards" had statements claiming "unauthorized " use.  The cards were not stolen or out of their possession at any time.  Which could mean "double dipping" or employee fraud.

The mistakes

 

Please remember that the mistakes we made are made by thousands of people each week.
Read the TERMS OF USE, we did and thought we understood them.  If your a lawyer then you might be able to comprehend what your reading.  if your not a lawyer then seek one's advice.  Any good lawyer will tell you the terms are unconscionable and one sided.  By accepting them you give up your rights.  The one most important clause to look at is the arbitration clause.  We will discuss arbitration in a separate section.  We thought we were protected by a so-called seller protection plan.  This plan as thousands have seen is riddled with ways for Paypal to avoid paying.   You have to remember that Paypal is what you would call "self insured".  They did boast Travelers insurance, if your account was "hacked".  That in itself was a sham.  The fact was that only after accounts were "hacked" to an aggregate amount of $250K, then the insurance paid.  It paid Paypal not the customers.  So Paypal used the Travelers logo to lull customers into a false sense of security.  Plainly a deceptive practice.  Paypal constantly "freezes" accounts for any reason they decide, and your money is theirs until they decide to give it back to you.  Without interest I might add.  They have now added to their TOS, that you agree to allow them to be able to withdraw any and all money from your bank account at their discretion.