You seriously going to try and sue them in small claims?
You will just get laughed at. Paypal are not stupid, Their T.O.S is about as watertight as it can be. They are legally allowed to hold your money.
And what exactly did you sell?
1) Not the holding of my money but that they threaten to send money owed to ebay to collections (if they do) when their company (Paypal) already holds enough money of mine to cover that expense. Paypal and Ebay are one company, they file income statements and such as 1 company. Thus, they cannot do what they are threatening. They can hold the $1150 for 6 months but cannot expect me to go dig in my pocket and shell out $120+ to cover ebay fees for that item sold. I told them to take it out of the funds that are technically "available" in my PayPal from that item.
2) When you make a payment on PayPal every time they give you the option of which payment method you want to take the money being paid out of. I always use my credit card. Well when I shipped a couple items I sold on ebay a month or so back I expected them to let me choose my payment method but they never offered a method. I clicked pay now expecting a chance to at least see which account is going to be billed but it never happened. They auto-billed a bank account I barely use anymore, which at the time didn't have sufficient funds to cover it. I had to rush around to move money from another bank account of mine to that account or risk overdrafting. They refused to ever give me a chance to make a decision or see what payment method is going to be billed. This is violating the law principle of disclosure to customers.
3) A year ago when I was in the moneypak business I redeemed two $500 moneypaks. I withdrew one $500 and the other they froze claiming that I cannot simply withdraw moneypak funds and that I have to spend that money. No where does it say I have to use a moneypak to spend it. No where does it say moneypak is credit, not cash. Any debit card that allows moneypak deposits allows ATM withdraws of those funds. On moneypak itself it says "treat a moneypak as cash". I have a right to withdraw that money, there is no disclosure saying otherwise. However, PayPal of course froze my account and only let me withdraw those funds 6 months later.
3 Examples of ways I believe I have been damaged and 3 ways I will be speaking to my lawyer tomorrow (unfortunately they had to change schedule to tomorrow) about. Hopefully I can win a settlement for damages of $1000. That'd be nice. I don't care if I win $100, anything would be a nice way to say fuck you PayPal for the way they've treated me as a customer of their payment service.
I really think you should have a very good read of all the T.O.S and user agreements you made when you created your account, After doing so you will realise why you will just get laughed at and why all your points are invalid.
1) PayPal is owned by Ebay, but they operate as independent companies Read:
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/pay/paypal-and-ebay.html . They can't simply use the money off your account if it is being held. It is being held because they have detected some unusual activity on your account, Meaning that if they cover the ebay fees with the money that's being held and the money gets refunded or whatever then they loose out. Thats just not how it works. They have every right to get collections on you, It is part of the user agreement when you sign up.
2) It ALWAYS tells you which payment method you are using before you send money or buy something. It even gives you the option to change that payment method if you so wish. Some payment methods may from time to time be greyed out but that's just for precaution and a quick call to PayPal will fix that. Never once in all my 6 years on PayPal have I not been able to see or choose my payment method before sending money.
3) I live in the UK so I dont know about what the policies regarding moneypak is.
But lets face it, You will not stand a chance.
You can call your "friend" lawyer, But paypal have millions of $ and a better legal team. Don't waste your time trying to sue when you will get nothing.
Read the T.O.S, Get your friend to read it too im sure he will tell you the same.
I see this so many times, people complaining about paypal, everytime I tell them to read the t.o.s. Your only fuming because you broke the t.o.s and I know your gonna deny it like every one else.
