I have had good luck with PayPal in the past, but keep in mind that they do not offer any buyer protection if the production you are buying is a digital product or "intangible" item as they say. If you are using PayPal funds to purchase a product that is delivered electronically, and the seller does not deliver, then PayPal will not offer you any assistance.

I have been trying to change my name and my email address and they are making it SO DIFFICULT!!! First of all, it takes at least 5 minutes to get thru their automated phone system as they keep referring you back to the website to do whatever it is that you want to do. But if you can't get in, then you get to spend HOURS and HOURS on the phone with them! It's awful. Their customer service is lacking and I'm on hold for the 4th time as I leisurly write this review. It's a time-saver if you never need to change your information.... but just trying to update your name or your account information and be prepared to have you call dropped multiple times, having to deal with their EXTREMELY IRRITATING customer service. Actually... I am rethinking my 2 stars, here. Depending on how much longer I have to deal with this, I may be coming back and downgrading it to 1 star. Their "customer service" is bad....

have used pay-pal for a long time and always satisfied with them thank you very much pay-pal for your good service

Paypal is a site I have used often for several years. The BEST thing about Paypal is that it protects its buyers. I just had an issue with Facebook charging my account for advertising that I did not do. My guess is some old ad from months and months ago was still somehow active but I did not know about it. Within a couple of days of alerting Paypal of the issue, it was resolved.
As a seller using Paypal sometimes it takes too long for money to get transferred to my bank account and that is frustrating when someone is waiting for confirmation of purchase. The other issue is the fees that Paypal charges. Some buyers don't believe there are fees and are objective to paying them. I wish the fees would be charged up front to the buyer rather than passed down to the seller, after all PayPal is for their convenience. I just opened a business account so I do like that we will now be able to take credit cards or offer buyers the buy now pay later option.
Overall, Paypal is a safe website to use. They take care of their buyers, which is a big reason why I have continued to use them and why people are comfortable using them for large purchases or out of state purchases.

This is ok. And great for fast payment. But one time the money used to long of a time to get back to my account. Both my bank and Paypal could not tell me where my money was and when I would get it back. It took 4 days before I got my money.

Amazing!? I get a $700 dollar payment from one of my clients and my account is limited? What gives? The morons at Paypal limited my account permanently for one payment and they never want to do business with me again. I can't fathom the thought of these big businesses relying on Paypal for all their transactions, it's just absurd.

Only way is to open a new one, but apparently you need to have some info in order to get back on without them noticing: http://auctionessistance.com/paypal-limitations-reasons/

One point is this: don't rely on Paypal for all your transactions. Read all these reviews and search horror stories and you will see what I mean.

My experience of PayPal is excellent from the efficient and knowledgable staff who are genuine and not false with scripts to read from like some telephone reps. They protect the customer in disputes where the seller has operated in certain unacceptable ways which do not adhere to trading standards. PayPal can control these situations by holding the customers money under the appropriate conditions and can enforce a full refund from the seller within a time scale if the seller has failed to meet selling requirements.

I used to maintain a small balance in my account, but no longer. When I went to use it recently, I found that it had been frozen by Paypal management. Upon inquiry, it turns out my adult son was involved in a billing dispute with someone or other. Since we share the same initials and address, they froze MY account as well as his. When this was explained to a Paypal agent, it was no interest....my account would remain frozen until my son resolved his dispute. Unethical, piratical and arbitrary. Paypal is managed by swine, IMO.

An unexpected experience. I made a purchase on ebay and used paypal to make the payment. After a month of not receiving the item I contacted Ebay, then Paypal. Paypal refunded my money and advised they were sorry for the bad transaction between me and the seller and they would pursue him to get their money back. The process was simple. They asked that I write an email to the seller asking about the product I purchased and if there was not a satisfactory response I would be refunded. The seller never responded. Paypal earned my trust and I would recommend the service to others.

Paypal is what I use for whatever payments I'm doing (or accepting) on the internet. they are supported in League (which I play a ton), and I accept payments when selling from my records-collection on Discogs.com - I warmly suggest this site to anyone who wants to buy/sell on the internet - it's perfectly safe! :)

The call center staff was rude both times we called. We've had our account frozen for buying on ebay. It's too much hassle, they still have our funds. Stick with Amazon for a much better experience.

PayPal is awesome. Got my money back from horrid sammydress via their conflict resolution centre in a very short time frame. It's a wonderful service especially when dealing with unscrupulous people. Thanks a million PayPal!

I don't rely on this site fully for online transactions but I use it a lot for neopets.com and any random sites I come across that use it. I've never had a problem and have used them for years....approximately 7-8 if I were to venture a guess.

I have done a lot of things with PayPal before they came to Russia. For now I'm disappointed with this website as I have lost possibility to work with it. For me after they registered in Russia officially it's useless.

paypal.com Good to use them for online purchase only and having been a long time sincere user of this site for several years due to the many who have bought from me an use them, the thing that is annoying here is there is only buyer protection but none for the top rated seller) they should change there policy for certain trusted members like myself or at least give some buissnes sellers some seller protection who have lost out to undesirable buyers.

First they decided put me through a "random security check" which was fine, I only had to change my password, email and security questions. But the real stinger was the fact they had removed ALL of my cards linked to the account.
This means I then had too relink all my cards before I could make ANY purchases online.
This process took more than 3 weeks to finish, as paypal neglected to take the money out of the accounts so i could reenter the codes to link them back to the account.
Literal trash.

Absolutely awful.... PURE CRAP!!! Buyer and Seller Beware!!! You are much better going with a site like payza or one of the other processors

Bad! They froze my account and have my balance because I bought a shower curtain on ebay. Do not trust Paypal

Internet shopping using a payment via PayPal . They are very reliable and when they are fully protected against various attempts at fraud . I had a case of buying the goods have not been delivered 35 days and the retailer has not responded to my mail . I asked for help from PayPal, they contacted the seller , they also did not respond for three days PayPal is my money back in full.
Always help advice and answers to all questions , and the protection of our customers in the first place , what I like about them .

Some of the worst Customer Support services out there. They never protect the seller, and the seller is the one paying the taxes to them.

A friend that does services had her acount licked until further investigation by paypal. Someone cancelled the credit card transaction after services were rendered and it may be her word against his . Having a business license is helpful but she does erotic services from her homes. You can't get a license for being a sugar -baby.

(Updated.)

PayPal is convenient but problematic.

1. PayPal goes to great lengths to avoid paying the tiny bank charges it incurs when you use your credit card. I guess it figures a penny saved is a penny earned. You have to be exceedingly diligent to avoid being shifted to a different funds source (like your bank account).

2. PayPal will not tell you the address or phone number of any merchant that might want to conceal that information. This of course facilitates shady or even fraudulent actions on the part of those merchants, since it discourages or prevents complaints and lawsuits. (For example, the Better Business Bureau will not process a complaint without a mailing address.)

3. PayPal touts its "PayPal Purchase Protection." What you won't read in PayPal's glowing words is that PayPal will apply it only for "tangible" purchases -- meaning purchases that are sent to a physical address. So problems with purchases of any kind of services, including links to downloadable software or special Web pages, or promises of support, are of no interest to PayPal. PayPal may tell you to pursue the question with your credit card provider, which, since the creditor is PayPal and not the merchant, is a dead end. Even worse, should a merchant's fraudulent actions come to light, you can expect PayPal to continue processing payments as for any other merchant.

- - - -

PayPal does have toll-free phone support. That support has markedly improved in recent years, but it's still far from perfect.

2nd time in month account locked poor custmer servoce. An all they got to say is waite 72 houers after being on phone a houer. Got to talk to a computer for 5 min just to talk to a real persen . Meanwile all I can tell ppl is I can't pay them even thow I have the $ had account for years no problem an now my account has issues

I have had (U.S.-based) eBay and PayPal accounts since like forever. I had the PayPal account for the sole purpose of buying on eBay and the PayPal account was linked to my Citibank account. They could just take the money directly from my bank account. Big mistake. Never give anyone access to your bank account, much less PayPal.

Once in a long while I would buy something on eBay and pay using PayPal. No problems.

So a couple months ago, one afternoon I went on an eBay buying spree and bought eight items totaling about $100 and paid using PayPal.

So PayPal takes the money from my Citibank account and then freezes my PayPal account refusing to pay the sellers or to return the money to my Citibank account.

They say I need to provide proof of ID and proof of residence at the registered address. Because, you know, such a buying spree and such huge amounts of money are clearly suspicious. Specially from an account that is only like 13 years old.

I sent several emails which got canned responses which had nothing to do with the subject. Time went by and sellers started to complain and probably thought I was making $#*! up to excuse my not paying.

On eBay the status of the payments showed as "cancelled" so it looked like *I* had cancelled the payment, not PayPal.

I opened a thread in the eBay forums explaining the case and I got a few sympathetic responses but after a few days the thread was disappeared without trace or explanation. At least it was there long enough for the sellers to see it and realize I was not making it all up.

I asked a friend to open an eBay account and pay for the items while I sorted out the case with PayPal. Which she did.

Six items were paid and received with the sellers being helpful and understanding. The sellers of two items say they never received the payment even though PayPal shows them as paid. These two transactions are still being disputed by my friend. What a mess and what a waste of time.

I called Citibank and told them I considered PayPal’s charges as fraudulent because they have my permission to charge my account in order to make payments on my behalf but not to just take money and keep it. Citibank said so sorry, if you don't absolutely trust them then don't give them permission to access your account because once they have taken the money it's gone forever. (Moral of the story: never give anyone direct access to your bank account, even if you think they are honest.)

So I call PayPal on the phone to see how to solve the issue. They need a utility bill to verify the address. Except that it is an address in America where I do not now live. At the time I opened the account it was good but I am now in Europe and now it is my girlfriend's address. Apparently there is no way to resolve the issue because I cannot change the address to a foreign address and I cannot change the name on the account to my girlfriend's name.

After almost two hours on the phone being transferred from one department to another what they are telling me is that I cannot get my money back unless I show them a utility bill I cannot provide because it is my girlfriend who lives there and utilities are in her name. So they just imposed a new rule without warning. A new rule which effectively blocks my money in their possession.

They explain this is not their choice but that the Federal Government requires this as a counter-terrorism measure. It requires this to give me back my money but they had no problem taking it from my bank account. No warning, nothing. They took my money and then blocked it. They could have blocked the PayPal account before taking the money but no. How convenient for them.

I said, look, I bought a bunch of trinkets on eBay worth about $12 average to be shipped from sellers in the USA to an address in the USA and paid from money in a USA bank account to bank accounts in the USA. Could you explain exactly how this could be used to finance terrorism?

They don't know and they don't care, they just follow Federal rules (which, apparently, allow them to take my money under false pretenses, no problem there).

So, being a practical kind of man, I thought what might be the way to get my money back. And I know it is child's play to get creative with a graphics program and manufacture what may apparently look like a utility bill with someone's name on it. Not that I would do such a thing which probably breaks all sorts of anti-terrorism laws and would subject the perpetrator to drone bombings and/or water-boarding. You know things have gotten out of hand when honest people have to lie just to get around the impossible bureaucracy. Kafka would be proud.

In any case, I was finally able to retrieve my money back into my bank account. Of course, the hours I spent trying to resolve this and the problems cause with the sellers and the aggravation are worth much more than the money I recovered.

Needless to say I immediately closed the PayPal account and warned my bank not to accept any further charges from PayPal. $#*! them.

So this is pitting PayPal for their retarded response in this case but also the retarded bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a cancer which will consume the society it is meant to help.

My friend just had his paypal account blocked ("permanently limited") because he sells software for parents to monitor and manage their kid's (and employers for their employees) internet and phone usage - apparently this is a prohibited in terms of paypal's acceptable use. They cited this as illegal activity - any other views out there as to how ridiculous this is. That didn;t bother me as much as the "this decision cannot be appealed" notice attached to the original. Nevermind the fact that parental and employee monitoring systems are perfectly legal. I'd be interested to hear from someone who'd actually take the opposing view that paypal is completley justified - bearing in mind that his paypal account is unusable (even to send money) and funds may only be withdrawn 180 days from now.

This is the best of the best international electronic payment system! The best protection and the best customer service!

I've been using Paypal for a long time now. Not because it's good, but because it's more convenient to make purchases and that every merchant uses it. If you ever purchase an item on Paypal from sites such as eBay and the seller offers returns, never claim the item is fake even if it is cause you will need to pay someone to verify it is fake or get some sort of proof somewhere. Instead, just say you want to return the item to the seller, and then leave negative feedback. I've lost over $500 because I couldn't get proof buying a Hermes belt on eBay.

After someone scammed me from Etsy, PayPal refused to help me and only ever sent me cookie cutter e-mail responses. I don't think I ever once talked to a human. Don't use PayPal if you don't care about the amount of money that's in the transaction. I had to go through my bank to make PayPal give me my money back. They don't care about their customers.

I had only one dealing with Pay Pal. I received $100.00 from a customer through them and when i went to retrieve it it was not there. I notified Pay Pal and they never got back to me.

As a Buyer: Paypal is pretty good with the buyer protection.... I needed it after I paid a guy and never received the item, and after countless emails and no replies, Paypal refunded me the money...
As a Seller: I've never had a problem with Paypal as a seller... although I've never really been screwed as a seller either.. Paypal is a great form of payment, especially if you have the Paypal card...
Update: I was just screwed by a buyer on Ebay last month.. A guy to which i sold an Xbox live gift card to, asked me to email him the code over eBay... That was a mistake... Guy disputed the charge saying I "hacked his Paypal account"... I contacted Paypal and Ebay and they did nothing.. Like don't they have record of this stuff?? meanwhile the guy has multiple feedbacks from sellers, who by the way all "gave" him XBox cards, saying "don't sell to him" and BEWARE".... That was a crappy experience..

Here's another social virus to steal all your money.
It belongs to the Bilderberg Group and it is a project with nazi origins (they hope to control the whole planet a day, just by controling your money).
If you know it, you will avoid it.

PayPal.com has always provided our company with good customer service. Any problems we have previously had have been solved. A simple phone call to PayPal and you will get a CSR really quickly who will help you with your frustrations.

I have been using PayPal for nearly a decade now. During that time I have sent money, received money, requested money, sent invoices, created subscription and buy now buttons as well as used other features. I find the site/services easy to use. I most often use PayPal to pay for items online, send friends or family money if they need it fast, track payments (work and online sales related), send invoices, and manage disputes. There are two things that I didn't like: (1.) if there's an issue with your account they can and will freeze it holding all of your money until the issue is resolved (while this has not happened to me I've seen it happen and that's scary) ----> (2.) They required me to provide my social security number in order to withdraw more than $500/month of my own money; I felt that was rather ridiculous considering they make money on everything. But given the sheer amount of people that use their service and that they have to cover their own asses I figure it was inevitable. Overall I'm satisfied with what I can do and how the site/services run.

Bought a dress from a company I didn't know is based in China, the company has a UK and US telephone number on the website. The sizing of the dress delivered was small and the company suggest I amend the dress locally and will be offered a 15% refund if I am happy with the option or return the dress back to China but I will be responsible for the postage cost. Need to say this wasn't mention in the return policy on the website. Thanks to PayPal, my money was recovered and credited back to my account. Fantastic case resolution from PayPal.

Like others have mentioned, your account gets locked and you're left searching for answers. For me, I have waited 2 weeks and nothing has been resolved. In the end, I just decided to give up and used western union.

Sellers used to use paypal to scam people, now, buyers use paypal to scam businesses. Especially you are selling downloadable or digital products, once your buyers downloaded them, they filed dispute and you lost the files and money. PayPal will 100% refund the money and screw you up!!

I have had the aweful experience of not receiving a product I purchased online. Paypal would not give me my money back. I have learned only to use my wellsfargo visa.

First let me say that I have previously used Paypal for years without a problem until now. I have been using the same paypal account with the same cedit card attached to it mostly for Ebay purchases since 2005. The credit card account I have attached to Paypal I have had long before both Ebay or Paypal ever existed. I have a fairly large credit limit on the card. I bought a pair of pants for my son off an Ebay vendor...not a big purchase..maybe around $15 shipped.

Long story short when I went to pay Paypal declined my payment because supposedly I have reached some magical spending limit over the years and now Paypal needs to verify that I am not a fraud. Ummm....I've been using and buying with the same card since 2005....if you haven't been able to figure out that I am not a fraud by now, I don't know what to tell you.
You would also think that if I was approaching whatever this magical limit was they might shoot me an email letting me know I was approaching said number so I don't try and buy anything.
Next I get an email saying I can undo this by either linking my bank account to Paypal or by getting a Paypal credit card. I do not give 3rd parties my bank account number nor do I want a Paypal credit card, thank you.

Fast forward to the following morning I decide to call Paypal to try and fix this so that I can pay for the pants I ordered. I am on hold for a total of 49 minutes before anyone even answers the phone. Finally a woman answers and tells me the same as the email. I need to link my bank or get a Paypal credit card. I tell her I don't want to do either. She says the only other thing I can do is give her my SS# over the phone. I told her I was not going to, I don't give that over the phone, I have no idea who she even is and that wasn't going to happen especially since I never gave Paypal that info when I first opened the account. She says that's all she can do and transfers me to a manager please hold.
I was on hold for another 15 minutes before I gave up and hung up. Terrible customer service. Who has time to be on hold for over an hour?? Unfortunately I can no longer say I like Paypal, and I caution anyone that wants to use it. And unfortunately for me that means since 90% of the vendors on Ebay only accept Paypal that I won't be using Ebay or reccomend either of them.
If you do choose to use Paypal, I advise you to make sure you don't have some magical limit on your account.
It's a shame that they treat their long term customers the way they do.

I personally did not have any trouble with this site yet, but I have a couple of friends that lost their money through this site. I guess it's either not very safe or my friends ware very unlucky and foolish handling it.

I use paypal few years for money transfer. I wish it had better support center, sometimes it takes several days to resolve simple issue for them. I guess paypal is most popular service but it’s not perfect

If you're buying and completing a no-nonsense transaction with a business and not an individual then by all means use PayPal. If you're selling however, caveat emptor!
I recently sold a wedding dress (final sale) to the mother of the bride for $2800. Unfortunately for me, this woman was as batty as they come and after purchasing, receiving and trying on the dress, the bride changed her mind. Change of heart is not a valid reason for a return as per PayPal’s own rules. Despite this and going though every appeal level at PayPal, this batsh!t crazy old woman just kept changing her story to PayPal until she had one that stuck; and returned a soiled dress back to me. PayPal is one of the worst services out there if you need to go beyond a normal transaction. Stay away and in situations similar to mine, insist on a certified cheque. Lousy customer service and lousy employees and supervisors.

Paypal would be a wonderful service if they would stick to the money transfer business and stay out of dispute resolution. They play by their own rules which they make up as they go along. They desperately need to be governed by a regulatory agency.

I do not like Paypal at all. I had a bad experience where they shut my paypal and kept my funds. They had no reason. I paid an ebay seller for a model train track accessory for a model train. It was like $2 and I could have bought it from toy's r us if they had it. That caused them to close my account and not give me back my balance of more than $80. I won't deal with Paypal.

I think taking 33% of someone payment is b.s. and needs to not be that much. I got paid $1 (usd) and they took 33% which left me I think it was 67 cents. I went to refund that dollar but can't unless I pay 33 cents of my own pocket money to the person who paid me the dollar. Not only that, but I can't send them 33 cents because PayPal will deduct 33% of the 33 cents I am forced to send as a payment. So it's actually MORE that I'd have to send them. There are so many fees and penalties for the stupidest little things that it's getting more and more difficult to sell things online. I'm really disappointed that "the World's most trusted" online banking / money transfer company tries so hard to nickel & dime everyone. If I can find a safer, cheaper way to sell online, then I'm going to take my business to them and leave PayPal in the dust.

Great way to safely and painlessly send and receive money. I use paypal multiple times a week and have never had an issue.

I actually really like PayPal. I use it whenever possible to make online purchases and I have so far always have good experiences. I recently did not receive an item that I ordered and I filed a dispute and escalated it to a claim. I called and emailed them throughout the course of the dispute and was always met with a friendly, helpful and most importantly English-speaking person on the other end of the line. It never sounds like they're reading from those cue-cards, either. One time I called and waited on hold for 25 minutes, which I think is a little bit ridiculous, but aside from that my calls are always handled quickly and professionally. I've never had issues transferring funds to my bank account either.

PayPal is all about SELLERS, not CONSUMERS

I have used paypal since the late 1990s, and I have tens of thousands of dollars in transactions. However, in the span of a few weeks, they have royally scr*wed me, one of their long standing customers. Let me explain.

About a month ago, I noticed that I had charges on my AMEX card going through paypal. However, these charges were not in my paypal account - total $500. I did a bit of background checking, and I found that these charges were occurring off-shore in China and they appeared to be fraudulent. I called my credit card issuer and they put a fraud alert on my card, indicated they would follow-up with PayPal, and told me to report this directly to PayPal. That took 5 minutes. Easy peazy.

I next called PayPal, indicated that I had unauthorized PayPal charges on my CC and that these charges did not appear in my PayPal account connected to my CC. After waiting an excessive amount of time for a pick up, being on hold and waiting, being transferred and waiting, I was finding forwarded to an English native speaking rep who agreed that these charges appeared to be fraudulent and would be investigated. That took 45 painful minutes that I will never get back.

Fast forward two weeks. PayPal sends me a message that they have denied my claim and I would need to work directly with my CC. What? These are non-authorized charges.

In about the same amount of time, I receive an expired food item from an online website. After 30 days of ordering with no resolution in sight, I contact PayPal to file a claim. They decide that if I return the item that they will refund. They provide me with an address, which I use. I pay for a trackable form of shipping. Everything looks fine, until the tracking indicates that the address is undeliverable. PayPal IMMEDIATELY denies my claim stating that the did not return the item. PayPal did not follow-up to my 2 complaints that I shipped the package to the address they specified.

Bottom-line. PayPal is all about protect SELLERS, not CONSUMERS. I have decided that I can live without PayPal and Fleabay. I will use my CC for transaction online from this point forward since I am protected under federal law. I don't have these protections under PayPal.

Good riddance.

Paypal can freeze any account whenever their system chooses to. THEY FROZE OUR ACCOUNT FOR BUYING TWO TOWELS FOR OUR BATHROOM AND THEY WON'T GIVE US BACK OUR BALANCE.

No more eBay because of paypal. No wonder amazon does so much better than eBay and Amaxons stock is mire than 5 times as much. Anything linked to Paypal is a mess.

Horrible customer service. The product is expensive for what it is. I cant wait for bitcoins to get popular b/c these guys need to go the way of the dinosaur. I also cant wait for the technology to move in a way where payments can be direct without big banks sucking up all the feeds---and yes, paypal has tons of those.