The PayPal hammer dropped today.
The account that handled payouts has been frozen, and ironically it has NOTHING to do with Bitcoin or e-currency. It seems to be the random PayPal wrath that everyone speaks of which has no real reason except pure thievery from their end.
They cited some rule about the method I was using to pay was against the rules based on the source of funds I was funding my account with (
seriously??)
They said it was against their TOS to use my funds for anything other than payments to online stores, not person to person payments. This is even though they are raking in tons of fees every time I do that.
So basically they froze my account based on some obscure rule about how they didn't like how I was spending my own money, and now it will probably be 6 months before I can get my funds in that reserve unlocked and sent back to me.
Absolutely ridiculous. In response to this, I am not even going to bother dealing with PayPal any more. I figure I will get my money out eventually and they will simply lose out on the daily fees they get from me whenever I use their service. I will no longer have to give an entity I never liked money, and I no longer have to deal with the headaches associated with them. They lose, I win.
If you are awaiting a PayPal payout from me, you will receive your money within the next few days from one of my backup accounts, I am just working on getting those accounts funded.
I am in the processing of e-mailing everyone with pending PayPal payments to let them know the details of their specific situation. I assure you everyone WILL be paid out, either through a backup paypal account or via western union or bank wire (processing fee for that will be absorbed from my end).
Anyone who is waiting on a Western Union, MoneyGram, or Bank Wire, or gift card, the processing time will be unaffected, however your patience and cooperation is appreciated during this time while I get everyone sorted out.
UPDATE: It looks like PayPal is going to try to withdraw some pending eChecks from my account to let it sit in their black hole for 6 months. I gotta race against time to close my bank account before PayPain can debit it. It's gonna be an early morning tomorrow.
Thanks again to everyone for being so understanding and cooperative regarding the delays.