it happ to me. I called them. they said there is nothing you or your buyer did / can do. When i asked PP what the heck is it? they said to me: "Concentrated buyer exposure" I got the buyer on the phone with PP and me. PP said only option is for me to refund buyer then be paid outside PP OR wait for 90 days then i can access my money. It was the first time this ever happ to me, i set up stripe the very next day and am very happy. Not doing PP. Algo's have NO compassion or ANY contextual understanding of why the buyer is paying me ( this case was past invoices, paid in 1 shot like 4 ) guy on the phone , first thing he did was read his PP "script" this conversation can be recorded. What a PITA. He could do "jack" and "shit" to help me. Its my money. How could PP just freeze my money without recourse? WHO reads the FINE print?
I guess this is due to a combination of multiple factors:
- your average of PP transfer amount per transaction is fairly low
- that single buyer / transaction was way over the usual average, possibly in the five-figures range
- the buyer paid PP with a credit card
With the last item, it begins to make sense: the dispution timeframe is 90 days (per FTC, https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0219-disputing-credit-...). Paypal might be considering a possible dispute in small amounts (maybe 100$) as "chump change" but doesn't want to be on the hook for getting 10k $ back from the seller if the buyer wants to do a dispute.
If I were a one-man-payment broker, I would do exactly the same. No way I'd accept such a liability, no matter how big or reliable your business is - it's not you who is the risk, it's the buyer who is a direct risk to my business because I'm at the interface with the CC issuing bank which will hit me with a negative 10k$ balance and lawyer fees to resolve the matter and get my account balanced.
But, thank the heavens, I live in Germany where we have way more transactions done using SEPA direct transfer (online direct payment, next to impossible to revoke except for technical errors or fraud, and even if it's only possible in 10 days) or SEPA debit, which does have revocations too, but unlike with CCs, the issuer banks usually punish the customer harshly for wrongful revocations.
