PayPal! Aaaaaarrrrgh!!!

[Mr.Domains]

They are driving me nuts!
Why is it that if you're not residing in the US then PayPal and eBay just don't want your custom!?

I've been using PayPal for ages, I am a Verified Premier customer, and on average I make over 200 PayPal transactions a month, and yet they still don't want my custom!

I have a US bank account, a US credit card, (both verified), but I am currently based in France, so about a month ago they decided to transfere my account over to PayPal.fr, and my language preferences over to French. After struggling to locate the "préférences linguistiques" in the French interface I was able to switch it back to English, but now they have disabled my "Add Funds" options, because, apparently, us "Johnny Foreigners" aren't allowed to Add Funds!

Everytime I try to contact support to figure out how I'm supposed to fund my account I get no reply for 2 weeks, then they send me some automated response in French!

And eBay are just as bad, they switched my account over to eBay.fr where there are no language preferences, and I am only allow to buy and sell to French people! I contacted their customer support who told me you can only use eBay.com if you are a resident of the United States!

WHF is going on!?!

Sorry for the rant, but this is pissing me off! Does anyone else work abroad, and has found themselves in a similar situation?

 

[Dale Hubbard]

Shocking and typical. Short answer: Copy your post and paste it here:

www.paypalsucks.com

You might get the right answers from some of the seasoned veterans there that have had the royal shaft.

There IS a solution to this and I know it works because a friend of mine does it:

Go to http://www.money-around-the-world.com/

These 'virtual' cards actually work with both PayPal and eBay and you can have multiple accounts as the cards can have ANY address of your choice.

You have to beat these autocratic b**s at their own game.

 

[Martin23]

I can in the uk.

 

[Steen]

Not allowed to be an ebay.com customer if you're from outside the US?

I was under the impression ebay.com is not country specific, but rather a collaboration of all eBays.

 

[Dale Hubbard]

If you have an ebay account, you can sell in all ebay countries. Well, I know that's true if you have a UK or USA ebay account. If I want to sell something in Australia, I just log in at ebay.com.au and that's it.

 

[Mr.Domains]

If you have an ebay account, you can sell in all ebay countries.

Well here is a transcript of the conversation I had with eBay's "Live Help" people:

mr-haze: Hello?

Angela J.: Hello, thank you for using eBay chat. My name is Angie. How may I assist you?

mr-haze: Whenever I login to eBay the language turns to French and I
can't understand anything...

Angela J.: This is because you registered on the French site

mr-haze: No, I didn't! I registered on the US ".com" site, but because I am currently based in France you redirected me to the French site. I am quite sure about this because I remember trying just about everything to avoid this during signup.

Angela J.: If you do not have a US address, you cannot register on the ".com" site. You have a French address, therefore you must register on the French site

mr-haze: But the French site is only available in French! Do you realise how dumb it is to assume that every expat working abroad speaks the language of the country that they are currently posted in? I have collegues that are re-posted every few months!

Angela J.: I understand your frustration, however this is the way eBay has the system set up at this time

mr-haze: Does this mean that if I am reposted to china next month I will have to learn chinese to login to eBay?

Angela J.: If you have an APO address, then you want to register on the APO country section, then you will be on the US site

mr-haze: Well actually I'm British, can I register on the UK site?

Angela J.: Only if you're currently living in the UK

 

[Dale Hubbard]

Nightmare. They are there just to confuse. In order to try and help, what country of residence did you give when you registered on eBay US, and what is the issuing country of the credit card you used, and what country is that card registered to in your postal address?

Even that's confusing now I read it. What I mean is:

1. Which eBay URL did you use to register?
2. What country did you tell them you lived in when you signed up?
3. In what country is the issuing bank of your credit card?
4. In what country is the address where your credit card is registered with the issuer?

I can probably help from here... I've been through all this sh** before.

 

[freestyler]

If you have an ebay account, you can sell in all ebay countries. Well, I know that's true if you have a UK or USA ebay account. If I want to sell something in Australia, I just log in at ebay.com.au and that's it.

thats what i do too.