I'm just curious, I can no longer buy CDs/LPs through labels that only use paypal since paypal needs me to scan copies of a bill confirming I live where I say I do, my SSN, my bank routing/account # plus pin, a scan of my photo ID and some sort of documentation proving my SSN is my actual SSN. Also I cannot close my account without providing this info, should I call a lawyer?

Damn I just wanted to spend $30 on two CDs and a zine. I can get all the way to the checkout page but when I have to login it asks me to change my password, I have done this about 12 times now, it never seems to take hold of any changes I make to it. Dealing with Paypal is like trusting your financial info with a senile angry old woman. It'd be great if some distros, labels, ticket sellers had another option besides Paypal so I don't have to send a fucking money order. They have no customer service at all, they look like they do, they have a number, but you're not getting any.

It's amazing how insanely angry this will make a person, shouldn't seem like a big deal but I want to smash shit and scream. Damn!

Yep, same with me. I can no longer buy things through paypal because they now require all these documents as proof of ID in order to add new funds. Paypal is going to lose a lot of business - not many people wil feel safe uploading all that personal info. so I'm assuming they'll eventually change their policy and it'll be usable again.

I too had a shitty time when I tried ordering a Powertech weight lifting cage using Pay Pal for the first time. I placed my order and 2 days later Pay Pal cancels it because the amount was quite high in their opinion making the order suspicious of having been placed by somebody else. They did not contact me by phone to notify me of the cancellation and when I noticed their email it had been 3 or 4 days! So I call them and they tell me the funds have been in effect frozen and would be accessible only until the case had been resolved by some gov. agency. Their estimates for the case to be solved were around a week. If and when I did get the money back should I want to take it out and return it to my bank account it'd take even longer.

When I asked why they would think it was too high the woman beat around the bush blaming it on their automated system that was designed to pick up these kinds of things. So up yours Pay Pal.

When did this happen? I've been using paypal for years without problem - last time was about 2 weeks ago.

Same here, I used mine about three days ago with no problem. If this is the case it will be quite a problem, and I'll have to start using my visa.

They've been doing this for years in Eastern Europe, that's why I stopped using them. Ebay also wouldn't answer their emails, so I'd always be faxing them things and spending a lot of money on long distance telephone calls.

Although they only asked for i.d. and I think some bank account info, but not the pin. I would never give the pin and I would suspect fraud/malware in this case. The password thing seems sketchy too.

Really, you should call them if you can't close your account. Then get a lawyer if that fails.

There is an alternative though, you can use the "make a one time payment to PayPal", you can do this more than once, but it only works when ordering from bands, no ebay. If they stopped offering this I would be pretty pissed off, as it is the only way to buy stuff directly from most bands.

Remember, PayPal is NOT credit verification, they in turn get verified by the credit/debit card verifiers. So if there's a problem, you can cancel the payment straight through your bank. It's not fast though, canceling can take up to a month.

By the way, there has recently been a class action lawsuit against PayPal.

I'm from England and have never had any kind of a problem, I buy things on ebay and bands a lot.

The only thing Ive had to give them is my address, checking account/routing number, and to be on the safe side, a back up credit card. Ive noticed that some people are using the amazon one, where you just need the seller's email. It sounds to me like theyre asking for WAY too much personal info(photo id?).

Haven't had a problem with PayPal yet, aside from the absurdly inconsistent waiting duration before my money is transferred from my bank account and appears in my PayPal account.

I had to upload a photo of my driver's license. I quit the process after that because they also wanted a photo of my SS card.