So I’ve been a loyal and faithful user of a very good service for the better part of a decade. Well I guess it’s true all good things come to an end! In setting up Alternative Haven I placed the donation link on the site and 2 days after it was put up I get a notification from PayPal that my account has now been permanently limited and to remove all links and references for Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) violation. I of course promptly removed any links and references to PayPal and responded back as such and asking to get my account status return. I did go and re-read the AUP as I hadn’t done so since 2000 when I opened the account and I’d had no reason to believe I needed to constantly go back and re-read a bunch of legal text. So I was unaware that they had updated the AUP to make using PayPal for adult services a prohibited use. Now wait a minute, don’t you have to actually do something to violate something?

That’s correct, I’ve had my PayPal account essentially terminated without having even done any transactions that violated the services AUP. I merely placed a link that could have violated the AUP and been a violation. So an account with over 9 years in good standing is unceremoniously terminated without actually doing any transactions which violated the agreements. A simple notification that the links were against the AUP and told to remove would have seemed a much more reasonable and proportional response but I guess we’re talking about PayPal the big jaugernaut throwing themselves around.  Now you don’t actually have to perform any transactions at all and you can have your account pulled from you.

As if that wasn’t enough, when they limit your account you can’t actually close it and you can’t remove any of your banking or credit card information. All of that is taken out of your control which leaves you only with the option of reporting the accounts as compromised or stolen and having all new account numbers issued to you by those institutions. I don’t know about anyone else but I am very uneasy with the idea of having my credit card and bank account numbers on a site I’ve lost control of by a company that is willing to take these extreme steps without any warning. I am also unfortunately being forced to find a new Xen VPS hosting provider as VPSFarm.com currently only handles PayPal for payment options although I have been informed that they are working to provide other means to pay by credit card directly.

At this point I can no longer endorse PayPal as a reputable online payment processor. I will be checking out what other alternatives are out there but I’d be more apt at this point to endorse Google Checkout or Amazon before I would recommend PayPal to any current or future clients.

Updated: Have spoken with Gabriel from PayPal Executive Escalations and gotten the party line of “We’re sorry for any inconvience” but even though you didn’t actually do any transactions that violated PayPal’s AUP/TOS you thought about doing it, so we’ve permanently limited your account. When questioned about being able to remove my banking and credit card information was told I couldn’t because of “auditing per government regulations” but again “PayPal is not a bank”, and that I would have to trust them that nothing would be done with the account information. I’ve gone and reported 3 of the active credit card accounts as lost/stolen and I’m in the process of working out closing the checking and savings accounts at two separate banking institutions without causing myself undo burdens (namely being without ATM debit card and checks).