Diary

I’m too young to die from a PayPal induced heart attack!

Yesterday was going pretty well. I had finished the research and sent out the Trading Tips email. I had a late lunch and was replying to a few emails. I was intending to save my trading for later in the evening.

Then I had an email from Paypal.

“We’re initiating closure of your Paypal account”

Yeah, of course you are. I get a lot of spam emails from them that go to an email account that isn’t associated with a Paypal Account. It was a few seconds before I realised that I was in the email account that WAS linked to my Paypal account. I opened the email and felt sick.

Following our review, we’ve permanently limited your account as we detected that this account was engaged in activity intended to deceive PayPal and its customers. You’ll no longer be able to use PayPal account.
Based on this decision, if applicable, you’re no longer eligible for Seller Protection as per our User Agreement. This will apply to all existing and future cases you receive.

I am very certain that I do nothing that could be seen as deceiving Paypal or its customers. “You’ll no longer be able to use Paypal account”. Thats the sort of grammar that you find in a spam email isn’t it?

If you have money in your PayPal balance, we’ll hold it for up to 180 days.

WHAT?? At the time, I had around £600 in the account. I logged into the account and saw a message confirming that my account was limited. I tried to withdraw the £600 but wasn’t allowed to.

OK, NOW I’m worried, stressed and pissed off. My brain was going at 100 mph. This can’t be right. I have done nothing wrong. I can’t take any payments until I get this sorted. What if I can’t get it sorted? The word “permanently” in the email didn’t sound promising.

I found the customer service number and called them. Quite a long wait to get through. When someone did pick up they sounded Spanish. The quality of the line was terrible. I explained why I was calling. Due to a mix of the poor line and his poor English (still a thousand times better than my Spanish) it wasn’t easy to make out everything he said but I got that the emails had been sent automatically and should not have been. He said something about getting an email from Paypal in 3 days, which didn’t make much sense. I asked him to confirm that my account was NOT going to be closed, which he did.

So that made be feel a little better but the account was still limited. That meant no one could pay for my services. Practically all my non trading income comes via Paypal. So while I am thinking about what to do next, I am also thinking about alternatives to Paypal in case I am not able to get the account back.

I went on Google to try to find a solution from people that may have been in the same situation. There were cases where this had happened and a few that claimed to have got their accounts back, but the majority were complaining that you can’t get a response from Paypal and speaking to them on the phone was a waste of time.

“If you speak to customer service, they just tell you what you want to hear to get rid of you. They’re not interested and once they decide to close your account there is nothing you can do”.

Maybe Spanish Guy had been doing that to me!

There was talk of people getting accounts limited and shut down due to abusing the friends and family option when sending money to avoid paying fees. Apparently, Paypal are really trying to clamp down on this. It isn’t something that I do as I rarely send money via Paypal.  I had received the occasional payment this way if a Paypal subscription had failed. Surely that is something for the sender to be punished for, rather than the receiver.

I spoke to a couple of people to ask if they had had any recent issues with Paypal and they had not.

If I have a problem with a company’s service, I find that their Twitter team are usually a very good way of getting things sorted. So, I went to their customer service account and sent a message asking for help. They replied very quickly and gave a link that I could use to email customer service for specific account queries. I gave them a try.

I went to the link and typed a message explaining that it must be a mistake and that as a long-standing customer I should be told specifically what I was supposed to have done wrong. I got a very fast reply. Within a couple of minutes. When I thought about it later, it was clearly a bad sign. If a human had replied, it would have taken a lot longer for them to deal with all the customer emails that I am sure they receive. These were automated emails.

The reply said that their decision was final, and any money owed would be taken from my balance.

I don’t owe anything! I replied to this message asking again for specific reasons for closing the account. Anther very quick reply came back saying that,

Dear Paul Shires,

We appreciate your interest in PayPal. Unfortunately, our decision to close your account is final.

PayPal reserves the right to close any account reported to be involved in possible fraudulent or high risk behaviour. In the event of a dispute, PayPal will seek to recover the funds from you by debiting your PayPal balance. If the funds from your PayPal balance are insufficient, PayPal reserves the right to collect your debt to PayPal by any other legal means.

If you have money in your PayPal balance, we will hold it for up to 180 days. After that period, we will email you with information on how to access your funds.

In order to protect the integrity of the PayPal service, we cannot disclose the specific criteria that we sometimes use to limit access to accounts.

For more information on reasons why we might limit access to accounts, please refer to the ‘Closing Accounts and Limiting Account Access’ section of our User Agreement. You can find the User Agreement for PayPal Service by clicking ‘Legal Agreements’ at the bottom of any PayPal page.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

Sincerely,

PayPal Account Review Department

PayPal

“We regret any inconvenience this may cause.”. Bullshit.

I needed to speak to someone. I called the number that I tried earlier. This time I got through to a lady with an Irish accent. Again, I explained why I was calling. I told her that I was sure I had done nothing wrong.

She had a quick look at my account and told me that they were having a problem with an automated process that was sending out these emails and applying limitations to accounts. She confirmed that I had done nothing wrong. Apparently, she had started her shift a couple of hours earlier and almost every call was for a similar issue.

Whilst this has not taken you very long to read, all this spanned several hours. The feeling of relief was intense to the extent that as I was thanking her for her help, I could hear my voice cracking a little. That’s not like me at all. Losing the Paypal account would be a huge issue. Sure, there are alternatives, and this has prompted me to look into those alternatives, but most people want to use Paypal when purchasing online. You get protection as a buyer.  

It was late in the evening when I finally had an email to tell me that full access to my account had been restored. By that time my brain was in no state to be trading.

   

I don’t seem to have as much time during the season to post diary entries. Obviously the main tours have ended now so just a bit of Challenger trading. Well, there is the Davis Cup this week though I have never really got on with those matches. You spend time researching a match and the bugger’s change players a few minutes before the match.

As we near the end of the 11th month of the season, to be honest I’m ready for a break from the screens! A couple of planned holiday’s didn’t come off this year. I did threaten to put the dogs in the car and take off camping on my own. That didn’t go down too well.

Tennis Profits opened the doors for Wimbledon. Other than the initial push for the opening we have not advertised the service. We were waiting until the Live Stats Module was complete. The Trading Stats Report took forever to be completed. It gives relevant stats for the strategies that are on the site. We already had the stats but the developer somehow dragged things out for way too many weeks. The In Play Stats was one of the main reasons that I got involved with TP. If that turns out as I want it to, it will be a real game changer for tennis traders. Work on that has started and hopefully we will have something to look at next week.

The TradeShark Tennis Trading Guide is still available separately. I have been doing live trades for Tennis Profits and I am intending to do some live streamed trades for TradeShark members in the new season. I used to do those when I was still trading as a hobby but they were a little chaotic at times. I have ironed out the kinks and they now work well.

Just a month to go to Christmas. We had a decent one last year despite having to move the Christmas dinner to Boxing Day. That meant my wife had to switch her Boxing day shift to the 25th and I had that day to myself. I quite enjoyed it! This year our daughter, son in law and grandkids are settled in their new house and we are going there for dinner. I hope you all have a great Christmas this year, especially if things didn’t quite work out in 2020.

You might remember that I had an issue with the kids of one of our neighbours a couple of years ago. They were throwing a basketball around and it was constantly coming over the wall into our back garden and damaging plants and pots. I wrote about it HERE. Anyway, a few weeks ago on a Saturday afternoon, the doorbell rang. I wasn’t expecting anyone. I opened the door. It was Mensa Boy! He looked a bit nervous. He said,

“We have been sent a video.”

I thought to myself that I hoped you would have been. The previous week, one of the dogs was going nuts at the back gate. I went outside and when he heard the back door opening, a teenager climbed on the fence that separates the path at the side of the house from the pavement.

“Can I stroke your dog?”

“You wouldn’t want to.”

“Why?”

“You’ve heard of drugs detector dogs? He’s a retard detector dog. You wouldn’t stand a chance.”

This joker is a mate of Mensa’s kids and fancies one of the girls. Even though the basketball incident was a couple of years ago, the girl can still be heard to say to her mates loudly if I am in the street that “I hate him! He’s nasty!” (I’m not nasty). This idiot was trying to show that he wasn’t scared of me.

For some reason, a group of around 8 teenagers had decided to sit on the pavement just outside our back gate. They were one of Mensa’s girls and her boyfriend plus some other mates. There is a street light there and parked cars which blocked Mensa and his wife from seeing what they were doing, which was popping pills.

About 6 feet from the gate, and clearly visible from the pavement I have a camera. Just one of those wifi ones but the quality of the images is decent and it records audio. I logged into the camera app on my phone to keep an eye on them. One of joker’s friends asked him,

“Why are we sitting here when there is a camera?”

Joker: “Its not working. If it was, the red light would be on.” (Incorrect).

Over the next hour or so, the rest of the group weren’t doing any harm, other than to their own mental and physical health with whatever shit they were taking. Joker decided he wanted to wind me up. He climbed over the fence and on to the garden wall. He was trying to look into the kitchen and took a photo of the back door. He said to one of his mates,

“Imagine if I jumped into his garden and knocked on his door!”

The camera, as well as recording video and audio, also has a speaker. Now, bearing in mind that he thought the camera wasn’t working, he was a little surprised to hear,

“Well, I’d kick the living shit out of the trespasser and the dog will eat what’s left”.

He was like Daley Thompson going over that fence.

Anyway, as the group got more stoned they got louder and Mensa’s girl must have had a bad reaction to the drugs as she was screaming like she was being attacked. They moved away from our gate into Mensa’s front garden. The camera caught most of this. There is a woman over the road who knows everyone, or at least says she knows everyone. She is mates with my wife and I told Sue to send her the video. I thought that she would send it around the locals. I knew Joker lived in the estate somewhere but had no idea which house.

So, this was the video that was sent to Mensa and his wife.

“I’ve been sent a video.”

He clearly wasn’t sure how I was going to react. The only previous time we had talked ended in me shouting after him as he ran inside his house,

“Why don’t you try doing some parenting, you prick!”

He said that he totally understood why I had the camera up, but it shouldn’t be pointing at his driveway. He was absolutely right and I told him so. When I had reviewed the camera footage I had thought exactly that and had moved it. After that we actually had quite a nice chat! I had him all wrong. He was keen to apologise for how he had reacted to me when I took the basketball to him to complain about his kids. He said he had a really bad day at work and as soon as I walked away, he regretted how he handled it because I must think he was a real arsehole.

I told him that yes I did think something like that. Best to be honest! I told him that I regretted the prick comment, mainly as it made me look a twat in front of the neighbours. So, Mark and I are now bestest buddys. We talked for about 40 minutes. Fair play to him for knocking on my door. Just as my first impression of him wasn’t good, I am sure his impression of me wasn’t great either.

Joker’s parents must have seen the video too as he hasn’t been near. The teenagers have found a new place to hang out after dark.

I finally had my text inviting me to get the booster jab. The first date available at the nearest Vacc centre was December 22nd! The Covid ward in Worcester is till full. 25 Covid positive patients. All of them haven’t had the jab. I think anyone who has not had it by now isn’t going to change their mind.

There are probably a third of customers in Tesco that still wear masks. I am one of them. I’m not at all worried about catching it but as Sue is around Covid positives, there is a good chance that she will get it, and if she gets it, I get it. Around a dozen of the staff there have tested positive. I see it as irresponsible for me not to wear a mask in shops, give Sue’s constant exposure. Hopefully enough people have now either had the jab or have some natural immunity having had the virus and we won’t get a spike in cases after Christmas.

That will do for now. Have a great weekend.