Here is the horror story of how I lost access to my PayPal account for the past 2 1/2 years over an account trade. By the end of typing out the situation my question is does anyone think that I need to get a lawyer involved in this, or if there is anyway in fixing this issue.
This happened back when I was still in High School. I had put up an add to sell my then SWG account up on MarkeeDragon. I received an offer for my asking amount of $130 from a guy who lived in London, and after chatting with him for a bit found out that I knew who he was in-game, and on the same server coincidentally.
We finalized doing the deal over PayPal, and were talking on AIM at the time. I sent him the Login and Password first, and then once I recieved payment I gave him the answer the the secret question and last four digits to the original CC. (SOE CS asked for that stuff if you had an issue with the account).
Anyway, a little less than a month went by. All was well. I spent that $130 on some things which I had intended on doing in the first place when I decided to sell the account.
Back when I was in High School I was in our schools AFJROTC, and for 1 week, about 3 weeks after our trade, I was at a Leadership Seminar at Scott AFB, IL. During that time I did not have access to my phone, except for a pay phone. That ended on a Saturday, and instead of graduating with my class I left at 6 in the morning to catch a flight to Europe. It just so happened that on that day I was also leaving for a 21-day trip to Europe with the People to People Student Ambassador Program.
While I was away in Europe I did not have use of my cell phone due to how expensive the international charges were, and I had pre-paid phone cards to use if I wanted to phone home.
Now here's where the issue begins. It seems that probably the day or so after I left for Scott AFB SOE had detected that my account was accessed on a European IP, and had been for the last 3 weeks. After being logged on an IP from the Midwest for the past 4 years they permanently banned the account.
Once the buyer of that account saw that he emailed me asking me to call SOE to see if I could fix it. Since I had no access to my email or any Internet for 4 weeks, I did not see that until I got back.
What I also did not see until I got back was that 2 days after no response from me, he issued a charge back on PayPal claiming that he never received the virtual goods. Due to my inactivity I missed the grace period PayPal offered me to respond to the dispute, PayPal upgraded the dispute to a claim, and once I was unable to respond to that as well they sided with the buyer, and gave him the charge back. Though, since my account was $0.00 at the time, I don't think it cleared the dispute for me, since I still have the dispute on my account.
Since then my account has been on limited access, still showing the dispute, and not giving me any option to do anything about it even if I hit the resolve button. I cannot receive funds, edit my CC info, or close the account. If I had been able to see all of this I would have refused to offer him a refund, because, after all, he should have thought of that when buying an account when he lived in Europe, and I America.
I have emailed him back and forth several times over the past 2 1/2 years explaining the situation to him and asking him if he would please close the dispute. He refuses, claiming my story was made up. I've done everything to prove it to him except dig up Airline ticket receipts to show him. I have told him that I would not refund him the money even to this day.
Now, what I'm asking, is if anyone knows how I can finally resolve this issue. Now that I'm heading to College and need to start buying real world things, I know it would be useful to have access to my PayPal for reasons other than account buying/trading. I have been thinking if I need to contact a Lawyer to see what I can do about this.
Thank you for reading the long post, and any help would be very beneficial.
---------- Post added 02-09-2012 at 11:02 PM ----------
Forgot to add that this whole thing took place from June-July 2009.
June being when the account was sold. Me being gone around the middle of June-middle of July. Can't remember exact dates right now.
This happened back when I was still in High School. I had put up an add to sell my then SWG account up on MarkeeDragon. I received an offer for my asking amount of $130 from a guy who lived in London, and after chatting with him for a bit found out that I knew who he was in-game, and on the same server coincidentally.
We finalized doing the deal over PayPal, and were talking on AIM at the time. I sent him the Login and Password first, and then once I recieved payment I gave him the answer the the secret question and last four digits to the original CC. (SOE CS asked for that stuff if you had an issue with the account).
Anyway, a little less than a month went by. All was well. I spent that $130 on some things which I had intended on doing in the first place when I decided to sell the account.
Back when I was in High School I was in our schools AFJROTC, and for 1 week, about 3 weeks after our trade, I was at a Leadership Seminar at Scott AFB, IL. During that time I did not have access to my phone, except for a pay phone. That ended on a Saturday, and instead of graduating with my class I left at 6 in the morning to catch a flight to Europe. It just so happened that on that day I was also leaving for a 21-day trip to Europe with the People to People Student Ambassador Program.
While I was away in Europe I did not have use of my cell phone due to how expensive the international charges were, and I had pre-paid phone cards to use if I wanted to phone home.
Now here's where the issue begins. It seems that probably the day or so after I left for Scott AFB SOE had detected that my account was accessed on a European IP, and had been for the last 3 weeks. After being logged on an IP from the Midwest for the past 4 years they permanently banned the account.
Once the buyer of that account saw that he emailed me asking me to call SOE to see if I could fix it. Since I had no access to my email or any Internet for 4 weeks, I did not see that until I got back.
What I also did not see until I got back was that 2 days after no response from me, he issued a charge back on PayPal claiming that he never received the virtual goods. Due to my inactivity I missed the grace period PayPal offered me to respond to the dispute, PayPal upgraded the dispute to a claim, and once I was unable to respond to that as well they sided with the buyer, and gave him the charge back. Though, since my account was $0.00 at the time, I don't think it cleared the dispute for me, since I still have the dispute on my account.
Since then my account has been on limited access, still showing the dispute, and not giving me any option to do anything about it even if I hit the resolve button. I cannot receive funds, edit my CC info, or close the account. If I had been able to see all of this I would have refused to offer him a refund, because, after all, he should have thought of that when buying an account when he lived in Europe, and I America.
I have emailed him back and forth several times over the past 2 1/2 years explaining the situation to him and asking him if he would please close the dispute. He refuses, claiming my story was made up. I've done everything to prove it to him except dig up Airline ticket receipts to show him. I have told him that I would not refund him the money even to this day.
Now, what I'm asking, is if anyone knows how I can finally resolve this issue. Now that I'm heading to College and need to start buying real world things, I know it would be useful to have access to my PayPal for reasons other than account buying/trading. I have been thinking if I need to contact a Lawyer to see what I can do about this.
Thank you for reading the long post, and any help would be very beneficial.
---------- Post added 02-09-2012 at 11:02 PM ----------
Forgot to add that this whole thing took place from June-July 2009.
June being when the account was sold. Me being gone around the middle of June-middle of July. Can't remember exact dates right now.
Not sure how it works in the US, but in the UK if you ring up your bank and say you've lost your card, assuming you can confirm the necessary information you can get a new one sent to your house in 3-5 working days. Use new card on new paypal 
