Update: Check out paypal’s purpose codes for freelancers and IT professionals here.
Paypal the online payments system has stopped working for India payments to and from. This has caused a lot of issues especially for IT developers who used to freelance for foreign markets and charge purely via the use of Paypal. Reports have been pouring in of several users whose transactions have been reversed.
Following is the standard reply that PayPal is sending to customers:
“Your payment of xxx has been sent back to the sender of the payment. We reversed this payment because we have stopped allowing personal payments to be sent to or from India.
“If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select “Goods,” and (c) provide a shipping address.
“If this payment was a personal payment such as a gift, then we have requested that the sender find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India. We are trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience.”
Techcrunch reports that Paypal has confirmed that personal payments to and from India have been suspended. There is no word though on why and for what concern was this step taken by Paypal.
The ewallet systems in India are governed by RBI and as you might know a Paypal like system in Wallet365 which was announced in 2006 was shut down due to RBIs directives. Offlate RBI has taken a kinder view towards mwallet and ewallet systems and also announced higher transaction amounts for the same.
As one can see from this particular incident Indians definitely need an Indian alternative for peer to peer payments both from India and from abroad. Too bad RBI is still to give a full green signal to a Paypal like system in India. But who knows after Paypal has stopped its shop the lobby for India payment services providers might just coax RBI to change its mind. Lets wait and Watch I say!
Paypal is even reversing legitimate commercial transactions. Withdrawals initiated on 28th jan is not yet in our bank and nobody responds from paypal.
And we do pay taxes for whatever money we get from Paypal.
I am really disappointed by the paypal service. They have reversed my transaction and the amount is lost somewhere. They don’t even have a customer care number in India. And on top of that my paypal balance is showing negative. They should have informed us in advance.
This is bad. My payments are stuck. PayPal must resolve this issue ASAP.
Online payments have been misused in India, and this is probably the reason why RBI is acting like this.
However, there must be provisions for online entrepreneurs who earn their bread through online payments/receivables etc.
I liked WATBlog. Great job
-Anshul
Founder and Editor in Chief
YouthKiAwaaz.com
Paypal done this without any intimation and how can paypal reverse money from our account once they have credited.
If they have stopped personal payments to and from India. then they have to block the option by sender side that he can not
send payment in India.
I got USD 577 in last few days. I have also requested to withdraw money in bank account. See what happens !!!!!!
Paypal canceled all my withdrawal requests and credited USD 542 and reversed to senders.
I got credit of USD 542 instead of USD577. Even if withdrawal requested are not completed (Deducted exchange rate fees). But
how can they deduct exchange rate fees even if transactions are not completed and money are sent back to senders.
Now I have negative balance. And I like that balance will become positive by deducting from credit card.
Who can tell that paypal is safe way payment method ????
No steps are taken in front of paypal.
Hi.,
I was a freelancer and verified PayPal user. Recently I had withdrawn $300 from my PayPal account to my personal bank account. Out of this $80 was a personal payment from one of my client. PayPal Reversed this transaction, as a result my account gone to negative balance. So PayPal reversed my Bank deposit. Now due to this reversal, I lost about $20 from my account. (PayPal charge 3.9%+$0.30 for every transaction which involves multiple currencies.)
Again, now my service provider is feeling that I gave him a full return and thinking that he don’t need to pay again. Even after a one hour discussion, he was not agreed to send money again.
Totally, I lost about $100 because of PayPal ridiculous activity. It was like PayPal robbed my account.
I want to make a complaint on PayPal for refund of the charges collected from me. Please advice me how to do that.
Is there any better alternative to PayPal which has the Indian Rupees as holding currency.
Hi all,
The issue is not yet resolved as on Feb 7th night…
Here is the recorded file of a conversation with a Paypal customer employee on February 7th, 2010..
The issue will be resolved only by Tuesday/Thursday and they are not providing exact reason for the issue…
Download and hear it…6MB mp3 file
http://filekeeper.org/download/shared/paypalcall.mp3
PayPal have always been known as scam artists. The US government should DO something about the millions of complaints PayPal gets every year. Do a search online for ‘PayPal’ scam and you’ll find millions of them – with so many people saying PayPal has kept their money. I wouldn’t touch PayPal with a ten foot pole. They’re morons!
And for anyone who wants to complain (which may be all of India), contact the Better Business Bureau in the US and make a written complaint. This WILL damage PayPal’s reputation even more than it is already damaged, so I recommend everyone do it who has a problem with PayPal.
BBB is the keyword of the hour! Paypal needs to be wacked
let all Indian Paypal users n suffers make a joint petition to the BBB about the personal transactions and suspended withdrawls
Issue not yet resolved:
8th February, 8-30 PM
Just made another call to Paypal customer care and had a chat with Supervisor too. They are having technical issues and developers are working on it. They are telling that issue will be resolved this week.
Here is the new recording of Paypal Chat:(8-02-2010) 10.1 MB
http://filekeeper.org/download/shared/Paypalcall_08FEB.mp3
The chat with the supervisor has more clarity.
Mahesh
Finally got reply from the paypal that they crediting funds back to the paypal acccount
Hi Mahesh,
Thx.. for the post…
But still no conclusion …. I hope we don’t loose money.. I had a huge transaction amount.. but not yet cleared.
And even now – the withdrawal feature works! I have 1000 USD somewhere missing and another 400 USD that it allowed my to withdraw.
Paypal conveniently tells me that it has cleared their system and I should check with my bank! when clearly the problem is them.
Shouldn’t they atleast prompt you when you are going to do a withdrawal or disable the withdrawal feature? Some solace when they are screwing around with you anyway currently?
And for the money that has been refunded to US parties – I have already delivered – have no clue if I am going to get that money back now.
I think I will speak to finance guy around the corner from my home – he doesn’t have an office but he has been in that tea shop many times I see and seems nice. I think he should be more ‘reliable’.
Hi,
Paypal have suspended service in india. there is no way to withdraw money from your paypal account. all withdrawals requests submitted in last few days has been canceled.
but this is not all , when withdrawal requests are canceled they are charging conversion fee on amount again(they charged first time also to convert USD to INR). for ex. i submitted a withdrawal request of 1168 USD on 3rd of FEB, at that time no service suspension information was available, later i received a email, which mentioned that transaction will be canceled and amount will be credited back to my account.
but today when amount is credited i am shocked to see they have credited only 1081 USD, they applied exchange rate again and also took their 2.5% conversion fee on amount. they just took my money for their own mistake.
so i lost around $88 USD without any reason. paypal is just minting money from transaction which was never credited to my account. when amount was never credited how can they charge me for conversion fee(from INR TO USD).
i am totally shocked, i am not sure what to do next.
also please any paypal user here do not make any withdrawal request (still there is no notification on paypal site or your paypal account) otherwise you will end up losing money.
How are they saying that it is a Technical Issue.
If you see their official blog their spokesperson is saying that the problem has something to do with problems with their stakeholders and business partners.
Please read –
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/02/personal-payments-and-local-bank-transfers-in-india/
Lets raise our voice hard across all forums, I am thinking of making a dedicated blog for this issue and lets all come on same page and then hit Pay Pal with all legal means.
They are gaining so much profits from Indians, they are supposed to answer about their services.
As of now 9th Feb 10, 21:07 IST problem is not resolved…
Thanks,
Himansshu H Singh
Hi Everyone,
This is from VOX Public Relations on behalf of PayPal. Just wanted to let you know that PayPal has posted an update on the situation here: https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/02/update-on-paypal-situation-in-india/
paypal issue has really gone too far. personally affected by this outage i really think we do need an Indian system for money transfers. and for all those who have transferred money the good news is that money is reversed to the bank account but the worst is dont know what to do with the money that is stuck with the paypal with nowhere to transfer. paypal really sucks.
Same things here…
My $47 also stuck between PayPal and HDBC bank.
PayPal account shows as completed transaction with id, But it’s not deposited in bank account yet… what to do now??
How long it will suck all Indian user??
It seems that Indian Government and all Indian Mas Media still in deep sleeeep….
plz contact Mr. Shashi Tharur [HighTech Minister]… he may understand our situation and can take any right decision favor of us.
Hi all,
Can anyone suggest any other service like Pay Pal from where we can accept International Payments??
Please give your views…
I think we all are sailing in the same boat. Transactions getting reversed and withdrawals not reaching bank accounts.
I remember last year we also had the same problem around the 26th Jan I think, when withdrawals were delay by 15 days.
Hi,
Anyone knows any other service?
Have personally used that service?
Please let us know if the problem has been resolved on Pay Pal…
Could some one tell what was the problem with Pay Pal last year??
Thanks,
Himansshu H Singh
This is Bull Shit.
Indian Government if is the cause of this problem, its a new low they have achieved.
To register as an exporter – freelancer, I am facing ample amount of problems from authorities. You need Business Bank Accounts, minimum balances, tons of documentations, tax registrations, all for what, 1-2 lakh rupees per annum.
And those guys won’t let you do business legitimately as well. Deposit 25Ks in various tax registrations first, then they allow you to export anything. Consultants won’t touch you for small businesses, and bureaucrats won’t help you in govt. offices.
If this problem is not resolved, Freelancers working part time from home will diminish.
This is not democracy.
indian goverment, RBI Sucks
they will never allow any one to earn Bread and Butter.
i hope RBI understand our situation and it will work soon
Typical Indian government attitude
Why blame PayPal when the problem is right here, at home, in India.
It is common knowledge that every Indian politician has a few lakhs or crores of Rupees safely stashed away. Depending on their position in the government hierarchy the amounts will be either Lakhs or Crores.
And if any of you guys think that the RBI is not aware of this, you need to go get your head checked. The RBI, the Income Tax and such departments, just take sadistic pleasure in harassing the common man while letting the real criminals who masquerade as politicians get away scot-free.
Like it or not, that’s India for you
…. Incredible India!!
Yes, its true indian Goverment SUCKS, Politicians SUCKS..
as well RBI SUCKS
Is there any update Guys? Can anyone tell me Pay Pal alternative services?
What the hell is going on? PayPal issue is STILL not resolved!!!!
hi,
I have withdrawn my money on feb 9th but upto now i didnt get money deposited into my bank account. I dont where it exactly strucked. I have asked paypal member to revert back my transaction but they said it is not possible. how to revert back my paypal transaction
Hey i truly apologize for whatever i’v commented,but this is become a very serious issue.My bussiness is been stopped bcoz of this problem,and there is no other alternate to run my bussiness.
I request you to resolve this issue ASAP.
please for god sake release our money i beg u
Hi Friends, i have withdrawn 738$ on Feb 10th 2010. Still funds not yet credited to my HDFC Bank. I have emailed about this issue to paypal customer care.
First time they replied like “Hello, my name is Alma. I am sorry to hear about the situation regarding your withdrawal dated Feb. 11, 2010 01:05:38 PHT , and understand your frustration and concern over this issue. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience on your part. I have carefully reviewed your account and I am happy to assist you.
Electronic transfers to your bank account usually take 5-7 business days to process. Holidays and weekends are not recognized as business days for most banking facilities, which may result in a delay in your banking
transactions.”
So i supposed to call my HDFC Bank Electronic Funds Transfer Department (Mumbai). He told all transactions are done from Deutsche bank. Paypal will not send funds directly to bank account. Paypal will do currency conversion and transfer funds to Deutsche bank, then Deutsche bank will transfer funds to our banks. Not only HDFC all other banks transactions done like same. He asks Deutsche bank UTR number to trace funds transaction status. He told that paypal have this 16 digit UTR Number. So Call them and get back to our bank customer care again. This is what he told.
Again i emailed to paypal today and they replied to me as follows
They replied to me like ” I checked your account and I see that you have initiated a withdrawal on Feb 11, 2010 for the amount of $714.15 USD. We are currently experiencing an issue processing bank transfers to India bank accounts. As a result there may be some delays in both withdrawals and random deposits.We are currently experiencing an issue processing bank transfers to India bank accounts.As a result there may be some delays in both withdrawals and random deposits.
We are doing everything we can to process your withdrawal as soon a possible; however, we do not have a specific time frame to share at this time.
I know that this is somehow inconvenient on your end; I assure you though that your money will still post to your bank account and we are sorry for any inconvenience. You can view our PayPal blog at http://www.thepaypalblog.com for the most up-to-date information.”
I am still having doubt like, whether i will get my 33,228 to my bank account or not. I have stopped my freelacing business this month. My clients are still giving work, but i am not interested to work with them. Because i am upset now, How can i able to fullfil their requirements.
Paypal is the only option to continue our business. Paypal should take care of all our issues and should do transactions properly.
May all will get our funds by Next Month March 1 week.
Thanks,
Vinod
Hi Friends,
I think we all are suffering because of our SUCKING Indian government and fools sitting at RBI. why can’t RBI gets it’s own system instead of PayPal
Hi All of you, I am also one person who is suffering from this issue. but I am very much confident in paypal,dont worry they will solve this problem. We should not blame paypal , we should be assame of our RBI rules. every country accepts paypal payments, but our governament only is not allowing. if this problem is not solved, they will revert back our amount to paypal we can use other way to get money.
Hi Ramdayakar, Could you explain other way to get money. So all of us can get our funds with safe. I appreciate your positive attitude. This is what we all of us need. We will get our payments.
Thanks,
Vinod
Hello,
For the paypal recent problem can anyone tell me is there any other process to withdraw money from paypal?
Thanks
Riktam
1. we can use xoom.com to transfer money, we can transfer money to other bank account like (mom or dad account) not the same as your name.
2. via credit card
3. echeck.
I prefer xoom.com good exchange rate also. we will loose only 300 compare to paypal.
If we use same bank account they say it as intra-bank transaction and cancel our transaction.
for more refer this http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1689038&page=72
Hi,
All the people who are trying to transfer the money through Xoom.com, I would like to let you know that it won’t work any how.
I tried this method and it failed, reason for this is we have our country of residence in our Pay Pal ID as India, Pay pal has authenticated it via Credit Card (at the time of pay pal verification through credit card) that we are Indian Citizens with Valid Credit Cards.
Now, Xoom says that if you transfer the money in Pay Pal account with Indian ID to Xoom and try to Withdraw it in Indian Bank A/C, this is Intra India Payment, i.e. Payment is moving within India.
So, this is some what not legal as per RBI Guidelines, so nothing can be done about it as of now.
Some people have said to get a successful Xoom transaction, may be they had personal unverified Pay Pal ids.
For rest, there is only Credit Card withdrawal and Checks through Pay Pal.
Thanks,
Himansshu H Singh…
paypal is playing the monopoly game
Hello Friends,
Iam also one of the affected people. Iam not able to withdraw my amount in my bank account. Now iam going to help you by giving you certian important information about this problem.
Just now i called the RBI complaints cell. I have lodged a complaint against R.B.I. I want all the affected people to call and complaint against R.B.I’S foolishness. The phone numbers are available below.
The Reserve Bank of India has set up a Complaints Redressal Cell in all its Regional Offices under the Regional Director.
1.
Ahmedabad
079-27542216
079-27541993
2
Bangalore
080-22277620
080-22210185
3
Belapur
27576717
27570015
4
Bhopal
0755-2553179
0755-2552283
5
Bhubaneswar
0674-2396089
0674-2395911
6
Chandigarh
0172-2721366
0172-2701186
0172-2721366
7
Chennai
044-25367236
044-25365220
8
Guwahati
0361-2734267
0361-2540033
9
Hyderabad
040-23230299
040-23230299
10
Jaipur
91-141-2562060
91-141-2563016
11
Jammu
0191-2474886
0191-2470576
12
Kanpur
0512-2333266
0512-2306105
13
Kochi
0484-2402820
0484-2402715
14
Kolkata
033-22308341,
033-22300470
033-22313645
15
Lucknow
0522-2392309
0522-2392309
16
Mumbai
22675469-22705724
22705724, 22665724,
22650058
17
Nagpur
0712-2532351
0712-2536756
18
New Delhi
011-23356720
011-23731461
19
Panaji
0832-2438660
0832-2438657
20
Patna
0612-2322587
0612-2320407
21
Thiru’puram
0471-2324778
0471-2330843
In the event of the complainant not getting a reply within a period of 35 days or his not being satisfied with the reply received, he may write to Shri G.Jaganmohan Rao, Chief General Manager, Reserve Bank of India, Customer Service Department, 1st Floor, Amar Building, Perin Nariman Street, Mumbai 400 001.
You can send me thanks email to this address – crazy.aden@yahoo.com
well what did they (RBI) tell you ?
I called and explained the situation. It was very difficult to make the person from the complaint cell to understand the problem. He simply said call after 10 mins.I called and said R.B.I has caused a lot of inconvinience to indians and they have not even informed to the people of india that they have asked the banks to stop accepting payments from paypal. But he said they have informed banks. I said its your job to inform us. He said we have published about this on the newspaper. But that is not true.Then i asked to whom should i complain. He gave me the address. I have done. So friends contact the person who is incharge at your city.
Banking Ombudsman,
Reserve bank of india
rajaji salai
chennai – 600011
Thanks,
we will call Bloody RBI Suckers.
Third class Indian government
other country appreciate Information Technology
and due to our Indian Suckers system we have to Stop our Bossiness
Shame on india.
any updates for the day … please let me know … it sucks …
Reserve Bank of India has set up a Complaints Redressal Cell at Mumbai under Shri J.B.Bhoria, Regional Director (Maharashtra & Goa) for prompt redressal of complaints from members of the public against the Reserve Bank at the following address:
Reserve Bank of India,
Complaints Redressal Cell
Mumbai Office
1stfloor, Main Building,
Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg, Post Box No. 901
Mumbai 400 001.
Any person who has a grievance against any Department of the Reserve Bank at Mumbai may lodge his/her complaint with the Cell at the above address. The complaint should contain the name and address of the complainant, the Department against which the complaint is being made, and facts of the case supported by documents, if any, relied upon by the complainant.
Members of the public can also approach the Designated Officer Smt. A. S. Telang, Assistant General Manager (Personnel) on Telephone No: 022-22705724, or at the E-Mail or call on her at the above address
Similarly, any person who has a grievance against any Department of Reserve Bank of India at CBD, BELAPUR, NAVI MUMBAI, may lodge his/her complaint to the Cell at the following address:
Shri. A.K.Sarangi,
General Manager
Reserve Bank of India
Plot No. 3, Sector 10,
H.H.Nirmaladevi Marg
Cbd, Belapur, Navi Mumbai 400 614
Members of the public can also approach the Designated Officer Shri B.M.Patnaik, Assistant General Manager (Admn.) on Telephone No: 27576717, or at the E-Mail or call on him at the above address
In the event of the complainant not getting a reply within a period of 35 days or his not being satisfied with the reply received, he may write to Shri Jagamohan Rao, Chief General Manager, Customer Service Department, Reserve Bank of India, Amar Building, 1st Floor, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai – 400001.
I transferred money from Paypal last weeek and received no such messages. Infact, my transaction went through, but still have not not arrived to my bank account.
After this experience, and reading many of other people reviews on this whole issue, I could only conclude that RBI is a shameless organization. There are people in our soiety who cannot see others growing.
What is scenario with paypal…..they are not giving tentative dates also that when this local bank transfer will open…..this is ridiculous….our money is on stake for no reason…..does anybody have an idea what is the actual position….is it goin to open ever or not……
Dear Friends,
Each person should contact and ask them why you causing us problem. we shud stop being lazy. We shud’nt wait to get a solution from other person. Let us all fight together. Each one of you contact them independently and post your thoughts.
Address and Area of Operation of Banking Ombudsman in India:
Banking ombudsman is responsible for dealing with complaints relating to banking practices. Find the address below and complain to him as well.
Download – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=UWLV5BA8
I read an article explaining expansion of NEFT services and the software application enhancement status. So as per that the problems should get resolved on march 1st… but let us see…
is there any updates for the day …saturday…my money withdrawal is on hold with paypal or rbi not sure .. but it is 10th day of my withdrawal………….
Hi All,
Pay pal has resumed the payment to India, there is update on their blog –
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2010/02/resuming-local-bank-withdrawals-to-india/
** But now RBI has instructed them to ask for some export code, god knows how software guys will be giving the export code
Anyways, farhad irani has said that they will be back more on this by 3rd of March.
Wish luck to all of us that there is no F thing Export Code from Indian Govt. on us.
Himansshu H Singh