Puritan-ky
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Kentucky
Im gonna start from the beggining and explain everything so be warned this will be a long post! But im at a lost and need help.
May 2005 I was working full time at a cabinet factory, normal joe trying hard to make ends meet. I also did alot of carpentry work on the side for extra money. I was known as the nieghborhood furniture maker. ( Ive worked with wood since I was 14 now 22 even went to college for Commercial Cabinetry) Like many red blooded americans I was sick of living paycheck to paycheck and always facing financial hardship. I often looked for a niche to help set me free. Towards the end of May I was facing the hardest finincial times of my life. House payment just went up....roomate moved out. I was surfing Ebay (been a member since 03) Looking for something I could make and sell. I tried many things with out any success..... One day I saw people selling bedroom furniture. Something Ive made alot of. The designs people were selling were things I knew I could make. So I posted some pictures but honestly didnt expect anyting to sell. after 6 days of a 7day auction nothing had sold. I went to work to put in my 16hours on the nightshift. I came home and checked my email to my surprise I had actually sold 6 beds! I quickly built and freight shipped the purchases. It was this point that set me on a path of what I thought was great success. Within a month I was able to quit my full time job and was making a great living selling,building, and shipping furniture from my home shop.
Quickly my business escalated and was easily grossing 10k -20k month in sales.... I had moved from just beds to bedroom suites....nighttables, dressers, and armoires I had a steady 4 week waitlist full of orders. Honestly my customers were happy and were happy. I never recieved complaints except on the waiting period (4 weeks) but when people did receive their purchase they were ecited with the quality and price. Financially this was a dream come true, a dream soon to turn nightmare.
Because of the volume of shipping I knew I had to reduce freight costs and streamline my shipping. So I contacted several freight companies to compare rates and set up a dedicated shipping account. I decided on Fedex Frieght. Which I thought was wonderful. At this point I had hired help, and a freight truck that autmatically came to make pickups everyday! My business was wide open shipping 15-20 orders a week.
Within the first 2 weeks with fedex freight 24 orders were completely damaged. We are talking damages adding to well over $10,000. But the problem is by time I had known that there was a major shipping problem with fedex...nearly $20,000 worth of furniture had been completely ruined. A months work down the drain. I tried to file claims but the process was very slow. In the end Fedex determined the damages were my fault because we didnt put "Fragile DO NOT STACK" stickers on the crates.
This led compaints through Ebay, Negative feedback ect..... Not to mention everyone who had already purchased furniture is gonna have to wait even longer because now we would have to replace the damages. a 4 week waitlist quickly turned to 8-10weeks as I tried to sift through the mess. In an effort to fix complaints and restitute damages I would issue refunds to those who were really unhappy with the long wait list or damages. Which was bad but was okay because business was still doing well and money was still flowing in.
Because of the constant complaints through ebay due to the wait (Which I cant blame anyone who wants to wait 2 months for a purchase???) Ebay suspends my account because of supected fraud???? After months of praise and positive feedback ebay takes away my only market without ever contacting to find out whats going on??? So now business was stopped......no money coming at all and no way to sustain the losses already inquired. To make matters worse my paypal account is then frozen and I am locked out of it. (Thousands of dollars for furniture purchased) I contact paypal and they tell me my account is frozen because their investigation team is investigating me for fraud??? I had a verified account with 200+++ transactions.
Paypal then proceeds to REVERSE every refund I have issued to any of my customers. Then tells my customer that the transaction was issued with UNAUTHORIZED FUNDS and continued to explain to the customers with instructions on how to turn me into the FBI for internet fraud???
This led to MASS PANIC among my customers who are still waiting for there furniture to be constructed and shipped. Which led to Chargebacks, and Reversals. Within 5 days EVERYTHING WAS LOST!!! I then had countless customers waiting for furniture and no way to construct it or get it to them.
I was locked out of my EBAY PRO Business account, with limited access to my paypal account. I tracked all orders through ebay and paypal, so now I had no way of knowing who bought what, how much they paid, or even if they have filed a chargeback and already been refunded. So I contacted paypal for help. I explained the situation and explained my need for my account statements so I could fill pending orders (or at least try to) They extended their emphathy and explained they would help everyway they could. I never heard from them again and they would no longer take my calls.
continued.....
Im gonna start from the beggining and explain everything so be warned this will be a long post! But im at a lost and need help.
May 2005 I was working full time at a cabinet factory, normal joe trying hard to make ends meet. I also did alot of carpentry work on the side for extra money. I was known as the nieghborhood furniture maker. ( Ive worked with wood since I was 14 now 22 even went to college for Commercial Cabinetry) Like many red blooded americans I was sick of living paycheck to paycheck and always facing financial hardship. I often looked for a niche to help set me free. Towards the end of May I was facing the hardest finincial times of my life. House payment just went up....roomate moved out. I was surfing Ebay (been a member since 03) Looking for something I could make and sell. I tried many things with out any success..... One day I saw people selling bedroom furniture. Something Ive made alot of. The designs people were selling were things I knew I could make. So I posted some pictures but honestly didnt expect anyting to sell. after 6 days of a 7day auction nothing had sold. I went to work to put in my 16hours on the nightshift. I came home and checked my email to my surprise I had actually sold 6 beds! I quickly built and freight shipped the purchases. It was this point that set me on a path of what I thought was great success. Within a month I was able to quit my full time job and was making a great living selling,building, and shipping furniture from my home shop.
Quickly my business escalated and was easily grossing 10k -20k month in sales.... I had moved from just beds to bedroom suites....nighttables, dressers, and armoires I had a steady 4 week waitlist full of orders. Honestly my customers were happy and were happy. I never recieved complaints except on the waiting period (4 weeks) but when people did receive their purchase they were ecited with the quality and price. Financially this was a dream come true, a dream soon to turn nightmare.
Because of the volume of shipping I knew I had to reduce freight costs and streamline my shipping. So I contacted several freight companies to compare rates and set up a dedicated shipping account. I decided on Fedex Frieght. Which I thought was wonderful. At this point I had hired help, and a freight truck that autmatically came to make pickups everyday! My business was wide open shipping 15-20 orders a week.
Within the first 2 weeks with fedex freight 24 orders were completely damaged. We are talking damages adding to well over $10,000. But the problem is by time I had known that there was a major shipping problem with fedex...nearly $20,000 worth of furniture had been completely ruined. A months work down the drain. I tried to file claims but the process was very slow. In the end Fedex determined the damages were my fault because we didnt put "Fragile DO NOT STACK" stickers on the crates.
This led compaints through Ebay, Negative feedback ect..... Not to mention everyone who had already purchased furniture is gonna have to wait even longer because now we would have to replace the damages. a 4 week waitlist quickly turned to 8-10weeks as I tried to sift through the mess. In an effort to fix complaints and restitute damages I would issue refunds to those who were really unhappy with the long wait list or damages. Which was bad but was okay because business was still doing well and money was still flowing in.
Because of the constant complaints through ebay due to the wait (Which I cant blame anyone who wants to wait 2 months for a purchase???) Ebay suspends my account because of supected fraud???? After months of praise and positive feedback ebay takes away my only market without ever contacting to find out whats going on??? So now business was stopped......no money coming at all and no way to sustain the losses already inquired. To make matters worse my paypal account is then frozen and I am locked out of it. (Thousands of dollars for furniture purchased) I contact paypal and they tell me my account is frozen because their investigation team is investigating me for fraud??? I had a verified account with 200+++ transactions.
Paypal then proceeds to REVERSE every refund I have issued to any of my customers. Then tells my customer that the transaction was issued with UNAUTHORIZED FUNDS and continued to explain to the customers with instructions on how to turn me into the FBI for internet fraud???
This led to MASS PANIC among my customers who are still waiting for there furniture to be constructed and shipped. Which led to Chargebacks, and Reversals. Within 5 days EVERYTHING WAS LOST!!! I then had countless customers waiting for furniture and no way to construct it or get it to them.
I was locked out of my EBAY PRO Business account, with limited access to my paypal account. I tracked all orders through ebay and paypal, so now I had no way of knowing who bought what, how much they paid, or even if they have filed a chargeback and already been refunded. So I contacted paypal for help. I explained the situation and explained my need for my account statements so I could fill pending orders (or at least try to) They extended their emphathy and explained they would help everyway they could. I never heard from them again and they would no longer take my calls.
continued.....
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