Erm, no. They are headquartered in San Jose, California, which means they fall under Californian law. they also have offices in Luxembourg, where they are a registered bank.
Erm youre kind of missing my point.
Yes their headquarters is in San Jose, which is in the state of California, yes their EU division is quantified as a bank. SA law is not identical to either of these two continents in any way, hence any dispute with them has no bearing in a lot of cases to the laws which they may be following, or not.
Which is one of the reasons I mentioned to follow their requests and if all else fails, to approach proper legal aid.
If you were in my previous predicament, and in any of the other cases Ive linked to above, how exactly would you go about resolving the issue with them? Your account is debited almost immediately. They hold the funds, then freeze your Paypal account, with limited features, and go about informing you of this. (Which as Ive shown can be up to 180 days, and quite possibly, according to them, indefinitely if they so wish.) Who exactly are you going to appeal to? What legal steps will you take, and how exactly are you going to retrieve your money? Your bank is going to tell you that unless your account was DE-frauded, you actually permitted the fund transfer to them... they are within their rights to withhold this according to the TOS you didn't read, but agreed to, and signed... You cant go and shout your American rights to them... you're South African. You cant go to a international high court and appeal to them to give your money back... they'd laugh at you if they even read it...
According to the few governmental laws that they do follow, like the American one that insists that they demand income tax statements from any member they please, or whom may "look" suspicious, as well as the new copyright infringement act that they're now pushing, Id like to see one common law which they are forced to follow? As a matter of fact the IRS law only applies in America, not in the EU, as well as the copyright infringement point, which is illustrated quite well with the previous and, new owners of The Pirate Bay and Denmark :) Who's to say the funds are even on either of these two continents and not held off-shore?
I use paypal loads to buy stuff overseas. I've had very good service from them and no worries so far. Sorry to hear about your woe :/ I've moved LARGE amounts of cash with them and they've been fine with me...
Thats actually good to hear. Im not running them down, I just wanted to hear if anyone had ended up in a similar position I was in over the weekend. I also dont think people are aware of what theyre signing up for :)
Paypal have since the weekend, been very accommodating, and I feel quite fortunate of this... but I dont think everyone has been quite as lucky as you and I.
[edit] On a brighter note, thanks to everything on my side being resolved, my new pack and heads lighting rig will probably be in my sweaty hands by Thursday or so :D All 2400 Watts of it... beware sun *buwahahaha... cough* |
