Why did my first sale result in a Paypal account suspension?

[nobaddeh]

I made a first "sale'. It was asking someone in Texas to help me with beta testing my store and payment/shipping methods. 

As a thank you I made a heavily discounted code. 

Now i got an email from paypal saying im SOL.

From a quick search it seems they like to do this a lot to first time sellers.

Any suggestions? Their help pages are useless.

[magecomp]

Hello @nobaddeh 

I'm sorry to hear that you've encountered an issue with your first sale. It's not uncommon for PayPal (or other payment processors) to place holds or restrictions on new accounts or transactions. This is done to help prevent fraud and protect both the buyer and seller.

If you received an email from PayPal saying that you are "SOL" (which stands for "Sh*t Out of Luck"), it could mean that they have put a hold on the funds from your sale, or that there was an issue with the payment or transaction.

The best course of action in this situation would be to contact PayPal directly to inquire about the reason for the hold or restriction and to ask what steps you can take to resolve the issue. PayPal should be able to provide you with more information and guidance on how to proceed.

It's also a good idea to review PayPal's policies and guidelines for new accounts and transactions to ensure that you're following their rules and requirements.

In the future, you may want to consider using a payment processor that is specifically designed for eCommerce platforms like Shopify, such as Shopify Payments, Stripe, or PayPal Commerce Platform. These payment processors are integrated directly with your Shopify store and are designed to provide secure, reliable payment processing for your customers.

[Maz]

Hello, @nobaddeh!

I can understand how it may impact your business having your account restricted by PayPal.

It may have been restricted due to dubious activity, a violation of PayPal's terms of service, or other issues. That being said, there are some actions you can take as mentioned here in their help center to try to get this restriction removed.

As noted by @magecomp, the best way to get this resolved and receive more context on the restriction would be to get in touch with PayPal support directly. Here is a link to their support portal where you can get in contact with them.

While it is unclear whether you'll be able to use PayPal going forward there is a host of payment providers available to use in conjunction with Shopify. If you take a look at our Payment Providers page here, you can select your region and see a list of providers for your country.

In addition to that, we do also offer Shopify Payments dependent on where you are based and certain eligibility requirements.  Learn more about Shopify Payments here!

Aside from this issue, how is everything else going on your store? Have you checked your Analytics recently to see how it is tracking? If not, check out our guide to reports and analytics here at this page!

[nobaddeh]

It seems paypal are being ... dangly appendages to anything that might be remotely pew related. 

I took them off as payment provider.