Update 2: I really hope this agent is wrong in what they wrote :
The email from Paypal says that the banning of personal payments to and from India is a permanent change. Please read the Paypal email below regarding the banning of personal payments.
Thank you for contacting PayPal.I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, but the system did recognize that it was a personal type of payment processed in your account. It also shows that there’s no shipping address provided to you,and that’s one factor to consider if it’s a personal payment or not.
This change will be permanent in PayPal, and personal payments will no longer be allowed to be sent TO or FROM India. The personal payment option in the checkout page will no longer be available to India customers, but you can still continue to use other payment options, such as eBay checkout.
We hope you understand our situation and thank you for your patience. We’re available to answer any questions you might have. Just give us a call at 1-402-935-2080 and we will try our best to give you immediate answers. We appreciate your business.
Update: Techcrunch is the 1st major blog to catch it
‘If you are a Paypal user having your country selected as India and have gotten any payment from Paypal, it will be reversed if its marked as a personal payment. There has not been any clarification from Paypal in this regard , only emails detailing that the transaction is reversed causing a lot of problems to the account holders.
They claim that they are working on correcting this though. Here is the message I received :
Hello ABC,
Your payment of $$$ 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.Thank you,
PayPal
February 5th, 2010 at 1:18 am
Can you tell me what I can do when Paypal reverses the Indian payment ? The payment isnt personal but of a service. Please let me know, Paypal hasnt come out with a statement yet for anyone.
February 5th, 2010 at 1:20 am
This is what I found from another blog from someone claiming to be from Paypal, dont know if its really from paypal, it said anuj paypal:
Transfers to local banks in India have been suspended while we work with our business partners and other stakeholders to address questions they have about the service. During this time, customers can still make commercial payments to India but merchants cannot withdraw funds in Rupees to local Indian banks. We’re trying to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
And more stuff from paypal commentators :
Personal payments to and from India have been suspended while we
address some questions from our business partners. You can still make
commercial payments. We’re trying to resolve the situation as quickly as
possible and we’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.
February 6th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
What I dont get is why Paypal is not coming in the clear about all of this ? Its already causing a lot of problems to coders who depend on paypal for their salary and now their secrecy around the whole thing is seriously putting a question mark against all Indian webmasters/software developers.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:53 am
On 27th January I’ve withdrawn a money to my SBI bank Account using paypal but till now its not appeared to my bank account or to reversed to my paypal account and if I send any kind of email regarding this issue to the paypal customer support they failed to provide us any kind of clarification now how can we like peoples who completely depends on the foreign money, Basically if paypal confirms that they will solve this issue then how long they will take ? because already a lots of money is blocked in my paypal account at least they can release those and from now they stop taking the new money until they fix this issue.
Because this is really embarrassing that peoples who are working for a client and the clients makes the payment but the provider didn’t get paid and as a result we have to provide the service without getting money so I think paypal understand this problem and help us in this as well. because they can’t move their face in a different direction without proper clarification.
Thanks
Falkon Tech Solution
February 27th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Recent issues with PayPal withdrawals to Indian Banks & more over payments just randomly being reversed back to the senders will have a deep impact on PayPal’s reputation. It raises so many questions like (THIS MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS):
A) Should we trust PayPal in future?
ANS: ABSOLUTELY NO
B) Are they really concerned about our Money?
ANS: ABSOLUTELY NO, After a long period of two weeks we receive an apology letter stating that “We are sorry we goofed up opps!”? and stuff like “Your money just got sacked since this is nothing serious to us we are just doing a drill of playing a game with your hard earned money”?
C) Is RBI responsible for this?
ANS: UNQUESTIONABLY MAYBE, So, Question is why this is happening in India and nowhere else? Question is why we are being kept behind curtains and dark? Question is why Moneybookers and other Payment systems are working but PayPal is not? you just want to exclude the RBI out of this since they are least concerned with us. Everyone failed here! RBI off course you cant expect them to give you a comforting truth so a comforting lie should suffice you! And PayPal Ow man no shit a multinational company failing to inform and notify of an issue of this magnitude. That was an AWESOME combination of purely frustrating, destroying & spreading chaos.
D) So what does PayPal tell us now?
ANS: “We are sorry, but your valuable to us so please give us another opportunity to goof up and play some more engaging games with your money” and “We just love to make more profits by giving you a pathetic exchange rate”
D) What now?
ANS: DTA (Don’t Trust Anyone) Get your sleeves up against them and find your own ways to get paid over any other medium that serves better, communicates better and keep them in plenty. If one fails other should work out.
Ive let all my clients know about this issue and advised them (in advance unlike PayPal) to switch over to some other Payment system which is reliable, responsible and does the main thing “ACTION” at PAR. The truth will probably be dead and berried RIP about what happened because the shame and disgust they bring upon themselves is apocalyptic now.