My First Sale – “BUT”

So on February 7^th I received my first order and I was extremely happy, and it may sound silly, but all the months of stress, this one order made my day. Now, there is a catch, and I am honestly mind blown by what happened, which has to do with Pay Pal.

Let me play it out. I received a notification at 4:30 my time, that an order was placed. I was thrilled and immediately went in and processed the order. Now, for me to place the order I go through my site, there is a button, sort of speaking, and it directs you to AliExpress and the customer’s information is prefilled, along with the item they ordered. Well, I of course doubled and tripled checked, making sure the address was correct, the item was correct, the shipping time was selected. Now, shipping time they automatically select the cheapest, which is usually the longest time to deliver. I like to select the fastest time to deliver without eating too much of my profits. I also had to make sure that the “Notes field” states not to include any promotions, etc. since I am drop shipping.  I then entered my information and placed the order. My site automatically sends out email notifications when the customer places an order, when the supplier ships the order, along with a tracking number. When the item arrives with the customer I am notified and I close out my order and another final notification goes out automatically, letting the customer know that their items arrived and if there are any issues to contact us. After I placed the order, I like to personally send an email to the customer thanking them for the order, explaining the delivery issues we are all facing, and in this case, I reminded them of the Chinese New Year, starts on January 20th and goes until February 10th which adds to the delivery time, and once again thanking them for their order.

This is where PayPal comes in, I was in shock. So, I received within 30 minutes of placing the order on my side an email from Pay Pal stating that there has been an unusual amount of activity in my account and I need to address it immediately – certain features of my Pay Pal account have been disabled. I saw this and of course, I was concerned that someone possibly hacked my Pay Pal account. When I logged in to Pay Pal, I reviewed everything and nothing except for my first order was there. At the top, there was a banner or message stating that I could still receive payments, but I could not withdraw or add to the account. I scrolled a little and found a red envelope, which I clicked on. When it popped up, there was a message stating that in order for my account features to be reactivated I need to fulfill the following requirements for the 1 ORDER – YES        O.N.E                    F.R.E.A.K.I.N.G                 O.R.D.E.R. This was the unusually high activity they were referring to, here is what I had to do.

1. Provide proof of identity
2. Provide business information
3. Provide supplier information
4. Provide proof of ordering the item

let me start with number 1: I don’t understand why they asked for it if I had to do a whole lot of crap in order to open my Pay Pal Business account, so they already had my identification on file. Number 2, once again, I had to do a lot in order to open my Pay Pal Business account, they had this information. I mean when I click on the link the items, they requested were already pre-populated. Number 3, what in the freaking world, why would they need this, not sure. The thing is I don’t work with only one supplier, but I provided proof of the product and the supplier’s name. Wait, number 4, I had to show proof that I ordered the item. I mean, I just got the order literally 1 hour before this whole thing with Pay Pal. Now, I provided the proof, but the invoice was not in American dollars – I am looking into this, but I also provided a screenshot of my dashboard at AliExpress.

I totally understand, totally, that it is important to protect the consumer because I am a consumer as well. The thing is that it wasn’t the consumer that was complaining, because I checked. If the consumer has an issue, or they want a refund, I have no problem, none whatsoever to refund someone -for the right reason right, but I would do it. So, now I have to wait 5 days, wait 5 business days for them to review the information and get back to me. ONE ORDER. I will tell you something, there are a lot of credit card processing companies out there, well known, that I will go to if Pay Pal gives me an issue for one ORDER that really hasn’t gone through the whole process flow yet.

Now, here is what gets to me; how can I try and be successful if every other company out there is out to get me? I mean, first, it was AliDropship, and the awful customer service and options that they offer were hard to deal with, then it was Facebook for 14 days because they were short-staffed. I could not advertise or post or build my FB audience because I had to prove I was a real person, then it was Google. I had to jump through hoops to provide proof that I was a real person with a real business or drop shipping business in my case. It makes me wonder that people that fail at a business if it really is their fault or is it all the other businesses, that supposedly are here to support you that make one’s life difficult and we end up quitting. I am just a little guy, with a family, and a dream. I am not asking to get rich quickly, overnight, or even become a millionaire. All I want is when I do retire that I can retire without being a nuisance to my kids or having to work until my dying days – I don’t ask for much.

“I mean AliDropship does state that their exact copies of their successful business can make up to $523,000 or $40,000 in sales per month” They do offer other sites with less so-called revenue.

I just got kicked to the curve and it does not feel good at all. I walked around my house complaining, angry, sad, speechless, and just motionless, but at the end of the day, all I can do is keep pushing forward – right. I hope I can resolve any issues with Pay Pal. I will keep you posted on what happens. But for now, I leave you with this thought, “There are days you are going to want to quit, give up, but guess what, you are better than that. This is your dream, you can make it happen because I believe in you, but most importantly – Believe in Yourself.”

Best of Luck to all of those that start on their dream.