I used PayPal for a couple of years with no problems. Now I have had more problems in the past six months than ever before. For my own documentation purposes, here’s what I just sent via their Contact Us form.

Hello,

When the Premier member level debuted, I was upgraded automatically. I did not realize this until a couple of years later and I had my account downgraded - I am just a regular person and do not use PayPal for business, so a Personal account is appropriate for me.

Just now I was forced to upgrade my account again, from Personal to Premier. I sold something on eBay (a pair of wireless headphones that I bought but didn’t fit) and the seller paid in a way that forced me to upgrade. I have no idea how they paid, I assume it was by credit card. I did not have a choice, I was forced to click “Upgrade and Accept Payment” even though Personal accounts are supposed to have a “Limited” ability to accept credit card payments.

Please downgrade my account to Personal. I know your FAQ says accounts can only be downgraded once, but I feel I was unfairly forced into upgrading when I should not have been.

Here’s hoping they respond quickly and don’t give me any hassle. I already received the “Getting Started with Your Premier Account” e-mail.

Added: I just spotted the following in their fee schedule page. Apparently if you accept credit card payments for eBay transactions, you must have a Premier account. And yet I’ve had an auction closed because I said “PayPal balance payments only no credit cards please.” This is totally bizarre…regular little-people users like me shoudl not be forced to have Premier accounts to sell on eBay, which is effectively what they’re doing. Many buyers won’t even bid on auctions that don’t have PayPal, I usually won’t either.

Personal accounts may not receive payments funded by credit card, debit card or Buyer Credit for eBay or eBay Express transactions without upgrading to Premier or Business accounts.

Added: After an hour on hold, I finally spoke to someone at PayPal. She said she would downgrade the account but she really wasn’t supposed to since I had downgraded once before already. I said that’s fine, I won’t need to ask for it again, and thank you for doing it. Whew.