PayPal isn’t working properly for Indian users. PayPal seems to be deliberately blocking personal payments to and/or from India, however commercial payments remain unaffected by the issue.

PayPal is the most common online payment processor used in India and ever since it started to reverse personal payments for Indian users forums, blogs and tech sites have been buzzing with anticipation. Indian businesses and individuals use PayPal to provide online services to both local and international clients. A move which blocks personal payments to and/or from India will cause a lot of inconvenience to the Indian users.

After PayPal started reversing payments, they sent out e-mails to all the Indian users informing them of the reversals and action steps in case a payment was mistakenly reversed.

“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. ”

Though the wordings of the e-mails being sent out to account holders suggest that this may  be a temporary feature, it is too early to tell what is in store for the Indian account holders. According to those who have contact PayPal to get some answers to their many questions, there has been no response from them so far.

Many of those who have provided services expecting their payments to be processed quickly and easily through the service now are worried about providing services for Free since they are not sure how many buyers will re-send their payments.

I guess Indian account holders should consider Moneybookers which seems like a decent service to use especially with the loss of trust with PayPal.