Date Received: 2024-01-12
Issue: Trouble accessing funds in your mobile or digital wallet
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: Towards the end of XX/XX/XXXX, I opened a business account with PayPal to facilitate my online store which sells digital goods and services. I provided all of the required business information including the business XXXX and state licensing information. The account was approved and opened within XXXX hours. Paypal immediately started collecting payments on XX/XX/XXXX ( the day the webstore launched ) up until XX/XX/XXXX when my account was " frozen '' for additional review. I was required to submit a copy of my photo ID and a short description regarding the details of my business, which I provided the same day. The system stated there was a 5 day turnaround for review. Approximately 10 business days later, after seeing no change to the account I phoned PayPal for an update. I was given the runaround and eventually told the review was still pending but that I would have a response no later than XX/XX/XXXX ( which was well beyond the 5 day initial review time ). I waited and upon noticing no activity as of XX/XX/XXXX I phoned PayPal again. At first I was told they were waiting on me to submit the required items I had already sent the day the account was " frozen '' ( XX/XX/XXXX ) so I asked for a supervisor to check again. After a 30 minute hold the supervisor came back and stated " my account was deemed too risky and set to " permanently limited '' status ''. I asked why and they stated they do not wish to part-take in digitial goods and services of my sort. I told them that was ironic because XXXX sells the exact same digitial products and services as a multi-million dollar company and have no issues with their PayPal services. The rep had no response. At this point all I wanted was PayPal to refund all of my customers money so I could have them repurchase their items via a different payment processor. They stated they were unable to do so for 180 days. I asked why that was the case and the response was because if any of the customers open a dispute on any of the collected charges, they would have the collected funds to settle said disputes. I pointed out the illogical stance of that policy : if the customers are all refunded, there is no way to create a dispute. The supervisor agreed but defaulted to a canned response of " I understand, but the system wont let me make any changes for 180 days ''. Long story short : PayPal eagerly accepted approximately {$500.00} in payments prior to performing their " due diligence '' on my business until after the fact and are now unwilling to release or even refund the original customers payments. Meanwhile the customers have been enjoying the digital goods and services they technically haven't paid for and my business is out the {$500.00}, while it is held in this nonsensical limbo.
Company Response:
State: TX
Zip: 78724
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-12
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2024-01-11
Issue: Trouble accessing funds in your mobile or digital wallet
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Last year, I did a pre-order release where the customer pays and waits 15 days for production. I use the XXXX platform and have PayPal as one of my payment options. Previously, I always had a very low dispute/refund percentage. Now, I put the pre-order online, and a significant amount comes into my business PayPal account. ( XXXX ) PayPal holds this entire amount for 180 days to potentially refund any disputes to the customer. Not only do they hold my money, but they also 'freeze ' my account, which means I can't do anything, not even refund the customer whom PayPal claims to be protecting. Some customers cancel their orders or exchange their items, e.g., one pair of pants for one hoodie. I want to refund the difference to the customer ( 15 ). However, I can't because PayPal has frozen my account to 'protect ' the customer. The customer waits too long, so they make a claim via PayPal, which results in PayPal refunding the ENTIRE amount to the customer instead of the 15 difference. PayPal doesn't use the held funds to refund this dispute but instead puts my balance into the negative. 180 days pass, I contact them to release my money. PayPal says they will do this within 24 hours. I contact them after 2 days to ask when this will happen, only to be told they have decided to hold my money for an EXTRA 180 days. Meanwhile, disputes keep coming in. PayPal keeps refunding the full purchase amount XXXX XXXX XXXX to the customer instead of the difference that should be refunded XXXX XXXX XXXX As a result, the customer gets their order completely free. They charge an extra fee of XXXX per dispute. My balance keeps going below XXXX, and I have to constantly refill it with private funds, only to be told that my money is still being held. What can I do, or where can I report this? My business is suffering enormous financial damage and damage to my reputation. I try to help the customer, but PayPal freezes my balance, making the customer think I am making excuses not to refund the XXXX. ''
Company Response:
State:
Zip: XXXXX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-11
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2024-01-12
Issue: Other transaction problem
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: On XXXX, I received a Venmo from a family member for my daughters XXXX program. On XX/XX/11, I received a Venmo with {$1300.00} for XXXX XXXX XXXX for XXXX family members. While trying to set up a bank account transfer, my account was suspended with no explanation. I sent in a photo ID as they requested, I requested a phone number for customer service, I requested to know why my account was suspended and received no response. There is now {$1500.00} frozen in my Venmo account that I cant access because my account, that I barely use, was suspended. Venmo should have to provide their consumers with basic information surrounding their accounts with suspensions.
Company Response:
State: NC
Zip: 28546
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-12
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2024-01-10
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Subissue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Consumer Complaint: XX/XX/XXXX I purchased through PayPal a camera on XXXX XXXX with the trusted site advertised 100 % Return Customer Satisfaction and 100 % customer rated reviews on Seller XXXX. PayPal did not cooperate in reviewing my verified documentation Seller had agreed to make the return if I changed my reasons for return as " not as advertised '' and said I would but had no options to make any entry since XXXX did not show any options and my history of payments was null in my profile. Seller must of had control over the website he advertised so I was reliant on his emails from inception of purchase. Seller agreed to refund and start return but had no time for me and would get back to me. I was uncomfortable with this unprofessional comment - camera was advertised as XXXX camera. There was no disclosure it was in XXXX language only and could not be converted to English. It was upon discovery, as a gift, the camera was in XXXX and the instructions and was not convertible to English. If I had waited for Seller it would have exhausted my return time-frame so I filed a dispute with PayPal who transferred my payment from my XXXX credit card. Seller then closed the return via email to me. PayPal did not review properly the agreement of warranty of returns from XXXX stated and advertised 100 % customer satisfaction, nor did they accept the agreement the seller stated he would start a return process but had no time for me. PayPal has a bias to XXXX and is not a fair advocate for me as the consumer. I am filing a bad faith claim with PayPal for failing to investigate proper documentation. I have appealed twice. PayPal stated the advertisement was close enough description - that was not the agreement XXXX advertised 100 % customer satisfaction return policy and Seller agreement to return. It's bias and unfair to me. I want a refund, I want a return process with a mailing address to return the camera to XXXX! a
Company Response:
State: AZ
Zip: 85224
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2024-01-10
Issue: Trouble accessing funds in your mobile or digital wallet
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: On XX/XX/XXXX, I received several texts about my Venmo account. They were likely from my XXXX account trying to connect with my Venmo account. Either way, I decided to change my password to be safe. I went to the Venmo website and requested an email link to change my password, which I used. When I typed in a new password, I got an error that said " The password reset key is invalid or expired. '' This was confusing because I clicked the change password link immediately after I received it. I tried several more times but I kept getting the same error. I emailed Venmo support ( ticket XXXX ) letting them know that I am unable to change my password. Venmo support asked me to change my password. I told them that I can't change my password, that's the entire reason why I'm emailing. They asked me to change my password again. I said again that I can't change my password and asked for confirmation that they understand what my issue is. This exchange happened several times until all of a sudden, I was informed that my account had been suspended, which mean that I was not able to send or receive money through my account or have access to the {$1100.00} balance I had in my Venmo account. This happened on XXXX XXXX I was informed that I needed to provide valid photo identification to unlock my account. I provided that information on XX/XX/XXXX through Venmo 's secure portal. I followed up multiple times via email following that, as well as through the Venmo chat service. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was connected to XXXX XXXX, who is a supervisor with Venmo General support to discuss the case. He had me go through several troubleshooting steps that ended up in me attempting to change my password again, which resulted in the same error. He also said that he would escalate case XXXX to the Venmo Account Specialist Team, and their turnaround is typically 7-10 days. He also said he would increase the case priority to save me some time. We had several back and forth emails which ended with XXXX saying that he will report the details of my issue with the engineering team on XX/XX/XXXX. This is the last I heard from XXXX. I sent 4 subsequent emails that did not receive any response. The last email I sent to XXXX was on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, having not heard from XXXX. I chatted back into Venmo support. I was connected with XXXX, who asked me, once again, to try changing my password. It resulted in the same error. He also let me know that Venmo can not release my account until I change my password. I kept re-iterating to him that I can't do that because of this error. I was then connected to XXXX, another supervisor, on XX/XX/XXXX. We went through several back and forth emails where I tried to get her to understand how ridiculous this whole situation is. Given that it's been over a month now since my account was frozen, I asked for a timeline and to be put in contact with the engineering team responsible for solving my issue. XXXX was unable to provide either. In summary, my account was frozen, along with {$1100.00} in my Venmo account, because Venmo support could not bother to actually read my emails. This is made apparent by multiple responses telling me to change my password when the whole reason I emailed Venmo is because I was having issues changing my password. I was told that my case would be escalated and resolved in 7-10 days - it was not. I was told that the engineering team would be working on this, but it's been one entire month and I have had zero updates on their progress. I talked to no fewer than 5 different individuals at Venmo who have not helped me resolve this issue or have just gone radio silent. At the end of the day, my account is still frozen and my {$1100.00} balance held hostage because of errors on Venmo 's end, not mine or anything I had done wrong. It's clear that there is no timeline for resolution, poor communication, and no accountability to actually get this problem resolved. This situation has already caused immense amounts of disruption to my life, mostly because I needed to accept a transfer of funds through Venmo from my father to fund a business acquisition, but that was not able to happen because my account was frozen. I have included attachments of all email communications that make clear how absurd this situation is and back up my above points.
Company Response:
State: CA
Zip: 94103
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2024-01-10
Issue: Fraud or scam
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: On XX/XX/2024, I transferred {$890.00} to a non-existent company called XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX for a baby grand piano advertised on XXXX XXXX. I used PayPal and was instructed by the scammer to click on " Family and Friends '' rather than " Products and Services. '' For this reason, PayPal contends that it can not take any action which would result in a refund to me. As soon as the money was transferred by PayPal it was converted by the scammer to Euros. I feel that PayPal should have put a hold on this transaction and informed me that it could be a scam.
Company Response:
State: PA
Zip: 17331
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2024-01-10
Issue: Money was not available when promised
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: I opened a VENMO account to receive payment of {$800.00} from a different VENMO user. the user paid {$800.00} into my account on XX/XX/XXXX ( {$1.00} ) and on XX/XX/XXXX ( {$790.00} ). right after funds were in my venmo account I tried to transfer into my bank account and received an error message that my account was frozen. contacted venmo and provided all documents requested to prove identity XX/XX/XXXX. finally received response from venmo that proof of ID had been received and my account was unfrozen on XX/XX/XXXX. I tried to access my money when I received this account unfrozen email on XX/XX/XXXX but account was still frozen and money inaccessible. since XX/XX/XXXX I have sent over XXXX emails and called 3 times to request help getting this problem fixed. every time I am told that they have all documents needed and my account will be corrected within 24 hours. it has now been 2 months that Venmo is holding my money without my permission and I continue without access to my funds.
Company Response:
State: CT
Zip: 06705
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with monetary relief
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2024-01-10
Issue: Confusing or misleading advertising or marketing
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: I went to pay for a tattoo though pay pal and an unauthorized transaction of XXXX bucks got sent to the other party.
Company Response:
State: KS
Zip: 66104
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2024-01-10
Issue: Managing an account
Subissue: Deposits and withdrawals
Consumer Complaint: Hi my name is XXXX XXXX authorize user of a Venmo account. Acct # XXXX Routing # XXXX my account has frozen without breaking policy guidelines. I am desperate need of mind money to catch up on bills and family matter. I attempted to email Venmo to get the process to release the funds but they didn't give any steps to fulfill so the account can be active. I also spoke with several representatives which who wasn't able to assist me or lead me to anyone who can. I am a verified account holder so I am baffled that this is happening. I appreciate your service and what you could do to help.
Company Response:
State: MI
Zip: 48227
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-10
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2024-01-09
Issue: Other transaction problem
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: PayPal is not allowing me too send crypto currency thru their system and they not stick to the white papers that they have for this issue
Company Response:
State: FL
Zip: 33331
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2024-01-09
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A