Consumer complaint received 2021-04-11
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: OH
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Confusing or misleading advertising or marketing

Complaint:
I WAS TOLD BY A LIVE REPRESENTATIVE ON THE PHONE ABOUT 3 MONTHS AGO THAT IN MY NOTES ON MY ACCOUNT THAT IT SAID MY BALANCE WAS TO BE REVIEWED AFTER THE 180 DAY HOLD PERIOD WAS UP AND MY ACCOUNT SHOULD BE PLACED ON THE ADDITIONAL 180 DAY HOLD DUE TO MY ATTITUDE WITH THE FIRST REPRESENTATIVE THAT I SPOKE WITH WHEN MY ACCOUNT FIRST BECOME LIMITED. WHEN SPEAKING WITH SUPERVISOR RIGHT AFTER I SPOKE WITH HER ... HE ASSURED ME THAT SHE HAD MADE A MISTAKE AND THAT HE DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING LIKE THAT ON MY ACCOUNT NOTES ... BUT WEIRDLY ENOUGH ... .I HAVE NOW BEEN TOLD MY ACCOUNT WILL REMAIN ON HOLD FOR UP TO AN ADDITIONAL 180 DAYS. 
On the PayPal app there is an advertisement that states " Use direct deposit for government & payroll payments '' and since I had started receiving PUA unemployment payments, I decided it would be easier to just have it deposited into my paypal account, so I signed up for the required account to do so. No where does it say in those " user terms and agreements '' that you're not allowed to get retropay or backpay, and since you have to sign up for a paypal plus account they should be FULLY aware that these things tend to happen when you are getting payments through unemployment. 
On XXXX XXXX, XXXX and XXXX XXXX - {$300.00} was deposited and another deposit on XXXX XXXX of {$180.00} was deposited from Ohio Department of Job and Family Services from Unemployment. It clearly states who the sender is and obviously it's not fraudulent transactions seeing how it also states its a deposit from a federal bank. Also I want to add there was only 4 other transactions from that month and the most recent one before those payments was a week before this. 
On XXXX XXXX XXXX, I received messages from PayPal stating that my account was limited and that I needed to prove my identity in order to continue using PayPal, which I did. Then I got an message stating that PayPal was no longer letting me use their services because of suspicious activity. I do know that in PayPal terms and agreements that I agreed to allow them to hold my money for ANY given reason at ANY given time for 180 days. And as long as there is no disputes from anybody at all, they would release my balance to me but they were no longer offering services to me. On XX/XX/XXXX was 180 days. No disputes were filed against me and nobody wanted a refund from me because I don't do any buying or selling through PayPal which I tried to explain but got no where saying anything to any of the representatives or the supervisors. One of my more recent conversations with an agent, maybe 3 months ago, she told tell me that on XX/XX/XXXX that my account was marked for another limitation to be set for my account on that exact day, that I was suppose to have my funds released to me. When speaking with the supervisor he assured me that she had made a mistake but low and behold. I contacted PayPal and requested my money and PayPal still hasn't released my money from my account balance. There is nothing suspicious on my account and PayPal can't even tell me why they shut down my account ... They keep saying its internal and they can't disclose that information. I can't talk to anybody higher up through the phone support because supervisors is as high as it goes. I was told it was " suspicious activity '' on my account that made them permanently limit my account but I don't see what is suspicious about getting retropay or back pay from unemployment. 
I just want my money issued to me so I don't lose my place to live or anything like that due to them STILL holding my money. I feel like with it being offered on the app to get those direct deposited and then limit my account and hold my funds until wheneven they want to because of them deposits ... that would not be something they should advertise on the app or website. Because obviously they know these type of things happened. I also can't have them reissue the payment back to ODJFS because they said my account is restricted and they are refusing to do that. IF PAYPAL is holding my money due to " security reasons '' that they can not disclose to me like a government facility or court order, then that would be unemployment that would be wanting the money back so they would be able to issue a refund to ODJFS because its federal money and I wouldn't be going through all this in the first place. You can't advertise things like that if you are going to turn around and hold my funds due to too many deposits or suspicious activities. Also I should have my funds available for me to withdraw at this point because in the user terms and agreements it also states that it would only be held for 180 days UNLESS certain things apply such as someone opening a dispute for a refund or other things. I was also told by 3 different supervisors that after 180 days, my funds would be available and that I would receive an email about how to go about getting my money ... .So why is my money not available and why are you guys now telling me you have to hold on to it for longer and you don't know how long it will be. There is a whole website called screwpaypal.com due to the ABSURD things your company does and causes. I will submit this daily and I will be contacting PayPal daily until this is solved. I also signed up for my PayPal account in XXXX of XXXX and I believe the user terms and agreements is update and modified and changed atleast once a month... So I would also like to see a copy of the user terms and agreements from XXXX XXXX. Isn't paypal CONSTANTLY updating the terms and conditions due to all the lawsuits that are happening to PAYPAL

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation