Consumer complaint received 2018-11-14
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: MO
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Complaint:
I have two paypal accounts for many many years. One is  XXXX XXXX that I have set up as a business/merchant account address and most of my money is directed to it through business and personal, and another one XXXX that I have set up to have small amounts of money in at a time. 

I have been trying to get my money out of PayPal for over 1.5 weeks. I fled from hurricane Michael in XXXX XXXX and bought cheap RV in XXXX XXXX XXXX. It needed new roof and I must pay for the roof. Meantime I am homeless and carless because the RV repair wants their money that I KNOW I HAVE in paypal. The problem is : Paypal refuses to give me my money. 

I have researched to find out if others are having problems like I am. Guess what? They are. Same method of madness. Same 48 hour XXXX excuse. Class action lawsuits have been filed. Your rating with XXXX  has ONE star. Your rating with Consumer Affairs is ONE star. I really should have looked into this before I let thousands of dollars accumulate and sit in your account making you interest. I am warning everyone I know to withdraw all their money from PayPal and put into their bank accounts. I am ready to go to the news with this. The hurricane Michael stories have died out, but THIS hurricane Michael story will make great news : everyone knows someone who has a paypal account. I am ready to do my part to save others my pain and inform the world to withdraw all available paypal money to their banks immediately and ONLY use paypal when necessary using ONLY the amount they need in there. PayPals entire payroll is basically free, because you are using your employees to repeat canned responses over and over and over and deny access of clients to their own monies until you basically drive them insane. So, PayPal sucks off all that interest on the money that they deny their clients access to. PayPal essentially tries to OWN the money of their clients by denying access to their own money. I am done with paypal excuses. I am done with check back in 48 hours. I am done with paypal. GIVE ME MY MONEY!!!!!!

I have followed every advice given by PayPal : I have passed secuity questions, paypal has verified my phone number, sent me short texts and texts saying my phone number is now linked, add debit card ( won't do it because PayPal sends security confirm to old defunct phone number which is no longer on my account. ), add bank card ( also sends verify to old number, transfer to other PayPal ( this account ) that you passed security questions. ( the former account I was told to transfer from, I missed the third security question asking the year of my ex boyfriends XXXX from over 25 years ago, my ex doesn't even know the year, this was never registered in my name! ), contact my phone number and unblock the short code text ability ( did that ), have to wait another 48 hours. They then said the phone account and PayPal account names don't match ( they do, but phone had account number attached, so I asked them to take it off ), they tell me wait another 48 hours so security questions come up again. Finally they did and I was asked my address, I gave them my address for the past 15 years, where all my mail goes, all my banking goes, and my address registered with them. They told me NO, it's not what the security company has listed, I can no longer talk to them and they hung up. I have spent 4 hours a day on the phone to them for 1.5 weeks. I have waited 48 hours 5 separate occasions and STILL get told to try back in 48 hours. They refuse access to my money to transfer OUT of PayPal. They will allow XXXX purchases still  because they get a percentage of that money, but I can not spend {$17000.00} in PayPal on XXXX purchases when i need to pay for an RV roof and eat food. I am sleeping on couch of a friend of a friend. The RV guy is mad at me because I promised him payment almost 2 weeks ago now. 

The first few times Paypal told me to wait 24-48 hours was not big deal. NOW? Now it is UNACCEPTABLE. They can not tell me WHY they are holding my money, they can not tell me WHEN my monies will be available to ME, the owner of the account. I am not trying to transfer to a XXXX XXXX. EVERY bank account and EVERY email account and PHONE number is in my name only. There has been no fraud on my account. I am trying to transfer my money to my accounts. I am trying in vain to add MY bank account to PayPal but they refuse to verify. I am trying in vain to add MY phone number ( which they have sent several texts that they verified my phone number and it has been added to my account ) only to be unverified within an hour and that verification supposedly has nothing to do with security verification according to representatives. They are withholding MY OWN money from MYSELF. This is unAmerican. They have made me lose my XXXX, cry for hours, sweat, have rising XXXX XXXX, cry myself to sleep because they WANT me to be homeless another 48 hours every time I call. They give ZERO reasoning, saying that they don't know what they security protocol is or have answers, they only know that I can try back in 48 hours. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE to me as an excuse anymore. I want answers. The last guy refused to let me talk to a supervisor, saying he was as far as it could go, his boss was managerial and had no interest or authorization in the matter, and that he could not escalate it for me. I suggested that I have a picture taken of me, with my drivers license AND passport showing clearly in photo, sending to PayPal from ALL THREE email accounts associated with my PayPal, and also from this phone number and they can deposit to my bank on file in my name, or send to my address on file for years on both accounts in my name and they refuse, saying that is not an option. There HAS TO BE a way to get my money to me in this dire circumstance without waiting several months of insane " We don't know why, try in 48 hours. '' I am wanting my entire balance in PayPal to be accessed by me and able to remove ALL of my funds from PayPal. It is MY monies. Paypal fraudulently claims 'EASY ACCESS TO YOUR MONEY '', that is the most fraudulent statement made in this decade. There is nothing easy about a one minute simple transaction transferring money taking HOURS and HOURS of my life and phone calls and PayPal forcing me to be homeless about this. In fact, Paypal is about to make me lose my {$5000.00} investment in the RV and my deposit of {$1000.00} because they refuse me access to my own money to pay for the finish of the RV roof that I PROMISED THE RV GUY BECAUSE I KNEW WITH 1000 % THAT I HAD THE MONEY TO COVER IT. But because Paypal will not let me access my {$17000.00}, they are about to cost me an additional {$6000.00} and make me permanently homeless because I can not pay for my RV repair. It is my home and my wheels. Now, I have nothing, this RV is about to be withheld from me and Paypal loss of {$17000.00} and loss of my investment into RV and no home, no car. Paypal needs to give me access to my money and stop fraudulently keeping me from it with invalid excuses of " We don't know why, that is the security company we hired and don't have access to the reasons, just try back in 48 hours '' -- -in which I am homeless for another 48 hours. AGAIN. Over and over again. I WANT MY MONEY OUT OF PAYPAL. ALL OF IT. WITHOUT EXCUSES. NOW!!!

I have filed cases with XXXX XXXX XXXX  and also the Consumer Affairs. I went to high school with a news broadcaster that just moved from Florida and would LOVE to cover this angle of PayPal fraud and the effects on someone that fled from Hurricane Michael. I am ready to start a XXXX group and start collecting names for another class action lawsuit on your fraudulent denial of money to whom it belongs. This is the most unAmerican thing I have dealt with in my entire XXXX  years of life. 

Now I have attempted to get my {$17000.00} out by " send as check '' but the message states " more authorization is needed. You will receive an email and we will make our decision within 24 hours. '' NO EMAILS have been sent on this topic, although I have dozens of emails from them in the past week. I called to ask where my email was, they told me to : CALL BACK IN 48 HOURS. My PayPal Balance is now showing {$0.00}. I have no check. I have  no email and I have no money, my account shows {$0.00}. I want ALL of my money out of PayPal and to close my account with them. 

Paypal has taken OWNERSHIP of my money, with no warning, no reason, no explanation and no timeframe that I can access my money again, except TWO WEEKS of repeated " check back in 48 hours '' with absolutely no changes in status, approval, ability to transfer money or otherwise. Paypal is fraudulently denying me my access to MY OWN monies indefinitely with no explanation whatsoever.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief