Consumer complaint received 2021-01-20
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: OH
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Money was not available when promised

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX I started a small XXXX XXXX, which involved XXXX  XXXX  on the internet platform XXXX. At the time, and up until XX/XX/XXXX, PayPal INC was XXXX payment processor. Additionally, Paypal Inc was the only payment processor available to me, and from what I understand the only one available when merchants sell on XXXX. Interestingly enough, as of XX/XX/XXXX Paypal will no long be a payment processor for XXXX. XXXX is now doing their own payment processing, as I understand it. 

I was shocked, surprised, as well as delighted with my XXXX XXXX on XXXX. In general terms, things went great, lots of stuff was XXXX, and some exta money was made. ( I will say the name of the game is buy low sell high, and between second hand stores, and the brick and mortar retailers discounting new items for quicker sales, this money making hobby was ( I thought would be ) the textbook classic case of somebody falling into an industry by mistake enjoying it and planning to be there for a while. I feel it appropriate in this part of the synopsis to give some raw numbers of sales. In the several months that I XXXX  I had approximately 125 transactions grossing approximately XXXX dollars. ( Personally, this was a very nice money making hobby, but comparatively this was not much at all. ) Being that the companies listed above, XXXX and PayPal, are both Internet and online-based companies they let it be very well known that they were interested in keeping their communities safe and secure. Both organizations verified with a degree of scrutiny my identification as well as what I was selling. XXXX conducted such verifications twice and were accommodating, communicative, transparent and helpful both times. That hoop that was required that I jump through came and went and was not vey taxing at all. 


On the other hand, Paypal during this short selling span did such verifications 4 times. Each time a verification was needed pertaining to my account such came with out notice, without warning, without cause ( that I could see on my end ) and came with a severe limitation on my money ( ie account ) with Paypal. The limitation each of those times included a freezing of my money and essential a halting of business until they completed a review of the information that they needed. Furthermore, each of these inquiries demanded answering and responding to repetitive questions that Paypal already had knowledge of. They would require statements for each transaction in my account where money was received. The reason that these statements were nonsense was that Paypal already ad record and the knowledge of where these amouts came from. ( IE they came from sales on XXXX which Paypal listed in the activity log next to each transaction. Regardless they still required me to write out ad answer each of inquires pertain to why the money was placed from another into my account. ( It was taxing and vey time consuming and wasteful due to the fact that they already had the information. ) More so they would ask questions that were not applicable and that they knew I could not answer. ( A popular one was an inquest into my supplier and back dated invoices from such suppliers. I dont and never had such suppliers. I was selling stuff that I accumulated over the years and that I came accross as I was out and about. ) On XX/XX/XXXX my account was PERMANANTLY limited by PayPal. Their general statement said that they couldnt offer services anymore because I was a risk. No other supporting statements were made. They cited their user agreement which in sum says that they can stop doing business with whomever and whenever they want. This Permutant limitation came with out notice, without warning, without cause ( that I could see on my end ) and came with an immediate freeze of all my funds. In short my XXXX hobby was abruptly lt halted and commerce ended. I immediately reached out to paypal for communication on this and 10 attempts thus far to talk to them have been met with silence and no answer ( at all they wont even respond._ ) I dont doubt that they use agreement gives them such abilities, beucase it is by them for them ; however, I am also aware of trade practices and business practices that are acceptable and those that are not acceptable. PayPal with all the limitations and all their inquiries and all their verification that they can still felt the need to promptly shut down my XXXX, abruptly pinch off any money flow that I had into my XXXX, and abruptly tell me that they were going to hold funds for 180 days starting from whatever point they determined. This was NOT REASONABLE, THIS WAS NOT APPROPRIATE AND THESE ACTIONS HAVE CERTAINLY CUASED ME DAMAGMES. Regardless, if they want to conduct their busiess like that so be it. However, there is currently issue with MY FUNDS THAT THEY STILL HAVE. 


Moving to the funds that they are holding for 180 days. this is NOT appropriate and its NOT reasonable because of the following : I have never had a charge back in and on any of the sales I transacted, Many of the dollars that they claim have could have risk of charge back are from customers who posted POSTIVE FEEDBACK about their buying experience with me. 

Due to the fact that the 180 day hold starts whenever they want it to. There will certainly be many transactions ( money at this point ) that will be older than 180 days in the account and unnecessarily being held. 


Paypal while cloaking themselves in their User Agreement and what it entitles them too or requires them to do ( paypal softly claims that they are required to hold for 180 days due to risk of charge back. ) fails to disclose that the regulations in the States and the National government state in general that they CAN hold the funds if chargeback is RESAONABLE. Obviously in this case it is not.

 There are several instances where aforementioned User Agreement manipulates that wording of laws and regulations to where they take the consumers protection and claim that the laws or regulations makes them do something. they do not act in good faith Tthey will not respond they will not communicate they basically say we have the right to do this goodbye PayPal I accept and welcome the severance of this business relationship. Paypal is dishonest and does not conduct themselves respectfully. However I do demand that paypal IMMEDIATELY give me my funds.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation