Consumer complaint received 2021-02-08
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: IN
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Complaint:
I opened the PayPal account around XX/XX/XXXX to have my Indiana unemployment pay deposited into I've been waiting to be paid by the Indiana department of workforce development since XXXX of last year I've been out of work since XX/XX/XXXX I filed for unemployment in XXXX I've not received one payment until XX/XX/XXXX I was awarded all the back pay and open the PayPal account for direct deposit purposes only. On XX/XX/XXXX approximately {$20000.00} was deposited from the Indiana department of workforce development for Indiana unemployment. They came in as individual payments back to back they specifically state payment from Indiana IU and PayPal is no stranger to receiving unemployment payments direct deposited. I was successful with transferring {$5000.00} out of my PayPal account and when I went to do another transfer I couldn't. I then received an email that said my account had been limited for suspicious activity or because I had broke the user agreement. I was asked to submit documentation to prove my identity my bank account and my address which I did all of that the next email I received stated my account was permanently limited that PayPal and I could no longer do business together and that my {$15000.00} from the unemployment office would be held by PayPal for 180 days. Now I've already rated without pay since XXXX of last year I have bills I have food to buy I have children I've lost almost everything at this point and what I have left to be able to keep that depending on me getting this payment this back pay the people I owe money to the people I've borrowed from the people who have let me slide expecting that I was getting this money and I did but now I can't access it because PayPal is withholding it from me. I can't get a hold of it actual person every email that you sent me is automated when I called I get hung up on I started doing research I found out that there's hundreds of people they have done this to people who are getting direct deposit to a PayPal account and then PayPal holding all of their money from them for 180 days in fact it's happening in the exact same sequence the exact same way they are giving the exact same excuse. I'm not a buy or seller on PayPal I wouldn't have any chargebacks I wouldn't have any complaints from customers because I don't have any and it's obvious that I don't PayPal knows that but I was told that my money is being held at first because I broke the user agreement which I read in the clause that stated that if you do but the user agreement PayPal can be awarded up to XXXX I found a few people online who PayPal told they would have to pay a fine of {$2500.00} before the money would be released. Second I realized the 180 days they're holding my money is the exact same time a purchaser has to open a complaint about an item they bought so it would make sense if I was selling items for them to hold the money in my account for at least 180 days to make sure that I didn't have any chargebacks or any complaints from customers because the customer has that long to file a complaint only my money is not from customers it's not from XXXX it's not from selling stuff it's from the unemployment office so 180 day hold for a person like me does not qualify. No matter what I do I get to run around I can't speak with a real person I've tried to email every email call every number I can find on the internet for PayPal I've gotten absolutely nowhere this is going to destroy me every little bit of hope that I had left is about gone thanks to PayPal if I would have opened a Vero account or a chime account this would not have happened to me I did not have the time to wait around for a debit card to arrive before my payments could be deposited I thought PayPal was going to be the best bet it's very well known I mean if they were doing business like this why are they still in business there's probably thousands of people like me there's people on the PayPal community site talking about this people all over the Internet it's in the media this isn't right this isn't fair I haven't even been given an actual reason that fits anything that I've done I've done nothing wrong this is robbery. 

My name is XXXX XXXX My email that is associated with my PayPal account is XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief