Consumer complaint received 2022-10-17
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: MD
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Virtual currency
Issue: Other service problem

Complaint:
Hello, I will refrain from stating my name but I am a XXXX XXXX on XXXX XXXX In XXXX with 15 years of service. Below are the details for my complaint to the CFPB with PayPal, which I have been using for nearly 8 years. I stated my military career because I want to show that I am retiring in 5 years and plan to become a XXXX and XXXX XXXX full time and having access to PayPal is going to be Very important in order to have a successful career as both. Currently my military pay is more than enough to sustain me but receiving payments for XXXX and XXXX on the side helps build my future careers while still maintaining a military career/lifestyle. 

Sunday, XXXX XX/XX/2022 my girlfriend and I had a conversation about her PayPal account being locked and her no longer being able to conduct business on PayPal. She sent me a screenshot of the email they sent her and this poses a problem for her because she is a XXXX on XXXX and uses PayPal as a medium through her XXXX software ( that almost every XXXX XXXX uses ) to receive donations from her viewers and followers. She has been doing XXXX for almost 4 years now and has never had a problem like this before. This is important because she had planned to start a XXXX later in the day for 12 hours and in order to do that she needed her PayPal account to be active in order to receive donations but PayPal wasnt going to on banned her. So I gave her my PayPal email so that she could use my active PayPal account in order to have a successful XXXX and be able to receive donations like she normally does from XXXX. So the XXXX began and immediately a user donated {$150.00} to my girlfriend through XXXX which went into my PayPal account. I received an email notification at XXXX EST From PayPal saying that XXXX XXXX transferred {$150.00} to my PayPal because that individual donated {$150.00} to my girlfriend for her XXXX. I received another email from PayPal immediately at XXXX following the previous email from PayPal stating as the title you can no longer do business with PayPal. Apparently I had broken their user agreement by receiving {$150.00} from somebody through a XXXX service that is legal. My PayPal is mainly used for now XXXX and also a means for people to transfer money or pay me for XXXX that I provide them. As I am also a XXXX  XXXX and have been for eight years, it is a lot easier for people to pay digitally via XXXX XXXX XXXX, or PayPal for the services that I provide them when they receive a XXXX. Aside from the normal paying people back money or buying an XXXX for my cousin, my PayPal transactions are 100 % legal and normal. There is no fraud or suspicious activity related to my PayPal account. The only thing I can think of is that PayPal flagged my account for being associated with XXXX XXXX, the software program that my girlfriend uses to setup donations from her XXXX Mind you this is exactly what happened to her as well and all she does is use it for XXXX on XXXX. 

So today, Monday XXXX XX/XX/2022, I called PayPals customer service line, XXXX, at XXXX EST and put my phone number on a call back waitlist to able to speak to a representative. The wait time was between 2 1/2 hours to two hours and 48 minutes so I decided for them to call me back. At XXXX EST, I received a callback I was waiting for from PayPal. When I answered the phone I was prompted that this telephone Conversation may be recorded for training purposes. Upon connecting to a representative, XXXX ( she was unable to give me her employee ID due to it being against PayPal policy ) I informed her that I was also going to record a telephone conversation in order to provide it as evidence or supporting documentation with my complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Her response to that statement was a question of but what if i doesnt agree to this to which I explained why I was doing it and why it was pertinent. After hearing my reasoning we began our conversation. I wanted an inquiry as to why my account was banned for legal transactions. She pulled up my account and was only able to tell me about the email that was sent and my actual account transaction history. She explained that she has no knowledge or any information on why the band nor could she find any reason. She said she does not have access to that stuff and after hearing that inquired about being transferred to a higher headquarters or some sort of department that could tell me that, and her response was that there is no other department. After asking multiple times who makes that decision she told me that its the back office to which I immediately asked if I could speak with him and her response was no they dont except calls only way that that can happen is if she emails them on an internal email that I could not be CCed on. So I requested her to send the email and provide me some sort of tracking number or trouble ticket number to which she could neither provide nor give me a reason as to why they dont have that type of process in place. This whole thing just seems sketchy and completely illegal for PayPal to just do what they just did to me and my girlfriend and I am sure many other people. I would like my account to be Unbanned since I am only using it to earn money on a XXXX XXXX and also for my XXXX XXXX which are all legal. I would also like to have access to the funds in that account and be able to transfer them to my bank or return them to the people that something to me. I will attach copies of the emails that I received in the recording of my telephone conversation in the event that the CFPB can not gain access to the PayPal recording of our telephone conversation. Please help me I just want to be able to XXXX one day full-time and make money doing what I love as well as be a full-time XXXX XXXX and having PayPal is kind of a necessity since everyone uses it but also I find that this is completely unjust and that they have made a mistake.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief