Consumer complaint received 2021-10-19
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Complaint:
Yesterday XX/XX/2021 I recieved a payment from a friend for help he needed with a tree I helped him and he offered to give me money for gas as I was completely out of fuel he said he could send XXXX via venmo and that that was the only option. I have used venmo for several years so I checked my account before hand and there was no issues and no notifications that would make me think there would be a problem so I approved the transfer and the {$120.00} went into my venmo account without issue. I checked the account status and there was no issue it was available... so I then decided to get fuel for my vehicle i had to push my vehicle for some ways to get to the nearest gas station I am on XXXX summit in California we recieved snow yesterday and it was below XXXX. I opened an cell phone application for XXXX XXXX XXXX purchasing I have used this program more than 15 times with venmo or PayPal as the payment method I added the venmo account to my XXXX account without any issues everything was working as usual I checked the venmo account again and there was NO issue at that time and said I had linked the accounts successfully I then attempted to make the purchase. I was unable to and recieved a message stating " the transaction was declined but try again it might work ''! I tried again but got the same results. I tried linking to my debit card because now I am stuck at a pump after dark and unable to get warm. I attempted contact approximately 50 times via chat, email, and a phone call this morning In which I was told that the system restricted my account that there was nothing that the person could do and there is no way to call anyone that can do something and that I will have to wait 3 days to hear back...

The money went in and was available the accounts were successfully linked and there was no issue... then when I attempted the purchase it was restricted. This is obviously intentionally withholding MY property otherwise why was I not notified on a problem or the account restricted when the accounts were linked?

The new methods put in place for contacting venmo for help with this type of issue differ from the previous policy and is obviously to slow the process down or to prevent customers from any type of assistance in the moment or even In the immediate future and another example of willfully withholding my personal property. I had no reasonable expectation to expect my property would not be usable. This event has very seriously jeopardized my life and is more than just negligence based on my interactions with this company over the years this was not done because of suspicious activity or even potential fraud this is intentional and clearly a breach ofour agreement. I am still out of gas and tonight the temperatures will be at or near 0 I need access to these funds immediately It is not a large amount it is hardly a number to warrant any protective measures and I should have been notified prior to the declined transaction there was an issue.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation