Consumer complaint received 2017-01-10
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: CO
Product: Money transfers
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other service issues

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I asked a friend of mine if she could help me transfer {$900.00} dollars from a bank account of mine into another account of mine. The bank account holding the {$900.00} was with XXXX ( XXXX ) and they restrict customers from transferring more than a few hundred bucks a month to an external bank account. So XXXX suggests that its customers use apps like Venmo and PayPal when they need to transfer above XXXX 's limits. I wanted to close out my XXXX account, so I needed to get that money out of the account. 

So my friend linked my XXXX account to her Venmo account at my request. She then sentthe {$900.00} to my Venmo account and I immediately transferred the money into my primary checking account that was fully linked and confirmed in Venmo. I 've been a Venmo member for couple years and have never had any issues using it. My friend joined just to help me transfer the money and afterwards she closed her account. The next day the money had n't hit my bank account. I wanted a few more days and still nothing. After getting in touch with Venmo they said the funds were being " investigated. '' My friend and I both contacted Venmo 's support team on quite a few occasions to find out what the hold up was and when we could expect to see that {$900.00} returned to either of our Venmo accounts. 

Venmo was incredibly difficult and evasive with us. Emails went unanswered and their support team would simply leave in the middle of chat sessions we initiated to get updates on the situation. Just before XXXX, Venmo informed me that my only recourse was to reach out to local law enforcement to get the money back. I could n't believe it - Venmo was holding my money, not my friend or anyone else. After that, they basically stonewalled me. 

Their terms and conditions document explicitly states that after 30 days, Venmo releases any and all funds being held as part of an investigation to one of the parties in the original transaction. It 's been 30 days and they have n't done that. 

Last night I got an email from Venmo saying my account was frozen. They asked me to send a picture of my driver 's license and bank and credit card statements in order to release the freeze, which I did. A couple hours later they replied and said I 'd violated their terms and conditions ( but did n't give any details as to what specific terms I violated ). As such, they closed my account and banned me from ever using Venmo again. The last paragraph of that vague message was particularly harsh - it read : " Please be aware that any future contact or inquiries will not be answered and that this matter will be considered closed upon your receipt of this email '' Venmo has essentially stolen my money. They wo n't even return it to my friend or to my now closed bank account. I 've never had any of the payment apps keep my money like this before - not even PayPal or XXXX. What should I do to get my money back? 

Oh and just to put it out there - there 's nothing more to this story that would justify Venmo 's actions. This money was n't stolen or drug money or anything remotely like that. It was just money I'dd earned working and needed to get out of a bank account that I did n't like using. There was n't anything sketchy going on like money laundering. I do n't even know what I did to get myself banned from using the app ever again.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief