Consumer complaint received 2017-02-03
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: GA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Other bank product/service
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
I opened a Paypal Business account about 4 months ago for my XXXX business. Throughout this time, I have made around {$10000.00} in sales through this Paypal account, with dozens and dozens of items successfully shipped and many happy customers. In fact, because my business was doing so well, and my customer satisfaction was so good, Paypal even increased my release limit from {$3000.00} to {$4500.00} at the end of XXXX. This means that the first {$4500.00} in sales I make per month are immediately available to me and forego the standard availability procedures. This trust is only granted to exceptional sellers who demonstrate a track record of consistent sales and customer satisfaction. Unfortunately, not all customers share my honesty, and I had my FIRST chargeback on XXXX XXXX, 2017. The transaction ID : XXXX represented an XXXX sale where the customer purchased a pair of earbuds from me. Like always, I shipped this item out the next day. Since the weight was only a few ounces over the USPS first class package limit of XXXX pound, the post office agent agreed to just let me use that service, which halves my shipping costs. Over a month passed without any response from the buyer, so I assumed everything was alright. However, out of the blue, over a month after USPS showed the item as delivered, he filed a dispute with PayPal saying he never received the item. Again, any reasonable person would file a dispute the moment they saw the tracking show " delivered '' but they never actually got the item. Realizing I am protected under Paypal 's Seller Protection ( tracking number with confirmed delivery ), I let Paypal do its work. A few days later on XXXX XXXX, 2017, he filed a chargeback with his credit card company saying he never received the item. Within a few hours of that action, my Paypal account became limited. I immediately submitted every requested document to remove the limitation ( invoices, tracking numbers, my social security card, bank statement, utility statement XXXX, but within an hour, I received another e-mail saying that my Paypal account has been permanently limited ( AKA banned ), and that the ~ {$840.00} I have on the account would be held for 180 days, after which I will " receive instructions on withdrawing the funds ''. I was dumbfounded. How could my account go from being in superb standing ( increase in release limit ) to being permanently limited due to the first and only chargeback to ever occur on the account? I called Paypal on XXXX XXXX, 2017 at XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX, but none of the XXXX representatives ( XXXX and XXXX ) nor their supervisor XXXX XXXX XXXX could offer me any specifics. All I got was " the decision is final and can not be appealed '', " we can not release details on our decision, but it was made due to security risk ''. My only course of action was to send a physical letter to their " Legal department '' ( which did n't have a phone number or e-mail apparently ), and wait over 2 weeks for them to " maybe '' respond. The representatives told me that a response from them was optional. I believe this is a simple misunderstanding, and something in Paypal 's automated system must have triggered a ban on my account upon the initiation of the chargeback. I am submitting this complaint after many attempts to contact Paypal and to resolve this issue, all without avail. I wish for XXXX of the following XXXX outcomes : 1 ) Restore full access to my Paypal account based on my stellar track record of sales and customer satisfaction, or 2 ) Transfer all funds on my Paypal account to my bank account linked to it. Paypal may keep the bank account information on file for their protection until 180 days has elapsed, at which point, I request for it to be permanently deleted from their records. I have attached files documenting the unfairness with which I have been treated throughout this entire process. Thank you for your consideration.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief