Consumer complaint received 2024-01-10 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Trouble accessing funds in your mobile or digital wallet — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received several texts about my Venmo account. They were likely from my XXXX account trying to connect with my Venmo account. Either way, I decided to change my password to be safe. I went to the Venmo website and requested an email link to change my password, which I used. When I typed in a new password, I got an error that said " The password reset key is invalid or expired. '' This was confusing because I clicked the change password link immediately after I received it. I tried several more times but I kept getting the same error. 

I emailed Venmo support ( ticket XXXX  ) letting them know that I am unable to change my password. Venmo support asked me to change my password. I told them that I can't change my password, that's the entire reason why I'm emailing. They asked me to change my password again. I said again that I can't change my password and asked for confirmation that they understand what my issue is. This exchange happened several times until all of a sudden, I was informed that my account had been suspended, which mean that I was not able to send or receive money through my account or have access to the {$1100.00} balance I had in my Venmo account. This happened on XXXX XXXX 

I was informed that I needed to provide valid photo identification to unlock my account. I provided that information on XX/XX/XXXX through Venmo 's secure portal. 

I followed up multiple times via email following that, as well as through the Venmo chat service. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was connected to XXXX XXXX, who is a supervisor with Venmo General support to discuss the case. He had me go through several troubleshooting steps that ended up in me attempting to change my password again, which resulted in the same error. He also said that he would escalate case XXXX to the Venmo Account Specialist Team, and their turnaround is typically 7-10 days. He also said he would increase the case priority to save me some time. We had several back and forth emails which ended with XXXX saying that he will report the details of my issue with the engineering team on XX/XX/XXXX. This is the last I heard from XXXX. I sent 4 subsequent emails that did not receive any response. The last email I sent to XXXX was on XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, having not heard from XXXX. I chatted back into Venmo support. I was connected with XXXX, who asked me, once again, to try changing my password. It resulted in the same error. He also let me know that Venmo can not release my account until I change my password. I kept re-iterating to him that I can't do that because of this error. I was then connected to XXXX, another supervisor, on XX/XX/XXXX. We went through several back and forth emails where I tried to get her to understand how ridiculous this whole situation is. Given that it's been over a month now since my account was frozen, I asked for a timeline and to be put in contact with the engineering team responsible for solving my issue. XXXX was unable to provide either. 

In summary, my account was frozen, along with {$1100.00} in my Venmo account, because Venmo support could not bother to actually read my emails. This is made apparent by multiple responses telling me to change my password when the whole reason I emailed Venmo is because I was having issues changing my password. I was told that my case would be escalated and resolved in 7-10 days - it was not. I was told that the engineering team would be working on this, but it's been one entire month and I have had zero updates on their progress. I talked to no fewer than 5 different individuals at Venmo who have not helped me resolve this issue or have just gone radio silent. 

At the end of the day, my account is still frozen and my {$1100.00} balance held hostage because of errors on Venmo 's end, not mine or anything I had done wrong. It's clear that there is no timeline for resolution, poor communication, and no accountability to actually get this problem resolved. 

This situation has already caused immense amounts of disruption to my life, mostly because I needed to accept a transfer of funds through Venmo from my father to fund a business acquisition, but that was not able to happen because my account was frozen. 

I have included attachments of all email communications that make clear how absurd this situation is and back up my above points.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief