Consumer complaint received 2025-02-18 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: FL

Complaint narrative:
So I have been a XXXX user for a while sometimes I use it more than my regular bank account. I find it an easy way to receive and send money between friends and family and make secure payments online. Its been a big part of my life recently and I have heard horror stories of peoples accounts being deactivated for having the wrong word inside the description when somebody sent something or all their money being locked out and they say 180 days and it takes way longer. Im having an issue where my account was frozen and then seven hours later from an automated message which I know it was an automated message because there was no customer support or anybody because it was XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  and I even had a customer service representative over the phone from the day before on Saturday. Explain to me that there wont be anybody there on Monday and I was told that within 3 to 5 business days, my account should be unfrozen because the biggest reason your account can pretty much be frozen is if you owe funds to a bank or institution of some sort, but for any other reasons, it can be frozen. You have to reach out with email and they can only chat with you Monday through Friday.  I asked them is there anyway we could put a notation on the account to expedite or escalate the situation because Ive been waiting on that money for a long time and were out of food in the house. My animal doesnt have any food we have bills that are past due that need to be paid immediately And on our budget were going to need that money to pay the rent. This is a giant hamper in my life and my fiancs life, and we can lose absolutely everything over, just receiving some vague and unreliable prompt, which was an automated message from apparently the advanced account specialist through email. When I thought 3 to 5 business days, I almost had a heart attack or a stroke and then I see the frozen account. I think to myself thats OK. Im going to just explain to them. Ive never had a problem before I have no idea what the problem is if its because I said a weird word in a description or something like that I thought it would be an easy fix. Seven hours later at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I get a message saying that the account is deactivated. I will no longer be able to have an account ever again with them and my funds that are in my account which are over XXXX will be held for up to 180 days and that they dont need to divulge any information and thats it. I never received any information whatsoever none whatsoever about why, even though I was told that the account specialist would be able to be the ones to tell me about that I didnt receive any information they give me a vague automated response on a holiday from obviously a robot without giving me any clue rhyme or reason why it happened or how to go about resolving the issue or having the account reinstated. Ive actually heard about consumer finance through XXXX  post of other people that had the same exact issue with XXXXXXXX  I mean many many many people have had the same issue about their vague policies and their vague reasoning and theyre terrible, terrible lockouts, and the activations for no good reasons. Immediately, when I found out about the account being frozen, I sent out a picture of my identification. I told them I looked at all of the transactions. I even did things on my own accord. I changed my password just to prove to them that it was me. I set up the security thing where it scans my face or I put in a passcode. I did everything possible so then that way when the account specialist see my account they see that I did all of the steps necessary ahead of time. Then pondering, how could my account possibly be frozen when as soon as I receive the money I had sent funds to my fiancs stepfather and to his aunt one of XXXX and another of XXXX. I told them I can literally confirm every single thing that has happened on the account. I received the funds late XXXX XXXXt and found out XXXX XXXX the funds were locked. My cat had no food. He had just ran out of food in the home so I had ordered around XXXX worth of food and litter for him which the money was put on hold because XXXX does not take the money until the packages actually get delivered. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX you were supposed to receive the food for him. Saturday I went to withdraw XXXX from an ATM. It didnt work. I went to go over to a food market named XXXX to do cashback that didnt work. I talk to myself what could possibly a froze my account I bought XXXX XXXX  that morning as well and spent XXXX between me and my fianc for the XXXX XXXX XXXX. Everything was fine until we went to use the ATM so we thought maybe we reached some sort of withdrawal limit even though we werent withdrawing it like that out of any ATMs. We thought you know what this happened before a long time ago in XXXX it took like six hours to a lot. Lets just wait. We receive a vague message that the account was frozen. We reach out to customer support. They tell us that the account is frozen, but its not because we owe money to banks or institution and it will take 3 to 5 business days. We were like oh my gosh, this was horrific news for us because this money we were waiting on for a long time and this could put a huge hamper in everything. We already have bills that are desperately needed to be paid. We were waiting on this money to solve lots of issues. Our cat still does not have any food. We have no food. This is not something you can play around with with somebodys life and give them a vague message without giving any explanation so the customer support says all they can see on their end is that they see that its frozen but not from owing money so they say anything else that has to deal with frozen accounts you have to reach out through email to talk to the advanced account specialist. Unfortunately, theyre only open Monday through Friday and they told me that XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. day or man that I wont be able to speak with anyone although Monday comes around and at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I receive another email saying that my account is frozen and then seven hours later aXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX I receive an email saying the account is permanently deactivated. They said they cant divulge the information why and they told me my funds will be able to be transferred or available after 180 days.  I never seen this in any of the writing any of the print. This is very vague automated response from a robot on Monday seven hours apart of how I just wont be able to receive my funds and pretty much I could end up homeless and me and my fianc would literally lose everything The first thing we did when we found out it was frozen is I XXXX XXXX sent out my identification and then on top of it just to get ahead of the game just in case they were to observe my account on Monday. I ended up changing my password and setting up the security feature where it scans my face and I can put in the passcode. I also sent them an email stating that I seen all the transactions. Everything was approved and I dont understand why the account could possibly be frozen. My fianc and I work at the same job and we have the same boss and weve been together for going on a decade so we start to think you know what I did a rapid refund loan to be able to receive XXXX for my fiancs taxes. We talked to the boss, and he said that it was probably frozen because my fianc whose name doesnt need to be mentioned here set the funds to be sent to my account on XXXX Right away, we ask them to not be so vague we beg them how important this was us and that we could lose everything and to at least give us somewhat of an explanation or at least confirm the information of what we think or at least give us some sort of explanation into why or how we could fix the account any sort of explanation on what we need to be able to resolve this issue and be able to get the funds transferred. Like I said when we heard 3 to 5 business days our jobs hit the ground and now were hearing 180 days without any explanation or any avenues on how to fix the issue. I believe in security and everything as well, but for something that can easily be explained and they have such terrible customer support and they just have automated messages. Sending us messages without giving us any reason or way how to fix this is mind-boggling and I demand that these funds get released or to reactivate the account. My fianc has lived with me for years and years and years were on many of the same bills together. It was an honest mistake. It was XXXX from a XXXX XXXX XXXX so now we have over XXXX blocked inside my XXXX  account. Not only did I send my identification. I did a follow up email sending my identification and his identification showing and stating that we have lived together in the same address, not only that I have sent them a bill for a phone bill showing both of the phones on both of our XXXX accounts that are in the same XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX My fianc also logged into his XXXX that he created to resend the same message and to also show them my ID and his ID and the XXXXy bill just to show like hey the number thats on my XXXX account and the number thats on her XXXX  account. Were on the same bill and we live together and they just give us a simple and easy way to be able to resolve this issue without us starving and losing our home and our cat going hungry and our Internet and all of our bills and our electric being shut off we were depending on this money. This is an absolute sham of a system. Like I said, I believe insecurities, but something so lazy without any warning, and to be honest, this is the first time that either of us have ever just had an account frozen to just freeze it and then automatically seven hours later. Send us an email when theyre not even in the office saying that its deactivated and That I will never be able to open our account again and that I can expect to see my funds within 180 business days, which scares me because then I go into XXXX  and I go on the forums and there has been hundreds if not thousands of people that have had the same issue with XXXX but they have had lots of money, locked inside their accounts and lost many things because of it.  I have heard that consumer finance is very reputable and because of the willingness and ethic nature and wanting to help people they have gotten peoples funds released from XXXX within literally a day or two. This is a very long message because I am in excruciating disbelief that they have such a ridiculous policy of 180 days without giving any avenue or way to be able to confirm any information and especially for somebodys first simple mistake on an account. My fianc is literally right next to me right now were appalled by this. We actually love to XXXX and now because of this we have a forever bad taste in our mouth and we want this to be resolved and we would love to be able to reinstate our account but before anything we need to have our funds released we have the same boss, the same boss Whose name wont be mentioned  had sent the money to my account and the XXXX deposit about 25 minutes later from the rapid refund loan from doing the taxes and we never thought thats such a small mistake of sending money from my fiancs tax return, which was a rapid refund loan would literally freeze deactivate our account where the funds that we desperately needed would completely put such a financial burden in our lives, we were so excited to finally receive some of our money. Now or possibly looking at eviction because we know our budget and we know we wont make enough now and on top of that we dont know how were going to eat. We dont know how were going to feed our animals and we dont know how were going to pay our electric and our Internet bill This is a complete disgrace. I feel like this is a sham. I feel like its the most vague ridiculous terrible customer support. Were almost every answer that any question can be answered other than froze accounts that dont have to do with owed money or outstanding balances. We reached out to them. We asked them what we can possibly do. I sent my ID to them immediately and took all the right avenues so then when they would look at the account, they would see I changed my password and everything else just to show them that it was me. I reached out and told them that all the transactions Were fine. I have practically begged them for them to give me a reason to whats going on and customer service over the phone tells us that the advanced account specialist will let us know and then they tell us that they cant and then they give us a crazy message seven hours later stating that our funds will be released within 180 days. 3 to 5 business days was absolutely crazy. I asked them why not one to five business days so I had them put a notation on the account so that maybe they could see the message sooner but then we get an automated message on a holiday saying that the account is frozen and then deactivated And now were possibly looking at losing everything we have in love because XXXX  has no way explaining anything to us or to release the funds to us or tell us how we can correct the issue or to transfer the funds out. like I said, my fianc has sent out a message stating the exact message he sent both of our IDs. I sent both of our IDs. We explained the situation we showed the bill where our phone numbers for both of our separate XXXXXXXX  accounts are both on one bill. We have asked them in every possible way to be able to fix this. I mean to even release at least all the other funds and at least figure out a way to get the XXXX put to a financial account for my fianc whatever or however, they would want to do it. They are not compliant. They wont get any good reason they dont tell us how to fix the problem. Im absolutely discouraged and sad and just feel hopeless now because of this please Im begging you begging you to please give us even even a reasonable a small answer or they even confirm that what we think might have froze the account because of the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX from my fianc into the account why cant they even confirm that or why cant they give us any reason or avenues on how to fix the issue?  There is no way that we are able to wait 180 days if we dont have the funds released within this week or have a way to transfer the funds out of my account then we are absolutely doomed because such bad policies and such bad customer support. As you can see, they sent a message at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  which was an automated response obviously saying that its permanently deactivated I end up sending them a very long message which I didnt include in this because it has lots of personal information explaining to them what happened and asking for any avenues on that to fix the situation because thats what customer service And support keep telling us to do and that they would explain it to us and final waste unblock it even on the XXXX  support help center. It says to talk to them in email to find a way to be able to release the fun sooner, etc. etc. so just approve that they dont care and they keep sending the same message they sent the same message back to backwithout having any human compassion or sympathy. Youll see this timestamps for one at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and then another one before I believe XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX the same day so a few hours later.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation