Consumer complaint received 2025-03-27 00:00:00
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Problem adding money — 
Company: Paypal Holdings, Inc
State: WA

Complaint narrative:
Last Friday, the XXXX I was contacted by a Businesswoman that wanted me to remove a negative product review on XXXX, and was willing to pay to make the experience right. 
She wanted to send the money via PayPal to facilitate the service, and I was open to this transaction, but was skeptical of her email address.

( I won't mention the specifics, but it looked very strange to me. This is relevant. ) About a few hours go by, and I see this person has sent a PayPal payment exactly as promised, but I notice an email from Paypal, and upon checking it, I am informed that my account has been " temporarily limited '' and I can not do much of anything with my PayPal account. The only information on my account at this time was that there were " actions on my account that PayPal can not support '' and nothing more, but I knew it had something to do with that email address. 

I called them and asked what was going on and they explained that the account was auto flagged due to not recognizing the sender 's email, and that I could put in a manual review to have the account reversed, and the funds lifted, just wait for a few days. I was told I should hear something on Monday I go about my Friday at work, and around noon or so I get a message in the PayPal resolution Center that my request has been denied.

I was so shocked and put off I asked the person if they were AI.

They explained that the limitation was already finalized in place as a " Permanent Ban '' on my account, so now I can not do business with PayPal AT ALL, and any residual funds would be held indefinitely for 4 months to be divided out by PayPal at their discretion.

Furious, I called back and requested a second " Manual Review '' to be done, and was told that the process could take up to 3 - 5 business days.

Not one wanting to be disappointed again, in the background I began a Better Business Bureau investigation into the matter.

Saturday Morning My account was completely restored.

I immediately removed the funds to my external account, and took the weekend to be joyous that I got a major problem I was having at the time resolved.

Well, Monday morning of this week, I come to find that the seller has requested a refund from PayPal. Technically it was filed Friday, but didn't hit my account until that following Monday after the funds had already been moved from my account. Resulting in my PayPal balance now being negative the original amount. I made a counter claim immediately, and used every form and text box to explain the situation with email screenshots of her asking not to send a refund!

In the resolution Center, I see my updates, and am told to wait for 5 days, with the final decision coming no later than XX/XX/XXXX However, I am still in contact with the original seller, and she has confirmed that this case was closed on her end as of yesterday morning, and that she will be refunded within 5- 7 days. Skeptical of her words, she even sent a screenshot to prove it.


I still see the same case opened up on my end. I am still in negative balance I called PayPal today to ask about it, and the Customer Service agent told me to just return the missing balance to my PayPal account, that will resolve the negative balance.

But with everything I've been through just to get to this point, that feels as though I'm just conceding defeat. Why pay back a balance that I only incurred using your system?

I asked to be put on with an account specialist who told me that even though the appeal was in " final review '' it appeared as though the request was going to be denied. She acknowledged that technically it wasn't YET but that was direction that it appeared to be heading toward.

She told me she was putting in another request, and that the timer to wait was now reset all over from today. Now in addition to the 3+ days I've waited, I have to wait an entire week on top of that, and the account specialist hung up on me to end the call.

I find it incredibly frustrating and confusing why a user with a suspicious email address is still permitted to use this service freely, but I am being penalized for seemingly using the same service, and nobody at PayPal seems to be taking this seriously.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief