Need help with Paypal account in wrong country

[ppinthong]

Guys, I really need some help. 

I run a tour company in Thailand and have set up a website for online bookings. I have been receiving payments for bookings, so far totalling around $600.  When I wanted to confirm the account with my credit card and bank account, it showed that I could only add a US bank account or Cyprus (??) credit card. For some reason the Paypal account seems to have been opened in the wrong country.

So, I e-mailed Paypal to ask if they could change the country. They couldn't, fair enough. Then they told me to close the account and open a new one in the right country. Fine by me, but before I close it, i'd like to move the money to another account. That's where the horror starts.

So far, I have been e-mailing daily with at least 20 different Paypal employees. All of them have a different solution.

- Close and reopen the account. Fine, but I need the money.

- Send the money to a relative. Can't do that as Paypal needs my Cyprus credit card details or just gives me an error: 'We cannot send your money right now'.

- Add a secondary mail address and move the money there. Can't do that, as it still asks me for a Cyprus credit card.

- Use the secondary e-mail address to send money to a different account. Can't, as it asks me to verify my account by phone. The only phone number I can add is, duh, in Cyprus.

- Open a new Paypal account in the right country, move the money there and close the first one. As said before, I simply cannot because I have nothing to do with Cyprus

- Etc etc etc etc etc

Now, the last guy I e-mailed with gave me the worst answer so far: the money has been locked for 180 days and I have to wait until somewhere in february before I can use it. Because I didn't confirm the account with a bank account or credit card so they need the money in there if someone wants his money back. The fun part is, after 180 days it will still be a Cyprus account so I will have no option to send the money anywhere. I didn't violate any rules and have no disputes at all so this answer amazed me.

Customer service? They do e-mail me, but none offers a solution that works and makes me want to keep using Paypal. Obviously I will not accept any payments with Paypal anymore, but I still need the money from my account. 

Any idea what to do? These automated e-mail replies make me go crazy. Am I really the only one in the world with this problem as there simply doesn't seem to be a solution??

[kernowlass]

There probably is not a "solution" as most folks open paypal accounts belonging to the country in which they reside.

My only suggest is "refund" the payments > close the account > open one in your country > ask them to pay again. 

[ppinthong1]

Most folks do, I agree. But when I tried to open a completely new account, and the business was listed in Cyprus again! Even when I set my nationality and phone number to Thai. 

Now I see what the problem is: Paypal.com automatically redirects me to www.paypal.com/cy/, which is the Cyprus website. I had to physically enter www.paypal.com.th to get to the Thai section.

This is clearly a problem with the Paypal website, not me. Since I haven't violated any rules, a refund to customers overseas is not an option at all. The least Paypal can do is move my funds to my new account so I can close and reopen the old one in the right country. This feels like stealing my money.

[kernowlass]

Ring them again then and tell them but you have said here re the redirection as that sounds very odd.

But if it has happened as you said they need to look into it and should sort things out for you.

Failing that my refund option seems to be your only way forward.

Good luck.

[Oxygene]

Same boat here, but I do not have any money in it, I just registered my country as Puerto Rico as business, then the system decided to change it to CYPRUS, so I can't even add a bank account for business.  I did try sending "support" an email, instead the robot at the door gave me an auto-form with address rules. 

Can any human from Paypal help on this problem?.... I can gladly close it, but then I canot use the same email to register a new one right?...

HELP!!.

[DPCreations]

@Oxygene

A human can help, but your will need to make the phone call to PayPal customer service.

[Tradewith60]

Exactly the same problem, I have a UK business but I set the business paypal up whilst in the Phillipines, I put in the application it was a UK business with a UK address and it gave me a Phillipines business account - now I have $8k locked in the Phillipines and getting nowhere with customer services - of course they have promised to sort it out numerous times but I am getting nowhere...

Definitely a problem with the application website that needs to be resolved.... Thinking of quitiing paypal for good as there are other options