On September 29th I made a donation of $30 (USD) to my friend in Canada via PayPal to her organization which aids stray animals in Cuba. As part of the donation, under the "note to sender" section, I wrote what was meant to be a sweet comment of my appreciation for the work she and her organization is doing. Here's the exact message:
"Thank you for helping Cuban people in helping Cuban dogs and other animals"
After I wrote such comment, my friend (who runs the organization) had her personal PayPal account was frozen. PayPal customer service explained to her that the use of the word "Cuba" in my note flagged her account. Her account was eventually unfrozen, however, the mentioned transaction remained pending to date.
When I spoke with customer service about this issue, I was told that my friend has to refund me the amount. However, she is not able to do that in her account because it also shows as pending, and when she went in to report a problem the prompt bellow appeared:
"We're unable to file a case on this transaction. Since this is money you've received, you'll need to contact the sender directly to resolve your issue."
This is a catch-22 where we are both being told to communicate with each other, but neither of our accounts allows us to make any action. I can assure you that neither my friend or myself have broken PayPal's user agreement of compliance. I am also very sorry I used the name of a country that could cause any trouble. I expected PayPal's software to be advanced enough to see the word Cuba next to furry animals and none threatening language like "donation" and Canada -- if Canada is involved then nothing should be a threat.
