I have just had this happen and I am infuriated. I use paypal for various reasons: friends and family who want to send my children gifts; I use it for my business (I am a freelance writer); and for paying items like iTunes, topping up my online phone system, etc.
What kills me is the manner in which PayPal behaves. It is draconian: they want to make money from us and they do, no problems. They have a question with our account, why not write or call us? They have our email. This is highly unprofessional to feel tired, found guilty and to have no idea why? My dealings with PayPal have been above the board entirely and I really take issue with how they have treated me as a customer. This also raises ethical issues if companies like this can behave like a one-eyed machine without any accountability to the customer much less privacy laws. For instance, when the EU office I called tonight didn't answer, it was closed, I called the US office. After three hours on hold, they told me that they couldn't see why this has happened but would put in a request for a review. I said this was incredible that someone who gives PayPal an enormous amount of money and who is a single parent would be put in a position to have to call and wait on hold for three hours only to be told, "We have no idea why this has happened." And then she said I would have to write their legal team and hire my own attorney. I informed her of the EU privacy laws and the fact that we have the right to any and all data on us without an attorney. I was pretty shocked by this office's lack of understanding of the law and of consumer rights.
I am pretty much done with PayPal. In the past when they would hold money or send automated messages in response to my questions that clearly showed no human had read my question, I was willing to put this aside. But I have just lost four hours of my life and still don't know what I allegedly "did". I looked over all their rules and regulations and have not broken any. I find this outrageous and I can only encourage more people to jump ship. Had this not happened to me, I would be very worried about a company that sends out an email that looks like spam, telling you that your account is permanently disabled and gives no reason.
This is not how to maintain human relations. Largely because it is inhuman.
