I'm writing this post for another user (a client) that has a problem I've never seen before.
That user is locked out of her PayPal account.
I'm trying to save my client from having to call to Facebook directly.
She lives in Quebec, Canada.
She's using Chrome v116 on Windows 11 (French, Canada)
She has a regular account (she doesn't sell anything with PayPal).
Whenever she wants to login, she's greeted with a screen demanding she authenticates with a phone.
When she agrees (using her cellphone number) the system comes back with a "cannot authenticate your account" (rough translation, from french).
The user has tried many times.
I've tried and I confirm the issue.
Here's a list of what we did so far (and the result) :
- Added another telephone number FAIL
- Re-entered her current cellphone number FAIL
- Tried asking for a voice message instead of an SMS FAIL
- Tried logging in from another computer (to rule out cache corruption) FAIL on 2FA also
- Managed to ask for a password reset SUCCESS (and we're in the account!) but as soon as we leave the computer idle too long, the account is logged out and is asking for authentication AGAIN --> FAIL
So the issue is not the account. It's the authentication method.
Now when the user tries to authenticate, it immediately tells user it cannot (as opposed to giving options after it has failed), so I assume PayPal actually disabled the phone number or even 2FA for this account?
Now I'm left with one option : reset the password again (it will let me access the account) and disable two-factor authentication. Not a very happy solution.
If anyone has another suggestion, I'm a taker.
In the meantime I will keep on searching to see if someone has the same issue.
Thanks in advance!
