Account unusable due to PSD2 authentication, phone number changed

[pap26]

Due to PSD2 I'm all of a sudden required to confirm my identity by receiving a text message. However, the phone number registered to my account is no longer usable due to my phone being stolen last week. I got a new phone number but when I tried to sign in to enter it into Paypal, I can't log in! So I can't enter a new phone number, I can't sign in to contact support or read these forums. I have created another account to be able to contact support and post my query, but I can't connect my card to this new account because it's still registered with the now-unreachable account.

It's like a bloody farce.

What can I do to access my old account again? I have money in there and no access whatsoever.

[dv990]

Yes, how naive can they be.. this is a serious issue, and it's even being ignored. I am also affected

Many, and i mean many people have an outdated phone number in their account. So they decided to completely lock these people out.

Because:

- Without the ability to log in (due to Paypal wanting a verification code *from* the outdated number) you cannot:

* Go into the account to update your phone number

* Contact support in any way, about you being unable to update the phone number, so you can regain acces of your account

So i tried to call the support of PayPal, and at the end of a complicated choice menu it funnily said: Due to Corona crisis, the support center is closed.

Ok, so there's no single way to reach PayPal and regain access of my account? Really?

Which bright mind decided it was a good idea to implement this technology without fallback methods for those that have an old phone number in their account? Is it conveniently not thought about, because PayPal wants to get rid of some customers (e.g wants the balances of many accounts at once, for themselves). I can't explain otherwise, because the problem, and how they could avoid it is so obvious.. and the deadlock for users is obvious too. Because like i said, i cannot even contact support without the ability to log into the support pages! It really almost looks deliberate, or plain stupidity.

Think about it when integrating stuff into Paypal. Anyone can figure out what goes wrong here.

And how about this topic starter getting his complaint ignored?

I came here to say i also lost my access, i also created a new account purely for this purpose - just to probably get ignored, and NEVER get my account back.

[kernowlass]

@pap26 

@dv990 

You would need to contact customer services so that they can i.d. you another way and then add your new phone number to your account.

Paypal phones are mostly non operational since covid but sometimes you get lucky. (use the guest option if you can't log in).
If there is one available it will show when you click help / contact bottom left of Paypal pages for options available in your country.
Live chat is randomly available.
You can send them a message.
Or have you considered contacting Customer Service via Facebook or Twitter?
You can send them a personal message from their facebook or twitter pages.
It's: https://www.facebook.com/PayPal and @AskPayPal for Twitter.

[dv990]

@kernowlass I don't think you realize it is really as bad as it looks like.. we are locked out of support. I will address the majority of your recommendations:

- PayPal phone support is out of business for my country, until pandemic is over. So no 'lucky moments'

- There is no live chat possibility for me, maybe it's not for my country (Netherlands)

- I tried contacting PayPal support over Facebook - all i got is a bot that guides me through a menu. There is no single way to get a human to answer on the Facebook messages - it keeps referring to known solutions/answers depending on what you choose. If you type something yourself, it will say "Sorry, i didnt understand that" kind of stuff, so no, its not staffed. So, if this is how PayPal sorts out their "e-care" department, it shall be the same on Twitter?

- "Guest option" that you mentioned: i looked in all support pages, and there's no guest option to send my support request (for resolving being locked out due to this matter). Like stated before, you must login before you can contact support. But logging in is exactly what's not possible at this stage.

So - what now? It seems that it's a professional job of locking people out of all support channels. Then the corona pandemic completely ruins it even more.

[aaaaaa33]

I am in the same boat. Two days I have spent talking to bots. Phones are useless. Did you manage to fix it? I am thinking about using google pay more now.

[SimonaHoy]

Hey, were you able to fix it? I am having the same problem 😞

[dv990]

Nope, it appears PayPal doesn't care at all.

Since no humans are available at PayPal at the moment, I had to find peace with not using my main account until the coronavirus crisis is over and support starts using humans on their phone helpdesk again.

It's sad, and a huge inconvenience. Through this reality, a lot of people that have money balance on their account which got blocked due to this, are locked out of using their own money.

I can't imagine a legitimate reason why PayPal would totally ignore these kind of side effects of their non-thought-out new policies, exaberated by not having a phone support desk due to coronavirus (or at least not when you cannot login due to the issues at hand, the authentication fail).. maybe something shadier is at play, like they want to profit the money interest rates of all those affected people with a significant account balance. This is just the worst they can do for customer experience. I will probably end up not using PayPal again after this debacle, it's unreliable and even unsafe to store your money. This incident proves it.

[kernowlass]

@dv990 

I can only give you the contact options, sadly nothing to do with me if they don't answer or reply to you.

I just post with what I can and what is available, giving up my time to try and help folks when i can.

Others have used those options and successfully as well.