Where are you in the world? I can advise you if you are in the UK. Paypal have recently made it virtually impossible to contact them. There is no longer an offline message system and the online one never responds in time or at all. Calling them keeps no record of communication in convenient form or at all, which is how they like it, assuming they answer the phone.
You should write an actual letter to:
Paypal UK, Whittaker House, 2 Whittaker Avenue, Richmond, TW9 1EH
At the top of the letter mark it "Without Prejudice save as to costs". Set out your complaint, what you want the resolution to be and include details of any financial loss you have suffered as a result. Give them a fixed time period to reply, usually 14 days. Indicate that if you have not had a resolution of your complaint within this period that you will be pursuing a claim through the (UK) small claims county court.
Then if they then do not reply or reply sounding like they are not going to resolve your complaint then go here: https://www.gov.uk/make-money-claim and make your claim. There is a small fee to pay but you get this back when you win. This will cause a "default summons" to be issued against Paypal for your claim and they then have 14 days from date of service to respond. If they don't respond, then you win by default and you then ask Paypal for your money. Trust me they will pay. If they do respond (file a defence), the court will ask you if you want to go through mediation. You should decline this offer. Paypal then have to employ a lawyer at some considerable expense including probably engage a barrister too to turn up and defend the claim in court at a cost of at least £1000 to them. The Small Claims Court is "user friendly" place. Informal and nice. Written into the UK Civil Procedure rules is that win or lose either party does not get their legal costs beyond the court fees and a bit of travel expenses. In a nut shell, Paypal lose either way because it always costs them a fortune to defend any such claim and from experience, the judges will be very sympathetic to your situation. So Paypal will settle your claim and probably not defend it at all because it is not worth it to them to do so.
If enough people do it, then they will change their policies because it is costing them too much to do otherwise, but failing that, on an individual basis, you will win. It takes the fight into a forum truly independent of Paypal and which they have no control over. It works every time against large organisations abusing their positions of power.
Good luck.
