Paypal unilaterally stopped my payment and is holding my money

[LEWagner]

Over 48 hours ago I sent a small donation to a long-time friend in Gaza via his PayPal account. It was for a family emergency.
I received word from my friend about 28 hours ago that PayPal is refusing to give him the money from my payment, and in fact is refusing to honor all payments to Gaza. PayPal told him that I will receive my money back within 2 to 4 days.
I suppose I can resend it by other means, though the emergency situation is getting worse.
I had made no complaint to PayPal nor asked them to stop my payment; this stop-payment action was 100% unilateral on PayPal's part.
So I logged into my PayPal account to file a complaint. Instead of any box to type a message in, all I got was a multiple choice flow chart, with none of the choices matching the situation.
I checked off the closest choices I could, and instead of getting any kind of appropriate response from PayPal who I was complaining about, I suddenly got a message that my complaint had been sent to the payee for HIM to deal with (though I was not complaining about him but about PayPal).
Finally, I found a place to email Paypal, which I did, saying that I am angry that my money was not given to the payee as PayPal contracts to do, and is not being sent back to me EITHER, but is being held for days, first. I want my money to be immediately given to the payee, or at least to be immediately returned to me, and said that I am outraged at the runaround I am getting from PayPal.
Then a box popped up asking my opinion of Paypal's complaint resolution. I said I was very dissatisfied, and told them why.
Then I went to my email to find a do-not-reply email from PayPal tellng me that my email had been replied to, and that to read the reply to click on the "Visit the Message Center" button.
That was 24 hours ago. The email said they'll get to me as soon as they can. My money has been in PayPal's hands for over 48 hours now, and I am seething.

[kernowlass]

@LEWagner 

Paypal is NOT available in Gaza so if your friend has a paypal account then he is using another countries and that is why the payment would not proceed.

When you pay someone and its not able to process it can't just do a u-turn, it has to complete transfering through to paypal who as they can't pass the funds to the receiver will return it to your funding source.

[LEWagner]

PayPal HAS BEEN available in Gaza, under the country "Palestinian Authority" (country code "PS"), and I have sent payments to my friend in Gaza many MANY times before.
When I logged into PayPal account 2 days ago, I was asked if I would like to do a "repeat transaction", and that same person's name (and yes, he IS IN GAZA) was right at the top of the list (and he still is right on top of the list right now, in fact).
So I said yes, I want to repeat that transaction, and I typed in the amount, PayPal took my money, told me my transaction is completed, and the next thing I heard about twenty or so hours later was that my friend could not pick up his money, and that PayPal will be returning it to me within 2 to 4 days.
It's over 2 days now. My money is still not in my account. Why hasn't PayPal returned my money??
If PayPal has closed my friend's account, why didn't it inform me BEFORE I sent the money to that account, instead of taking my money and then holding it so I cannot use it?
I am angry, and disinformation does not make me less angry. There are quite a few of us discussing this situation on Facebook, already, because others have had the same kind of experience.
I want my money back immediately, plus interest and penalty for the two days it's been held without my authorization, plus an explanation of why PayPal didn't inform me BEFORE they took my money that the account to which I was sending it (after having sent it there many times before) suddenly would not be able to receive it.

[kernowlass]

@LEWagner 

Paypal is not available in Gaza OR under Palestine.

If you are sending funds to them successfully then they have been using another countries paypal account as i said earlier.

You may have successfully sent before but this time the security system stopped you.

[LEWagner]

If it goes through some other country first, that is completely irrelevant. Since my friends HAVE repeatedly received money via PayPal accounts in Gaza, without leaving Gaza (which none of them are allowed to do) that means that it was available to them in Gaza. That's just plain English and plain logic.

And your inaccurate and misleading reply still does not even come close to addressing my question of why did PayPal not tell me BEFORE taking my money that I cannot send it to that recipient, but took my money first, and is still holding it.

This is the age of instant electronic transfer of funds, which is PayPal's specialty. Why is it taking PayPal days to refund my money into my bank account when it only took a fraction of a second for them to withdraw it? Will I be paid interest and penalty for loss of the use of my money?

[kernowlass]

@LEWagner 

Paypal is country specific and its against paypals policies to use another countries paypal account.

So the country is not irrelevant and the system has caught up with them and stopped them receiving your payment in a paypal unsupported country.

[LEWagner]

Regarding the existence or non-existence of PayPal "in Gaza", I'll just say "Whatever", and report your explanation on my FB page.

Now, I will repeat my main question that you have continued to ignore in each of your replies so far: (Excuse my capitalizing, but you seem hard of hearing): WHY DID PAYPAL WITHDRAW MONEY OUT OF MY BANK ACCOUNT TO SEND TO A NONEXISTENT ACCOUNT IN GAZA? AND WHY HASN'T PAYPAL IMMEDIATELY RETURNED MY MONEY TO ME?
That money was withdrawn from my account at 9:48 a.m. September 11, Southeast Asian Time. It is now after noon on September 15, Southeast Asian Time. PayPal has held my money for over 4 days already.
Why did PayPal take my money, and why hasn't PayPal given it back? Does PayPal eventually plan to refund me my money, or are they just planning on keeping it? How long do you think it will take to get an answer to the question I am asking (REGARDING THE REFUND OF MY MONEY)? Do you think PayPal will pay me interest for the use of my money, plus penalty for my not being able to use it?

[kernowlass]

@LEWagner 

Reporting the FACTS on your Facebook page is fine to me.

However its pretty easy to know which countries paypal is available in as there is a list and neither GAZA or PALESTINE are on that list as they are NOT a Paypal supported country.

Sorry you seem to take offence about being given factual information.

And I did answer your question IN MY FIRST REPLY ABOVE so I am not going to waste my time posting it all again, especially to someone who is so rude when they don't like the facts being given to them. So re-READ my above posts and you will see the answer.

Oh and forgive the CAPS only you don't seem to be able to read the info.....hence the emphasis. Not sure what being deaf has to do with it? I READ posts I don't HEAR them !

Bye, off to help some nice folks that appreciate my help.

[LEWagner]

Yes, I certainly will report the facts, in this way: This is what I wrote, and this is what you wrote. I have cut and pasted it all onto my own hard-drive, don't worry about that, bud. You'll get your word in.
I have still not had my money returned after 4 1/2 days, and you're saying that you have "helped me" (though you haven't), and that I am "not nice" for being very dissatisfied with a company asking me if I wanted to repeat a transaction I have done several times before, then when I answered yes, taking my money and then NOT transferring it to an account that had been open and active, and making me wait for days to get my money back.
You refuse to answer my question whether PayPal will pay me interest, but I know of course that it won't.
By the way, as far as PayPal not being available in Palestine, I and many others know that is a lie, because it IS available, to illegal Israeli settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank, though it is NOT available to the Palestinians living on their own land in the same area. So it is a racist policy, and not a country policy, as you are trying to tell me.
Wow. That's quite a company that you're defending-- and then you try to turn it around on me as though I did something wrong by accepting PayPal's invitation to "repeat this transaction".
This conversation has been copied and pasted, and will be published.
(By the way, I realize it's not a verbal conversation but actually a written exchange, and that you are not literally "listening to me", or "hard of hearing". You know the expression "Don't shout" when used with capitalization as well as I do. There's no need for or benefit in your feigning being stupid. You're as slippery as they come.)
Bye. Don't hurt your arm patting yourself on the back, because you're sure not getting any kudos from me.

[kernowlass]

@LEWagner 

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