Why was my account closed

[IanN3]

Last month Paypal notified me that my account was being limited because I had viloated the terms and conditions with no explanation as to how I had done so. I later received a another notification stating that my account was being closed to protect Paypal against possible financial losses. The account has only ever been used to send a friend small financial gifts to help her through tough financial times post Covid. It has never been used for buisiness transactions or for buying and selling anything or for any illicit purpose and I feel I have done nothing wrong. After both notifications and on at least two other occasions I have telephoned Paypal to ask what is going on and explained what the account was used for. On each occasion I was assured that they would raise an inquiry with the investigation team and that I would be contacted in either 24 hrs, 5 days or 1 week depending who I spoke to. So far, after over a month, I have heard nothing. I have no way of knowing if any inquiries have actually been raised as no case reference numbers are given and nothing ever shows on my account except the most recent notification about the closure. The people I speak to claim they can see records of my previous enquiries but say they can see no information about why my account was closed. I have received no e-mails or telephone calls as were promised. It feels as though Paypal's customer service is appalling and that I am just being fobbed off with false promises. I feel that if there is a genuine issue I should be told what it is in case I need to protect my own interests in some way or, conversely, if Paypal have made a mistake they should correct it ASAP. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? How do I instigate an actual complaint that I can track and follow as phoning the telephone number provided only leads to what I have described? I really want to escalate this and find out why they closed my account but can see no obvious way of getting past the phone operators I have already spoken to.

[PayPal_RachelK]

Hi @IanN3,

Welcome to the PayPal Community!

I am sorry to hear your account has been permanently limited. I know this must be frustrating. Please be assured that we do not take the decision to permanently limit an account lightly. A full review would have been completed before making this decision. 

It sounds like your account has already been submitted for an appeal. If you have not yet received an email update, your appeal may not have been submitted successfully. I would suggest you contact our Customer Support again. 

To contact us, simply click here. Alternatively, you can contact us via Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PayPal or Twitter @AskPayPal.
 

I hope you get this sorted!
 

- Rachel 

[IanN3]

Since my original post I have received mail responses from Paypal. However the first only acknowledged my complaint and the second asked me if my complaint had been dealt with to my staisfaction. Both appeared to be pre-prepared generic responses. At no stage did I receive a response explaing why my account has been closed and I still haven't. All I have is the notification, also seemingly a pre-prepared generic message, stating that Paypal had seen activity that violated the terms of the service agreement. that is a very broad based reason that does not explain what I am supposed to have done wrong. It is like someone receiving a notification that they have to pay a fine for a motoring offence without being told what the offence was. Completely unacceptable in my opinion and represents a very poor standard of customer service. If I have inadvertantly done something wrong I should be told what it is. I cannot properly challenge the decision if I don't know why the decision was made. Again I have written to customer services today re-iterating what I was using the account for. This is becoming very frustrating.

[Articcolds]

I have the same issue happened instantly as I used the stupid platform to buy bitcoin then tried to send to my wallet. They closed and explained nothing. I will be finding a place to file a complaint of these practices. I have already complained to the FTC for what they are doing. I will next send this to the attorney General. Their practices violate consumers rights just need more to complain of this dictatorship

[IanN3]

I agree. I have registered another complaint to Paypal regarding their poor communications and customer service. If I do not get a satisfactory explanation for their actions in relation to my account this time I will be taking it to the financial obudsman. I can understand that Paypal has to police its operation and what customers are doing but if they think they have identified a problem and close someones account they should provide a full explanation of what the problem is perceived to be and give the account holder an opportinity to make an informed response. As far as I can see they are not doing that. Paypal's behaviour is appalling in my opinion. I am still awaiting a proper response to my follow up complaint. They have at least acknowledged that they are looking in to it but whether I receive a proper response or just another generic response remains to  be seen. The last response I received was described as final. It was clearly a pre-prepared generic email that had bracketed spaces and instructions for what the sender should enter in those spaces. They hadn't even entered any information or marked anything as non applicable. They just sent it with all of the instructions still in place. An atrocious way to treat customers over something as important as closing their account.

[AngelaErlandson]

MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN RESTRICTED BECAUSE SUDDENLY AFTER ALL THE YEARS I HAVE USED PAYPAL THEY HAVE DECIDED I AM VIOLATING POLICIES THAT I AM NOT.  I HAVE EMAILED, DISPUTED, SPOKEN TO THEM AND THEY SAY THEY ARE REVIEWING AGAIN.  I AM CONTACTING THE ATTORNEY GENERALS' OFFICE AND SEEKING LEGAL ADVICE AS I AM A REGISTERED, LICENSED AND INSURED BUSINESS IN TENNESSEE SELLING ALL LEGAL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.  I WAS WONDERING IF THIS HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH EBAY PURCHASING PAYPAL.  I AM SO FRUSTRATED WITH PAYPAL AS I HAVE BEEN USING THEM FOR YEARS WITH NO ISSUES.  WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE IS VERY WRONG, AND IT IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO GET ANYONE TO HELP.

[IanN3]

I have now received another response from Paypal that I deem completely unacceptable. This time they have given another vague reason for the closure. Previously I have been told that the reason was to protect Paypal against possible financial losses and then that some of my products or services violated Paypal's acceptable use policy. In both cases no specific explanation was given as to how I had supposedly broken the rules. Given that I only used the account to send small gifts to a friend it is difficult to see how Paypal would be likely to incur financial losses and the second reason is laughable given that I never used the account to buy or sell any products or sevices at all. Now I am being told that my account was closed because of security issues. As with the previous reasons they have not provided any explanation as what the security issue is. In my opinion I have the right to know. If they are actually correct and I have inadvertently involved myself in something or with someone that is a security risk I should be advised fully so that I can take steps to protect myself if necessary but Paypal just hides behind the statement that they are under no obligation to disclose the details of their risk management or security procedures to me. Well that is fair enough but I am not asking them to do that. I am not asking them to tell me how they run their business. I am asking them to tell me what they think I have done wrong or what is wrong with my account. This about me and my account. A different thing entirely. For me the way paypal conducts itself and hides behind vague reasoning and statements when dealing with complaints is utterly unacceptable. And I have to ask the question why do they give a different reason for the closure each time they respond? I have again responded to their so called final response requseting the actual reason for the closure. Whether I receive a sensible response or yet another vague response remains to be seen. In the meantime I will be contacting the Financial Ombudsman to highlight this issue. I'm not sure they will do much as I have not suffered any kind of finacial loss but I can at least highlight to them the poor standards of behaviour and customer service that Paypal is guilty of. It seems that the whole complaints procedure, both by telephone and e-mail, is made as difficult as possible to use and is then blatantly evasive, failing to provide any clear explanation or justification for their actions. I hope you are having more luck than I am resolving your issue.

[loiret45]

Why was my Account closed

[PayPal_Ayesha]

Hello @loiret45,

Welcome to PayPal Community Forum and thank you for posting!

I am sorry to hear that your account seems to be closed. It is possible that your account has been permanently limited. I know this must be frustrating. Please be assured that we do not take the decision to permanently limit an account lightly. A full review would have been completed before making this decision. If you have not yet received an email update as to why the account is limited, I would suggest you contact our Customer Support team through the available contact options on our website. Alternatively, you can contact us via Facebook or Twitter.

Best Wishes,

Ayesha