this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2024

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Mildly Infuriating

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I’ve been locked out of PayPal for years because of their mistake (lemm.ee)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/mildlyinfuriating

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About 3 or 4 years ago PayPal added the option to buy cryptocurrency, which I thought I’d try. (Dumb idea 🙄)

Part of the sign up process was glitched. I retried and clicked submit one too many times, I guess. Now I’ve been unable to use PayPal for years. They blocked me because THEIR SITE was broken, but the web page essentially accuses me of being a criminal and asks for my bank records. No way in hell.

This was just for me to pay others. I can only imagine how awful PayPal is if you are a vendor.

Fuck PayPal.

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[–] qevlarr 93 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Someone in Norway has the same name as me, and they made a PayPal account. They accidentally used my email during signup and I got some weird emails in Norwegian. So I called PayPal. I asked them to change the email. "You can't, because it's not your account, you just admitted". Uh, ok. Can you close the account? "It's not your account". Can you contact the account owner and tell them to fix it? "We don't have their email". Can I use account recovery and close it? "Then you would be breaking into someone else's account".

So what should I do? PayPal put a notice on the account in case they log in, and told me to just ignore the emails. I was baffled. Just ignore the emails? Stop sending them then! But there really isn't anything I can do. I tried account recovery anyway, but it didn't work.

They never logged in I think. They probably made another account with the correct details and never thought about this one. So I've been getting the "our terms and conditions have changed" email once or twice a year and ignoring them. They're still in Norwegian.

I just looked it up, this has been going on since 2015. Maybe I should contact PayPal again and tell them how ridiculous they've been.

[–] barsquid 54 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Report them to the CFPB. They're forced to have an actual human review and respond.

[–] qevlarr 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I just wanted to share the story.

[–] barsquid 19 points 4 months ago

Oh, gotcha. Yeah they are shitheads. It honestly should be illegal to make an account for someone using an unverified email.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago

It may not be your account, but it is your email.

Dumb of them that they didn't just remove the email address.

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[–] [email protected] 76 points 4 months ago (8 children)

What is the use case for PayPal in the US? Here in Brazil we pay everything with credit card or bank transfer with a QR code. People can transfer money to you from any bank 24/7 instantaneously with just your email or phone number without any fees. Is that different in the US?

[–] eager_eagle 80 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

The banking system in the US is a legacy mess. Transfers still take business days to go through and making your bank account # and routing information available is actually a security concern, honestly I don't even know why that's still a thing.

Products like PayPal and Plaid try to provide something that is slightly more usable, but with this underlying obsolescence their functionality is very limited.

When paying for services, credit cards are still the way to do it. For P2P payments, people use PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, and others. Nothing even close to a unified system like Pix in Brazil.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (5 children)

There is Zelle, which is instant bank to bank. It's fairly widely available from one's financial institution, and it doesn't cost anything, but it's not terribly well known yet for some reason

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Zelle works pretty good, the main problem is the security limits.
Let's say you hire somebody to build a shed for $5,000.
You can't just pay him $5,000. The first day maybe you can pay him $1,000, then the next day you can pay him another $1,500, then you've reached the 30-day maximum for a new contact so you have to wait till day 31 to pay him the other $2,500. After that if you want another shed you can pay the $5,000 instantly.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (3 children)

They named it after gazelle, which is a herd prey animal. That causes it to slip away from attention when it’s mentioned.

If they’d called in Bonko or something it would stand out in people’s memories more. Bonko, bright orange icon, it would spread by wildfire. Nobody would forget that name.

There are no hard consonants in the word. Synaesthetically, it’s a blue-purple word. Cool, muted. It’s a word that, even before the “gazelle” reference, is hiding there. Your mind slips over it without friction. It enters and leaves your mouth and your mind like a fish passing under the sparkling water, nearly unnoticed.

Terrible brand name. I mean, it does convey a little more safety than “Bonko” but the whole point with the unsafe sounding name is it causes the person to consciously ask “How safe is it?” and if you can answer that immediately with “Safer than Ft Knox” then it becomes part of the brand consciously.

Zelle is non-threatening, but that’s not the same thing as safe when it comes to business or finances.

What’s a good safe, energetic, competent, orange word for this service? Hmm. Bonus points if it’s intuitively self-descriptive.

How about “Paytag”. It’s yellow but whatever. Still might not be better than Bonko.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I want some of whatever you’re on

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

Bonko me $20 and I’ll send you some

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[–] atrielienz 8 points 4 months ago

It is until you end up having to blacklist zelle because your banking information was used to defraud someone. I actually had my account broken into, funds deposited from zelle and then all available funds removed from my account in the space of about an hour. Went to pay for something the day after and had to call my bank's fraud department. They tried the same thing with a second account of mine but it was flagged immediately when they tried to use the same login credentials (they weren't remotely the same). So no zelle for me. It's permanently disabled by both my banks for security reasons.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago (6 children)

Aussie here. One reason I use PayPal is for subscriptions (streaming services etc) to avoid the headache of updating credit card details in multiple places when I change bank, credit card renews, etc. just change it in PayPal once and every subscription keeps working.

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[–] vxx 22 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It's used for Internet purchases, so you don't have to give your billing information some random site that might get hacked.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

PayPal passes most billing information to the store where you purchased from. Card info is excluded, but in most cases PCI compliance checks ensure that card info is stored securely (or not at all).

[–] mycodesucks 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

In my experience, their consumer protection is great.

PayPal has been absolutely instrumental for me in issuing refunds with obstinate vendors. Once or twice they've issued me a refund after being refused a return/refund when an Aliexpress vendor either sent the wrong item or nothing at all.

I even got them to secure me a refund against the Australian government after they refused to issue a refund after directing me to apply for a tourist visa with the wrong visa process.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I even got them to secure me a refund against the Australian government after they refused to issue a refund after directing me to apply for a tourist visa with the wrong visa process.

I love this result. It's really damn hard to protect yourself from government failure, especially in cases where you are owed money. It's awesome that you not only got your money back, but also got to play the "fuck you, if you take my lunch money you can fight my big brother" card.

[–] mycodesucks 8 points 4 months ago

I felt the same way. I was VERY happy with that outcome. I won't say PayPal earned my LOYALTY with that, because loyalty to ANY company is stupidity, but at the very least they earned my respect for the time being. Of course, I reserve the right to revoke it at any time.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

🤣🤣🤣

Here in the US our banks are draconian. We just struggle through it I guess 🤷‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

What is the use case for PayPal in the US?

It gives businesses a very easy to way to set up monthly payments, one-time donations, accept forms of payments other than e-transfer (which many people don't want to use), allows for international purchases without being penalized, and more.

Other options are available, but they are neither easy/cheap/convenient for the business or any better for the customer.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Yes its different. Sending money electronically is a mess of apps and limits and fees.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Aren't they regulated in some way or other? I had problems with them in Europe (travel a lot for work, including some African and Central Asian countries) and they blocked me when I tried to buy something while in Nigeria. Fair play, common scam hotspot.

But no matter what I did to prove my identity after returning, they wouldn't unblock my account. So instead I sent a complaint to the CSSF (the FED of Luxembourg, where they got their European banking license) and within days I had the head of compliance from their HQ in Ireland on the phone telling me that my account was open again and practically begging me to drop the complaint.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Not in the US. The number of people who trust PayPal absolutely amazes me.

PayPal is not a bank. Regardless of what they write on their site, they aren't regulated as a bank or insured as a bank.

They have the legal authority to close your account and take your money for any reason. There are countless horror stories of people trying to get PayPal to release their funds only to find out they have no legal recourse.

[–] Cryophilia 10 points 4 months ago

I only got my $500 back from them because I knew someone who knew someone who used to be a PayPal exec lol. Fuck those scummy bastards.

[–] MeatsOfRage 36 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I haven't used PayPal in over 10 years. Why don't you just leave the service?

[–] accideath 10 points 4 months ago (30 children)

Because it’s convenient for paying online (one login instead of having to search my debit card and also, if I got scammed, there’d be another layer of protection for me) and it’s convenient for sending money to friends when we order pizza together or sth like that. What’s the alternative?

[–] Cryophilia 6 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Venmo, Google pay, apple pay

[–] accideath 10 points 4 months ago (21 children)

No one I know has venmo. Most people I know wouldn’t even know what venmo is. I’m not even sure it’s available here in Europe. I believe it actually isn’t, can’t find it on the AppStore.

And Google pay and Apple pay are nice and I personally use them but I’m not always on a device that supports them, I’m not always on shops that support them and I know a lot of people who don’t have credit/debit cards, only giro cards, and those usually aren’t supported either. And, at least in Europe, you cannot send money to friends via Apple Pay or Google pay.

[–] Alborlin 6 points 4 months ago (8 children)

In EU, you need to use PayPal at all.bank transferes are instant, banks provide disponible debit cards , you can use Google pay Almost anywhere, which keeps your Privacy. Where is that you NEED to use PayPal in EU?

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

the web page essentially accuses me of being a criminal and asks for my bank records. No way in hell.

Yeah don't bother doing that. All that will accomplish is them gathering even more information on you, they rarely/never actually unlock your account & let you use it again. You've been permanently blacklisted on their service, just move on. And honestly you don't need Paypal anyway.

Similar stupid thing happened to me too I think about 10-15 years ago, I was using virtual credit card numbers that my credit card company was generating for me & Paypal thought that was suspicious enough to close my account & permanently blacklist me LOL.

Fun fact: I did learn over the years that I can temporarily create new Paypal account(s) as long as I don't use the same mailing/billing addresses or credit cards/bank accounts. But then it's just a waiting game, they usually figure it out eventually and close the Paypal account yet again.

[–] nicgentile 24 points 4 months ago

Got locked out of my PayPal account but I apparently can't close it.

A couple of years ago I was running a growing loans business on r/loans and the other one. One day, I got scammed. Loaned someone money and when it came to pay day, they reported me to welch out of the deal.

It took 180 days to get the money I had on my account. I tried closing the account and PayPal would not let me. It's been years and all I get are notices of terms and marketing stuff. I try to unsubscribe and it keeps coming so I mark it as spam but Gmail does not care.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago

Lesson number 1: Never, ever, never, ever, use PayPal. Lesson number 2: Don’t use PayPal.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Does anyone know of an alternative to paypal other than stripe ( same shenanigans) , for getting paid for freelance work that is available in Europe or Asia ??

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (7 children)

getting paid for freelance work that is available in Europe

Banktransfers are free...

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Amazon blocked my account while trying to purchase a gift card and are now demanding proof of ownership of the gift card they just refused to sell to me????

[–] Hikermick 18 points 4 months ago

PayPal sent me an email telling me I couldn't use their service because I had a VPN. No big deal, I'll just start using my credit card. A few weeks later PayPal emails me to say we're all good and I can use them again

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Paypal locked my account after years of use for absolutely no reason. I never had a invalid charge, dispute, or any other kind of problem with it, just one day they decided to shut it down. They flatly refused to explain what was going on. With all the decent alternatives out there now there is no longer a reason to use their crappy service.

Love that they believe they're the only game in town and can demand your bank statement.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

Don't use their services they are a liability to deal with.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Same thing happened to me when I tried to update my phone number and address at the same time.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (4 children)

I never even provided my phone number to Paypal, then one day they started requiring me to use it to verify logins.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

you're going to be giving paypal access to your bank account/debit card if you want to get paid, or send money, giving them a bank statement, like many other financial vendors ask for before setting up and account or a loan, isn't unusual. you've decided it's your line in the sand, but it's no big deal, like, at all at all.

[–] WarlordSdocy 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I remember during the GPU shortage I managed to get a new graphics card from waiting outside a best buy for it to open. So I tried to sell my old one on eBay. Gave good pictures and followed all the rules as far as I could tell but because I had never sold anything on their platform before I was instantly banned with no way to appeal. I get they were probably having to deal with lots of scammers but if I could appeal or talk to support I could literally prove I had the GPU I was selling but as far as I could tell there was no option for that. So now I can't sell anything on eBay unless I get someone else to sell it for me.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

I used PayPal for a little while in the mid 2000's to pay for stuff online until I found out they could freeze my bank account.

I immediately removed my bank account from PayPal and over time I got a credit card and it was easier to use. I kept it with only my credit card in my account to sometimes but stuff on eBay and that's the only time I use it

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (9 children)

Same, cant use half of online services because I can't have PayPal (and don't want a credit card for security concerns)

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[–] LANIK2000 6 points 4 months ago

Amazon blocked my account when I was buying a gift for an American friend. I made the account years prior thinking I'd buy something, but didn't end up using it. In other words, this was the first purchase on the account. It got blocked for suspicious activity, and to unblock it, I have to provide an account statement with an Amazon transaction in it... THERE IS NONE!!! THIS IS THE FIRST ONE AND IT DIDN'T HAPPEN CUS I'M BLOCKED!!! I was only buying some bloody markers and a plushy!

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