PayPal closed account without warning and are withholding balance of £2k

sarahmerryn · 31 July 2020 at 7:03AM

Hello all,

I’m an artist and sell photographic prints online. I recently connected my website to the PayPal account I’ve had for 10+ years. I was made to convert my PayPal account to ‘business’ as part of this process.

I released a print on Instagram, directing people to my website to buy, and had numerous sales from different international locations in a short period.

PayPal withheld some of the payments, asking me to upload two new pieces of ID in enhanced security checks. I also had to mail all my orders and enter the tracking numbers within a short timeframe. I completed all these things and the payments all showed in my balance.

A couple of weeks later I tried to log into my account to transfer the money to my bank. I received an auto generated email stating my account has been permanently suspended due to suspected fraud and the money held for 180 days. It’s £2k! Their “decision is final”.

I am in contact with all my customers and they have all received their orders.

There are no customer service channels available to discuss this with PayPal. Messaging on social media has not worked. I can’t speak to anyone to find out what happened, let alone dispute it, as the phone service says they have no representatives due to Covid and cuts off every time.

I sent a recorded letter to senior staff at their London HQ and have not heard anything.

WARNING: I’ve since heard from other artists / small business owners that this has also happened to them. Some with significantly higher amounts of money involved. Some say they never got the money. This has also invalidated my website which unfortunately only has the option to interface with PayPal through the site host meaning I’m missing out on income.