Terrible experience with PayPal

I had an incredibly frustrating experience with PayPal recently, and I feel compelled to share the details here so that none of you end up caught in a similar predicament.

To provide some context, we are currently renting out an apartment in San Diego, and we have reached an agreement with the tenant that the funds will be transferred via PayPal.

The funds have finally started to arrive, yet we find ourselves completely locked out of our PayPal accounts.
We might have to try a workaround. We can attempt to request a password reset—even though the original credentials were perfectly fine—and then, after about a week of waiting, we should finally be able to log in normally. I happened to read online that it sometimes takes their system quite a while to actually recognize and accept a newly updated password.

The next complication arose once the balance on my account managed to climb past the $2,500 mark.
It appears that PayPal is requesting formal account verification, specifically asking for bank statements and other supporting documentation.
We send everything they ask for, only to be told it’s still insufficient, and then they have the nerve to claim they'll just mail a PIN to our address.
Which specific information will you be required to enter, then?
Simply have them mail the PIN to our old address in Norway, where we no longer reside.
To be perfectly candid, there was a certain degree of fault on our end; we were the ones who entered that specific address into the system in the first place.
We didn't make the change in time, either.
So, it stands to reason that we're left with our funds effectively frozen in their account now.

The customer support experience has been remarkably subpar. They simply don't reach out, they fail to respond to messages, and frankly, the communication is nonexistent.

I also have yet another PayPal account that I can't seem to access for some reason, even after attempting to reset the password.

I have also established a third account, and everything seems to be running smoothly through that one as well. At least, for the time being.

It is honestly difficult for me to wrap my head around how a service with such massive popularity can struggle with so many systemic issues while maintaining such a lackluster relationship with its clientele.

Has anyone else encountered something similar to this?

I mostly just stick to PayPal for the little things, you know, grabbing stuff on eBay or picking up some games on Steam and whatnot... if I were dealing with any real serious cash, I’d definitely be looking for something else instead.

Anyway, how on earth did you end up with that much sitting in there? Isn't PayPal supposed to just automatically sweep everything over to your debit card every month? Or did someone suddenly drop a cool $2,500 in your lap or something?

Well... I haven't heard of those specific issues before. 🤷
I've been using PayPal for years, even for larger transactions, and I've never encountered a single complication.

As for that automatic transfer feature—if memory serves me correctly, they phased that out at the start of the year.

wanderingheron9 said:I mostly just use PayPal for small stuff—grabbing things on eBay, picking up games on Steam, that sort of thing. If we were talking about much larger sums, I’d definitely look for an alternative.

Beyond that, how on earth did you end up with such a massive balance sitting there? Isn't PayPal supposed to automatically sweep those funds over to your debit card every month? Or did someone suddenly drop a cool $2,500 into your lap out of nowhere?

It wasn't a sudden windfall of 2,500. We simply had funds sitting in the account from previous transactions.
What kind of alternatives would you suggest?
We have actually updated our settings so that payments go directly to our bank account now.
That certainly feels like the safer bet.

Peter Morgan3 said:That’s quite a lot... I have to say, I've never heard of anyone running into those specific issues before. 🤷
Personally, I've been using PayPal for years to handle much larger transactions, and I haven't encountered a single hiccup.

As for that automatic transfer feature—if my memory serves me right, they actually phased that out at the beginning of the year.

We were told that due to certain anti-money laundering regulations, they are now required to verify any accounts handling amounts over $2,500.

I find it rather perplexing that they haven't requested anything similar from you.

Is there anyone else here who handles larger sums and has had similar experiences?

And what about this situation with the passwords?
Are you experiencing actual login errors, such as the system rejecting your password or being unable to update it, and so on?

I ran into some issues myself when my card on file expired—total headache—but after a few tries, I finally got everything sorted out.
It’s just one of those things that happens whenever PayPal tries to route the payment through Maui...