PayPal Sucks
This is likely not news to most of you, but I still feel compelled to share my experience:
PAYPAL IS A GARBAGE COMPANY WITH ASININE BUSINESS PRACTICES THAT ACTIVELY DAMAGE SMALL BUSINESSES.
ITS EVEN WORSE IF YOU'RE AN ARTIST.
TL:DR PayPal held the funds from my first event hostage for 18 days, and didn't release them until after I spent a total of over 7 hours on the phone with PayPal's Customer Service, and contacted my state's Attorney General's office.
Here’s the chain of events:
Wednesday, September 22, 2021:
Zettle is a payment processing company that has flourished in most of the rest of the world. PayPal recently acquired them and is switching all their business customers over to this new system of payment processing. I order my new card reader and set my business up on the new PayPal Zettle app.
Wednesday, September 29, 2021:
I received my PayPal Zettle card reader in the mail, set everything up, and process a test payment of $1.00 from my personal checking account. I then process a refund using PayPal Zettle. Everything goes smoothly, all systems go.
Friday, October 15, 2021:
The first day of ICON, Iowa’s longest-running Sci-Fi/Fantasy convention. I have a booth in the dealer’s room.
5:55pm: I process a payment for $144.55.
5:58pm: I receive an email from PayPal informing me they need more information about my business, and certain restrictions have been placed on my account until they have received and reviewed the information they are “requesting.”* I cannot transfer any funds from my PayPal Business account. I cannot use any of the money in my PayPal Business account. I cannot close my PayPal Business account. I am able to continue taking payments from my customers.
6:20pm: I arrive in my hotel room after the dealer’s room has closed for the evening. I see the email, log into my account, and read their list of “requested” information:
1) Submit your Inventory receipts
2) Provide your business information
3) Vendor/supplier information
In case you aren’t aware, my business, Studio Eldeen Handmade Art LLC, doesn’t re-sell merchandise; I order materials and supplies to then make art. I made several sets of dice, single dice, and Jiggles in preparation for ICON, which I suppose could be considered Inventory, but there are no receipts for these items because I made them by hand.
I provide my business information, which is nothing more than verifying my business’s mailing address, phone number, and email address. Once submitted, this “request” is marked as ‘under review.’
6:25pm: I call PayPal’s customer service and explain how my business works and why I have no receipts to submit to them. The customer service representative says she will make notes on my account and remove the Inventory Receipts “request.” She still insists that I send contact information for my vendors/suppliers.
I clarify that I do not re-sell merchandise, I purchase materials to create art and then sell the finished art; I don’t sell paint, I sell a painting. She insists they need the contact information for the places where I purchase my paint. I explain I purchase the majority of my supplies through Amazon, which has hundreds of thousands of sellers, and it would be impossible for me to track down each and every individual seller’s contact information. She says just getting Amazon’s contact information (address, phone number, email address, etc) will suffice.
The rep also confirms that it will take 3-5 business days for them to process the review of my account. Once I have met their information “requests” they will remove the restrictions on my account.
7:23pm: After a fruitless search online for Amazon’s contact information, I start up an online chat with an Amazon Customer Service rep. I explain PayPal’s “request,” and the rep hands me over to another rep. I explain the situation to the 2nd rep, and they respond with an email address that PayPal can use to contact them with any questions about my purchase history.
I take a screenshot of this conversation and submit it to PayPal. This changes the “request” for Vendor/supplier information to ‘under review.’
While logged into my PayPal account, I see the “request” for Inventory receipts has not been changed to ‘under review,’ even though the PayPal representative told me nearly an hour ago she had taken care of it. I decide to type a statement on my phone, screenshot the statement, then submit that screenshot to fulfill the Inventory receipts “request.” This finally changes that “request” to ‘under review.’ I also receive an auto-generated email from PayPal confirming that they have received the information I just submitted.
Monday, October 18, 2021:
12:27pm: After seeing the restrictions still on my account, I call PayPal to get a better understanding of why this is happening to me and how I can expedite this process. I explain to the Customer Service Representative, again, how I do not keep inventory and I do not re-sell merchandise. He claims he is putting notes in my account, adding context to the information I submitted on Friday the 15th, and says the review process should be complete within just a few more days.
Thursday, October 21, 2021:
12:34pm: I receive an auto-generated email from PayPal informing me they still need more information on my account. I log into my PayPal Business account to see the Vendor/supplier information “request” is open again; My screenshot of the conversation with the Amazon customer service representative was deemed invalid.
12:38pm: I call PayPal to determine what exactly they are looking for so I can resolve this as soon as possible. I explain, in great detail, how the funds they are currently withholding from me are what I need to use to purchase supplies for the commissions I took at ICON nearly a week ago, and that every single day they withhold these funds means another day I am behind schedule, which means another day my customers have to wait for their orders.
The rep tells me to write another written statement about how I conduct my business and why I have no Vendor/Supplier information to provide. The rep says he will stay on the line while I do this, and then gives me a special web link to a form where I can submit this written statement so he has immediate access to it. He confirms he has received this second statement, and says he will submit it to their Review Office, with additional notes provided by him. This rep claims this review process should be complete in about 24 hours.
Friday, October 22, 2021:
I log into my PayPal account and see the section asking for Vendor/Supplier information is still not marked as ‘under review,’ contrary to what yesterday’s rep had said he had done. I write up a third, lengthy, detailed statement and submit it to PayPal for review; the Vendor/Supplier information “request” is now marked as ‘in review.’
11:49am: I call PayPal again. I explain, again, that the documentation they are asking for does not exist because it does not apply to my business model. This rep confirms they have received my latest written statement, and promises that I will receive a response from PayPal no later than 6pm my time.
6:00pm: After receiving no response from PayPal, I call them again. I explain, calmly, that I am not hanging up the phone until the restrictions on my account have been lifted. The rep claims that no one in PayPal’s offices has any direct contact with the Review Office, and that the best she can do is to submit another form to the Review Office’s general inbox, which entails another 24-72 hour wait for a response.
I ask to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor confirms what the rep had just told me- that the Review Office does not take phone calls and has no direct email address for communication with the rest of the company.
I ask the supervisor if the Review Office is staffed with actual human beings. He confirms that it is.
I ask the supervisor if the Review Office is a sub-contracted entity, or if the humans that work in this Review Office are actual PayPal employees. He confirms they are actual PayPal employees.
I ask the supervisor if PayPal has an internal Employee Directory, and if he has access to this directory. He confirms they do and he does.
I ask the supervisor to please use this Employee Directory to look up the manager of the Review Office, and then to ask this manager to expedite the review of my account. He says he cannot do this. I correct him- he has the capability to do this, he just confirmed as much- he simply refuses to do this. I ask for his supervisor. He says he is the highest level of customer service. I ask to be transferred to another supervisor, as he seems to be out of ideas on how to resolve this problem.
This 2nd supervisor is full of the exact same answers as the previous supervisor. I ask that she send another form to the Review Office, and that I am not going to disconnect this call until the restrictions on my account have been lifted.
After waiting in silence for 30 seconds, the representative claims that waiting on the line is going to be a waste of my time and her time, as we have to wait the standard 24-72 hours for the Review Office to complete their process.
I inform her that PayPal has wasted an entire week of my time, and that since I have been unable to purchase the supplies I need to complete the orders I accepted a week ago, I literally have nothing else to do this evening but stay on the phone line and wait for this problem to be solved. I also suggest to her that if she doesn’t want to spend some real quality time with me on the phone this evening, that she think of a way to contact the Review Office directly, or find someone who can.
She transfers me back to the first supervisor I had spoken with. After a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes on this call, and verifying that there are no other issues I need help with, he disconnects the line.
7:18pm: I call back and get the same representatives and supervisors. They all repeat the exact same talking points- that the Review Office is unreachable except for one generic Inbox that they all claim to have sent requests to on my behalf.
However, this representative has come up with a possible solution to my problem: if I am unable to wait for the review process to complete, I could authorize PayPal to issue refunds to all of my customers from ICON, then contact each of them and ask that they pay me using a different payment method.
I explain how incredibly unprofessional this would make me look in my customer’s eyes. I also explain that this suggestion is really telling me that PayPal is incapable of managing the payment processing needs of a single-member LLC- that PayPal is so incompetent that they cannot handle Artist’s business models. I let this rep know I will spread this information to the hundreds of thousands of Artists in the groups I belong to on social media.
Saturday, October 23, 2021:
10:22am: I call PayPal again, as the restriction on my account is still in place. I ask to speak to their legal department. The Legal department has even more communication restrictions than the Review office; The Legal Department is only reachable through postal mail. I comment that the incapability (or unwillingness) to communicate from one department to another is asinine and that I do not believe their claims.
Sunday, October 24, 2021:
8:06am: Called customer service again, was given the same answers as before- my account is in review and to wait 3-5 business days for the review process to be completed.
9:26am: A friend has graciously offered to loan me the funds I need to continue my business, as they have been following this saga and have seen this entire farce play out. I have also opened a Small Business account with my bank, and set up an account with Square.
Monday, October 25, 2021: 10 days (6 business days) since restrictions were put on my account.
8:16am: Called customer service again. This rep informed me that even though I had submitted information for review on Friday the 22nd, my account wasn't officially put back into review until yesterday, 10/24. I confirm with this rep that this means I should receive a decision between Wednesday and Friday of this week (3-5 business days from 10/24). He confirms this is true. I explain I have already waited a very long time for my funds to be released to me, and ask if there is any way to expedite this 2nd review process. He said he would put an Escalation on my account, and I should receive a response within 24-72 hours.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021: 11 days (7 business days) since restrictions were put on my account.
11:04am: Called customer service again. Same standard wait of 3-5 business days for this review process to be completed. Same promise to put another escalation on my account. Same promise of response within 24-72 hours.
Thursday, October 28, 2021: 13 days (9 business days) since restrictions were put on my account.
10:38am: Called customer service again. Same standard wait of 3-5 business days for this review process to be completed. Same promise to put another escalation on my account. Same promise of response within 24-72 hours.
Friday, October 29, 2021: 14 days (10 business days) since restrictions were put on my account.
6:52pm: Called customer service again. This rep tried to give me the same answers I received the last several days. I pointed out that today would in fact be the 5th business day of this review process, and there should be an answer from the Review Office by now. This rep says there is none and that I should wait more. I ask to speak to their supervisor.
I get transferred to PayPal's Zettle department. This rep apologizes for all the hassle I've had to deal with the past 2 weeks, and can see that there is indeed a restriction on my account. While Zettle is able to apply a restriction to prevent an account holder from closing their account, she confirms that Zettle has not put any such restriction on my account, and that the restrictions I am currently dealing with are all on PayPal's end. She transfers me back to PayPal for further help.
The PayPal rep I receive also empathizes with my plight, and offers to put an Escalation on my account. I ask about the Escalations the past 3 reps have put on my account, and why I have heard nothing from those. She admits there are no other escalations on my account, other than the one she just put in place. She promises a response within 24-72 hours. I politely responded that I have a very hard time trusting or believing her after experiencing all these broken and empty promises given to me by nearly every rep I have spoken to at PayPal. I reiterate that I am not angry with her, since I worked at a call center for 5.5 years and understand the special kind of hell this work can entail. She appreciates my grace and apologizes for my experience with PayPal thus far.
Saturday, October 30, 2021: 15 days (10 business days) since restrictions were put on my account.
12:33pm: Called customer service again. Was informed that my account is still in its 2nd review and that I should receive information on their determination in 3-5 business days. Was told again they would put an Escalation on my account and should hear a response on this within 24-72 hours.
Monday, November 1st, 2021: 17 days (11 business days) since restrictions were put on my account.
1:47pm: Called customer service again. Was informed my account is still in its 2nd review and that I should receive information on their determination in 3-5 business days. I inform the rep that I will be contacting my state's Attorney General's office for help in dealing with this issue. After hanging up, I look up the contact information for the Iowa Attorney General's Office and leave a message detailing the issues I am having with PayPal.
November 2nd, 2021: 18 days (12 business days) since restrictions were put on my account.
8:07am: I receive a call back from the Iowa Attorney General's Office. He is empathetic with my plight and says he has already been privy to several similar issues folks are having with PayPal across the country. He doesn't give me any specific information but says his office is already working on something to do with PayPal.
9:34am: I receive an email from PayPal notifying me that the restrictions are lifted on my account. I immediately withdraw all funds and close not only my business account, but my personal account as well.
