Money on your Paypal account? Withdraw! Now!

[Willy Tschager]

Guys,

I never dreamed something like this could ever happen. I asked for changing my minor to my full name on my Paypal account and after a few weeks where nothing happened beside continuous requests for more data  I've got the following mail:

Code:

Dear Willy Tschager ,
After reviewing your PayPal account, we've determined there to be excessive risk involved in doing business with you and we'd like to begin parting ways in a manner that is least disruptive to your business.
 
If there is any money in your account balance, it will be held for 180 days (from the date of the last payment you received) to cover any disputes that might be opened by your buyers.
After 180 days, we may ask you to provide us with a proof of identity and a proof of address before you can withdraw any remaining balance.
If there are outstanding buyer complaints open against you, you can refund your customers via the Resolution Centre in your PayPal account.
 
We reserve the right to close any account reported to be involved in possible high-risk behaviour. In the event of a dispute, we'll try to recover the money from you by debiting your PayPal balance first and, if there are insufficient funds in your PayPal balance, we reserve the right to collect your debt to PayPal by any other legal means.
We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter and regret any inconvenience it may cause you.
 
Yours sincerely,
Leo
 
PayPal

I've got quite some money on my account and I cannot get my hands on it for 6 months beside the fact that I had to rearrange my BL totally. It also appears that things like this happen all the time. Read http://www.aboutpaypal.org/ for example.

Therefore be careful when using Paypal and withdraw all the bucks you have all the time.

w.

[Philippe Hurbain]

Now that's friendly business relationship... Never left a dime on my Paypal account

[Merlijn Wissink]

Wow, that's... weird. Do I understand it correctly that the only thing you asked was to change your name? And instead of accepting or rejecting they block everything?

I never leave any money on PayPal anyway. I connected my Bank account to my PayPal account so every time I pay using PayPal, PayPal just creates a bank transfer to get the money from my bank account a few days later. 
And, if I ever receive money on PayPal (which happens very rarely), I always transfer it to my bank account too, because otherwise I forget I have money there 

[Willy Tschager]

Wow, that's... weird. Do I understand it correctly that the only thing you asked was to change your name? And instead of accepting or rejecting they block everything?

I asked to change "Willy", my minor I used in 2001 for registration to "Wilhelm", my full name to be in sync with my tax ID. After sending in a scan of my passport and a phone bill confirming my registered address I got blocked ... looks like such things happen quite often. Anyway: Trust is gained by inch but lost by mile.

w.

[Gerald Lasser]

They write this, well basically threat, and sign only with a first name?!? Very nice of "Leo"...

Did you have open cases or opened somebody a case against you?

PP's customer portal is not very friendly and "intelligent" I do not know how much of that is automated...

[Jaco van der Molen]

WT*?

I've had my PayPal account for many many years and have since changed my name once, my E-mailadress twice, a new bank account and a new credit card twice.
Never had any problem changing anything. Recently withdrew a quite large amout of money without any fuss or problems.

This seems very strange.
Is the mail you got legit? It seems almost like you've been hacked or the mail is not real?

[Willy Tschager]

Did you have open cases or opened somebody a case against you?

No, and this was actually the first time in 15 years i contacted Painpal.

w.

[Willy Tschager]

I called the (worst) customer support (on the web) and they confirmed that my account got blocked but not why. Actually I got the impression the guy on the phone didn't have any clues about anything.

w.