Call Kurtis: Viewer Loses Access To PayPal Account After Friends Reimburse Her For $1,200 Camping Trip
WHEATLAND (CBS13) — As pandemic restrictions end and old friends gather – in some cases for the first time in two years – online payment platforms like PayPal and Venmo can come in handy when sharing costs. Unfortunately, as one viewer from Wheatland found out, the process isn't always as easy as it seems.
Jennifer Hardy helped organize a camping trip for her informal running club this June. It's the first time they've been able to meet since the pandemic began. She booked an entire campground for $1200 and set up a PayPal account for her friends to reimburse her.
Unfortunately, shortly after the funds started rolling in, PayPal temporarily froze her account.
"It was quite frustrating because my boyfriend was actually the one who put it on his credit card and I'm wanting to reimburse him for his money," she said.
After calling customer service and offering to provide both bank statements and various forms of identification to prove that the payments were legitimate, Hardy was shocked to find that the company upgraded the account's temporary freeze to six months.
That's when she reached out to us.
We contacted PayPal, but the company refused to talk about the details of Jennifer's case. We dug around a bit more on their website and found a list of possible reasons as to why the account would be frozen.
The reasons include: unauthorized access, being out of compliance with regulatory requirements, having a high number of claims and chargebacks, and sudden, rapid changes in what or how much you sell.
It doesn't appear that any of these circumstances apply to Jennifer's case. Roughly 15 friends deposited small dollar amounts into the account simply to reimburse a charge Jennifer already incurred.
Thankfully, Jennifer says that PayPal restored access to her account, without an explanation, after we got involved.