I'm not sure I fully understand your story, but Paypal's normal policy for suspended accounts is that they'll hold the money for 180 days before releasing it to you (this should be in your suspension email).
the guy might be talking about reversing transactions. I probably get two actual customer initiated chargebacks a year, but maybe two or three times a month, paypal initiates an "investigation" which usually results in the transaction being reversed (though I often still get stuck paying the fees)
There is really no transparency, and from my point of view, they look pretty random, so it would be pretty frustrating, but it's usually on a $12-$20 transaction, so it's hard to get too worked up about it; they /are/ a bank, and one expects to get nickle and dimed when dealing with banks.
I email the customer and they make other arrangements to pay me (or sometimes they just re-send the payment and it goes through) so I'm only out the fees, but I have more leverage than the original poster, as, well, I provide a service that I need to keep providing, while the parent sounds like they provide a product, and once the user downloads it, they have no leverage.
If I was losing the whole amount, I could see how it'd be pretty frustrating, and how it would look like paypal is just stealing your money.
The problem is that many legit people with perfectly legit businesses have seen their account frozen for 180 days without any reason and without any human being to discuss the issue with. All they could do is wait and hope they get their money back at some point.
To some it might be just an issue, but to me it's a problem that would lead my company to bankrupt.
If you're doing regular sweeps into your bank account then you hopefully wouldn't have much money suspended.
I've also not had any problem getting someone to talk to, their European call centre at least seems relatively clueful and friendly. Although I've only spoken with them about raising limits, etc. and not about account suspension so obviously that case might be different.
There is really no transparency, and from my point of view, they look pretty random, so it would be pretty frustrating, but it's usually on a $12-$20 transaction, so it's hard to get too worked up about it; they /are/ a bank, and one expects to get nickle and dimed when dealing with banks.
I email the customer and they make other arrangements to pay me (or sometimes they just re-send the payment and it goes through) so I'm only out the fees, but I have more leverage than the original poster, as, well, I provide a service that I need to keep providing, while the parent sounds like they provide a product, and once the user downloads it, they have no leverage.
If I was losing the whole amount, I could see how it'd be pretty frustrating, and how it would look like paypal is just stealing your money.