PayPal has lost my wedding gifts

[SophieT8]

In January 2019 I withdrew funds from my PayPal account into my Virgin savings account. This went fine. When my Virgin account was closed in February 2019, Virgin returned the funds to the bank account they received it from, a PayPal Barclays account. This is where it stayed however, not making it to my PayPal account. Despite this seeming like a relatively simple situation to resolve, every time I have called PayPal to resolve this I have met dead ends. The employees I speak to on the phone don't appear to have the training to help with the situation. I've been told that it's not PayPal's issue, it's Virgin and they are closing the issue. I've been told multiple times that they will run a transaction trace, even when I point out this won't help as the transaction form PayPal to Virgin isn't the problem. And today I was told that I have to go talk to Barclays to find out whose account it is. I pointed out that Barclays won't be able to help me as it isn't my account, it's an account PayPal use, but apparently that was the only option left to me as there was 'no one else in PayPal who could help'. I have the transaction ID, sort codes and account numbers relevant to the transfers. I just need to talk to someone in PayPal who knows about the Barclays accounts. Can anyone help me find out who to talk to? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the situation? It's almost our one year anniversary and I'm ashamed that my friends and families generous gifts have been lost. PayPal is becoming a running joke with my friends and family as this has been an unnecessarily difficult process.

[PayPal_paula]

Hi SophieT8 and welcome, 

I am sorry to hear that this has been going on so long. It sounds like your bank needs to recall the funds. If we have initiated a trace and were unable to locate the funds then this would mean that they have not reached us and must be in the bank system still. They may be in the bank holding account waiting to be processed or to find a location to put them. I would reach out to your bank account and ask them to check their holding accounts to see if this is where the funds are. 

Thanks for posting, 

Paula 

[SophieT8]

Hi Paula, Thank you for replying. I've been in touch with my bank who have told me they have returned the funds to the bank they have received them from. I believe this is a holding bank for PayPal and as my bank didn't use my email when making the transaction it did not return to my account. I did give this information over the phone (account number, sort code of possible holding account and date of transaction). However, I am not satisfied that PayPal has done enough to look into things from their end. Could it be possible that this is a PayPal holding account? Thanks, Sophie

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi @SophieT8,

I'm very sorry that you've encountered this issue. Assistance via the community forum is not able to be account-specific and only general information can be given. A trace would be the only action that PayPal could take to attempt to locate the funds from the withdrawal. If that's been done and has not come up with the results needed, a trace run by your bank on the returned funds and an attempt to recall the funds would be the other course of action that we could suggest. 

I hope this is able to be resolved quickly!

Olivia

[SophieT8]

Hi Olivia, Thank you for your response. I'll see if my bank can recall the funds. Thanks, Sophie