I am sending about $1000 to a friend of mine. I am in Britain and she is in Colombia. The money has left my bank account and Paypal are showing the payment as "completed". But to my friend Paypal are saying something different. They are saying that the payment is "pending" and may remain so for 21 days. She called them and they said they will wait 21 days unless I confirm the payment, but if I confirm it they will let go of the money within 2 days instead. Paypal emailed me from a no-reply address to say there is a message for me on their website. I logged into my account and there was indeed a message for me, but it was in Spanish, a language that I do not speak. I have used a translator and the message says that I should go to "Activity" and find the entry for the transaction and click on "Confirm" to confirm it. I went to "Activity" and found the entry for the transaction but there was no entry for "Confirm". The message said that in this case I should call a phone number which seems to be in the USA. I do not wish to make an expensive international phone call, especially given how Paypal have already acted. I have used a security code that they texted to my phone. I have received their email at my email address. I have obviously had to pass security in order to get into my Paypal account and send the money. I sent them a copy of my passport and bank statement. They accepted my instruction, took my money, and are delaying handing it over to the intended recipient. How can I get them to release the money to the intended recipient without further unnecessary delay?
Edit: I forgot to add: I also tried to contact Paypal using their instant messaging system, which told me they could not find any pending transaction. It then gave me a list and asked me to select which transaction there was a problem with, so I did. I got the message "I'm sorry, something stopped me from getting your information. Please contact us or try again later. All our agents are currently offline. Please try again during business hours."
