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I received an email from PayPal on Eleanor’s email account asking me to log in to their website and check the account balance.
So I did check the balance on their website: It was zero. I clicked the Account on that web page.
At the bottom of the Account page was a link to close the account.
Clicking that link takes you to a page saying the account cannot be closed because of a non-zero balance, and offering a choice of three next steps:
chat-link on the website, phone given open hours 11Am to 1AM EST, or a link saying "email us".
I called that phone number using my phone, and it immediately said: "we recognize the phone number you are calling from and will connect you to your account." So I had to hang up, and dig out Eleanor’s phone and call back from that number.
With Eleanor’s phone I had to wade through an automated menu system but even though the active hours are listed with time zone on the website, and I was within the hours, it said I was outside the active hours and to call back during a different set of hours.
The next day, I called back, and after wading through their prompt tree again, it said it could only help me by sending me an SMS. The SMS had a link that in turn brought me back to the chat feature of their website. So I did that, typed in my request, and got an automated reply saying my request would be routed to a representative. I typed in my request again, and after half an hour their website terminated the chat due to inactivity.
So I tried the email-link from the initial refusal page. This took me not to an email form, but to an FAQ web page where none of the questions dealt with closing an account, and no email addresses were present. There was a "Contact Us" link in the footer, but it just redirected back to the same FAQ page.
The next morning I got an email saying I had a chat reply. So I followed that link, pasted in my request a third time, and this time got a reply saying they'd send me an email.
Later that day, I actually got a reply that gave me directions for what data they actually wanted, and what email address to send it to. I've sent that email.
I haven't heard back from PayPal yet.
Follow up June 8: 2023
I did get an email from them, now nearly a month later. The email said they would not close the account and gave me a phone number to call to find out why.
I called, and it was the associated Paypal Credit account underwritten by a bank. The phone tree made it easy to close the account, so now it looks like it is finally done.
Summary: So they had a nice, friendly, "close the account" button that didn't work, but gave you three alternate methods, and all three of those methods also did not work.
TLDR: The message that they eventually sent said:
So I did check the balance on their website: It was zero. I clicked the Account on that web page.
At the bottom of the Account page was a link to close the account.
Clicking that link takes you to a page saying the account cannot be closed because of a non-zero balance, and offering a choice of three next steps:
chat-link on the website, phone given open hours 11Am to 1AM EST, or a link saying "email us".
I called that phone number using my phone, and it immediately said: "we recognize the phone number you are calling from and will connect you to your account." So I had to hang up, and dig out Eleanor’s phone and call back from that number.
With Eleanor’s phone I had to wade through an automated menu system but even though the active hours are listed with time zone on the website, and I was within the hours, it said I was outside the active hours and to call back during a different set of hours.
The next day, I called back, and after wading through their prompt tree again, it said it could only help me by sending me an SMS. The SMS had a link that in turn brought me back to the chat feature of their website. So I did that, typed in my request, and got an automated reply saying my request would be routed to a representative. I typed in my request again, and after half an hour their website terminated the chat due to inactivity.
So I tried the email-link from the initial refusal page. This took me not to an email form, but to an FAQ web page where none of the questions dealt with closing an account, and no email addresses were present. There was a "Contact Us" link in the footer, but it just redirected back to the same FAQ page.
The next morning I got an email saying I had a chat reply. So I followed that link, pasted in my request a third time, and this time got a reply saying they'd send me an email.
Later that day, I actually got a reply that gave me directions for what data they actually wanted, and what email address to send it to. I've sent that email.
I haven't heard back from PayPal yet.
Follow up June 8: 2023
I did get an email from them, now nearly a month later. The email said they would not close the account and gave me a phone number to call to find out why.
I called, and it was the associated Paypal Credit account underwritten by a bank. The phone tree made it easy to close the account, so now it looks like it is finally done.
Summary: So they had a nice, friendly, "close the account" button that didn't work, but gave you three alternate methods, and all three of those methods also did not work.
TLDR: The message that they eventually sent said:
Can you please provide us with some documentation we need in order to close the account… We would need a copy of the death certificate, any beneficiary info, the account holders name, address, and email address… Please prove a brief description implementing that you just want to close the account…You can send that info to deceasedaccounts@paypal.com
