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Venmo Venmo, LLC, PayPal Reversed bank transfer, emptied account balance, no explanation or follow-up Internet
I have been a Venmo user for some time-to pay my landlord for rent and utiliies every month, to pay friends back for my portion of a meal, to pay (friends) to use their vacation homes, to send birthday gifts, to pay people back for the aforementioed, among many other things.
Last weekend I went on a trip. I allowed one friend to stay at my place while I was gone (charged him through Venmo). I used AirBnB to rent a place for the weekend at my vacation destination and had a friend pay (through Venmo) me to stay in a spare room in the house, as well as charged (through venmo) another "aquaintence"-a friend of a friend kind of thing to pay me for his share of the dinner bill since I picked up the tab.
Once this balance was in my Venmo account I immediately initiated a transfer to my bank account. I got the message (with screenshots to prove it) that the "Transfer Was Succesful", with an estimated arrival date of the funds in my account on Tuesday (3 days later since I initiated the transfer on a Saturday). All set, I thought.
When I had another friend attempt to do the same through Venmo, he got the notification that my account was frozen. "What?", I thought. Ths was on a Sunday so of course I was unable to reach customer service. I called first thing Monday morning to straighten everything out and was told I had to wait to receive an email from the person assigned to "investigate my account". "How long will that take?" I asked. One business day, I was told. Tuesday rolled around and I had still not received the email so I followed up with customer service again. They told me all they could do was put the request in again, so I continued to have to wait.
Finally I received the email. Here is the text it contained:
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This is the ONLY response I got. Needless to say, I was was flabbergasted. I received no info on which of the transfers (from whom) derived from bank accounts with insufficient funds. I know for a FACT that it was not all of them. I fear it was the acquaintence, who I have been unable to get ahold of since. Undisputedly I am entitled to an accounting of exactly WHICH funds were derived from bank accounts w/insufficient balance. Also undisputable is the fact that I received in-app confirmation that the balance was in my Venmo account-only to find out later that it truly wasn't and that I was duped.
Another thing that I simply cannot understand is how they determined I violated their "User Agrement"-which states that a personal account cannot be used for "business" transactions. I find this wording EXTREMELY subjective. What do you call it when I pay my rent every month through Venmo (apparently that is ok). Even in promotional advertisements made by Venmo themselves, viewable descriptions of payment could certainly be interpreted by "business transactions"-at least in the way they apparently define them.
Finally, what is compellng my to write this report (and this is just the tip of the iceberg-I plan on spreading my story on every public forum possible-because I am 100% confident-through my research-that I am not even CLOSE to the only person Venmo has deceived, and in quite-true terms, stolen from), is the fact that they provided me (as evident in their ONLY correspondene with me seen above) absolutely NO recourse-no opportunity to provide documentation verifying my story, no opportunity for rebuttal-nothing.
This has bad business practice (to put it VERY kindly) written ALL over it.
Please feel free to contact with me if you have any suggestions, or if I can be of any assistance in a class-action lawsuit or anything of the sort. Thank you for taking the time to read. Companies and practices like this absolutely need to be stopped, as it is no one but the poor consumer that ultimately loses out.
Thank you for contacting Venmo Support regarding the status of your account.
The payment that you requested to transfer to your bank came back for insufficient funds. It's similar to a bounced check, which is why we weren't able to process your transaction and complete your bank transfer. I'd recommend getting in touch with your transactor for details since we have no additional information about this transaction.
Additionally, while we encourage the use of Venmo, we must ensure all users abide by our User Agreement. After reviewing your inquiries and account activity, we have found that your actions and activity have been in violation of this agreement.
As a result, your account has been permanently deactivated and we regret to inform you that we can no longer offer you the Venmo service. We do not make these decisions lightly, and when we do, it is because we must ensure that Venmo continues to be a safe way to make payments.
Please be aware that any future contact or inquiries will not be answered and that this matter will be considered closed upon your receipt of this email.
Solomon K.