The incident record, page 10 of 10

Entries HF-2026-0186 to HF-2026-0001, newest first, out of 1986 cases of a payment account being closed with funds still inside it. The criteria for inclusion are set out on the first page.

HF-2026-0186 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: $1,300 (entered as $1300 in the "Loss" field of the second review; both reviews give gross ticket sales of $3,918 and say about $1,600 was paid)
Held since: May 2022: the concert, moved from 17 April, took place on 21 May 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: PARTIAL — The reviewer says about $1,600 of $3,918 in ticket sales was paid, as of the reviews of 16 September 2022. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Concert promoter, Not stated. Reported by: The owner of a concert promotion company, review #3967099 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite, with a second review #3967176 the same day.
Account as given: The reviewer says a concert first scheduled for 17 April 2022 was moved to 21 May 2022, that gross ticket sales were $3,918, and that they were paid about $1,600, "less than half of online sales".
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0185 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: $1,500 (entered in the review’s "Loss" field as $1500)
Held since: September 2022: in a review dated 25 September 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of the review of 25 September 2022. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Event organiser, Not stated. Reported by: An event organiser, review #4011188 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer, titling the review "Payouts", says they were trying to get their payout and to find out why the funds had not gone into their account.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0184 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: $2,100 ("US$2100", in both reviews)
Held since: September 2022: the event had been over for a week at the review of 2 October 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of the reviews of 2 October 2022. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Event organiser, Not stated. Reported by: An event organiser, review #4040983 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite, with a second review #4040973 the same day.
Account as given: The reviewer says their event had been over for a week, that Eventbrite had trouble depositing to their bank, said it would pay to their PayPal instead, and had not done so or contacted them. They put the missing amount at $2,100.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0183 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: Not stated
Held since: October 2022: in a review dated 29 October 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: 2–3 days. The reviewer says they were told they would receive the payout 2–3 days later
Current status: UNKNOWN — The reviewer says it would be almost three weeks before the people they owed were paid. No later update on the page.
Merchant: Event organiser paying vendors, suppliers and performers from ticket sales, United States. Reported by: An event organiser in Plattsburgh, New York, anonymous review #4110039 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer says they were told they would receive their payout 2–3 days later, or given a date, and expected to be paid on that date, not to have it processed on that date. They say it would be almost three weeks before everyone they owed was paid.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy
The review has no page of its own; on 28 September 2026 it was on page 34 of the Eventbrite review listing, newest first, and will move down that list as new reviews arrive. The archived copy holds it as read.

HF-2026-0182 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: Not stated
Held since: October 2022: the event was on 22 October 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: The reviewer says they were first told the funds would be available on 28 October 2022
Current status: RELEASED — The review’s title says: "Eventbrite came through! I contacted them and they resolved the issue right away." It does not give the date the money arrived.
Merchant: Event organiser, United States. Reported by: An event organiser in Beachwood, Ohio, anonymous review #4127834 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer says that for their event on 22 October 2022 they were first told the funds would be available on 28 October, then told to update their account so the payout could be reissued, and were still waiting with no reply at the time of the review of 6 November 2022.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy
The review has no page of its own; on 28 September 2026 it was on page 37 of the Eventbrite review listing, newest first, and will move down that list as new reviews arrive. The archived copy holds it as read.

HF-2026-0181 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: $440 ("We earned $440.00", in the review)
Held since: January 2023: in a review dated 2 January 2023, after the event
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of the review of 2 January 2023, updated the same day. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Church annual conference, Not stated. Reported by: A church event organiser, review #4264284 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer says their church took reservations for its annual conference through Eventbrite, held the event, and "the monies for the event disappeared". They say they earned $440 and asked Eventbrite to release the funds.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0180 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: $200 (entered in the review’s "Loss" field as $200)
Held since: December 2022: the event was on 23 December 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of the review of 28 January 2023. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Host of a dinner event, Not stated. Reported by: An event host, review #4328527 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer says they sold tickets on Eventbrite for a dinner held on 23 December 2022, did everything Eventbrite asked of them for their account, and that the money was never deposited.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0179 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: $1,600 (entered in the review’s "Loss" field as $1600; the text says Eventbrite owes "almost $2000")
Held since: January 2024: the payout for a New Year’s Eve event, in a review dated 8 January 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of the review of 8 January 2024. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Organiser of a New Year’s Eve event, Not stated. Reported by: An event organiser, review #5507195 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer says their event page disappeared three times and was republished after they contacted chat, that once all orders were refunded and the same customers bought again, and that they had not received a payout. They say Eventbrite owes them almost $2,000 in ticket revenue, which they paid vendors out of their own pocket, and that they were told the matter was with an internal team.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0178 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: Not stated
Held since: 1 April 2024: the reviewer says the account was hacked that day and Eventbrite locked it
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: HELD — No access as of the review of 17 April 2024. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Business selling event tickets on Eventbrite, Not stated. Reported by: A business account holder, review #5800338 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer says their Eventbrite account was hacked on 1 April 2024, that Eventbrite locked access to it, and that they could not reset the password because the hacker had changed the email address. They say they filed several support requests and emailed Eventbrite’s trust address without reply, and that Eventbrite "have our money, our guest list and we have nothing".
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0177 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: $50 ("The first payout was supposed to be $50", in the review; the total owed is not given)
Held since: August 2024: a payout scheduled for 14 August 2024 was cancelled
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. The reviewer says payouts were set to go out every Wednesday
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of the review of 5 September 2024, three weeks after the scheduled date. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Event organiser with weekly payouts, Not stated. Reported by: An event organiser, review #6084146 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer says they were scheduled to have a payout on 14 August and it was cancelled, that their payouts are set to go out every Wednesday and three weeks had gone by, and that they had used the chat three times with no other customer service available.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0176 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: $401 (entered in the review’s "Loss" field as $401)
Held since: December 2024: in a review dated 10 December 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of the review of 10 December 2024. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Event organiser, Not stated. Reported by: An event organiser, review #6299699 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer, titling the review "Didn’t receive my event payment", says they cannot get into their account because the verification link for changing the password does not work, that the customer service number does not work, and that there are no payouts in their bank account.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0175 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: $2,000 ("we are talking about 2000.00$", in the review)
Held since: December 2024: the event was on 21 December 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of the review of 7 January 2025. No later update on the page.
Merchant: Event organiser, United States. Reported by: An event organiser in Killeen, Texas, anonymous review #6361289 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer says their event on 21 December 2024 was successful and Eventbrite had not paid out, that the only contact is email or chat, and that they had spoken to more than five agents without a resolution. They say they owe people money from the event.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy
The review has no page of its own; on 28 September 2026 it was on page 9 of the Eventbrite review listing, newest first, and will move down that list as new reviews arrive. The archived copy holds it as read.

HF-2026-0174 · EventbriteFiled 2026-09-28

Amount held: $500 (entered in the review’s "Loss" field as $500; the review does not say how much ticket money was being held)
Held since: September 2026: in a review dated 22 September 2026, before the event
Hold period stated by the processor: Until after the event. The reviewer says they were told they could not get any of the funds until after the event
Current status: HELD — Held as of the review of 22 September 2026, with the event less than a month away. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Organiser of a 50th school reunion selling tickets on Eventbrite, United States. Reported by: An organiser of a school reunion in Riverside, Illinois, review #7511013 on the PissedConsumer page for Eventbrite.
Account as given: The reviewer says they are organising a 50th reunion, that they are "not allowed to get any of the funds until after the event", and that they need to pay vendors and for products for the event in less than a month. They say every phone number they called gave them ads and promotions instead of a person.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0173 · WePayFiled 2026-09-27

Amount held: $14,600
Held since: About July 2024: in a review dated 12 July 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. The review is titled "Holding my deposits for 6 days"
Current status: RELEASED — The reviewer says it "had to go through the whole process to be resolved"; the title gives 6 days. The review does not give the date the money arrived.
Merchant: Business with payroll, taking mostly card payments, United States. Reported by: A business in Zanesville, Ohio, anonymous review #5982088 on the PissedConsumer page for WePay.
Account as given: The reviewer says WePay shut their services down "for speculation of fraud" and held $14,600 of deposits in a week when bills and payroll were due, with no communication other than email and no clear sign whether it was being resolved.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy
The review has no page of its own; it is on the WePay review listing, newest first, and will move down that list as new reviews arrive. The archived copy holds it as read.

HF-2026-0172 · WePayFiled 2026-09-27

Amount held: $1,000 (entered in the review’s "Loss" field as $1000; the review does not say what the sum is)
Held since: About April 2024: account closed on the first transaction, in a review dated 29 April 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They say they were told they could appeal and the account would be reopened after submitting documents
Current status: HELD — Account still closed as of the review of 29 April 2024. No later update.
Merchant: Business taking card payments through Chase QuickAccept, United States. Reported by: A Chase QuickAccept user, review #5826115 on the PissedConsumer page for WePay.
Account as given: The reviewer says WePay closed their account on their first transaction, said it was flagged for fraud and gave no reason. They say they were told the account would be reopened after they submitted all required documents, and that it was not; each call reached a different person with different information.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy
The review has no page of its own; it is on the WePay review listing, newest first, and will move down that list as new reviews arrive. The archived copy holds it as read.

HF-2026-0171 · WePayFiled 2026-09-27

Amount held: $45,009 (entered in the review’s "Loss" field as $45009)
Held since: About January 2024: in a review dated 31 January 2024, after the first customer payment
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days. They say WePay emailed them to wait 120 days before it would release the funds
Current status: HELD — Held as of the review of 31 January 2024. No later update from the reviewer.
Merchant: Newly started business taking card payments through Chase, Not stated; the account was a Chase business account. Reported by: A new business owner, review #5581051 on the PissedConsumer page for WePay.
Account as given: The reviewer says they opened a Chase business account and used its card processing, not knowing it was WePay. They say their first customer paid through the link, WePay received the money, closed the account and emailed them to wait 120 days before releasing the funds, without any explanation.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0170 · WooPaymentsFiled 2026-09-27

Amount held: Not stated (Balance not stated)
Held since: About March–April 2023: deposits suspended from the store’s opening, first transaction "around 3-4 months ago", in a post dated 17 July 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They say support told them the account is "too new" for deposits
Current status: HELD — Still suspended at the time of the post. The store gave a ticket number on 18 July 2023 and posted nothing after.
Merchant: New online store, Country not stated. Reported by: A store posting as kingcustoms on the WordPress.org WooPayments support forum.
Account as given: The store says deposits have been temporarily suspended since it opened, with no clear reason, and that after several orders fulfilled over 3–4 months support keeps telling it the account is "too new" to make any deposits.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0169 · WooPaymentsFiled 2026-09-27

Amount held: $2,600 (stated as "over $2,600+" for one customer purchase)
Held since: About March 2021: "waiting a month", in a post dated 16 April 2021
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: UNKNOWN — Support replied on 19 April 2021 that it had expedited the case with Stripe. The thread was later marked resolved; the poster did not say whether the money arrived.
Merchant: Online store; the poster says they have built e-commerce sites for over 15 years, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A developer posting as rickware on the WordPress.org WooPayments support forum.
Account as given: The poster says a customer paid more than $2,600 and that they had been waiting a month for the payment to reach their bank account, with emails open with both Stripe and WooCommerce and the issue unresolved.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0168 · WooPaymentsFiled 2026-09-27

Amount held: $8,000 (stated as "over $8000")
Held since: June 2024: they say the Stripe account was closed on 10 June and payments taken after that were not deposited; posted 17 July 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They quote Stripe’s closure notice: "We will continue making payouts to your bank account until you receive all of your funds."
Current status: HELD — Both threads were closed by forum staff on 17–18 July 2024 and sent to the WooPayments ticket system; no outcome was posted.
Merchant: Online store; Stripe’s notice, as they quote it, names restricted medical devices, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A store posting as adnanf on the WordPress.org support forums.
Account as given: The store says Stripe closed its account in June 2024 for selling restricted medical devices, but WooPayments kept taking customer payments until mid-July and deposited none of them. The dashboard showed "Your deposits are temporarily suspended" and future deposit dates. They ask whether Stripe or WooPayments holds the money and whether to refund and re-charge their customers.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0167 · WooPaymentsFiled 2026-09-27

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "my £1440 for my sale"; not converted to dollars)
Held since: November 2022; first post dated 15 November 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They quote support saying the account "has been closed"
Current status: HELD — Still unpaid in their last post, 30 November 2022 ("it has been weeks"). Forum support marked the thread resolved and moved the case to email; no outcome was posted.
Merchant: Individual selling collectibles from their own site, United Kingdom. Reported by: A seller posting as eborall on the WordPress.org WooPayments support forum.
Account as given: The seller says their first sale through WooPayments was processed, shipped and received by the customer, and the account was then permanently suspended without a reason. They quote a support reply: "we are unable to support this payment account and as such, the account has been closed". They say they sent five or more support requests and received neither the £1,440 nor any update.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0166 · WooPaymentsFiled 2026-09-27

Amount held: $640 (The $640 sale they name; they do not give the total balance held)
Held since: October 2025: the closure email arrived "this morning", in a post dated 3 October 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: Until 1 February 2026, per the closure email as they describe it
Current status: HELD — The thread was closed by forum support the same day. The seller has posted nothing since on the forum.
Merchant: Small online store selling new and pre-owned designer clothing, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A store owner posting as kijani458 on the WordPress.org WooPayments support forum.
Account as given: The store owner says they made a $640 sale on 29 September 2025, shipped the item on 30 September, and then received an email that the WooPayments account had been permanently closed because of a risk of a dispute, with funds held until 1 February 2026. They say they have never had a dispute or chargeback, and that Stripe told them the payout needs WooCommerce’s manual approval.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0165 · WooPaymentsFiled 2026-09-27

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "Approximately €2,200"; not converted to dollars)
Held since: July 2025, "Shortly after" a spike in orders from a viral video; posted 5 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They say support told them they need to "build up a payment history" before payouts resume, with no amount or timeframe
Current status: HELD — Held at the time of the post, "close to 8 months" after it began. The thread was marked resolved by forum support on 20 April 2026 with no report from the seller that the money was paid.
Merchant: Side business selling handmade metal art and personalised gifts, Germany. Reported by: A seller posting as hermesonlinehandel on the WordPress.org WooPayments support forum.
Account as given: The seller says WooPayments suspended payouts without notice after an Instagram video sent a spike of orders over 2–3 days in July 2025, with no chargebacks or disputes. They say Stripe support told them the suspension was initiated on the WooPayments side, that the funds are visible in the Stripe dashboard but cannot be paid out, and that they have already paid income tax and VAT on money they never received.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0164 · PaddleFiled 2026-09-26

Amount held: Not stated (Balance not stated)
Held since: July 2025: "Last month", in a post dated 10 August 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days: "They told me payouts would resume after 180 days."
Current status: RELEASED — By the founder's account, the payout was released "within a week". The post also promotes the provider they moved to.
Merchant: Small SaaS selling AI-generated headshots, Country not stated. Reported by: The founder of GoStudio.ai, posting as gostudio_ai on Hacker News.
Account as given: The founder says Paddle froze the account during a quarterly review, citing a KYC mismatch ("my legal name didn't match their records"), and that checkout was down for 48 hours while they moved payments to another provider.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0163 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-26

Amount held: $89,600 (€80,000 as stated; converted at about 1.12 US dollars to the euro (May 2025))
Held since: About May 2025: "Recently", in a comment dated 14 May 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: HELD — Frozen at the time of the comment. None of their later posts on Hacker News says whether the balance was paid out.
Merchant: SaaS platform selling WordPress plugins, Country not stated; balance in euros. Reported by: A software seller posting as justinde on Hacker News.
Account as given: The seller says PayPal suspended the account and froze a balance of €80,000, citing "a violation of the Terms of Service" without saying which rule or how. They say their support tickets were no longer being answered and phone support referred them back to written communication.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0162 · StripeFiled 2026-09-26

Amount held: $7,000
Held since: Not dated precisely; after chargebacks that began 12 January 2026. The statement is dated April 2026.
Hold period stated by the processor: None. They say the funds are held "with no release date".
Current status: HELD — Held as of the statement, which says an appeal filed on 22 April 2026 was closed the same day without a decision.
Merchant: Cloud VPS hosting, a Stripe merchant since July 2023, United States (company registration). Reported by: Dediroom LLC, in a statement signed by its founder on its own website.
Account as given: The company says a group of four email addresses pushed 17 fraudulent orders through between 2 December 2025 and 4 January 2026, that it reported the pattern to Stripe on 22 December, and that Stripe then closed the account and "held $7,000". It says it had no disputes in the two and a half years before.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0161 · StripeFiled 2026-09-26

Amount held: $50,000 (Stated as "~$50K")
Held since: February 2026; the post is dated 20 February 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: Not a hold. They say Stripe is "starting automatic refunds within 5 days" to customers who already have their products.
Current status: HELD — Held as of 20 February 2026, after what they call a final rejection. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Online seller of massage devices, about $10K a day through Stripe, Country not stated. Reported by: The owner of JS Commerce Group LLC, posting as JohannesSchip on Hacker News.
Account as given: The owner says Stripe closed the account "citing “unauthorized payments”" and is holding about $50,000. They say their checkout tool billed one-click upsells as separate charges without 3D Secure, which customers may not have recognised, and that they have since turned upsells off. They say they sent more than 33 documents and offered a 15% rolling reserve, and that every support case got a template reply.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0160 · StripeFiled 2026-09-26

Amount held: Not stated (A single "6 figure" pre-seed investment paid by Stripe invoice)
Held since: June 2026; the post is dated 7 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days, which they give as 5 October 2026
Current status: HELD — Held as of 7 June 2026, with the stated release date still ahead. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Early-stage software startup, Country not stated. Reported by: A startup founder posting as pureyang on Hacker News.
Account as given: The founder says they took a six-figure pre-seed investment through a Stripe invoice, which they now call a mistake, and that Stripe "just now closed my account and holding funds for 120 days (oct 5th)". They say two requests for a review got automated rejections.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0159 · StripeFiled 2026-09-26

Amount held: Not stated (Balance not stated; they say sales reached about £150K a month)
Held since: July 2026; the post is dated 24 July 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days: "Payouts held for 120 days, balance released in November."
Current status: UNKNOWN — On 25 July 2026 they posted "Update: stripe reactivated my account". They did not say separately whether the held balance was paid out.
Merchant: Ecommerce, personalised products, started March 2026, United Kingdom. Reported by: A UK online seller posting as rellyattd on Hacker News.
Account as given: The seller says Stripe closed the account after a routine review found "a high level of risk for disputes", with a dispute rate of 0.18% across about 3,900 payments. They say an appeal with delivery records and bank statements was denied about 90 minutes after they sent it, though the dashboard said the review would take until 27 July.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person · archived copy

HF-2026-0158 · StripeFiled 2026-09-26

Amount held: $12,000 (Stated as HKD 93,397 (~$12k USD) in the main account)
Held since: About two years before the post, by their account; the post is dated 12 February 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None. They quote Stripe support on 12 January 2026: "We have completed a review... we can enable payouts for your account."
Current status: PARTIAL — They say Stripe then paid out a smaller sub-account, but the main account’s payout "remains blocked" as of 12 February 2026, with support re-sending its old rejection. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Merchant, business not stated, Hong Kong. Reported by: A merchant posting as poontszho on Hacker News.
Account as given: The merchant says their funds were frozen two years earlier, that on appeal Stripe support wrote on 12 January 2026 that it could enable payouts, and that Stripe released a smaller sub-account but not the main balance of HKD 93,397.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0157 · StripeFiled 2026-09-26

Amount held: $3,500 (Stated as "$3.5k or so", one invoice)
Held since: Not dated; the post is dated 2 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: Not a hold. They quote Stripe’s reply to their complaint: "If a balance still remains in your account after all reversals have been processed, it will not be made available to you."
Current status: HELD — Not paid as of the post on 2 April 2026. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Software services, invoicing a client, United Arab Emirates. Reported by: A software business owner posting as alganzory on Hacker News.
Account as given: The owner says that after a long verification, they invoiced one client six or seven times; after the client paid, Stripe judged the account high risk and suspended it, and a review did not change that. They say Stripe refunded every invoice but one of about $3,500, and support did not answer until they used the complaints form.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0156 · StripeFiled 2026-09-26

Amount held: $85,000 (Stated as 803,043 SEK (~$85,000 USD): 556,906 SEK available and 246,136 SEK pending)
Held since: 28 March 2026, when the account was closed; a review began on 24 March 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: Not a hold. They quote Stripe support in writing: "If a balance still remains in your account after eligible payments have been refunded, it will not be made available to you."
Current status: HELD — Not paid as of their reply on 30 March 2026. They say they filed an appeal and complaints with Finansinspektionen and the Central Bank of Ireland. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: AI video and image generation platform, launched November 2025, Sweden. Reported by: The founder of Zorq AI, posting as MelkerWendelbo on Hacker News.
Account as given: The founder says Stripe closed the account "citing “unacceptable level of risk”" after a review for a spike in volume. They say two problems on their side caused disputes: a webhook handler rate-limited so that some customers did not get credits after paying, and a 25-hour outage at their infrastructure provider, and that every customer who reached out got credits or a refund. They say they do not object to a 90–120 day reserve, but Stripe said it would refund customers who had not disputed anything and keep what remained.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person · archived copy

HF-2026-0155 · StripeFiled 2026-09-26

Amount held: $100,000 (The title says "$100000"; the post says "about 100k in account")
Held since: September 2026; the post is dated 19 September 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: No fixed period. They say Stripe chat first said the review "can take 24-48 hours", a manager then said "2-3 business days" but would not give a maximum, and a later Stripe email said the review "can take 15 days or maybe more".
Current status: HELD — Held as of their update on 20 September 2026, after they sent business registration, invoices, product photos and bank statements. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Online seller of handcrafted fashion pieces, two years in business, Country not stated; they say their main customers have shifted to the USA. Reported by: A fashion seller posting as zenkoakishaga on Hacker News.
Account as given: The seller says a week of viral sales piled up hundreds of orders and about $100,000, and four days later "our account payout is frozen by Stripe. All payout blocked. No notice." They say two managers they reached by phone would not say what was under review or give a deadline.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person · archived copy

HF-2026-0154 · SquareFiled 2026-09-25

Amount held: $7,500 (stated as "7.5K and counting")
Held since: Mid-January 2024, when they say the reserve was put in place
Hold period stated by the processor: A rolling reserve of 20%, each amount released 90 days after its transaction
Current status: HELD — The reserve was in place as of their posts on 1 March 2024. Their later posts on the forum (July 2024, March 2025) are about loan offers and do not say whether the reserve ended. Checked 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated; they describe running events, Country not stated. Reported by: A business posting as Cauldron on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The business says it "was hit with a rolling reserve of 20% - released 90 days after each transaction", put in place in mid-January, with "7.5K and counting that we can’t access and bills that need to be paid". They say a new item then appeared in their account activity, marked "needs work": "Your account currently has a reserve, which could be used to cover chargebacks. This is affecting your eligibility." — so the reserve also made them ineligible for the Square loan offer they had hoped would cover the bills the reserve left unpaid.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person · archived copy

HF-2026-0153 · SquareFiled 2026-09-25

Amount held: $1,579 (stated as $379 in sales on 1 September 2022 and "over 1200.00" the next day; lower bound)
Held since: Early September 2022, after they changed the linked checking account the week before
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated.
Current status: HELD — Not available as of their post on 6 September 2022, in which they say they are moving to another processor. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Auto repair garage, United States (Missouri). Reported by: An auto garage owner in Missouri posting as SBuffalo on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The owner says they changed their checking account after logging in with their password, and that Square then froze their sales balance. They say funds are usually available within minutes, and that they took $379 in sales on Thursday 1 September 2022 and over $1,200 the next day. They say customers prepay for service and those funds buy the parts, so without them "we are at a loss". After six years with Square, they say they are switching processors.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0152 · SquareFiled 2026-09-25

Amount held: $3,300 (stated as "3300$")
Held since: October 2025, after the first payment on the account; the post is dated 25 October 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days, according to the business
Current status: HELD — Held as of their posts on 25–26 October 2025. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Construction, Country not stated. Reported by: A construction business posting as mdconcrete on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The business says "the just wait to you run your first payment and then they deactivate your account", that this was their third attempt to use Square, and that "They got 3300$ this time for 180 days". Asked what type of business they run, they answered "Construction".
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0151 · SquareFiled 2026-09-25

Amount held: $400 (stated as "almost $400" in reserves)
Held since: November 2024, after they closed the account; the post is dated 24 November 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated.
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 24 November 2024. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A former seller posting as SCLLC1 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The former seller says they had "almost $400 in reserves", chose to stop using Square and closed the account, and that it now says they cannot access the account, so they do not know how they will get the money. Another seller replied in February 2025 that in their own case the funds would not be released until the maximum number of days on the reserve had passed.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0150 · SquareFiled 2026-09-25

Amount held: $520 (stated as "$520")
Held since: Wednesday 24 January 2024, when the client paid; the post is dated 26 January 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They say Square told them the identity review was still in progress.
Current status: HELD — Not received as of their post at 9:30pm on Friday 26 January 2024. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A seller of ten years posting as frustrated2long on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says they had been on the phone with five different people at Square, who said they needed to verify the seller’s identity and that it was "still under review" although they had given all the proof asked for. They say a client paid them $520 on Wednesday the 24th and that in ten years with Square they had never had this issue.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0149 · SquareFiled 2026-09-25

Amount held: Not stated
Held since: June 2024; the post is dated 16 June 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: Until 14 August 2024, according to the owner; they say the period was then extended, without giving the new date.
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 16 June 2024. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A business owner posting as Agent00747 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The owner says a customer made a donation to the business through Square to help with a financial hardship, and Square then decided "to close my account and keep the money and tell me that I had until August 14 before I can get the money back", even after they sent the information Square asked for. They say that after they emailed Square that they would probably lose the business, "they’ve added more time as if in retaliation". A volunteer Square Champion replied that, as a guess, accepting card donations as a for-profit business may have been the trigger.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0148 · SquareFiled 2026-09-25

Amount held: $5,800 (stated as "5800 dollars")
Held since: July 2023; the post is dated 27 July 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated.
Current status: HELD — As of their post on 27 July 2023 they say the value was sitting in e-gift cards they could only use at their own point of sale, on a business account that had been closed. No later post under this account was found as of 25 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A seller posting as Odin1388 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says a $5,800 ACH payment "sat for 5 days", and when it cleared Square closed their account and "wouldn’t let me refund to my client but it would refund to gift cards". They say the business account is now closed and they hold "5800 dollars worth of e gift cards I can only uuss at my pos". Another seller replied a month later that they had "the same problem" and could not reach a person.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0147 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: $4,000 (stated as "$4000 plus")
Held since: November 2023, just after sign-up; the post is dated 13 November 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: None. They say Square’s sign-up material said funds would transfer after midnight on the day of payment.
Current status: HELD — Held as of their reply on 14 November 2023. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: New seller, Country not stated. Reported by: A new seller posting as APEXTraders on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says they had just signed up and accepted a payment of over $4,000, expecting it to transfer after midnight as the sign-up literature described, but found an "account review" holding up their payments even though their ID and bank account had been verified. An account answering for Square replied that new sellers have a maximum transfer limit of $500 a day.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0146 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: $17,000 (stated as "$17k")
Held since: Months before their post on 15 May 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: None. They say each call ended with a promise to hear back in two days.
Current status: HELD — Held as of their reply on 15 May 2024, by which time they had moved to another processor. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Small CBD store, on Square for five years and an early user of its CBD program, Country not stated. Reported by: A small CBD store posting as PhenomWell on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The store says "Square owes my small CBD store $17k" and stopped depositing its funds months earlier. It says Square at first released funds when it made requested compliance changes, then stopped even when it did, and that one request could not be met: it was told to remove kratom from its website, which it says it had listed only briefly about three years earlier. It says phone calls always ended with the matter being escalated and a promise it would hear from someone in two days.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0145 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: $2,500 (stated as "around $2500")
Held since: August 2024; the post is dated 13 August 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They say the transfer date kept being pushed back.
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 13 August 2024. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: New online seller, Country not stated. Reported by: A new seller posting as Crystal7 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says they had received around $2,500 across several transactions as a new seller, and that the transfer date shown in their balance kept extending and the payout kept being suspended.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0144 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: $760
Held since: December 2022; the post is dated 28 December 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They say Square asked for a form and then for an invoice.
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 28 December 2022. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Business selling gift certificates through Square, Country not stated. Reported by: A seller posting as Db1279 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says a client’s father, who buys around $750 in gift certificates from them every year, bought $760 on a credit card, and Square then messaged that it had detected fraudulent activity. They say they filled in the form Square sent, but Square then wanted an invoice, which they do not have because the sale was made through the Square app, and that the client could not print the gift certificates.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0143 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: $2,000 (stated as "over 2K")
Held since: 20 December 2019, the date of their last deposit
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. An account answering for Square replied that the account had been placed "under the hold of our Account Services department".
Current status: HELD — Held as of 10 January 2020. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated; a Square user for years, Country not stated. Reported by: A long-time seller posting as Chh2 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says they had not received a deposit since 20 December 2019, that bank account details they did not enter had been added to their account, and that over $2,000 in deposits were showing as pending. An account answering for Square replied on the thread that Square had contacted them about suspicious activity and had put the account on hold for security.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0142 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: $5,000 (stated as "over $5000")
Held since: Early May 2025 (about two weeks before their post on 20 May 2025)
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They say Square kept asking for CBD certificates of analysis.
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 20 May 2025. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Business that says it does not sell CBD products, Country not stated. Reported by: A seller posting as lis62 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says they had tried to contact Square almost daily for two weeks, and that Square kept asking for certificates of analysis for CBD products they "don't even sell" while refusing to send them "over $5000 that I have collected from customers". They say they made three calls that day and every representative refused to pass them to a manager.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0141 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: $1,000 (stated as "Just under $1,000")
Held since: June 2023, a week after their first and only transaction
Hold period stated by the processor: 90 days, which they say had passed by 14 September 2023 without payment
Current status: HELD — Not paid out as of their last reply on 15 September 2023, more than 90 days in. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Long-established wholesaler of industrial components for medical and industrial x-ray, Country not stated. Reported by: A wholesaler posting as mcio on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The company says it signed up for Square in early June 2023, processed one phone payment of just under $1,000 from a customer of over a decade, and had the account suspended a week later. It says Square emailed that it had to wait 90 days for the money, and that this period "has now come and gone": the balance still shows in the dashboard but is not transferred. It says chat support was not working and the phone system would not reach a person.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0140 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: Not stated
Held since: Late April 2026 (over 10 business days before 12 May 2026)
Hold period stated by the processor: 4 weeks, which they say a Square support agent told them in chat, saying it was because they are an incorporated entity
Current status: RELEASED — Released on or about 18 May 2026. They say that once a forum volunteer flagged the thread to Square staff, Square asked for identification for the organisation’s president, and within 24 hours of providing it all pending transfers reached their bank.
Merchant: Incorporated nonprofit organisation trialling tap-to-pay on a phone, Australia. Reported by: A nonprofit posting as careacar1 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The organisation says none of its first three tap-to-pay payments had been transferred, and that Square chat told it transfers would not start for 4 weeks while its accounts were verified: "The support person DEFINITELY said 4 weeks, as I questioned it a couple of times." It says it would stop taking card payments until then because it could not afford large amounts "in limbo". On 18 May 2026 it wrote that Square had wanted "additional identification information for our president", and that it was not sure why this had not been asked for before the issue was escalated.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person · archived copy

HF-2026-0139 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "over 20k"; no currency given; not converted)
Held since: Late July 2024 ("over a week" before their post on 3 August 2024)
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated
Current status: HELD — Held as of their third reply on 3 August 2024. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A seller posting as Yamseed on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: Replying on another company’s thread, the seller says their funds had been on hold for over a week and that Square would not release them, so they could not run their business: "Square have over 20k of my money and will not release it".
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0138 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: Not stated
Held since: December 2023 or earlier; the post is dated 27 December 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: 30% of funds held in a reserve for a rolling three-month period, on 30 days’ notice
Current status: HELD — The reserve was in place as of their post on 27 December 2023, when they were moving to another provider and asking how to get the reserved funds back. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A company posting as DE8 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The company says Square "decided to hold 30% of our funds in reserve for a rolling 3 month period at 30 days notice", which they call crippling. They say they have been accepted by another merchant provider and want to close the Square account and retrieve the reserved funds.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0137 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "$10,545.92"; the merchant is in Canada and does not name the currency; not converted)
Held since: 16 September 2024 (payment taken); flagged the next day
Hold period stated by the processor: None. They say Square told them to refund the customer.
Current status: HELD — On 25 September 2024 they say the funds "were never released" to them: Square made them refund the customer, who already had the goods. None of the money reached the merchant as of that post, and no later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Jewellery business, first time using Square, Canada. Reported by: A jeweller posting as Jaydeep on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they took a $10,545.92 payment through Square Invoice on 16 September 2024 from a returning customer paying by AMEX, who called their bank in front of them to confirm the charge. A day later the payment was flagged as potentially fraudulent and held. They say Square’s account department kept repeating "Issue a refund" and hung up on them, and asked for photos of the buyer’s ID and card after the sale. By 25 September 2024 they say they had refunded the customer and were left hoping the customer would pay again.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0136 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: $1,000 (stated as "over a thousand dollars")
Held since: July 2023; the post is dated 30 July 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They say the email said only that the account was deactivated after a security review.
Current status: HELD — Held as of their reply on 31 July 2023. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A seller posting as Megab on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says they received an email that their account had been deactivated after a security review they knew nothing about, and that "over a thousand dollars" was being held; "if I don't get it I'll be evicted." They say that during the week before, calling support played a recording with no option to reach anyone, and that the customer whose payments were in question told them their bank had raised no problem.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0135 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "£6200"; not converted to dollars)
Held since: February 2025, their second day on Square; the post is dated 8 February 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: None given to them in the post. A reply from an account answering for Square said "we always aim to complete our investigations within 1-2 business days".
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 8 February 2025. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Online business that had just moved from Stripe to Square, Country not stated; amounts given in pounds sterling. Reported by: A seller posting as MichaelAlan on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says that on their first day using Square they took £2,700, which was paid out normally, and that on the second day they took £6,200, after which Square asked them to verify their ID and held the funds. They say they are worried because they have read of Square holding funds for months.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0134 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: Not stated
Held since: August 2023 or earlier; the replies are dated 28 August 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: A release date of 22 August 2023, which they say passed without payment
Current status: UNKNOWN — On 28 August 2023 they say a Square representative told them, and an email then confirmed, that the hold had expired and the funds would arrive in one or two business days. They wrote "Will update you" and posted nothing further, so whether the money arrived is not recorded.
Merchant: Business type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A seller posting as DJBUILD2 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: Replying on another seller’s thread, they say they had the same problem and could not reach anyone. They then say that on 28 August 2023 a Square representative told them the funds would post "in one or two business days although the release date was Aug 22nd", and gave them a case number, and that they then received an email saying the "hold time for funds has expired".
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person · archived copy

HF-2026-0133 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: $610 (stated as "610.00", after they say they refunded "around 4500.00")
Held since: August 2023; the post is dated 27 August 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They say they were not told why the account was deactivated.
Current status: HELD — Not paid out as of their last reply on 28 August 2023. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A seller posting as Shanejay on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says Square deactivated their account and they do not know why. They say that after the deactivation they were able to refund around $4,500 to customers, but could not withdraw the remaining $610: "I can refund money but I can't get the money out". They also ask whether they will be paid interest on the money while it is held.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0132 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "several thousand dollars")
Held since: 5 September 2026, the date of Square’s email about suspicious activity
Hold period stated by the processor: None given. They say Square’s email cited suspicious activity on the account without saying what it was.
Current status: HELD — Still held as of their post on 21 September 2026, which they count as day 17. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Service business with a manager, staff payroll and a text-marketing list, Country not stated. Reported by: A business posting as LVS3 on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The business says Square emailed on 5 September 2026 that there was suspicious activity on the account, without details, and has since withheld all of the funds taken in — "several thousand dollars". They guess the trigger was a $0.01 and a $0 transaction their manager ran the day before to add a work phone to their text-marketing list. They say they explained this by email, chat and phone several times, that they are asking clients to pay by cash or check, and that they are "already one day late on payroll."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0131 · SquareFiled 2026-09-24

Amount held: $1,730.40 (stated as "$1730.40")
Held since: The payment was received on 16 August 2026 by their account; the post is dated 20 August 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None stated. They say an hour on chat produced a case number and no date.
Current status: HELD — Not transferred as of their second post on 20 August 2026. No later post under this account was found as of 24 September 2026.
Merchant: Business type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A seller posting as HumanNeededNow on the Square Community forum.
Account as given: The seller says their Square Dashboard confirms Square received $1730.40 on 16 August 2026, but the money has not been transferred to their verified bank account on record. They say they "just wasted an hour on Chat", have a case number, and that the phone and chat options had been "useless thus far". In a second post the same day they say the chat agent told them Square had never had this problem before.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0130 · StripeFiled 2026-09-23

Amount held: $12,000 (They state "over $12,000" in donations)
Held since: 31 August 2023, the same day the funds had been scheduled to be released
Hold period stated by the processor: No fixed hold period was communicated. They say that about two months earlier, an unauthorized user gained access to their Stripe login and attempted to send six large fraudulent invoices, two of which succeeded and were refunded by the organization. They say Stripe then disabled the account owner’s login while donations kept coming in, and that it took nearly two months of contacting support to get the login re-enabled. They say the withheld donations were "scheduled to be released" on 31 August 2023 — the same day Stripe instead emailed them that a review had found "a high level of risk for customer disputes" and, about 45 minutes after they submitted further information, closed the account.
Current status: UNKNOWN — As of the post on 31 August 2023, the funds had not been paid out and live chat and phone support had been disabled for the account. No later post under this account was found, and no confirmed resolution appears in the thread.
Merchant: Small local nonprofit, using Stripe for donations for over four years, United States. Reported by: Nick Welsh, Director of Technology at Integrate for Good, a local nonprofit, posting on Hacker News.
Account as given: The organization’s technology director says Stripe emailed that a routine review found the account presented "a high level of risk for customer disputes," despite four years of use with only one prior dispute. They say that about two months before this, an unauthorized user had gained access to the account owner’s Stripe login and attempted to send six large invoices, two of which went through and were refunded once discovered; that Stripe support said it would escalate and ensure everything was fine, then a few days later disabled the owner’s login; and that it took close to two months of trying to reach support to get it re-enabled, partly because the intruder had also configured the owner’s inbox to delete incoming Stripe emails. They say that once the login issue was resolved they learned Stripe had withheld more than $12,000 in donations collected while the login was disabled, that the funds were scheduled to be released on 31 August 2023, and that Stripe closed the account that same day instead. They say live chat and phone support were then disabled for the account, while remaining available on other Stripe accounts under the same login.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0129 · StripeFiled 2026-09-23

Amount held: Not stated (The figures they gave changed as events unfolded and are recorded here without being reconciled. Their first post put roughly €101,000 on hold in one account and roughly €46,000 in a second, "approximately €147.000,00" combined. A same-day comment put the balance being held at "150k." The next day they wrote that they could see "only" €28,000 had actually been refunded to customers. Two days after the first post they wrote that Stripe had refunded a further €68,000, which they said put their "total loss around €150.000,00 (Stock + marketing cost factored in).")
Held since: About a month after the two stores started taking payments; the accounts were closed on 6 January 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: They say Stripe first told them one account’s balance was subject to a 120-day hold, with "the affected card payments" to be refunded to customers "5 business days from the account closing day." Stripe treated the second account’s balance as tied to charges it deemed unauthorized and said it would refund those directly to customers.
Current status: HELD — As of their last update, two days after the accounts were closed (8 January 2023), they say Stripe had refunded the money on hold to their customers rather than paying it to them — none of the balance reached the merchant. They say they had tracking numbers showing every affected order had been delivered. No later post under this account was found.
Merchant: Two e-commerce stores selling consumer electronics, shipped from a local warehouse, Country not stated (amounts given in euros). Reported by: A founder of two e-commerce stores, posting on Hacker News.
Account as given: The founder says both stores had been taking payments for about a month when Stripe notified them of a manual review and froze payouts. They say they submitted the requested information for both accounts. They say Stripe told them the balance in one account, about €101,000, was subject to a 120-day hold and would then be refunded to customers rather than paid out, and that the balance in a second account, about €46,000, was being refunded because Stripe deemed the charges "unauthorized" — which they dispute, saying every customer received their order and they hold tracking numbers proving it. Hours later they wrote that Stripe had closed the account and refunded the balance; the next day they wrote that they could then see only part of it, about €28,000, had actually gone out; two days after the first post they wrote that Stripe had refunded a further €68,000. They say the stock behind the refunded orders had already been paid for and shipped, and that they intended to pursue legal action and contact media outlets.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person · archived copy

HF-2026-0128 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: Not stated (the held balance is not stated; they give daily takings of about $1,500 as the basis for the compensation their lawyer intends to claim)
Held since: They say payments were suspended and documents demanded shortly before their first post on 8 August 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: They say no timetable was given. A Shopify account with a staff badge replied on their French-language thread on 19 August 2024 that "Il est difficile de vous donner un calendrier précis concernant le traitement de ce type de demande" — it is difficult to give a precise timetable for this kind of request
Current status: HELD — Their last dated post, on 12 August 2024, says the company "just closed all my accounts without any valid reason". They did not say whether the suspended funds were ever paid, and the forum returns no later posts under this username.
Merchant: Online store; they say it takes about $1,500 a day, France; they posted the same account in French and in English. Reported by: A merchant posting as Coder1983 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says payments were suspended pending verification of their business, that they supplied the documents the next day, and that they then had to suspend trading and pay for orders and stock out of their own pocket. They say that a week later the company asked them to add tracking numbers to all processed orders, which they did. They say they took the email exchanges to the public prosecutor in Paris, who asked for a written report with supporting documents once the company had made its final decision, that their lawyer intends to seek compensation, and that a friend who is a legal investigative journalist at Le Monde had asked for the correspondence and for further French-speaking accounts in order to look into whether the practice complies with French law. Four days later they wrote that all their accounts had been closed.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0127 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "over $400k is being held")
Held since: They say the money had been held for 21 days when they posted on 23 August 2024, and that the hold relates to chargebacks
Hold period stated by the processor: They say that in over 21 days the only answer from the company has been "we’re working on it"
Current status: HELD — Unresolved as of their posts of 23 August 2024, their only two on the forum. Another merchant asked what they sold; they did not reply, and no outcome was posted.
Merchant: Online store, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as Joeybryja on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says over $400,000 is being held over chargebacks and that they have had no response from the company in more than 21 days beyond being told it is being worked on. They wrote twice within the same hour, the second time only to say "21 days for us and counting".
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again

HF-2026-0126 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: $7,000 (stated as "7k in payouts pending")
Held since: They say the payouts had been pending for over a week when they posted on 12 August 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: They say nobody had emailed them about the additional documentation they were told to submit
Current status: HELD — Unresolved as of their only post, on 12 August 2024. The forum returns no other posts under this username.
Merchant: Online store, Country not stated; they say they previously used Square. Reported by: A merchant posting as bwill781 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says $7,000 in payouts had been pending for over a week and that no one had contacted them about the documents they were supposed to provide. They say their business depends on that cash flow for its assets and that their business bank account would go negative before long. They compare the experience with their previous provider, where support could be reached by telephone.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0125 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: Not stated (not stated; on 6 March 2024 they described it as "a very big amount on hold")
Held since: They first posted about the hold on 6 March 2024, saying the amount locked was growing
Hold period stated by the processor: Not stated in their posts
Current status: RELEASED — Paid. On 13 June 2024 they wrote that after they were in contact with a Wall Street Journal reporter, "within 2 hours we received notification that the funds would be released" — and that before that, their own account representative "said he couldn’t help me". They continued replying on the thread until March 2025, asking other merchants whether they had been paid.
Merchant: Consumer goods company; they describe themselves as a top ten per cent performing store on the platform, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as WorthHome on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they found the thread while their own funds were locked, wrote that the amount at stake was large and growing, and asked the earlier posters how theirs had ended. They say the release came two hours after a newspaper reporter was involved, not from the support process, and that this happened to a store in the top tenth of the platform’s merchants whose assigned representative had already told them they could not help. Afterwards they kept asking others on the thread how long their funds had been locked and whether they had been paid.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0124 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: $3,037 (stated as "3037$" in one post and "3000$" in the other)
Held since: They say the account was blocked and payouts paused on 21 May 2024, after two payouts had been made
Hold period stated by the processor: They say the notice in their admin read "It takes 2 business days to verify the info". They say that three weeks later nothing had happened
Current status: HELD — Unresolved as of their last dated post on 12 June 2024. The only reply, on 28 August 2024, asked whether it had been resolved; they did not answer, and the forum returns no later posts under this username.
Merchant: Online store using the platform’s own money account, Country not stated; they say they reported the matter to the Texas Attorney General’s consumer protection office. Reported by: A merchant posting as KENNETH20 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they verified the account when they opened it, received two payouts, and were then blocked. They say it took five business days to get the first document request — ID, proof of address, social media links, EIN documents, stock invoices — which they supplied both by email and in the admin, and that five days later a second request asked for a different proof of address and a photograph of their inventory with the date written by hand, which they also sent on 29 May. They say that since then they have contacted support more than thirty times and the internal team more than fifteen, and received the same generic email asking for documents they had already sent ten times. They say most orders were already fulfilled, that they have overdue advertising bills, and that they filed a complaint with their local police department and hired a lawyer at their own expense. They write: "And we are talking about 3000$, I can’t even imagine if I had 30k$ in their hands."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again

HF-2026-0123 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the posts)
Held since: They say their last payout was about six weeks before 15 January 2024, which places the start of the hold in early December 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: They say they were told the review was complete and the hold would be removed in "24-48 hours"
Current status: HELD — Unresolved as of their last dated post on 15 January 2024, four days after the 24-48 hour promise: "Account still on hold and np payouts scheduled. Now 6 weeks since my last payout." They posted nothing further on the forum after that date.
Merchant: Online store, several years on the platform, Country not stated; they say they used the European Union’s Platform-to-Business complaints procedure. Reported by: A merchant posting as theUGC on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says the case ran from non-compliance to "banking issues" and that it has affected "my livelihood, my mental health, my credit rating". They say they completed the Platform-to-Business complaints procedure published on the company’s own legal pages, received a standard response, did not believe it was connected to the regulator, and intended to go to the European Commission’s platform trading practices channel directly. They say they were changing payment gateway and rebuilding the site elsewhere.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0122 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the posts)
Held since: They say an email from the risk management address on 14 December 2023 told them payouts were on hold because of branded products on the site
Hold period stated by the processor: They say they were told the next day that the information had been sent to the banking partners for review, with no period given
Current status: RELEASED — Paid. On 2 June 2024 they wrote that the hold began on a Thursday in December and that they "had my transactions deposited on schedule the following Monday" after providing as much evidence as possible — a four-day interruption.
Merchant: Authorised retailer of running shoes, apparel and nutrition; they say the shop would gross about $700,000 in 2023, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Andrew7kft on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says the email gave a link that accepted a maximum of five invoices, so they replied to it with over a hundred invoices from the brands they sell, and noticed that the reply address was a legal-mailer address rather than the risk management address the email came from. They say a reply the next day told them the information had gone to the banking partners. Two days after the hold began they wrote that they had read the thread and that "there aren’t many users claiming they had their payouts reopened with a couple weeks", and afterwards they opened a separate request asking the company to let merchants submit brand authorisations before payouts are held rather than after.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0121 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the posts)
Held since: They say the compliance review and the payout hold began on 2 December 2023 and that Shopify Payments was disabled on 4 December 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: They say they were told only to wait for the review to be complete, and that they got one day of warning before the shutdown
Current status: RELEASED — Paid. On 16 December 2023 they said Shopify Payments had been reinstated a week earlier and payouts had been reactivated that Monday, 11 December. They say a payout that had been on hold was released at the time the gateway was disabled. They add that the lost sales in the intervening week cannot be recovered.
Merchant: Wine seller, online and point of sale, Country not stated; they sell at in-person tasting events. Reported by: A merchant posting as vesperwine on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they had sold wine on the platform since 2020 without incident when the company said it was conducting a compliance review, might disable Shopify Payments, and put payouts on hold. They say they supplied the documentation and the gateway was disabled two days later anyway. They say support could do nothing and that emails to the legal and risk management departments went unanswered, and that risk management later asked again for items that had been in the same submission "like they only received part of the information". They say they could not take card payments at a weekly tasting event and lost customers there, that setting up an alternative provider took over a week, and that "they won’t compensate us for any lost proceeds during the time they are completing the reviews."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0120 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the posts)
Held since: They say the email questioning their products arrived on 30 November 2023, that payouts were stopped the same day, and that the website was shut down on 5 December 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: They say no period was given; the answer was "the same blah, blah, blah" from support every day
Current status: UNKNOWN — The store came back online on 7 December 2023, the day after they filed complaints with the Better Business Bureau and their state Attorney General — they wrote "How ironic that once the complaints were filed with the AG and BBB yesterday, my website was turned back online last night." They never said whether the withheld payouts were paid. On 17 February 2024 they wrote that three months on they were being asked for the same documents again, with a fresh threat to shut the website down.
Merchant: Store selling licensed character products, United States; they say they complained to their state Attorney General. Reported by: A merchant posting as SheriScraps on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they were asked for supplier invoices for products from three licensed brands on 30 November 2023, posted all of them the same day, and then heard nothing while payouts stayed stopped. They say the store was taken down on 5 December even though the invoices had been sent, and that they resent the documentation, contacted support, contacted their Attorney General and filed a Better Business Bureau complaint. They write that the products are not illegal and that "it is the holiday season and my family depends on our sales to eat and survive". They say they later sent the same information three times and finally drew red arrows on it, and that the company "requested the receipts for the copyrighted products, but couldn’t figure out how to actually read the receipt they requested."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0119 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the posts)
Held since: They say notice arrived on 24 November 2023, the day before Black Friday, and that their last payout was 23 November 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: They say no timeline was ever given, only repeated emails saying the banking partners were reviewing. A Shopify account with a staff badge replied on the thread that "There is no guaranteed turn around time in reviewing these cases"
Current status: RELEASED — Paid. They say payouts resumed on Monday 11 December 2023, eighteen days after the last one, with the back payments arriving in two instalments on 11 and 12 December, and that "everything went back to normal" afterwards.
Merchant: Florist selling gift baskets containing wine, United States, stated by the merchant. Reported by: A merchant posting as CampanulaDesign on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says payouts were stopped for non-compliance without warning or a document request, that they sell wine in gift baskets under a licence they have held for four years, and that they submitted the paperwork immediately. They say they replied on 28 and 30 November asking how long it would take and whether they should switch payment providers, and received generic "banking partners are reviewing" messages on 1 and 4 December that answered neither question. They say their husband opened several support chats a day on 5 and 6 December until a senior advisor moved the case to a different "bucket"; a member of the Trust and Safety team contacted them that evening, told them they needed an age gate and a waiver, submitted it to the bank on the 7th and closed the review on the 8th. Of the whole sequence they write: "I don’t know what worked. No idea whether getting resolution after the chats with support helped or it was just finally my turn."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0118 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "30,000€ in payouts frozen")
Held since: They say the payout freeze and the restrictions began more than ten days before their post of 12 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: They say no period was given at all: "No clear explanation. No proper resolution. No meaningful support. No timeline. No access to the funds."
Current status: HELD — Unresolved as of their last dated post on 24 July 2026, six weeks after the first one. They had written on 21 June that they had escalated publicly and by email to the company’s legal address and got "no answers". No outcome was posted.
Merchant: Small online store, self-described, Country not stated; amounts in euros. Reported by: A merchant posting as clickrategurus on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says payouts were frozen first, then payments were restricted, then the store was restricted, and then their access to orders, payments, fulfillment, tracking, refunds and customer updates was limited. They say customers "woke up accessing a ‘Store is Closed’ sign with 30,000€ in payouts frozen and no way to refund them". They write: "The platform freezes our payouts, restricts our payments, limits our access to the store, gives us no proper explanation, does not properly answer our support tickets, makes it extremely difficult to refund or manage customers normally, and then when customers start opening chargebacks because they think we scammed them, Shopify sends us notifications saying we will be charged a €15 chargeback fee." They say tickets, documents and formal requests to the risk, legal and operations teams went unanswered.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0117 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: $8,800 (the order they refunded; they say a customer purchased products for $8,800 and that the refund is what is stuck)
Held since: They say the order was flagged as high risk about a month after they opened the account, that they were told they could not use Shopify Payments, and that they issued the refund on 18 October 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: They say they were told the funds would be held for 120 days. They quote a support advisor writing that on that date "the refund can be processed", and suggesting they email the Trust and Safety team "requesting to enable the funds just for processing the refund, so you don’t have to wait for such a long time"
Current status: HELD — Their customer was still unpaid as of their last dated post on 23 December 2023, where they wrote "Still no refund as of today", said the support ticket had been closed on them, and said the customer’s card issuer was in the process of recovering the money. Nothing further was posted. The forum returns no other posts under this username.
Merchant: Seller who moved to Shopify from eBay and Amazon, Country not stated; the customer’s card issuer is named as Capital One. Reported by: A merchant posting as southernmeters on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they refunded the customer themselves and asked to be paid by cheque instead, writing "I no longer want to sell or do anything related with Shopify and just want my customer to be refunded". They quote three support conversations: one advisor told them the buyer would see the money "within 3-10 business days"; a second said a Shopify Payments refund is "labeled as pending for up to 2 business days, and it can take up to 10 business days for your customer to receive the refunded amount" and told them to pass the Acquirer Reference Number to the customer’s bank; a third wrote that the pending payouts would be held for approximately 120 days and that "on that date, the refund can be processed." They say that after the fourth of those exchanges they replied to their ticket twice with no response for six days. In December they wrote that another merchant in the same thread had had a customer refund blocked as well, and that their own customer’s bank had taken the case up.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0116 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-22

Amount held: $4,762.08 (the total of five refunds that failed, which they say is "exactly my Shopify Payments negative balance to the penny")
Held since: They say the five refunds were initiated on 29 May 2026 and failed on 14 July 2026 at 10:03 PM
Hold period stated by the processor: They say each failure record states that the amount "will be returned to you in your next payout", and that payouts are on hold, so those credits cannot post
Current status: HELD — Unresolved as of their post of 21 July 2026. The thread was automatically closed two days after the last reply on 24 July 2026 and they posted no outcome. The forum returns no other posts under this username.
Merchant: Online store, Country not stated; they describe ACH debits against their bank account. Reported by: A merchant posting as merchant_ops_us on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says five refunds across four orders failed at the same moment, all of them returning the error code processing_error with the message "The refund couldn’t be processed for technical reasons", and all of them on the Shopify Payments gateway. They say they were not notified of the failures until 14 July, so "for 46 days I believed my customers had been refunded". They say the five failed refunds total $4,762.08, which is exactly their negative balance, that each failure record promises the amount back in the next payout while payouts are on hold, and that there have been three ACH debit attempts against their bank for the same $4,762.08, on 3, 8 and 13 July. They say a support advisor on ticket 68943879 "confirmed she was unable to pause the ACH attempts, unable to generate an itemized ledger, and unable to confirm whether the five failed refunds are permanently cancelled or queued to retry when the hold lifts."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0115 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: Not stated (They state a negative balance of over $5,000 USD, a payment of €18,648.00 EUR made to clear it, and a payout balance of minus €16,527.07 afterwards)
Held since: They say Shopify Payments was disabled "a month and half" before their post of 22 January 2026, which places it around December 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: They say support told them refunds could not be processed because of the payouts hold, and that the negative balance had to be under $5,000 before anything could be processed
Current status: HELD — Unresolved as of their last dated post on 23 January 2026, three days after they say they paid the balance in full. On 24 January they wrote that the amount to be paid had jumped to 90 per cent of their refunds despite the payment. They posted nothing further about the outcome.
Merchant: Online store, European Union; amounts in euros and dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as adrianmisetic on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant, in the EU, says Shopify Payments was disabled over customer chargebacks and that they were left with a negative balance over $5,000. They say they made manual payments to cover refunds owed to their customers, that those took weeks to appear and sat as "pending", and that support told them the refunds could not be processed because of the payouts hold, while also telling them the negative balance had to come down first. They write: "What sense does it make to not be able to send money to cover my refunds." They then say they paid €18,648.00 EUR in full, received a paid invoice confirming Shopify had the money the next day, and that around 100 refunds dated to the past then appeared at the top of their order transactions, leaving the payout balance at minus €16,527.07 rather than the roughly minus 2,000 they expected, with the manual payment still not visible.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0114 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: Not stated (The negative balance at issue is stated as $89.98; no figure is given for the payouts being withheld, which they describe as "9x" their account balance)
Held since: They say a refund posted after they had moved funds out, that it rolled for two weeks, and that the same message then repeated daily from 11 September 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: They say the on-screen status named a specific payout date each day — 11, 12, 13, 14 and then 15 September 2025 — and that support said each time that "it will happen with the next payout"
Current status: HELD — Held as of their last post on 16 September 2025, where they wrote: "There is definitely nothing quick about this process." They posted nothing further.
Merchant: Small business, self-described, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as MamaLLamaLLC on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says a refund posted when there were no sales to cover it, leaving a negative balance of $89.98, and that the admin then showed the same message on five consecutive days, each time naming that day as the payout it would be included in. They say sales had since picked up, that their account balance was twice the negative amount and their pending payout balance nine times it, and that the deduction still did not post. They say payouts were arriving selectively — "i had 3 sales, i got 1 and they held the larger 2" — and that after four contacts with support they offered to settle the negative balance by card so it would clear instantly, and were not allowed to: "I’ve even offered to pay the negative balance by card so its taken care of instantly - but they don’t do that."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0113 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: $1,200 (stated as "about $1200" across "some 20+ transactions"; in an earlier post on 8 January 2025 the same merchant put the figure at $800, and both of their own statements are recorded here without picking between them)
Held since: They say the misdirected payouts ran through November and December 2024 and that they discovered the problem in early January 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: They say that in March 2025 they were told to "wait another 30 to 90 days and perhaps we might get our money"
Current status: PARTIAL — Partly repaid as of their last dated post on 12 March 2025: they say that in over 60 days they had received just $40 back. They posted nothing further about the rest.
Merchant: Store run on the platform for 10 to 15 years, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as Doug_Brooke on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says that during November and December 2024 their sales revenue was paid into somebody else’s bank account. They say the company has not disputed that this was its own error, has all the customer names, dates and transaction amounts, and has sent them a document listing the payments that went to the wrong account. They write: "In over 60 days we have gotten just $40 back and have all but given up hope of getting more. The last message from Shopify is that we will need to wait another 30 to 90 days and perhaps we might get our money and BTW, we probably won’t respond to you in the meantime." In January 2025 they had written that they were getting "only assurances that they are concerned and will send this to the next level."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0112 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: Not stated (No figure given)
Held since: They say the funds had been held since July 2024; posted 8 October 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: They say that when the payouts account was closed they were told the funds would be held "for another three months", on top of the hold that had run since July
Current status: RELEASED — Released, by their own account, the next day. On 9 October 2024 they wrote that they had emailed the Shopify balance team, had already switched payment processors, and "were able to transfer our remaining funds to an external business account, and the issue is resolved!" They did not separately say whether the reserve held since July was part of what they moved.
Merchant: Boutique that went viral, over 1,000 orders, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as wzboutiqueasst2 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says the store went viral overnight, that funds were held because the account was new, and that the resulting delay in fulfilling orders caused 14 chargebacks out of more than 1,000 orders. They say the payouts account was then closed without warning and the funds held for a further three months, having already been held since July. They say the balance account was frozen with no access to the money, that they had spent their profits fulfilling orders in the expectation that the reserve would be released, and that they could no longer fulfil orders. They write: "Shopify is the reason for the chargebacks."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0111 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: Not stated (No figure given for the amount withheld; they state a resulting payout balance of minus 95 euros)
Held since: They say they were emailed on 14 August 2024 asking for identity documents, and that the payouts due for 9 and 10 August 2024 were then shown as failed
Hold period stated by the processor: They say that after they submitted the documents they were emailed that the money would be held in reserve for 120 days
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 22 August 2024. An account answering for Shopify replied the next day about how refunds work and did not address the hold. The merchant posted nothing further.
Merchant: Online store, Country not stated; amounts in euros. Reported by: A merchant posting as junction01 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says two specific payouts, for 9 and 10 August 2024, were shown in the payout list as failed after a 14 August email asked them to verify their identity, and that after they submitted the documents they were told the money would be held in reserve for 120 days. They say the payouts for 11 to 18 August were not shown in the list at all, and ask where the money for refunding those customers is supposed to come from. They say their next payout was showing as minus 95 euros and ask whether the customers owed refunds will receive them.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0110 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: $13,000 (stated as "over 13,000$" sitting in a frozen Shopify Balance account)
Held since: They say the payouts had been on hold for three days when they posted on 5 June 2024, which places the start around 2 June 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: They say support told them each time to "wait 24-48 hours" and that their case was prioritised
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 5 June 2024. An account answering for Shopify replied on 10 June saying the escalation had been flagged to a team that works by email. The merchant posted nothing further, so nothing is known about what happened after that date.
Merchant: Store about a week old, taking over 100 orders a day, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as gunelmirzoeva on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says the store reached more than 100 sales a day within its first week, that payouts were then frozen, and that over $13,000 sat in a frozen Shopify Balance account while more than 400 orders went unfulfilled because that was the money they needed to buy the goods. They say they put their own last money in to fulfil some of the orders. They say they contacted support immediately and were told each time to wait 24 to 48 hours and that an internal team would email them, and that no action followed. They write that customers were calling the store a scam and that refunds and reports followed within three days.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0109 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: $7,000 (stated as "over $7000.00 USD" and "my $7k in payments")
Held since: They say they had been going back and forth with support "for about a month and some days" when they posted on 3 June 2024, which places the start around late April 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: They say support told them they "should be receiving payouts by the end of the following day"; that day passed with nothing
Current status: HELD — Held as of their last post on 4 June 2024. They posted nothing further on the forum, so nothing is known about what happened after that date.
Merchant: Small online store, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as jcorreia2018 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says six payments that had sat marked "pending" for over a month were then removed from the payouts section of their admin altogether, and that support could not explain why they had disappeared. They say new orders were paying out normally while none of the six older ones did. They say they were told repeatedly that a team would email them and that no email ever arrived, that they supplied three different email addresses to try, and that they had explained the situation seven or eight times. Separately they say every customer card began declining, that a $1 test invoice to themselves also declined, and that their bank could see no attempt to use the card at all.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0108 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: $1,200 (stated as "over 1,200.00" held in a Shopify Balance savings account)
Held since: They say the account was frozen and that they then received an email saying the balance account had been closed; posted 22 May 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 22 May 2024. An account answering for Shopify asked whether they had contacted live support; the merchant did not reply on the thread and posted nothing further.
Merchant: Online boutique, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as mjsboutique on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their account was frozen and that they then received an email saying their balance account had been closed, with no statement of where the money in it had gone. They write: "I had money in my savings . I received an email saying my balance account has been closed. However where is my money that was on my balance saving account ? I had over 1,200.00 . Do I need to seek attorney?"
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0107 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: $30,000 (stated in their own title as "30k of my money")
Held since: They say the money had been held "for over 2 weeks" when they posted on 16 January 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: They say support told them four times that it "will be resolved in 48-72 hours"
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 16 January 2024. They posted nothing further on the forum, so nothing is known about what happened after that date.
Merchant: High-end watch dealer, about three years on the platform, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as prymtimewatches on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they had been with the company for about three years without an issue, that they contacted chat support four times, and that each time they got the same reply: "Look out for an email from shopify.. This will be resolved in 48-72 hours.. I’ve escalated this issue and it will be resolved soon..." They write: "I want my money, not a stock response with 0 action being taken." They say they were about to refund the customer, who they know personally, and invoice them through another provider instead, and that the only reason they had not already done so was that they would lose the card fees.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0106 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: Not stated (No figure given)
Held since: They say they were told on 13 July 2022 that the store was under review; first posted 17 July 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: Two different figures in their own account of the same week: support told them on 13 July 2022 to "give them 24-72 hours", and, in a post the same day on a second thread, that support said "2-4 business days I’ll get an update"
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their last post on 20 July 2022, seven days after the stated 24 to 72 hours began. They posted nothing further about the outcome.
Merchant: Store selling custom-made hoodies and shoes, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as ron266644 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they had shipped orders and received no payout, and that they had never been notified that payouts were on hold. They say support told them on 13 July 2022 that the store was under review and to allow 24 to 72 hours; in a separate post the same day they put the figure support gave them at "2-4 business days". Both of their own statements are recorded here without picking between them. On 19 July they wrote: "still no payout their not holding it they’re “reviewing” my account and it’s taking them 7 days to do that when they said 24-72 hours." They say they had four tickets open and had received no update on any of them, and that the only contact channel offered to them was email. An account answering for Shopify replied on 24 July that a wait past 72 hours would be "due to a delay in our current ticket queue with the Accounts team" and that "we provide 48 - 72 hours as a general timeline of when you should expect a response, however this may not always be a case."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again

HF-2026-0105 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-21

Amount held: Not stated (No figure given)
Held since: They say the payouts had been on hold "since June" 2022; first posted 17 July 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: On 19 July 2022 they say Shopify told them that, because the store was being closed, "my funds since they are closing my store will be released in 2/3 business days"
Current status: RELEASED — Released. On 26 July 2022 they say the pending transactions were released about three to four business days after they themselves closed the shop and moved to another platform.
Merchant: Dropshipping store selling branded merchandise, Country not stated; amounts in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as Heartofmaslay on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they received an email about selling branded merchandise, that they were dropshipping with images supplied by their wholesaler, and that they did not have the reseller documentation being asked for. They say the upload form allowed only one document. Two days later they say Shopify told them the store would be closed and that pending payouts would be sent in two to three business days. A week after that they wrote: "I had to end up closing my shop unfortunately and switching to a wix platform so far no issues are problems on this one and they had to release my pending transactions cause I closed the shop down it then took about 3/4 business days my funds were released. I complete nightmare mine were on hold since June."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0104 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "6-figures stuck in Shopify Payments"; no exact figure given)
Held since: Around late April 2024; on 29 May 2024 they say they had been messaging support for over a month about a hold that had not been removed
Hold period stated by the processor: They say support repeated the same answer each time: "Please wait 3 business days"
Current status: HELD — Held as of their post on 29 May 2024. They posted nothing further on the forum, so nothing is known about what happened after that date.
Merchant: Online store; products not described, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as marshmallowlane on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says a six-figure sum is stuck in Shopify Payments and quotes the notice on their payouts page: "Your payouts from Shopify Payments are on hold while we review your account This is a standard review, and this hold does not prevent your customers from checking out." They say they had been messaging support for over a month, that the answer each time was the same copy-paste instruction to wait three business days, and that no email had ever come asking them for more information. They write: "There is no way to resolve this hold. I am just waiting."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0103 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: $5,000 (stated as "my payout of more than $5,000")
Held since: Around late June 2024; on 18 July 2024 they say they had been waiting three weeks for the payout
Hold period stated by the processor: No period was given to them; they say the eventual explanation was that the bank account details on file did not match theirs and had to be corrected manually by an accounting team
Current status: RELEASED — Paid on or shortly before 24 July 2024, when they posted: "After 3 weeks of waiting as well, we finally received our payout after a someone from support actually cared to take the time and check on my situation."
Merchant: Online store; products not described, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as HellenMendoza18 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they waited three weeks for a payout of more than $5,000 with no resolution, and that they intended to close the store as soon as it was paid. They describe what they did in the meantime: messaging support twice a day every day, asking that a manager be made aware, keeping everything on one ticket, and filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, of which they write "not sure if that helped in some way". They say the payout arrived after someone in support took the time to look at the case, and that the reason given was that the bank account information Shopify held did not match theirs, which an accounting team then fixed by hand.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0102 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: Not stated (No amount stated)
Held since: August 2025; they say the store was terminated on or just before 26 August 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: The termination email they quote says: "The full amount of your store’s pending payouts are typically held for 120 days by the processor."
Current status: HELD — Held as of their last post on 30 August 2025. They have posted nothing since. The 120 days from termination would have ended in December 2025; no outcome has been posted.
Merchant: New store, terminated before its first payout, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as sophialouis on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says the store was terminated after its first few sales and before any payout, and quotes the email in full: it says the account was terminated "due to activity that is not, or that we suspect is not, a legitimate commerce practice", that pending payouts are typically held for 120 days by the processor, and that an appeal can be submitted; it gives ticket ID 648e9ffb-0db5-4d09-b747-0dc7e4fbbccf. They say no specific reason was given, that without the funds they cannot pay suppliers or fulfil orders, and they ask for a 10 per cent rolling reserve instead of a full freeze. Four days later they wrote that customers were emailing them about the closed store.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0101 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: Not stated (No amount stated; they say payouts were held in full)
Held since: May 2024; they say a 10 per cent reserve was placed on the account on 6 May 2024 and that payouts were held at 100 per cent about ten days later
Hold period stated by the processor: A 10 per cent reserve for 90 days, placed on 6 May 2024
Current status: HELD — Held in full as of their posts on 17 May 2024. They posted nothing further on the forum. Later replies on the thread come from other merchants describing the same team.
Merchant: Shopify Plus merchant; revenue doubled between February and April 2024, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Summerk1941 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says chargebacks rose above 1 per cent, to 1.38 per cent for April 2024, after revenue doubled in two months, and that they explained their plan to bring the rate back down. They say the credit risk team then placed a 10 per cent reserve for 90 days on the account on 6 May 2024, which they say they understood and agreed to. They say the same team emailed them the same question again about ten days later, that they replied quoting the team’s own ticket from 6 May, and that no response came while payouts were held in full. They write: "I would much rather you guys close my processor account and give me all my held money rather than holding up funds this long."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0100 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "£3,000 on hold"; not converted to dollars)
Held since: April 2024; they say the hold appeared without warning, their first post being on 2 April 2024, and that writing on 4 April their last payout had been "THURSDAY LAST WEEK"
Hold period stated by the processor: No period was given to them; they say they received no email asking for information and were told three times by chat that the case had been escalated
Current status: RELEASED — Paid. On 8 April 2024 they posted that payouts would resume the following day, and said the hold had been about proving the authenticity of branded products on the site. In May 2024 they confirmed it again on a second thread.
Merchant: Family business with two physical stores and one online store, three years on the platform, United Kingdom. Reported by: A merchant posting as FunkyMonkey1 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says payouts stopped with no warning and no email, that they have staff to pay and were at risk of being sued, and that £3,000 was on hold. They say they contacted chat support three times and each time were told the case had been escalated, that 72 hours passed with no contact from the team holding the money, and that Shopify Capital continued to take repayments from their bank account while the payouts were withheld. On 8 April 2024 they wrote that payouts would resume the next day and that the company had been querying the authenticity of branded products on the site, adding: "surely they can keep the payouts running whilst the investigation is going on?"
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0099 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: Not stated (No amount stated; they say the payouts were needed to pay employees)
Held since: March 2024; the account went under review and payouts were held from 21 March 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: They say a company representative told them the review should take 3 business days
Current status: RELEASED — Paid. On 3 April 2024 they posted "My payouts are back to normal now", and described being answered a week after the hold began, after they opened a separate email thread.
Merchant: Seller of ebooks delivered instantly by email, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as SeanEdu on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they received an email saying the account was under review and all payouts were held until it finished, while customers could still buy. They say the review asked for banking information, identification, a recent bill and a description of their fulfilment process, all of which they supplied, and that a representative told them the review should take three business days. They write: "It is already over 3 business days and I am panicking!" A week into the hold they emailed the review team again on a new thread saying it was urgent; they say more questions about the business came the same day, and that payouts were restored the next business day. They also relay advice they say came from a company representative: that following up on the original review email pushes the thread back up the queue and is counterproductive, because the review team is working through old threads.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0098 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: Not stated (No amount stated; they describe having generated "a couple thousand in sales" before the hold)
Held since: March 2024; they say they logged in on a Saturday to find the next payment field showing $0, and posted about it on 13 March 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: Two different periods were given to them by support: the first agent said payments would likely be back on the Monday, and a second said "it typically takes 3-5 days.. but most times it’s done in 3 days"
Current status: RELEASED — Paid. They gave the length twice and the two accounts differ, and both are recorded here as they wrote them: on 23 May 2024, "They eventually gave me my money after holding it for 2 weeks"; on 19 August 2024, "I was paid after waiting 3 weeks."
Merchant: Newly opened store; products not described, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as ThisIsReallySad on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they submitted business documents, were told they were verified, and took the store live. On a Saturday the "Next payment" field showed no date and no amount, just $0, with no email from the company; a notification in the admin said payouts were on hold. They say support told them the hold was triggered by their adding their bank account to the Shopify Payments account — an account they say they had added before the store went live, and which is in their own name and fifteen years old. Three business days later, they write, there was still no update. In August 2024 they described the eventual explanation: "They needed to verify my bank account, although it had already been verified. I was paid after waiting 3 weeks."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0097 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: $3,200 (stated as "I had like 3200 in sales at the time")
Held since: November 2023; they say the store was terminated for an acceptable use policy violation about a week after the payout hold began, and on 17 March 2024 they counted the wait at 113 days
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days
Current status: RELEASED — Paid. On 10 April 2024 they posted "I got mine today". By their own count of 113 days on 17 March 2024, that is day 137 — seventeen days past the 120 days they were told.
Merchant: Store not described, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Tuuv on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they were sent an email about the store being terminated for an acceptable use policy violation, that they submitted all the documents asked of them and the store was closed anyway, and that they were told they would have to wait 120 days for the payout. They say their Shopify Balance account was terminated as well and that no email came asking them to update their banking details. On 17 March 2024 they wrote: "today is 113 days since I’ve being waiting so next week will make it 120 still no email to update my banking information... I had like 3200 in sales at the time." A week earlier they had asked the thread: "I just want to know did anyone received payout after 120 days ?"
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0096 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: $8,000 (stated as "my 8k in funds")
Held since: March 2023; they say the store opened on 2 March 2023, the payout hold was notified on 20 March and the account was terminated on 23 March, the day of the post
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period was given to them; they say the termination email cited the acceptable use policy without identifying the violation
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their post on 23 March 2023. In April 2024 another merchant replied on the thread asking "did you ever get your money back? please answer me". No answer was posted.
Merchant: Individual selling collectible golf putters from a 20-year personal collection, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as MickeyAvery74 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they opened the store on 2 March 2023 to sell putters from their own collection, received a first order on 16 March, and on 20 March were told payouts were on hold for a standard review while checkout stayed open — "Basically encouraging me to rack up a balance". They say that on the day the payout was due they instead received an email saying the account was terminated for an acceptable use policy violation they cannot locate in the policy, and that the fraud indicators on all three transactions were in the low tier. They write that they want their store back and their "8k in funds" for items already shipped and fulfilled, and add: "Shopify only reviews accounts once you start making money."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0095 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: $6,000 (stated as "All $6,000 + of it")
Held since: March 2023; the post is dated 14 March 2023, the day they say the store was closed
Hold period stated by the processor: They say they were told the funds would be held for 120 days to cover the risk of chargebacks
Current status: UNKNOWN — Later the same day, 14 March 2023, they posted "All has been rectified and sorted. Clarification was given and store is up and running." They did not say whether the held funds were paid out, and they have posted nothing on the forum since.
Merchant: Automotive retailer, in business since 2017, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as donP on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they received an email saying their store violated the acceptable use policy, followed by another saying their business carried a level of risk the company could not facilitate. They write that the funds were being held for 120 days — "All $6,000 + of it!" — to mitigate the risk of chargebacks, and ask why the hold was not limited to the orders in question. They say they can document six years of shipments, tracking and orders. In a second post the same day they say the matter was cleared up after they sent documents and an explanation of what they sell.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0094 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: $7,000 (stated as "I am still owed $7000 in payouts")
Held since: February 2023; the post is dated 9 February 2023 and puts the hold at 72 hours old
Hold period stated by the processor: They say a company representative told them the payout hold "would only last a few minutes"
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their post on 9 February 2023. They posted nothing further on the forum, so nothing is known about what happened after that day.
Merchant: Store selling items from the owner’s personal collection, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as ClasActionLawSu on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they sell products from their own collection and had submitted the documentation required by the 2023 attestation for branded or trademarked goods. They write: "I was informed by a representative of your company that my payout hold would only last a few minutes, however, it has now been 72 hours and I am still owed $7000 in payouts." They ask for the ticket to be escalated and give its number as b6f1cb02-4212-4f1f-a903-a10abe7f74c2.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0093 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-20

Amount held: $1,500 (stated as "over 15 hundred sitting in my Shopify wallet")
Held since: July 2022; they say a sale of 15 July 2022 was scheduled for payout on 18 July and was still marked pending on 28 July
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period was given to them. They list four scheduled payout dates that came and went — 18, 26 and 28 July and 2 August 2022 — and say support told them the delay was caused by their own change of payout date, "which was not the case"
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their post on 28 July 2022. They did not post again. Two other merchants joined the thread in October and November 2022 describing the same thing.
Merchant: Online store; products not described, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Raec on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says a transaction of 15 July 2022 was scheduled for payout on 18 July, that the date passed with the payout still showing as pending, and that they then moved the date later themselves, after which nothing happened either. They say six payouts were pending by 28 July, that they had received no funds-in-transit email since 11 July, and that they were fulfilling orders out of their own pocket with more than $1,500 sitting in the balance. They write: "It’s been 2 weeks since I’ve received a successful payout."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0092 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-19

Amount held: Not stated (No amount stated)
Held since: They say their payouts were deactivated in the system and that the fault was escalated in January 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: No period was given to them; they say four or five support advisors promised a follow-up that never came, across six tickets, the most recent numbered 65574666
Current status: RELEASED — Released on 14 April 2026, in public, during an official question-and-answer session on the forum. Roughly twenty minutes after a Shopify payments manager asked them to check their admin, they replied: "Keith the payouts are now enabled. 5 months of waiting resolved 20 mins. THANK YOU".
Merchant: Store not described, Not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Rhyval on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they reported an error on their account about their payouts being deactivated in the system, that it was escalated in January, and that months later it had neither been corrected nor reviewed by the escalation team. They say they had four or five chats with support advisors who each told them a follow-up would come, and that it never did; they give the most recent of six ticket numbers as 65574666 and describe the wait as going on five months without a review. They raised it during a scheduled public question-and-answer session with Shopify payments staff on 14 April 2026; an account carrying the forum’s Shopify-staff flair and the title "Staff" first suggested re-adding the bank account, then, after the merchant said they had already done that many times, asked them to look at their admin again. The merchant replied in the same session that the payouts were now enabled.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0091 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-19

Amount held: Not stated (No amount stated)
Held since: They say the payouts were put on hold without warning; by 4 January 2024 they date the hold at more than two weeks, which places its start in the second half of December 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: A support agent told them they would receive an email from the payments team in three business days
Current status: RELEASED — Released. They wrote "Problem solved now" on 10 January 2024 and, asked on 12 January 2024 how long it had taken, answered: "About 3 weeks, i received an email saying that the review was completed and the payout was back to normal."
Merchant: Store buying from a supplier, Not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Maggielee on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says that without warning and without any document being requested, their Shopify Payments payouts were put on hold, and that a support agent, on ticket 44465348, told them they would receive an email from the payments team within three business days. They say that more than 20 days later no email had arrived and that they needed the money to pay their supplier. They posted the same account on a second thread on 4 January 2024 with a second ticket number, 44497919. On 10 January 2024 they posted on both threads that the problem was solved, and on 12 January 2024, answering another merchant who asked how long it had taken, they said about three weeks and that the review had been completed by email.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0090 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-19

Amount held: $1,330.02 (Two orders, $289.98 and $1,040.04 gross)
Held since: They say a temporary new-account payout hold was placed on their first orders, which were paid on 3 and 4 July 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: They were given 6 July 2026 as the expected lift date, and support quoted them estimated payouts "around July 10, 2026" and "around July 11, 2026"
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as described in their posts of 7 and 8 July 2026, after the 6 July date had passed with the payout date column still blank. They have posted no update since.
Merchant: New store, first orders, Not stated; amounts given in US dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as hassanayaz.dev on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their Shopify Payments account is verified, their bank account added, their orders fulfilled with tracking uploaded, and their payout schedule daily on a seven-day rolling basis, and that a temporary new-account payout hold was given an expected lift date of 6 July 2026. They say that after that date passed the transactions still showed as pending with the payout date column blank. They pasted the reply they received from support, which states that the temporary new-account payout hold is handled automatically by Shopify Payments and that "we can’t provide a more specific release time or additional estimate beyond what was already shared", and gives estimated payouts around 10 and 11 July 2026 subject to processing and bank timing.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0089 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-19

Amount held: $3,000 (Stated as "almost $2000" on hold at first and "now almost $3000" by the last message they quote; the currency is not specified)
Held since: They say the payout account had been on hold for three weeks when they posted on 8 December 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: An email they quote, signed by a Shopify risk analyst, says the hold was requested to be removed and that the payouts screen "should refresh in the next 2-5 business days"; a later email from the same person says the release had been asked of the banking partners "on Friday"
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the support transcript they pasted on 11 December 2022, whose last messages record a week having passed since they were told the hold would be lifted and two unanswered requests for a response. They have posted nothing further on the forum.
Merchant: Small business trading for almost five years on the platform, Not stated; amounts given in dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as BecSals on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their payout account was put on hold, that support told them more than once it would be taken off hold and it was not, and that the store had been operating for almost five years without this happening. They pasted the support transcript into the thread. In it a Shopify support advisor confirms escalating the case and, in the same message, suggests adding shipping and returns policies to the site footer. A later message signed "Katie, Risk Analyst | Shopify" says the hold removal had been requested and the payouts screen should refresh in the next two to five business days. The merchant replies that ten days have passed and the review message is still on the dashboard, that the payout is almost $2,000 and a car payment is due. The analyst then writes that the banking partners have placed the hold, that a release was asked for on Friday and has been escalated again. The merchant writes that the amount is now almost $3,000, that they have paid the company car loan out of personal savings, and, a week after being told the hold would be lifted, asks twice for any reply.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0088 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-19

Amount held: $10,941.33
Held since: They say the payout has not been released since 24 April 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: No period was given to them; they cite two open support tickets, #57121008 and #57425991
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as described in their post of 12 June 2025, the last of three posts they made about it: they say $2,200 was scheduled into their payout account on 15 May but they still had not received the full payout for the 83 orders, and 42 orders remained on hold. No update has been posted since.
Merchant: Online store, Not stated; amounts given in US dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as faizraees on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says that on 24 April 2025 they received 83 orders within one hour, which they describe as highly unusual and believe may have been a platform glitch, and that since then their payout has not been released. They say their linked bank account was debited and that their total sales revenue excluding tax, $10,941.33, has not reached them. They say they have fulfilled half the orders and cannot fulfil the rest for lack of funds. They posted the same account twice, on 9 and 10 June 2025, naming their open support tickets each time. In a third post on 12 June 2025 they say $8,780.83 was debited from their linked payout account on 28 April, and that support first returned part of it as Shop Campaign credit rather than to that account.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0087 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-19

Amount held: $13,000
Held since: They say all payouts were put on hold on 1 December 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: No period was given to them. An account answering for Shopify in the thread (it belongs to the forum’s Shopify-staff group and today carries the title "Retired") said reviews generally take between one and three business days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 22 December 2023, which they date "December 21st" in the text and in which they count 21 days of hold. They have posted nothing further about the hold since; their next post on the forum, in May 2024, is on an unrelated subject.
Merchant: Clothing label designing and assembling its own garments, three years on the platform, Not stated; amounts given in US dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as abstractjulian on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says that without explanation, starting on 1 December 2023, all payouts for their store were put on hold, that they immediately submitted the documents requested (passport, business registration, driving licence, supplier invoices), heard nothing for seven days, submitted a follow-up request and heard nothing again. They say that by 12 December the account could no longer accept new online orders either, and that about $13,000 in payouts was being withheld with no reason given: "Even AFTER submitting all of my business/personal information there is no update on my payouts amounting in about 13,000 USD." They say the money was needed to fulfil pre-orders that their business takes four to eight weeks to make by hand, and that the specialised team took over five business days to respond each time. The account answering for Shopify replied that reviews generally take one to three business days, that the specialised teams communicate solely by email, and that opening a new live chat each time creates a new ticket and ranks it lower in the queue.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0086 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-18

Amount held: Not stated (No amount stated; two sold items)
Held since: They say the account was deactivated on 25 August 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: A moderator account answering for Shopify told them in the thread that payouts may be held up to 120 days and are then deposited to the bank account on file
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 26 December 2023, after the 120 days they had counted to 25 December had passed. They have posted no update since.
Merchant: Store selling second-hand designer clothing and shoes, Not stated; amounts given in US dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as Akeemgrace93 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their store was closed three days after its first two sales, with an email citing a violation of the acceptable use policy that they say never identified what the violation was, and that the account has been deactivated since 25 August 2023. They say the buyer confirmed they were not refunded and could not dispute the charge, so the goods were gone and the merchant was not paid. An account answering on Shopify’s behalf in the thread (it speaks of "our trust and safety team"; it is a member of the forum’s Shopify-staff group and today carries the title "Retired") replied that payouts may be held up to 120 days and are then deposited to the bank account on file, and asked whether the payout account had changed; the merchant said it had not, counted 120 days to 25 December 2023, and posted on 26 December that no payout had been received. They also posted the email they had received, which asked for proof of address, business registration, supplier invoices and social media links before the account would be reconsidered.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0085 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-18

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "$1600"; currency not stated)
Held since: They say payments were held from about 23 September 2025; posted 30 September 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 30 September 2025. They have posted no update since.
Merchant: Second business website added to a ten-year-old Shopify account, Australia; they refer to an ABN. Reported by: A merchant posting as jlgcomm on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they have been a Shopify customer for ten years and recently added a second business website under the same ABN and the same bank account, and that payments have been held for over a week. They say Shopify is "holding $1600 of my money with no email correspondence and no idea of when this will be resolved", that they contacted Shopify three times and were told each time it would be escalated, and that they have not been told why the payments are on hold. They say they continue to dispatch orders straight away and are paying for goods they ship without being paid for them.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0084 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-18

Amount held: $2,000 (stated as "$2000 in sales which I have NO access to")
Held since: They say payouts were paused after they entered a wrong bank account number; posted 26 September 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: No timeframe given; they describe it as an indefinite wait
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their posts of 26 September 2025. Two other merchants later posted in the same thread asking how it was resolved, in June 2026 and July 2026; they never answered and posted no update.
Merchant: New candle business, Not stated; amounts given in US dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as JessicaMorrissette on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they entered the wrong bank account number and that the system will not let them correct it themselves despite following every suggested step. They say payouts are paused and the system keeps emailing them to enter a valid bank account, that four support chats produced only escalations to a specialist team, and that $2,000 of sales from a new business is money they cannot reach. They describe the wait as indefinite and say they do not know how long it will take or whether it will be resolved at all.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0083 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-18

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "4700 EUR"; not converted to dollars)
Held since: They say payouts have been stuck since a failed payout on 16 January 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 21 April 2025, three months after the failed payout. The only reply came from another merchant and they have posted no update since.
Merchant: Online store, still open and shipping, Not stated; amounts given in euros. Reported by: A merchant posting as Jake-Xonomax on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says a payout failed on 16 January 2025 over an error involving €1.11, that payouts have been paused since, and that they have tried several times to switch to a new bank account without effect. They say they are "stuck with my 4700 EUR on hold because of 1.11 EUR charge error" and that the problem is not their bank accounts, which work normally. They say three support tickets were escalated, that they were promised an email reply on 14 or 15 April 2025 which did not arrive, that they had been waiting three weeks at the time of posting, and that the admin does not even show a retry payment button. They say the shop is still open and still shipping goods.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0082 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-18

Amount held: $4,350 (stated as "$4,350 of our earned revenue (reserves and pending payouts)")
Held since: They say the store was frozen over an unpaid subscription invoice; posted 11 September 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 11 September 2026. No one has replied to the thread and they have posted no update.
Merchant: Online store, Not stated; amounts given in US dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as Joann_Spoleti on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their store was frozen over an unpaid $325 subscription invoice while Shopify Payments was at the same time holding $4,350 of their revenue in reserves and pending payouts. They say every order tied to the held funds was fulfilled, shipped and delivered, and that there are no open chargebacks or customer disputes. They say support advisors told them system limitations prevent the subscription fee being offset against the held payouts, and at the same time declined to escalate the case for a temporary extension or a manual payout release. They say keeping the store offline stops existing customers reaching their order status pages, which they expect to push those customers towards chargebacks.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again

HF-2026-0081 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-18

Amount held: $26,000 (stated as "over $26,000 is being held")
Held since: They say the payout account was put on hold on 26 June 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: They say support called it a standard review and promised an email that never came
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their posts of 27 and 28 August 2024, 62 days after the hold began. They have posted no update since.
Merchant: New online shop selling a single t-shirt product, Not stated; they cite US federal law (Regulation E of the EFTA). Reported by: A merchant posting as DH13 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says that on 26 June 2024, before making a single sale in a new shop, they were told their payout account was on hold, and that support described it as a standard review with an email to follow. They say they contacted support weekly for 62 days and received the same reply each time, that the conversations were closed, and that no email ever asked them for further information. They say "over $26,000 is being held" and that they have never received a payout, with a verified bank account, no chargebacks, and all orders shipped and delivered. They also say they telephoned Stripe directly, were told Stripe was not holding the funds, and that Shopify support then confirmed the payouts were being held by Shopify rather than by the payment processor. They argue the wait is inconsistent with Regulation E of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, which is their own legal characterisation, not a finding by any authority.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0080 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-18

Amount held: $70,000 (stated as "Over $70,000 is on hold")
Held since: They say the account went under review on 17 April 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their posts of 27 and 28 April 2024, the last dated statements they made about it. They posted the same request for help in four separate threads that week and have posted no update since.
Merchant: Bricks-and-mortar boutique selling through Shopify, Not stated; amounts given in US dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as islandgirlhhi on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they changed their payout bank account number and left out a digit, then could not correct it because the form required the details already on file and they did not know which number was missing. They say the account went under review on 17 April 2024 and that "Over $70,000 is on hold". They say the shop is a bricks-and-mortar store, that they could not meet payroll, that rent and credit card bills were coming due, and that repeated contacts with support produced only the reply that it was being worked on. They asked publicly at what point they should seek legal representation, writing "There is no one to talk to."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again

HF-2026-0079 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-18

Amount held: $17,000 (stated as "over $17,000 USD")
Held since: They say the payout hold was placed in March 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: They say the verification page said they would get a reply within a week
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 18 May 2026. The only reply came from another merchant; they have posted no update since.
Merchant: Online store, Not stated; amounts given in US dollars. Reported by: A merchant posting as grecellofficial on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says Shopify placed a payout hold on their store in March 2026 and that as of 18 May 2026 it was "withholding over $17,000 USD" of their revenue. They say they submitted every requested document for verification in March, that the page said they would get a reply within a week, and that nearly three months later there had been no reply. They say the system also asked for a live selfie check which returns an "invalid" or "failed" error every time they try it, with no explanation and no workaround, and that repeated support chats each ended with being told the case had been escalated. They say the store has no chargebacks and no policy violations.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0078 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-18

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "Over £10k+"; not converted to dollars)
Held since: No start date given; posted 1 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: No timeframe given; they say frontline support could not give one
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 1 May 2026. The only reply came from another merchant; they have posted no update since.
Merchant: Online store, Not stated; amounts given in pounds sterling. Reported by: A merchant posting as Foley01 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says payouts were paused because the bank account details Shopify Payments holds on file do not match what they enter, and that the details on file appear to contain a typo entered at some point in the past. They say updating the bank account requires confirming the exact previous details on file, which they cannot do because they do not know what the incorrect details are: "This creates a verification loop with no exit through the self-service flow." They say identity verification completed successfully, that they contacted support several times, that the case was escalated to the payments team including a high-priority escalation, and that they supplied business bank statements showing the correct account in their name. They say frontline support confirmed they cannot reset the step themselves and cannot give a timeframe.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again

HF-2026-0077 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-17

Amount held: $361 (stated as "approximately $361.00" of their balance)
Held since: They say the account was restricted in June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their posts of 4 September 2026. Three merchants replied with escalation advice; they have posted no update.
Merchant: Online store run through an ERP system, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as PirmeTian on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their account was restricted in June 2026 and that Shopify is holding about $361 of their balance, which is more than the roughly $115 they still owe on a Shopify Capital advance. They say the money owed is not deducted from the held balance and they cannot withdraw or use it either way, and that three support contacts ended with being told support did not have the authority to resolve it. They say the restriction followed their own cancellations of orders they had identified as fraudulent, where one customer bought unrelated products on different cards, and that some items had already shipped by the time they noticed.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again

HF-2026-0076 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-17

Amount held: $200,000 (stated as "close to $200,000" in paused payouts)
Held since: They say payouts had been paused for 12 days when they posted on 29 July 2026, placing the start around 17 July 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them; documents were requested on 18 July 2026 with a deadline, which they say they met
Current status: RELEASED — They wrote on the same day, 29 July 2026, that "a few hours after this post everything was resolved". Asked what had actually worked, they did not answer, so what released it is not known. The 12 days before that are what this record covers.
Merchant: Shopify Plus merchant; product type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as CandaceChis on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says close to $200,000 in payouts was paused for 12 days while their store was left free to keep taking orders, so the held balance kept growing. They say Shopify asked for additional fulfilment documents on 18 July 2026 and they submitted everything before the deadline, after which support told them several times that all documents were received, nothing further was needed, a specialist had reviewed the account and the case had been escalated because of the delay, the amount and their Plus status, but that Merchant Trust never contacted them directly. They say their admin also told them to verify their identity while the button to do so did not work, and that support told them nothing else was needed, so they could not tell whether that message was accurate. They give their chargeback rate as around 0.1%.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0075 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-17

Amount held: $499 (stated as "my pending $499 payout")
Held since: They say the store was deactivated more than 120 days before their post of 6 July 2025, placing the deactivation no later than March 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: The 120 days they were told to wait had already elapsed; no new date was given to them
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their post of 6 July 2025. No one replied to the thread and they have posted no update.
Merchant: Online store; product type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as DIAZ2 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says a $499 payout is still pending for a store deactivated more than 120 days earlier, and that the reason it cannot be completed is that the document upload link is sent to the email address originally attached to the store, a ProtonMail account that has since been suspended and which they can no longer access. They say they explained this repeatedly over more than three months of live chats and asked for the link to be resent to their current address, and that they received no solution and no proper follow-up.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0074 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-17

Amount held: $1,178 (stated as "$1,178.84 stuck in my Shopify payout balance")
Held since: They say payouts were paused on 24 February 2026, the day they opened the store, and were still locked when they posted on 31 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them; they say they were told in March 2026 there was no timeframe because of a "unique review process"
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their post of 31 May 2026. Two merchants replied with escalation advice and they asked follow-up questions the same day; they have posted no outcome since.
Merchant: Online store operated through an LLC, United States. Reported by: A merchant posting as 8b6code on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says a banner appeared the day they opened their store saying payouts were paused pending identity verification, that they completed the verification on 26 February 2026 and received a confirmation email reading "Your identity was verified", and that the banner never went away. They say the "Verify Identity" button now turns into a loading circle for a split second and dies, on every browser, in incognito and on their phone. They give a dated support timeline: on 27 February support confirmed the ID was verified on their end, called it a glitch and promised a fix in two to three business days; on 6 March they were escalated again with no timeframe; on 16 March they were told there was no timeframe and asked to stop opening new tickets because it slows the system down. They say that when they returned on 28 May 2026 intending to close the store, the funds were locked, and that they are now paying a monthly subscription mainly to keep a support conversation open.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0073 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-17

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "Over €5,000"; not converted to dollars)
Held since: They say payouts were frozen on 3 January 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them; they quote a support agent as saying "We currently do not have any maximum wait time"
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their post of 9 January 2026, seven days in, and still described as unresolved in their reply of 10 January 2026. No outcome has been posted.
Merchant: Online store; product type not stated, Country not stated; amount given in euros. Reported by: A merchant posting as Oscar01 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says over €5,000 of payouts were frozen on 3 January 2026 and that releasing them requires identity verification they have no way to complete: the "Update Business Details" page loads blank with no fields and no buttons, and the verification emails support says they are sending never arrive at any address, while other Shopify email such as order confirmations and chat transcripts arrives normally. They say they contacted support 17 times in seven days, that one agent described it as "a known sync error that prevents you from complying with a request you can’t even see", and that another confirmed in writing that both the verification page and the email delivery were failing. They also say an agent told them that filing repeated escalations can push a case further down the queue.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0072 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-17

Amount held: $1,500 (stated as "1500+$ in my balance account"; in the same post they put their total loss at "about $10000", and both figures are recorded here as they wrote them)
Held since: They say the account was terminated on 7 March 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them; they say no reason for the termination was given either
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of 24 June 2025, when they posted the same account a second time under a new title. Their last words on it are "I haven’t found a solution yet" on 26 March 2025 and the repost three months later. No outcome has been posted.
Merchant: Online store selling gift cards among other products, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as OliveUS on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says Shopify terminated their account on 7 March 2025 with no issue in the store and no reason given, leaving more than $1,500 of sales stuck in their balance account. They say they contacted support more than 100 times and were told the same thing every day, and that customers were asking for refunds they could not issue. In a separate post of 26 March 2025 they say the store shows a permissions error, that a gift card was sold the day before the account was disabled, and that they cannot see the purchase details to reassure that customer.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0071 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-17

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "nearly £2000"; not converted to dollars)
Held since: They say the store was opened just over two weeks before their post of 20 October 2025 and was closed within 24 hours of opening, placing the closure in early October 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them; they say support would give no timescale at all
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their last post on 23 October 2025, which reads in full: "3 more days and still nothing". They have posted nothing since, and no outcome has been posted.
Merchant: New store; service not stated, United Kingdom. Reported by: A merchant posting as user2281 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they opened a store, took one payment of nearly £2,000 from a customer, and had the store closed within 24 hours. They say they appealed and heard nothing for two weeks, and that live chat support told them three times that the case was with internal agents and no update could be given. They say the part that worries them most is being told that while the review is open the customer cannot be refunded either, leaving them unable to deliver the service and unable to return the money. They say they are considering contacting a solicitor.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0070 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-16

Amount held: $40 (stated as "the $40 they owe me")
Held since: They say the payouts had been on hold for over a month when they posted on 7 February 2025, placing the start in January 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their post on 7 February 2025. Four days later they asked a merchant in another thread whether their problem had been solved; they have posted no outcome of their own, and no one replied to their thread.
Merchant: New perfume business, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as FrankPerfumer on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they received an order that was fulfilled, delivered and reviewed by the customer, and that Shopify still has not paid them. They say they reached out to multiple representatives who each said the case would be referred to an expert, and that no one contacted them. They say they are considering hiring a lawyer, not because of the $40 owed but because of how the matter has been handled.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0069 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-16

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "approx AUD$30,000"; not converted to dollars)
Held since: They say the shortfall accrued across 2024 payouts and that they identified it in March 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: Not a hold with a stated end date. They say the amounts were never paid out at all, and that Shopify disputes that they are owed
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their last post on the subject, 23 June 2025, in which they say they have had no luck, that they complained to the Better Business Bureau in Canada without result, and that Shopify never responded to their request for mediation. This is a disputed accounting claim, not an acknowledged hold: Shopify’s position as they report it is set out in the account below.
Merchant: Online store; product type not stated, Australia. Reported by: A merchant posting as WarwickRalston on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says that after investigating a gap between their sales and their payouts they found that Shopify had been paying out the pre-tax product amount only, and had not paid out the tax and shipping revenue charged to their customers, which they put at approximately AUD$30,000. They report Shopify’s response as being that the shipping revenue is shipping charges, which they dispute because they were billed separately when they created shipping labels in Shopify, and that Shopify pays the tax to the Australian Taxation Office on their behalf, which they dispute because Shopify does not hold their Australian Business Number. They say they have proved the shortfall several different ways and that Shopify is still contesting it.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0068 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-16

Amount held: $70,000 (stated as a payout balance of $70,000)
Held since: They say the affected transactions have been pending since around October 2024; they discovered the balance on 28 February 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: No hold period given to them; they say the payouts simply never arrived
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their second post on 4 March 2025, the last time they wrote about it. Another merchant reported the same problem on the thread on 18 October 2025. No outcome has been posted.
Merchant: Online store with employees on payroll, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Tommy_Stiles on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they discovered a payout balance of $70,000 that had never been paid out. They say Shopify support told them to re-add their bank account and that they were then unable to add it, leaving them with no way to receive either the $70,000 or their ongoing daily payouts. They quote a support agent as saying that PayPal Wallet had been added as a supported gateway under Shopify Payments in the latter part of 2024, that the integration had caused processing issues, and that this was around October 2024, the same time some of their PayPal-paid transactions began showing as pending. They say the balance had been accruing since October 2024 without Shopify telling them, and ask whether they would ever have been told had they not raised it themselves.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0067 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-16

Amount held: $10,000 (stated as "over $10,000+ in reserved payouts")
Held since: A 20% reserve was applied on 31 December 2024 and was escalated to a full hold before their post of 14 January 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: No end date given; they say they were told the matter sat with the legal team
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 14 January 2025. Two replies followed, neither from Shopify, and they have posted no update.
Merchant: Online store; product type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Ltpeper on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says Shopify Payments applied a 20% reserve hold on 31 December 2024 after one chargeback across more than 2,000 orders, which they calculate as 0.052%. They say they asked for an explanation and were not given a clear one, and that Shopify then placed a full hold on the account, leaving over $10,000 in reserved payouts they cannot access. They say support agents were polite but repeatedly told them they could not help because the issue was being handled by the legal team, and that the legal team barely responds to their emails.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0066 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-16

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the post)
Held since: The account was terminated on 8 July 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days at termination; after the 120 days elapsed they say they were told the payout would be held for a further 365 days, which they count as 485 days in total
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 17 November 2025. One merchant replied at the time and another asked on 8 August 2026 what had ended up happening; they have not returned to the thread and no outcome has been posted.
Merchant: Online store; product type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as theresegoodall on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their account was terminated on 8 July 2025, quoting a ticket ID, and that they were told their payout would be held for 120 days. They say they waited, and that when they contacted Shopify after the 120 days they were informed the payout would be held for another 365 days, a total of 485 days. They say they have not been able to find the clause in the policies that allows payouts to be held for 485 days.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0065 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-16

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the post)
Held since: April 2026, when they say the Shopify Payments account was placed on hold
Hold period stated by the processor: Told by email that payouts would be deposited on 29 August 2026, which they count as 120 days; the date shown to them later changed to 2027
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 1 August 2026. Four replies followed, none of them from Shopify. On 8 August 2026 they asked a merchant in an unrelated thread, whose hold had been extended the same way, what had ended up happening; they have posted no outcome of their own.
Merchant: Online store; product type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as rell1 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their Shopify Payments account was placed on hold in April 2026 and that they were told in an email that their payouts would be deposited on 29 August 2026, 120 days later. They say that in the month of that stated release date they paid the bill to reopen their store, that a store review was then placed on the account a day or so later, and that the date shown to them changed to 2027. They say their appeal was denied and that support gave them conflicting answers: some agents told them the 29 August payout still applied regardless of the appeal because it was tied to Shopify Payments rather than the store restriction, and others told them that because the appeal was denied the new date is April 2027.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0064 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-16

Amount held: $10,000 (not stated in the forum post; in a later post on Reddit’s r/shopify on 20 April 2026 they put it at "a little over 10k")
Held since: March 2026; the post is dated 31 March 2026 and describes a hold applied that morning
Hold period stated by the processor: Payouts held until 31 July 2026 if the appeal is unsuccessful
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their forum posts of 31 March and 1 April 2026 and in a Reddit post of 20 April 2026, where they wrote that payouts had been completely disabled and the money would be held until 31 July. No later post about the outcome was found when read on 16 October 2026.
Merchant: Online clothing store, unbranded, opened December 2025, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as user3533 on the Shopify Community forum — the same merchant as HF-2026-0063, writing about a second store.
Account as given: The merchant says that on the morning of 31 March 2026 their payouts were paused for chargebacks and disputes, with an option to appeal, and that the payouts will be held until 31 July 2026 if the appeal falls through. They say the store opened in December 2025, has taken over 700 orders and has five chargebacks in total, four of them in December and one recent, which they put at a 0.94% rate over the last 30 days. They say they submitted the appeal on 30 March and have had no email from Shopify or complaint from a customer that would explain the pause. They say this store was their attempt to recover from an earlier store that was hit the same way.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0063 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-16

Amount held: $13,000 (stated as "over 13k in “Reserve Funds”")
Held since: A 20% hold was placed in the summer of 2025; the reserve balance at issue accrued between October and November 2025. The post is dated 4 December 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: A 20% hold with a stated release date of 25 November 2025
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their post on 4 December 2025, nine days after the release date they say they were given. In a later post on 31 March 2026 about a different store they described the loss on this store as 18k and said this store was "set to be returned to me next week"; the two figures they have given, 13k and 18k, are both recorded here without reconciling them, and they have not said anywhere that the money was paid.
Merchant: Online clothing store, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as user3533 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their main store was placed on a 20% hold in the summer of 2025 and that they were told the hold would be lifted on 25 November 2025. They say they resumed selling in early October and accrued over 13k in reserve funds by November. They say that on 20 November the reserve amount disappeared from their account, and that support indicated the money had been pulled early in preparation for the 25 November deposit. They say 25 November passed with no payout, that they contacted support four times between 25 November and 2 December, and that the answer they finally got was that Shopify had reached out to its processing partner for additional context. They say that in the same message they were notified that Shopify Payments had been disabled for "an elevated risk of customer disputes", on a store they put at 250 to 500 orders a day with about three chargebacks since the earlier hold was lifted.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person

HF-2026-0062 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-16

Amount held: $55,000 (stated as "approximately $55,000 USD of my pending payouts")
Held since: May 2026; the post is dated 15 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: Frozen until September 2026, which they describe as a 120 day freeze
Current status: HELD — Held as described in their post of 15 May 2026. Three replies followed, none of them from Shopify, and they have posted no update. Recheck the thread from September 2026 onwards.
Merchant: Own-brand consumer product manufactured to the merchant’s own formula, Israel. Reported by: A merchant posting as artiumecom on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says Shopify Payments was disabled on their store and that about $55,000 of pending payouts is frozen until September 2026. They quote the denial email as saying only that "we have confirmed that your business presents a level of risk that we are unable to support with Shopify Payments", signed "Shopify Merchant Trust Team" from an address marked as not monitored. They say their appeal was denied with the same form letter, that no specific reason or review criteria were given, and that no person spoke to them at any point. They say they offered manufacturing facility photos, production video, formula documentation, supplier invoices, manufacturing agreements and a live verification video with their ID, and that none of it was engaged with. They give a ticket ID and say their suppliers, delivery companies, team and rent are unpaid.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0061 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $150 (The balance is a merchant refund for a cancelled order)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates. The complaint was filed on 23 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: Up to 120 to 180 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 23 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Pennsylvania). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Pennsylvania).
Account as given: The complainant says their PayPal account was permanently restricted without a clear explanation and that the balance at the time, $150, is a completed merchant refund for a cancelled order rather than a disputed payment, a chargeback or an unauthorised transaction. They say PayPal is holding those funds for up to 120 to 180 days and has not told them why this particular money cannot be released. They say they are willing to supply the merchant's documentation confirming the refund.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0060 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: Not stated (The amount is redacted in the published narrative)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the dates are redacted in the published narrative, which describes the hold as running over 730 days. The complaint was filed on 23 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days, which the complainant cites as the limit in section 10.2 of PayPal's user agreement. They say a later agent told them there was "no established time frame"
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 23 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (North Dakota). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (North Dakota).
Account as given: The complainant says PayPal has withheld their balance for over 730 days, which they say breaches the 180-day limit in section 10.2 of the user agreement. They say they were given a case ID with a 72-hour resolution promise, and that an agent later confirmed a review but refused release, citing "no established time frame". They say any chargeback or fraud risk expired over 500 days ago and that they are reporting a failure to release aged funds rather than asking for another review.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0059 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $5,000 (A hold on a payment of approximately $5,000, on which the complainant says they were also charged about $150 in transaction fees)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the days and months are redacted in the published narrative, which describes a hold of about three weeks. The complaint was filed on 21 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None given; the complainant describes the hold as running about three weeks
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 21 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Private individual selling concert tickets, United States (California). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (California).
Account as given: The complainant says they sold concert tickets in person for about $5,000, handed the tickets over at the exchange, and that the buyer registered the tickets in their own name the same day, confirmed receipt through PayPal, and has since attended the concert. They say PayPal held the money anyway for about three weeks, that customer service told them the company could not give a specific reason and that its system would not let the money be released, and that they were given no steps they could take. They say they were charged about $150 in transaction fees on a payment they cannot access, that they were never told before accepting the payment that funds could be held this long, and that they have held the account in good standing for over 20 years.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0058 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $680 (A hold on $680 out of a $700 in-person sale)
Held since: The sale is dated to 2026 in the published narrative; the day and month are redacted. The complaint was filed on 20 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: Until a stated date in 2026, redacted in the published narrative; the complainant describes it as months
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 20 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Private individual selling used camera equipment, United States (Colorado). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Colorado).
Account as given: The complainant says they sold a used camera lens for $700 to a local buyer, meeting in person, and that the buyer mistakenly paid under Goods & Services, so there is no shipping tracking number to supply. They say the buyer has already clicked "Confirm Receipt" in PayPal, and that they provided the chat logs arranging the meeting, the listing and a screenshot of the buyer's confirmation. They say PayPal has permanently limited their account and is refusing to release $680 until a stated date later in 2026.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0057 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $13,000 (The complainant describes the held balance as almost $13,000)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates, but describes the sales volume as generated in under 90 days. The complaint was filed on 19 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None given; the complainant describes an open-ended manual review
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 19 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Small consumer goods business shipping orders direct, United States (Texas). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Texas).
Account as given: The complainant says they own the business and that PayPal restricted it after a period of fast growth, with the whole volume generated in under 90 days and a dispute rate they put at under 1%. They say they have supplied business documents, shipping records, proof of delivery and sourcing invoices repeatedly, each time to be asked for more. They say almost $13,000 is inaccessible and that they have no money left to ship with, so they have marked their site sold out to stop new orders while PayPal continues to let payments in and collect the processing fees. They say several live agents told them the account looked "great", that they were "not a high risk business" and that the status would change within about 24 hours to three days, and that it did not; they say they were later told a status update would come the following week.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0056 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $45,000
Held since: The date of the limitation is redacted in the published narrative; the complainant describes it as about two weeks before filing. The complaint was filed on 16 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None. The complainant says they were initially told the review would take about 5 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 16 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Business account receiving client payments, United States (Nevada). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Nevada).
Account as given: The complainant says they use a PayPal business account to receive client payments, that the account was placed under limitation and that about $45,000 has been unavailable since. They say they have been a customer for over six years with no prior limitations or compliance issues, that they were first told the review would take about five days, and that over the following two weeks they received only answers such as that the review is in progress or that PayPal is waiting for the financial institution. They say no reason was given and no documents were requested from them.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0055 · VenmoFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $15
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative describes the balance as undisbursed for over a number of years, redacted. The complaint was filed on 15 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None given; the complainant describes a persistent technical error
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 15 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (California). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (California).
Account as given: The complainant says Venmo has failed to pay out the remaining $15 balance of their closed account for years. They say Venmo has repeatedly tried to reopen the account temporarily to allow a cash-out, that every transfer attempt has failed, and that the underlying technical problem is unresolved. They say Venmo keeps asking for a screenshot of a physical card that has since been destroyed and has not accepted the alternatives they offered, bank statements from the linked account and their state ID. They say they sent a formal escalation and final notice with a deadline, which passed with no working way to recover the money.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0054 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $1,000
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates, but describes the situation as running for over two and a half weeks. The complaint was filed on 14 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 14 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Motorcycle parts business, United States (North Carolina). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (North Carolina).
Account as given: The complainant says the business opened a PayPal account, was told it was active and ready, and asked a customer to send a $1,000 payment for motorcycle parts as a test of that. They say the account was locked on receipt of the payment. They say PayPal then asked again for documents already supplied plus proof of address, that the uploaded images came out blurred in PayPal's own capture tool with no way to resubmit, and that the account was then deactivated with the funds locked for 120 days. They say a support agent could not explain the freeze and confirmed nothing was wrong with the account details. They say they asked for the money to be released or refunded to the customer, since the account had only ever had one transaction, and were told it stays locked for 120 days against possible disputes. They say they paid the customer's parts out of their own bank account instead.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0053 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $1,600
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates. The complaint was filed on 14 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None given. The complainant says the account no longer shows an active limitation while the funds stay inaccessible
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 14 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Tennessee). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Tennessee).
Account as given: The complainant says PayPal is holding $1,600 on the basis that their identity cannot be verified, after the account was flagged in a fraud or security review. They say they have not been given an actionable process to complete verification or release the balance. They say the account no longer shows an active limitation status, yet the funds remain inaccessible, and that PayPal has not said what specific requirement is still outstanding.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0052 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $2,500 (The complainant describes the held amount as over $2,500)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates. The complaint was filed on 13 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 13 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Private individual selling a personal collection, United States (Puerto Rico). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Puerto Rico).
Account as given: The complainant says they sold their personal collection of bicycle parts over about four days and that PayPal limited the account and placed a 180-day hold on over $2,500. They say they understand that a jump in transaction volume can trigger a review, but that they fulfilled every order, uploaded valid tracking for each one, that most or all buyers have received their items, that positive feedback has started arriving, and that there are no open disputes, claims or chargebacks. They say they were given no case-specific justification and no path to earlier release.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source
Checked on 18 September 2026: the archived copy previously linked here returns 404 and the Internet Archive holds no snapshot of this query, so the dead link has been removed. The live query above remains the source.

HF-2026-0051 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $61
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates. The complaint was filed on 13 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days, after an initial statement that the funds would be released in 3 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 13 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Freelancer, United States. Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (state not given).
Account as given: The complainant says they opened a PayPal account because a client preferred to pay that way, and that their first payment of about $61 arrived and was converted. They say they were then asked for identification and verification documents, submitted them, and were told the funds would be released within three days. They say that the following day they were instead told the account had been permanently limited and the funds would be held for 180 days.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source
Checked on 18 September 2026: the archived copy previously linked here returns 404 and the Internet Archive holds no snapshot of this query, so the dead link has been removed. The live query above remains the source.

HF-2026-0050 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $99,000 (The complainant describes selling $99,000 of PYUSD, PayPal's own stablecoin, immediately before the account was limited)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the date of the sale is redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 13 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: At least 120 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 13 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (North Carolina). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (North Carolina).
Account as given: The complainant says that after selling $99,000 in PYUSD, PayPal's own stablecoin, their PayPal account was limited. They say they were asked to provide identification and to confirm their card, that they did both, and that the account was permanently limited within seconds of their doing so. They say the funds are now stuck for at least 120 days and ask to be allowed to withdraw them to the bank account already on file.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source
Checked on 18 September 2026: the archived copy previously linked here returns 404 and the Internet Archive holds no snapshot of this query, so the dead link has been removed. The live query above remains the source.

HF-2026-0049 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $64
Held since: Not dated precisely — the days and months are redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 12 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 12 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Wisconsin). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Wisconsin).
Account as given: The complainant says PayPal restricted their account and imposed a 120-day hold after they received a $64 deposit from a gift card resale platform that, they say, PayPal itself promotes in its own help pages. They say the restriction came within hours of a PayPal agent confirming in writing that their account was "fully usable". They quote the two characterisations they were given in the same chat session: that they "present[s] a risk to our platform", and that "[a]ny funds in this account will be held for 120 days to help minimize the risk to PayPal from customers who may file disputes or chargebacks", alongside a refusal to "disclose the specific details of the risk identified". They say they told the agent twice during that session that they are seriously ill and that the $64 was the difference between eating and not eating that day, and that the answers stayed scripted. They say they had to rephrase their request before being given a legal correspondence address.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0048 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $25,300 (About $16,000 in the PayPal balance (about $18,000 when the restriction was applied) plus about $9,300 in PayPal Savings. The complainant puts the disputed transactions behind the restriction at about $3,000 to $3,500)
Held since: The months are redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 12 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None given
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 12 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (North Carolina). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (North Carolina).
Account as given: The complainant says they received several payments from one sender over a short period and that disputes and chargebacks tied to that same sender followed, with total exposure they estimate at about $3,000 to $3,500. They say PayPal then restricted their entire account: about $16,000 in their balance and about $9,300 in PayPal Savings, money they say includes the proceeds of an IRS tax refund. They quote PayPal's user agreement back, saying funds not subject to a restriction or reserve should stay available for withdrawal, and ask how holding several times the known exposure is necessary. They say they were given no transaction-level explanation, no itemised list of the disputed payments and no indication of which funds are restricted.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0047 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $800
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates. The complaint was filed on 11 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: A fixed number of days, redacted in the published narrative
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 11 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Freelancer, United States. Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (state not given).
Account as given: The complainant says their account was permanently limited without a clear explanation and that they were told the information used to create the account could not be verified. They say they submitted their passport and supporting documents and were given no specific discrepancy and no opportunity to correct one. They say about $800 in freelance payments is being held, and that they cannot reach the resolution centre or a human agent because all channels route to an automated assistant with no escalation.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0046 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $6,500 (Of the $6,500 held, PayPal is said to have stated that $5,000 would be held for a number of months, with 20% of current and future sales held in addition)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates. The complaint was filed on 8 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: A number of months for $5,000, redacted in the published narrative, plus a rolling reserve of 20% of current and future sales held for a further redacted number of days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 8 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Sports events organiser, United States (Utah). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Utah).
Account as given: The complainant says they run sports events across the United States and that PayPal is holding $6,500 of their business funds without a clear justification, which they say stops them running scheduled events and paying staff. They say they submitted all requested documentation and the funds stayed restricted, and that PayPal told them $5,000 would be held for a period of months and that 20% of current and future sales would also be held. They say no prior notice was given. They say PayPal describes the reserve as dispute protection, but that in every previous dispute PayPal took the money directly from their bank account rather than from the reserve, and that they attached bank statements showing this.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0045 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $170 (About $170 is described as held in the account. The complainant separately puts the Social Security payments they could not receive at about $5,100, two months of a $2,500 monthly benefit)
Held since: The month of the limitation is redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 8 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: A fixed number of days, redacted in the published narrative
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 8 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder receiving Social Security payments, United States (Washington state). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Washington state).
Account as given: The complainant says they have used PayPal for over 20 years with no disputes, chargebacks or policy violations, and that PayPal permanently limited the account giving only "security reasons" under its user agreement. They say they appealed, including to PayPal's executive office, and the limitation was upheld without further detail. They say their Social Security payments were disrupted for two months as a result, that their monthly benefit is $2,500, and that about $170 of their own funds is being held in the account.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0044 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: Not stated (The balance held was $740, out of a $940 deposit. It is recorded as no longer held because the complainant says it was taken out of the account rather than released to them)
Held since: The deposit is dated to 2025 and the removal of the balance to 2026; the days and months are redacted. The complaint was filed on 8 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days, stated in a written notice
Current status: UNKNOWN — The complainant says the balance was removed from the account 35 days before the release date PayPal had given, and that PayPal told them "PayPal loss protection" took it. Recorded as unknown rather than held: by their own account the money is no longer sitting in the account, and no third party has said where it went. Complaint filed 8 April 2026.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States. Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (state not given).
Account as given: The complainant says they deposited $940, spent about $200 and had a $740 balance left. They say PayPal then permanently restricted the account without explanation and sent a written notice saying the funds would be held for up to 180 days. They say that 35 days before that release date their entire $740 balance was removed from the account without notice or consent, and that when they asked what had happened PayPal told them "PayPal loss protection" took the money, providing no court order, no law enforcement agency name and no legal documentation.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0043 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $980 (A further $370 was paid out in two payments of $250 and $120 during the hold, which the complainant says they made believing they would restore access)
Held since: The payments are dated to 2026 in the published narrative; the day and month are redacted. The complaint was filed on 7 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None given
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 7 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Nevada). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Nevada).
Account as given: The complainant says PayPal placed a hold on $980 in their account, and that they then made two payments through PayPal totalling $370 because they were given the impression they were necessary, or would help, to restore access to their funds. They say that after those payments the requirements changed: PayPal asked for proof of address and bank statements and still did not release the money, and they were asked to resolve issues under an ex-partner's name or business account, which they say is not theirs.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0042 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: Not stated (No held balance is stated. The payment described as blocked is an incoming $4,600 transfer from a third party)
Held since: Not dated precisely — every date in the published narrative is redacted. The complaint was filed on 6 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None. PayPal is quoted as saying there were no holds, no restrictions and no active limitations on the account
Current status: HELD — Access to funds was restricted as described in the complaint, filed 6 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Pennsylvania). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Pennsylvania).
Account as given: The complainant says that after an earlier dispute was resolved they had repeated trouble using the money in their wallet: ATM withdrawals failed, a card attempt was declined with the message "DEBIT NOT APPROVED CALL AUTHORIZER", and a $4,600 payment a third party tried to send them was declined several times. They say a PayPal representative told them on a call that there was no further hold or restriction and that they should be able to receive money, and that the in-app assistant said the same. They say PayPal's own assistant transcript, shown to the sender, categorised the declined payment as "MERCHANDISE_RISK" and suggested using a method outside PayPal. They say they asked in writing for account notes, reason codes and limitation logs and received no meaningful explanation.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0041 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $31
Held since: Not dated precisely — every date in the published narrative is redacted. The complaint was filed on 1 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None given
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 1 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States. Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (state not given).
Account as given: The complainant says they received $31 into their PayPal account, contacted support after running into technical problems, and that their account was permanently limited minutes after they told the agent they had an open CFPB case. They describe that timing as retaliation. They say PayPal is withholding the funds without a valid legal reason and is citing an older account to avoid resolving the current one.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0040 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-15

Amount held: $4,900
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates. The complaint was filed on 1 April 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 1 April 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Virginia). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Virginia).
Account as given: The complainant says a transaction of almost $4,900 went into review, that PayPal asked for information while they were sending it, and that PayPal then permanently deleted the account with the funds still in it and told them they have to wait 180 days for release. They say no reason was given for the deletion and that two weeks later they still have none.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0039 · VenmoFiled 2026-09-14

Amount held: $810
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates. The complaint was filed on 14 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: A fixed number of days, redacted in the published narrative. Venmo's email says the money is held for loss prevention purposes
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 14 May 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Massachusetts). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Massachusetts).
Account as given: The complainant says friends tried to send money through their Venmo account, that Venmo then closed the account and that $810 could not be transferred to their linked bank account. They say Venmo asked for their driving licence, which they uploaded, and then emailed to say the account was frozen. They quote that email in their complaint: it says the funds will be held for a stated number of days for loss prevention purposes, that Venmo will contact them at the email address on file should the funds become available for transfer in the future, and that "any future contact or inquiries will NOT BE ANSWERED and THIS MATTER IS CLOSED upon your receipt of this email."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0038 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-14

Amount held: Not stated (No held total is stated. The payments described as received are $6,600 for the goods, $3,000 and $600 sent as friends-and-family payments, and $380 to cover fees)
Held since: Not dated precisely — every date in the timeline is redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 14 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 21 days when first asked. Two specific release dates were later given by phone, and the account was afterwards permanently deactivated with a further hold date
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 14 May 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Private individual selling an inherited collection, United States (Colorado). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Colorado).
Account as given: The complainant says they sold museum-quality knives left to them by their father-in-law in a one-time sale, that the buyer paid $6,600 for the goods and that they gave PayPal the tracking number. They say that when they asked why the money was being held, PayPal said the account was under further review and the money would be held for 21 days. They say PayPal repeatedly asked them to contact the buyer to confirm delivery, and that the buyer told them they had never received PayPal's email. They say a representative told them by phone that the money would be released by a given date, that it was not, that they were later told there were no holds on the account, only limitations, and that a second representative gave them a second release date, which also passed. They say the account was then permanently deactivated over concern about chargebacks or other financial liabilities, and that they sent a certified letter asking for release within 30 days and had no reply.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0037 · VenmoFiled 2026-09-14

Amount held: $560
Held since: Not dated precisely — the published narrative gives no dates. The complaint was filed on 13 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None. The complainant says Venmo refused to say when the money could be withdrawn
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 13 May 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder paying childcare, United States (Missouri). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Missouri).
Account as given: The complainant says they had $560 in their Venmo balance and had been using the account for some time to pay their daughter's daycare and a babysitter. They say that when they tried to move the balance to their debit card, an account specialist asked for the last four digits of their bank account and a copy of their identification, and that they provided both. They say that after receiving their identification Venmo emailed to say the account had been permanently restricted and they could no longer use the service. They say they asked why the account was restricted and when they would be able to get their money, and that Venmo refused to provide any information.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0036 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-14

Amount held: Not stated (No single held figure is given. The complainant says two debits appeared on the balance, described as PayPal loss recovery, of $1,300 and $2,200)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the dates are redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 12 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: First given as 120 days, then as 180 days
Current status: HELD — As described in the complaint, filed 12 May 2026. The complainant describes the money as taken from the balance rather than still frozen. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Texas). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Texas).
Account as given: The complainant says PayPal permanently limited the account and told them they could withdraw after 120 days. They say that when they tried at 120 days they were told it was now 180 days. They say that when they returned after 180 days the balance contained two debits with no explanation attached, labelled PayPal loss recovery, of $1,300 and $2,200, and that there had been no chargebacks. They say PayPal told them it had incurred losses and was entitled to cover them from user funds where it believed activity was inappropriate, without providing proof or documentation. They say their emails were answered with replies to questions they had not asked, such as that the closure decision was final.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0035 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-14

Amount held: $2,400 (The payment received was $2,500; the amount held is given as $2,400)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the dates are redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 12 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 12 May 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal assistant, paid monthly by their employer, United States (Texas). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Texas).
Account as given: The complainant says they converted their personal PayPal account to a business account and that their first transaction, a $2,500 monthly payment invoiced to their employer, was immediately flagged. They say they called PayPal and were told it would clear in three to five business days if they supplied more information, which they did. Two days later, they say, they were told the account was being permanently disabled. They say a later call gave the reason as suspicion of being underage or in a country PayPal does not support, and that they are an adult in the United States who have held the account for 13 years. They say the appeal was refused, that PayPal would hold $2,400 for 120 days, and that they were given a release date — and that the date later shown on the PayPal website was a further date after the one they had been told.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source

HF-2026-0034 · VenmoFiled 2026-09-14

Amount held: $700 (The complainant describes the frozen balance as over $700)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the dates are redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 3 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 3 May 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Oklahoma). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Oklahoma).
Account as given: The complainant says the account was fairly new and that they tried to add a bank account so transfers would be free. They say the system flagged them and asked for verification, and that they sent a photograph of their driving licence as requested. They say they then received an email saying the account had been permanently banned and that the money in it, over $700, was frozen for 180 days. They say most of that money came from their sister, that their licence matches the name and details on the account, and that they no longer want to use the service and only want the money released sooner than six months.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0033 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-14

Amount held: $10
Held since: Not dated precisely — the dates are redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 3 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: A fixed number of days, redacted in the published narrative. The complainant says that period has already passed
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 3 May 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Colorado). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Colorado).
Account as given: The complainant says their PayPal account was permanently limited and PayPal told them the money would be held for a set number of days. They say that period has already passed, and that they have still not been given any way to withdraw the remaining balance of about $10. They say they have contacted PayPal support several times and have received neither a clear explanation nor a resolution, and they are asking either for the balance or for a valid reason why the hold continues.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0032 · VenmoFiled 2026-09-14

Amount held: $10,000
Held since: Not dated precisely — the dates are redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 1 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: Up to 180 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 1 May 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Florida). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Florida).
Account as given: The complainant says their Venmo account was in good standing and that they used it to receive and transfer money, including direct deposits. They say the account was restricted without warning and a balance of $10,000 was frozen, with no clear explanation given at the time. They say they contacted Venmo support and received a generic response stating that the funds could not be released at this time and might be held for up to 180 days. They say they were not told of any specific violation or suspicious transaction, and were given no steps to resolve it or timeline to expect.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0031 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-14

Amount held: $960 (The buyer paid $1,100. The complainant says $960 of it is the amount PayPal is holding)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the dates are redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 1 May 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 1 May 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Private individual selling a personal item, United States (Maryland). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Maryland).
Account as given: The complainant says they sold a personal electronics item through a marketplace and the buyer paid $1,100 through PayPal. PayPal flagged the account for review, and they say they complied immediately, submitting photo identification, proof of purchase, the sale invoice and the full transaction details. They say PayPal then permanently limited the account with no specific reason given, denied their appeal, and is holding $960 of the money for 120 days. They say they have been a PayPal member for years with no chargebacks and no disputes, and that this was a one-time personal sale rather than a business transaction.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0030 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-13

Amount held: $170
Held since: Not dated precisely — the date of deactivation is redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 2 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None. The complainant says they asked PayPal to confirm what hold timeline, if any, applies
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 2 June 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Delaware). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Delaware).
Account as given: The complainant says their personal PayPal account was permanently deactivated without a clear explanation and that about $170 remains in the balance. They say they have tried the PayPal Resolution Center, email, executive channels and other support options, that the account is still closed and the money still inaccessible, and that phone support was unavailable because of technical problems. They are asking for a written reason, release of the balance to their verified bank account, and confirmation of any hold timeline that applies.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0029 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-13

Amount held: $500
Held since: Not dated precisely — the date the limitation began is redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 2 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None given
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 2 June 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (New York). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (New York).
Account as given: The complainant says their PayPal account has been limited or locked, blocking access to a balance of about $500, and that PayPal has given no specific reason for the limitation. They say phone calls were disconnected before the issue was resolved and chat support gave contradictory answers: in one chat an agent said only that the limitation had been "escalated to the back office team" and told them to wait for an update, and moments later the same chat closed itself automatically on the grounds that they had not replied in time. They say they have screenshots of the support sessions, and are asking PayPal for a written reason, release of the balance, and a working point of contact.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0028 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-13

Amount held: $350
Held since: Not dated precisely — every date in the narrative is redacted by the CFPB. The complaint was filed on 3 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: Up to 120 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 3 June 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Individual invoicing another PayPal user, United States (Texas). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Texas).
Account as given: The complainant sets out a short chronology: they raised an invoice for exactly $350 and sent it by email and SMS to another PayPal user; the invoice was paid; PayPal then asked for identity verification and clarification of the transaction, which they say they submitted through the PayPal app; PayPal then notified them that it would permanently stop offering them service and would withhold the money for up to 120 days.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0027 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-13

Amount held: $77
Held since: Not dated precisely — the date of the limitation and the scheduled release date are both redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 28 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days, with a scheduled release date the complainant says PayPal gave them
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 28 June 2026, with the stated release date still in the future at that point. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates.
Merchant: Personal account holder, United States (Texas). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Texas).
Account as given: The complainant says their PayPal account was permanently limited after a review and that the balance of $77 left in it will be held for 180 days, with a release date PayPal gave them. They say they are not disputing the decision to limit the account; their complaint is that PayPal has given no specific reason for holding the balance beyond a general reference to risk policies, has not told them of any dispute, chargeback or claim attached to the account, and has not said whether a balance this size can be released before the 180 days are up.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0026 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-13

Amount held: Not stated (No single held figure given. The complainant states the rule they say was applied to them: anything above $38,000 in sales in the month is withheld for 21 days)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the narrative gives no date. The complaint was filed on 30 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 21 days on sales above a $38,000 monthly threshold
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 30 June 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Online seller buying stock from suppliers, United States (California). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (California).
Account as given: The complainant, who describes running a business on PayPal, says PayPal is withholding for 21 days any money above $38,000 in sales, and that the effect is that a better sales month leaves them unable to pay suppliers. They describe it as being penalised for doing well.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0025 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-13

Amount held: $6,200
Held since: Not dated precisely — the calendar dates in the narrative are redacted by the CFPB before publication. The complaint was filed on 6 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 21 days
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 6 June 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot and are never updated, so there is no later statement from this complainant either way.
Merchant: Independent construction contractor, paid for completed manual labour; the complaint was filed by the sender of the payment, United States (Georgia). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Georgia).
Account as given: The complainant says a payment of $6,200 was authorised by credit card to an independent contractor for completed physical construction work, that the funding bank cleared and released the money to PayPal immediately and flagged no fraud, and that PayPal then placed an automated 21-day restriction on the funds. They say that when the sender asked about it, PayPal's automated chat assistant stated in writing that there was "no hold on these funds from PayPal's side" and said the delay was caused by the recipient's bank. They say both parties completed identity verification at least four separate times and the recipient submitted the requested documents twice; that a representative of PayPal’s Office of Global Customer Complaints and Advocacy then confirmed in writing that the documents had been submitted and escalated; and that a second representative of the same escalation team later wrote that the account was still under review.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0024 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-12

Amount held: $6,100
Held since: Not dated precisely — the dates of the review and the hold are redacted in the published narrative. The complaint was filed on 9 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None. The complainant says PayPal gave no timeline for when the review would end or the funds would be released
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 9 June 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Service-based small business, United States (Texas). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Texas).
Account as given: The complainant says PayPal is holding $6,100 belonging to their service business while running an open-ended documentation review. They say they supplied business licences, service agreements, customer contracts and verification details, and that each time they submitted what was asked, PayPal either asked for more or said the documents already sent were insufficient — including calling electronically generated contracts "not legible" and asking for them again. They say the transactions were for services that the customer has repeatedly confirmed were completed, that PayPal has asked for information they consider proprietary, and that it has given them neither a complete list of what it requires nor any timeline for release.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0023 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-12

Amount held: $21,000
Held since: Not dated precisely — calendar dates are redacted by the CFPB. The complaint was filed on 24 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: None given; the complainant describes the limitation on the account as permanent
Current status: HELD — Held as described in the complaint, filed 24 June 2026. CFPB narratives are a one-time snapshot with no later updates from the complainant.
Merchant: Private seller; a luxury watch sold through an online marketplace, United States (Washington). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Washington state).
Account as given: The complainant says PayPal placed a permanent limitation on their account and is withholding $21,000 after a luxury watch sale on an online marketplace. They say the watch was shipped to the marketplace's authentication facility, was checked by its experts, was approved and was delivered to the buyer, that the buyer has opened no dispute, and that the transaction is complete. They say PayPal has not given them any specific policy violation or cause for holding the money.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0022 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-12

Amount held: $9,700 (the balance left from a $10,000 invoice after PayPal deducted about $300 in transaction fees)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the complaint narrative has its calendar dates and durations redacted by the CFPB before publication. The account was closed the same day the first invoice was paid; the complaint itself was filed on 2 July 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: A number of days the complainant says PayPal quoted; the figure itself is redacted in the published narrative
Current status: HELD — Still held as described in the complaint, filed 2 July 2026, after the quoted hold period had already expired. CFPB complaint narratives are a one-time snapshot and are never updated, so there is no later statement from this complainant either way.
Merchant: Independent marketing consultant, United States (Washington). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (Washington state).
Account as given: The complainant says they opened a PayPal business account to be paid for independent marketing consulting, issued a first invoice for $10,000, and that it was paid in full within hours. They say PayPal permanently closed the account the same day the payment arrived, without prior notice or explanation, and told them the funds would be held for a period of days under its internal risk policies. They say that after that period expired, representatives confirmed the money could no longer be returned to their client but could not say why it was still frozen or when it would be released, and that PayPal has kept $9,700 while also deducting about $300 in fees. They say there was never any chargeback, dispute or allegation of fraud, and that the client received the services and has not challenged the payment.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0021 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the posts; they attached a screenshot of the held balance instead)
Held since: Not dated directly; they say on 26 April 2025 that the payout had been on hold for over 220 days, which places the start around September 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: No period given; the hold had run over 220 days by the time they posted
Current status: RELEASED — Paid. On 9 October 2025 they replied to another merchant on their own thread: "Yes I got my money couple months ago. One day I just got an email from Shopify that said that my money is being released and I will receive my payout on the following days." They give no reason for the release and no exact date, so the total time held is somewhere around a year on their own account of it.
Merchant: Online retail store; product type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as AtteS on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their payout had been on hold for over 220 days, that they had contacted support 30 to 40 times, and that every advisor told them to wait for the Shopify Payments team to contact them, which they say never happened. They say they asked to be put through to someone with more authority and were told it was not possible. Asked why the hold was placed, they say it was because they received too many chargebacks in a short period, that their banking details were correct, and that support had first told them the ticket was marked high priority about 120 days before they wrote that.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · later post by the same person · archived copy

HF-2026-0020 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the posts)
Held since: Not dated directly; they say on 26 April 2024 that it had been a little over 125 days, which places the start around late December 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days, with 17 April 2024 given as the date they would be paid
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their posts on 26 April 2024, nine days after the date they were given. Those two posts are the only ones they have made. No outcome has been posted.
Merchant: Not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as RetroTrapHouse on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they were a little over 125 days into the hold, that they had updated their banking information and still had no deposit, and that they had been told they would be paid on 17 April 2024. They say everything they could find written about the wait was from people who had not been paid.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0019 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the posts)
Held since: November 2023; they say their account was closed down that month
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days, which they say expired on 29 March 2024
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their posts on 3 and 6 April 2024, the last they have made. No outcome has been posted.
Merchant: Not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Kyyun on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their account was closed in November 2023 and they were told to wait 120 days for the funds to be released, that the 120 days expired on Friday 29 March 2024, and that a week later the money had still not arrived. They say they had updated their banking details a week before the hold expired specifically so the payment would not fail, that they had spoken to around a hundred different agents, that two of them assured them they would be paid that week, and that they had received an email a fortnight earlier saying they would be paid within a few business days.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0018 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "over 100k"; currency not stated, so no dollar figure is recorded here)
Held since: Not dated directly; they say on 13 March 2024 that the 120 days had passed that day, which places the start around November 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of the day the hold expired, 13 March 2024. On the same day they asked four other merchants on other threads whether they had ever been paid. They have posted nothing since and no outcome has been posted on their thread.
Merchant: Online retail store; product type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as AndreEcom on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says over 100k of their money was blocked for 120 days to cover any chargebacks, and that on the day the 120 days expired they had received no email about the payment they had been promised at the end of the hold. They say they had read many accounts of people not receiving their funds and ask whether anyone was paid after the 120 days.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0017 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the posts)
Held since: Not dated directly; they say the 120-day hold had already run and that the reserve completion date they were given was 3 September 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days, followed by a reserve with a completion date of 3 September 2024
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their posts on 6 September 2024, three days after the reserve completion date they were given. Those two posts are the only ones they have made. No outcome has been posted.
Merchant: Three online stores; product type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as farihin on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says all three of their stores were closed with no reason given and no conclusive answer, and the money held for 120 days. They say that when they asked for it at the end of the 120 days they were told it was in reserve and were sent a reserve completion date of 3 September 2024, and that the date passed without payment. They attached a screenshot of the email to their second post.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0016 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the post)
Held since: Not dated directly; they say on 7 April 2024 that the funds had been held for 120 days, which places the start around December 2023
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days, with 4 April 2024 given as the deposit date
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their posts on 7 April 2024, three days after the deposit date they were given. Those two posts are the only ones they have made. No outcome has been posted.
Merchant: Not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Risktakerzz21 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their funds had been held for 120 days and that they were promised they would be released and deposited to their account on 4 April 2024. They say the deposit did not arrive, that the only answer they got by email was "we have escalated this for funds to be released", and that their emails then stopped being answered.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0015 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: $4,800 (stated as $4,800, given in an earlier post as "only like 4k")
Held since: June and July 2024; they give 1 June 2024 as their first sale, 10 June 2024 as the day the payout was moved back out of the payout tab, and say by 4 July 2024 the account had been banned with a 120-day hold
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their last post on 2 September 2024, in which they say the 120 days had not yet run out. They have posted nothing since, so whether the balance was paid at the end of the hold is not known.
Merchant: Online retail store; product type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as KrayzieBone420 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their first sale on 1 June 2024 paid out on schedule, that the payout for their next sale appeared in the payout tab on 10 June 2024 and was then moved back to their balance, and that they got no reason for it from the agents they spoke to daily. They say the account was then closed as "high risk" and the funds put under a 120-day hold, and put the amount held at $4,800. They say the account had no chargebacks, no returns and no complaints, and that they had already delivered the goods to the customer.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0014 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: $17,000 (stated as "over $17,000 USD")
Held since: July 2024; they say the account had been pending verification since 23 July
Hold period stated by the processor: No period given; they say they were told they were no longer authorised to use the platform and were not told where the balance was
Current status: HELD — Reported as unpaid on 30 August 2024, the only day they posted. No outcome has been posted on any of the three threads they posted it to.
Merchant: Online yoga classes, Country not stated; they posted the same account in French on two other threads. Reported by: A merchant posting as Lucas7 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says their account had been pending verification for over a month, since 23 July, and that they were told they were no longer authorised to use the platform without a clear explanation of the reasons. They say the business had no disputes, that the sum of over $17,000 that was in the account "has completely disappeared", and that repeated attempts to contact support went unanswered. They ask to be told where the money is.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0013 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the post)
Held since: October 2025; they give 19 September 2025 as the date of the warning email and 1 October 2025 as the date Shopify Payments was disabled
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their posts on 3 and 5 October 2025, which are the last they have made. No outcome has been posted.
Merchant: Online retail store; product type not stated, Country not stated; they say they ship from suppliers in China. Reported by: A merchant posting as Rudiments00 on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says they received an email on 19 September 2025 warning that Shopify Payments was at risk of being disabled over a high chargeback rate, that they replied setting out how they would fix it, and that on 1 October 2025 they were told Shopify Payments had been disabled and their funds would be held for 120 days. They put their own chargeback rate at 3.26% and attribute about half of it to fraudulent chargebacks and half to shipping delays from their suppliers. They say they sent shipping records, supplier-verified invoices and state business identification to support and received no reply, and that the hold leaves them unable to pay shipping and production costs or the Shopify balance they normally settle from their payouts.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0012 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the post)
Held since: January 2026; the post is dated 12 January 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their post on 12 January 2026. Two other merchants asked them on the same thread for an update, on 28 January 2026 and again on 11 July 2026, and they did not reply. No outcome has been posted.
Merchant: Online retail store; product type not stated, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as InfiniteLuxur on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says Shopify Payments was disabled for "elevated risk of customer disputes" and payouts held for 120 days. They put the account at more than 2,500 orders with 10 chargebacks in total, which they calculate as about 0.4%. They say Shopify asked for supplier invoices, tracking numbers and business details, that they submitted all of it through the secure link, and that the notice disabling Shopify Payments and holding payouts for 120 days arrived after they submitted it. They say most of the disputes fell around the Christmas period.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0011 · Shopify PaymentsFiled 2026-09-11

Amount held: Not stated (stated as "over £900"; not converted to dollars)
Held since: June 2026; they say the account had been processing through Shopify Payments since April 2026 and that the post, dated 5 June 2026, describes the current state
Hold period stated by the processor: Funds held until October 2026, which they count as four months away
Current status: HELD — Unpaid as of their post on 5 June 2026. The stated release month, October 2026, had not yet arrived when this record was filed, and they have posted no update. Recheck the thread from October 2026 onwards.
Merchant: Custom jewellery brand, United Kingdom. Reported by: A merchant posting as HugoWilma on the Shopify Community forum.
Account as given: The merchant says the business had fulfilled about 45 orders, all shipped with Royal Mail Tracked and with proof of delivery, when one customer raised a chargeback on an order worth £74.49. They say Shopify submitted the evidence, the bank ruled in the merchant’s favour within days, and the chargeback was fraudulent. They say that despite this the Shopify Payments account was disabled and over £900 is being held until October 2026, and that they have appealed through the proper channels and submitted all documentation.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0010 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-10

Amount held: $2,800 (net of PayPal’s fee on a $2,900 gross payment)
Held since: Not dated precisely — calendar dates are redacted by the CFPB. The complaint was filed on 16 June 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: Given inconsistently: PayPal quoted both 180 days and 120 days for the same hold
Current status: HELD — CFPB records the company response as "closed with explanation." Nothing in the record says the $2,800 was released. No later update is in the record — CFPB complaint narratives are a one-time snapshot.
Merchant: Personal account, private sale of a used camera, United States (South Carolina). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (South Carolina).
Account as given: The complainant says a buyer paid $2,900 for a used camera through a personal PayPal account, leaving $2,800 owed after PayPal’s fee; the buyer confirmed to PayPal that the item arrived in good condition and asked for the funds to be released. The complainant says PayPal instead permanently deactivated the account citing "risk concerns" it would not specify — the complainant says PayPal’s own Executive Escalations Team said in writing they "can’t see the specifics" — and quoted two different hold lengths, 180 days and 120 days, for the same hold.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0009 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-10

Amount held: $47 (a small balance, but held far longer than the stated period — see account)
Held since: Not dated precisely — calendar dates are redacted by the CFPB. The complainant says this was the first-ever transfer into a new account; the complaint was filed on 28 October 2025
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days ("180-day extended hold")
Current status: HELD — The complainant says that after the 180-day hold expired, the funds were still inaccessible, and that a further month of daily contact with support produced no resolution. No later update is in the record — CFPB complaint narratives are a one-time snapshot, not a thread that gets replies.
Merchant: Not stated in the complaint, United States. Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (state not given).
Account as given: The complainant says a new PayPal account had its first-ever transfer, a $47 balance, held under a "180-day extended hold." After the 180 days passed, the complainant says withdrawal was still not possible, and that a month of daily contact with PayPal support did not resolve it.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0008 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-10

Amount held: $1,200
Held since: Not dated precisely — calendar dates are redacted by the CFPB. The complainant says the account was "recently" limited; the complaint itself was filed on 3 July 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days ("a standard 180-day hold")
Current status: HELD — CFPB records the company response as "closed with non-monetary relief," which means PayPal gave some non-cash response, not that the balance was confirmed paid out. Nothing in the record says the $1,200 was released, so this is recorded as held, not released. There is no later update to check — CFPB complaint narratives are a one-time snapshot.
Merchant: Not stated precisely; the complainant describes a chargeback rate and dispute history, United States (New York). Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (New York).
Account as given: The complainant says PayPal placed a permanent limitation on the account and locked a $1,200 balance under "a standard 180-day hold to cover potential buyer disputes," despite what the complainant describes as a 0% chargeback rate and no disputes on the account. The complainant calls the freeze an automated risk-algorithm error and asks for the balance to be released.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0007 · PayPalFiled 2026-09-10

Amount held: $480 (of an original $500 balance; PayPal released $24 partway through and the remaining $480 stayed held)
Held since: Not dated precisely — the complaint narrative has its calendar dates redacted by the CFPB before publication. The complaint itself was filed on 8 February 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 180 days
Current status: PARTIAL — PayPal’s Executive Office confirmed in writing that the remaining $480 would be released on a specific date after the 180-day hold ended. As of the complaint, that date had passed and the money had not been released; PayPal said it would follow up internally. No further update is in the record — CFPB complaint narratives are a one-time snapshot, not a thread that gets replies.
Merchant: Not stated in the complaint, United States. Reported by: A complainant in the U.S. CFPB Consumer Complaint Database (state not given).
Account as given: The complainant says PayPal permanently limited the account and placed a hold on a $500 balance, stating funds could be held for up to 180 days. PayPal released $24 partway through, leaving $480 held. The complainant says PayPal’s Executive Office then confirmed in writing a specific date the remaining balance would be released once the 180-day hold ended — and that after that date passed, the $480 was still not released, with PayPal only saying it would "follow up internally."
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0006 · StripeFiled 2026-09-09

Amount held: $800,000 (stated as "$800k+")
Held since: Late 2024; the author’s two posts give the start as December 2024 and as November 2024
Hold period stated by the processor: No period stated
Current status: HELD — Reported as unpaid in three posts by the same person, the most recent dated 2 September 2025, in which they put the time they have been chasing the balance at nine months. No outcome was posted afterwards.
Merchant: Stripe Standard Connect platform doing customer acquisition on a revenue share, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as Solsticebay, later solsbayissue, on Hacker News.
Account as given: The merchant says Stripe has held about $800,000 belonging to their Connect platform since late 2024 with, in their words, "0 absolutely 0 disputes", and that the balance has not been drawn down. They say the platform used direct charges, which they read as leaving it not liable for the disputes of connected accounts. They describe support tickets being closed without a substantive answer and say a physical legal letter went unanswered. They give the account id in both posts.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · later post by the same person · archived copy

HF-2026-0005 · StripeFiled 2026-09-09

Amount held: $92,000 (stated as "$92k")
Held since: October 2023; the merchant gives the closure date as 18 October
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days
Current status: HELD — The merchant says the 120 days ended on 25 February 2024 and that the balance had still not been paid when they posted on 8 March 2024. No later outcome was posted on the thread.
Merchant: Customer acquisition for other merchants, paid as a share of sales, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as userclickbase on Hacker News.
Account as given: The merchant says Stripe closed the account on 18 October and said it would hold the funds for 120 days and then pay the remaining balance to their bank. They say there were no disputes and no refunds during that period, that the 120 days ended on 25 February, and that they were then told the balance would not be paid. They put the balance at $92k and give the account id in the post.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0004 · StripeFiled 2026-09-09

Amount held: Not stated (not stated in the post)
Held since: October 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: 120 days, given as "elevated risk"
Current status: UNKNOWN — Reported as held at the time of the post on 22 October 2022. A Stripe employee replied on the thread the same day asking them to email direct, and they replied that they were doing so and were "finally getting in touch with a real person at Stripe who can hopefully rectify this situation". Nothing was posted on the thread afterwards, so whether the balance was paid is not known.
Merchant: Graphic and web design services, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as interesting_att on Hacker News.
Account as given: The merchant says Stripe deactivated the account and said it would refund all the charges that had been processed, naming 17 October as the date. They say that date passed without the refunds, and that Stripe then said it was holding all the funds for 120 days because of "elevated risk". They say the account had taken no chargeback and no dispute.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy

HF-2026-0003 · StripeFiled 2026-09-09

Amount held: $159,000 (stated as "$159k to be exact")
Held since: March 2022 or earlier; the post is dated 16 March 2022
Hold period stated by the processor: No period given; the merchant says they were told the balance would be used to refund customers
Current status: HELD — Reported as unpaid at the time of the post. In an update on the same thread the author says a Stripe employee reached out to say the company could not support their business, but said nothing about releasing the balance. No later outcome was posted.
Merchant: Marketplace platform built on Stripe Standard Connect, Country not stated. Reported by: A merchant posting as neginshopper on Hacker News.
Account as given: The merchant says Stripe blocked their platform account and disabled its connected accounts, and told them it "WILL NOT RELEASE OUR FUNDS AND WILL USE TO REFUND ALL CUSTOMERS". They say neither happened: as a platform account on direct charges there were no charges under it to refund, and the balance was not released either. They give the figure as $159k and post the platform account id.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · same account posted again · archived copy

HF-2026-0002 · StripeFiled 2026-09-09

Amount held: $31,829.65
Held since: Not dated precisely; after the launch of a business the founder dates to June 2018
Hold period stated by the processor: 90 days, then a further 90 days, then a further 30 days — 210 days in total
Current status: UNKNOWN — Unpaid as of the post on 24 December 2019. A Stripe employee replied on the thread saying the company was handling it with the author by email, and the author replied confirming they had received that email. No outcome was posted on the thread afterwards.
Merchant: Information-services startup, Country not stated. Reported by: A founder posting as VF on Indie Hackers.
Account as given: The founder says Stripe held all funds against the risk of disputes and emailed a 90-day hold, then sent what they describe as a duplicate of the same email at the end of that period, with the date in the dashboard pushed back another 90 days. They say they were then told the reserve had been reviewed and lifted, and that three days later they received an email saying Stripe needed "to extend your reserve for another 30 days due to the elevated dispute risk here", bringing the total to 210 days. They put the outstanding balance at $31,829.65 and say they had spent about $10,000 on advertising before the hold.
Verification: Taken from a source published by the person it happened to — source · archived copy
Checked on 16 September 2026: the original post did not load, while the rest of the site did. The archived copy still shows it in full.

HF-2026-0001 · PaddleFiled 2026-09-07

Amount held: $800
Held since: July 2026
Hold period stated by the processor: 6 months
Current status: HELD — Still held at the time of filing.
Merchant: Bootstrapped software business, Reported from Asia-Pacific. Reported by: The maintainer of this site.
Account as given: The account was closed without a prior warning that identified a specific problem to fix. The balance at the time of closure, about $800, was not paid out. The stated reason for withholding it was a six-month holding period. No itemised explanation of what triggered the closure was provided.
Verification: Filed directly by the person it happened to

Submit the case here. Publication of a name or a company name is optional. Counts by company, status, stated hold and amount are in the record in figures.