I was helping mom close her account but I was unable to do so so I called up Paypal on my moms behalf, and was told that it can not be done because she had made a purchase 4 months ago.
Paypal wont let you close an account if you have made a purchase in the last 180 days! Why?? I was told you have to be inactive for 6 months to close your account. This is pure and utter BS.

THAT'S INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!! I really can't stand that company, I havent used them since switching to merchant services but a coworker of mine who is trying to make a buck or two on the side uses them and tried speaking to a live person, do you know that she was prompted to be chaged $1.99 for the call?! she had to resort to email support.

The reason your account can not be closed is because paypal has to protect themselves from any disputes or charge backs. Otherwise people could just open up accounts "sell" a bunch of stuff collect the money and then close their accounts without shipping anything to the buyer.

Well, I suppose that does make some sense. Even though I don't much like to agree on the side of Paypal...you got a point Hudajuda. On the flip side seems as though they(paypal) have enough folks cash on hold that the frozen funds of others would cover in case of an incident of a scammer opening, selling, shutting down and to hell with paypal if the buyer trys to charge back. Just sayin...

Hey Dipstick she did not sell anything she bought stuff so she is the one that is out money and that was 4 months ago so she would not be able to open a dispute with paypal anyways.

paypal is just a boatload of bull crap. It is like when paypal permanently limits your account so you will not ever be able to use it again but you also can not close it because you account close your account if it is limited.

the only way to avoid any of these problems is to never sign up with paypal to begin with. it is an evil company with no seller protection at all, despite their claims of being fast, safe and secure.