That's a lousy situation to be in. I only use them for small transactions (e.g. getting paid for model sales from rendo ha ha). Paypal UK are regulated by the Financial Services Authority, so maybe that's why the Brit helpdroids tried harder (or maybe we really are more polite -- I generally find call-centre staff OK in themselves). Hope it all works out OK though; that's an awful lot of money to lose track of. m.