10-05-2025
EXCLUSIVE We lost £400,000 in deals after WhatsApp blocked our business phone numbers - and they still won't tell us why
A British business has lost around £400,000 in potential deals after they have been forced to start 'from the bottom' after numerous numbers for their designer resale was inexplicably blocked by WhatsApp.
Love Luxury co-founders, Emily Abraham, 45, and her husband, Adam Abraham, 38, had built up an extensive clientele of around 21,000 customers via WhatsApp for their well-renowned designer resale business.
They had purchased several phone digits via VIP numbers for themselves and employees to enhance their brand recognition as well as to build customer trust, so punters knew they were 'genuine'.
Mr Abraham revealed to MailOnline his company had spent around £16,500 on premium numbers as well as the monthly charge of around £35 for each unique set of phone digits.
And all was well for a while as the lavish firm, well-known for the resale of handbags and watched, as its employees continued to carry out successful deals selling luxury resale items to loyal clients via WhatsApp, until tragedy struck last March.
Store manager Marya, who dealt with around 200 to 300 clients, was the first of several members of Love Luxury to have their numbers blocked by WhatsApp, in what would be a series of incidents, rocking their firm to its core.
Divulging that the ordeal had '100 per cent' damaged their relationships with clients, the Love Luxury co-founder estimated between £300,000 to £400,000 worth of deals were being made across all the numbers when they were banned.
He told MailOnline: 'In total, we have about 21,000 contacts that can't get in touch with us, and in regards to value of deals we were all doing on those days, I would say they were around £300,000 to £400,000
'I actually feel embarrassed for all the clients who know me. I've got such a great client base. I've done so much great work for so long that that it's just, you know, it's turned into this.'
Recalling the morning, Marya had her business number blocked on WhatsApp, Mr Abraham told MailOnline: 'All of a sudden, Marya woke up in the morning and WhatsApp was banned. She was devastated. She was in tears. I'll be honest, I've never seen her in that state before.
'She doesn't save 300 clients numbers, she messages them. So when all the messages were gone, she couldn't get back to them. It made her look like she's blocked thousands of people.'
Love Luxury then attempted to appeal the block, but as it was never reinstated, however Mr Abraham knew something was awry when the second premium number he purchased Marya was nearly immediately blocked once instated.
And Marya wasn't the only one impacted at Love Luxury, as much like a domino-effect, others were blocked on the app including both Abraham's business numbers as well as Adam's personal number, which he had used for nearly a decade.
Countless of their customers believed they were blocked by the business, as Mr Abraham divulged they would regularly receive around 700 to 800 messages a day concerning the issue.
'Most clients assume we blocked them. I've had people messed me up until today saying, "you know, your staff blocked me, how unprofessional of her",' Mr Abraham said.
'It's really embarrassing, especially as a director of a brand. The last thing I would do is explain to every single person you haven't been blocked. They still don't believe it.'
'The 70 per cent of the people that we're losing... I'm trying to find solutions we can sort of build it back up again, but it's just, it's just been really frustrating for everyone,' he said.
'It feels like we are right at back at the bottom, and climbing back up again. Obviously we've built up, but when with this type of business, you can't afford to go back. It's the last thing we need right now.
'It feels like we just back 5 years' worth of clients and knowledge, and I mean, we're actively fighting every single day.'
Emily added: 'It's pure frustration. All that we have worked so hard for has essentially been ruined for literally no apparent reason.
'How is it we can pay for a business service and we are using it as we should be and they just turn around remove our service that we have been paying for.'
But their stress has only been exacerbated as WhatsApp refused to give any assistance or answers as to why their numbers had been struck off.
'My feeling on WhatsApp are that they are charging people for a service and then taking the service away with no prior notice,' Emily said.
'You wake up one morning its gone, you appeal it they have no real appeal process.
'The appeal process appears to be a complete shambles, the customer service is horrifically poor, its probably the worst we have experienced in our lives.'
She added: 'We do everything by the book, we run our business as any business should be run and there literally is no reason for it'
'I just feel that we've had no support whatsoever [from WhatsApp],' her husband added: 'We're in this position and now we're just worried.
'We don't want to use WhatsApp business anymore because we don't know what's gonna happen, and it doesn't look right for the clients that it's blocking them.
He added: 'This whole business has got a reputation, and when you sell high-end goods, reputation is key in our business.
'I just feel that it's completely tarnished the brand's name for all the hard work that Emily, myself - every single person in the whole company works so hard to build the brand.'
Now, they have been working in overdrive in attempt to replace WhatsApp which was previously at the core of their business structure.
'Everyone trusts WhatsApp,' Mr Abraham added: 'So when you use another app on Love Luxury, it just doesn't go, it doesn't sit well with the brand.
'It doesn't sit well with even the clients, like, not every client has like Telegram, for example.
'So if we go with the Telegram, it's like, oh, you know, we have to install it, we're gonna download it to just to speak to Love Luxury, but everyone has WhatsApp.'
A WhatsApp spokesperson said: 'We are always working to stay ahead of people trying to abuse our service and we work to detect scam activity and ban accounts to help keep users safe.
'If we get this wrong, we fix it as quickly as possible to get people and businesses back chatting.'
It is understood several numbers that were 'wrongly blocked' are now live.
The Abraham's have said the numbers can now be used for personal use but maintain they are still blocked by WhatsApp.
