Paypal - holding my money, new policy?

[kultschar]

I just sold an item for a fair amount £850 however I notice in the email I received from Paypal that it states:

Please process this order as soon as possible.

Dear blah blah,

You have received payment from Mr X. The payment is in your pending balance and if there are no problems with the order, the money should be in your available balance within 21 days. This will help us continue to be a safer way to buy and sell.

How Can I get my money sooner?

You should be able to get your money within 7-14 days if you:

* Send the item to the buyers address below
* Provide the dispatch details and mark the item as sent

blah blah blah...

Is this new??? It sucks that I have to send the item whilst Paypal hold the money. I mean it would be useful to have the money to use for the postage for a start!!

Ive had an account for 10-15 years and this is new to me

[IanBear]

I had this yesterday. Spoke to them. You have to update the tracking number with them (or eBay) but the buyer will then also be asked to confirm they received the item and it was in good order. Given the amount of eBay scammers out there I apologised to my buyer after messaging him, and with his permission refunded him immediately as it seemed like the balance of risk had gone completely in favour of the buyer.

[kultschar]

Wow - this sucks to the extent that I dont think I will want to sell on fleabay again!

Wonder if its for every transaction or just random selection

[IanBear]

Wow - this sucks to the extent that I dont think I will want to sell on fleabay again!

Wonder if its for every transaction or just random selection

I was told it will happen every time you go over a certain threshold (i.e. 1k, 2k) OR if it is a significant amount over any other item you've sold.

I told them I would choose to not accept them for high value items again as feedback and of course they were not bothered in recording it.

[JasonM]

Wow - this sucks to the extent that I dont think I will want to sell on fleabay again!

Wonder if its for every transaction or just random selection

Not sure, I sold a £700 item last week and got the money through fine.

[justin44]

I sold a mobile four years ago and the same happened they wouldn't release the funds till either I got positive feedback or three months with no problem.

I just stopped using eBay

[kultschar]

I sold a mobile four years ago and the same happened they wouldn't release the funds till either I got positive feedback or three months with no problem.

I just stopped using eBay

Bizarre

Think I will kiss goodbye to selling on eBay too from now on

[nick67]

Bizarre

Think I will kiss goodbye to selling on eBay too from now on

Yes I would agree, it happened to both my son and I, it's a right royal PITA.

We use Gumtree more and more, we find the new terms with ebay unacceptable and they still charge high selling fees, it's not as good as it used to be

[catch21]

Yes I would agree, it happened to both my son and I, it's a right royal PITA.

We use Gumtree more and more, we find the new terms with ebay unacceptable and they still charge high selling fees, it's not as good as it used to be

It used to be good?

[Vampire]

I sold a mobile four years ago and the same happened they wouldn't release the funds till either I got positive feedback or three months with no problem.

I just stopped using eBay

I had virtually the same thing, deleted eBay and Paypal accounts. :)

[sean]

...it seemed like the balance of risk had gone completely in favour of the buyer.

It's been this way for some time, even without PP holding back the seller's cash.

[Michael 38]

I was told a while ago that PayPal withhold the money on all mobile phone sales until the buyer is happy it happened to me on an iPhone a couple of years ago

[Gavbaz]

I had this recently. Sold a watch on the bay for just over a grand. The guy I sold it to is a dealer on there and just marks the watches up with new pictures. Anyway, he paid me, they froze the funds and by the time I got them, the watch I had sold had been back on sale circa 5 days! I rang PayPal the minute it went up for sale as the buyer was clearly happy, the hold was not sped up.

[kultschar]

I had this recently. Sold a watch on the bay for just over a grand. The guy I sold it to is a dealer on there and just marks the watches up with new pictures. Anyway, he paid me, they froze the funds and by the time I got them, the watch I had sold had been back on sale circa 5 days! I rang PayPal the minute it went up for sale as the buyer was clearly happy, the hold was not sped up.

God - it gets worse lol

[tobetobes]

I had the same as that with an iPhone. It was broken and I didn't know what was wrong. Sold as such. The funds were held by PayPal and the Guy who bought it took it apart then mailed me to say he was requesting a refund as it was more broken than he expected it to be. He actually said in his message "it will cost more to repair than I will make from it so I am sending it back" !! Then threatened my perfect record with negative feedback if I didn't agree... I was pretty fuming.

So The money was never released to me, I had to suck up sellers fees and postage to have a broken phone retuned to me, which arrived with more scratches than it left.

I haven't sold anything since. When you can't be protected against stupidity there is no reason to use the service anymore.

[Bodo]

You should have simply disagreed. Case would have gone against him and the threat of negative feedback would be recorded by eBay and would have removed it.

I had the same as that with an iPhone. It was broken and I didn't know what was wrong. Sold as such. The funds were held by PayPal and the Guy who bought it took it apart then mailed me to say he was requesting a refund as it was more broken than he expected it to be. He actually said in his message "it will cost more to repair than I will make from it so I am sending it back" !! Then threatened my perfect record with negative feedback if I didn't agree... I was pretty fuming.

So The money was never released to me, I had to suck up sellers fees and postage to have a broken phone retuned to me, which arrived with more scratches than it left.

I haven't sold anything since. When you can't be protected against stupidity there is no reason to use the service anymore.

[andy tims]

I never use eBay to sell anything of high value. Fees too high and balance of protection has been with buyers for years.

[Tazmo61]

I don't sell on fleabay anymore because of Paypal .

[vcarter]

I've got an answer, but I'm speechless...

"There is no exactly no reason except that when you sell item on eBay, it holds funds. Typically for 21 days if the amount is more than $100.00 USD and if less, you just need to provide tracking information and the funds is released 3 days after its confirmed delivery.

As a seller, we are partnering with you to build your reputation and keeping you secure at the same time. We build your reputation by covering your buyer and giving you a seamless process when a problem arises."

[Bob Brown]

On two occasions they have held payments on my daughters account for 6 months.
She had been selling perfume,and someone complained that the item wasnt genuine.
Despite having sold 100+ items without a problem,she refunded and the perfume was sent back 75% used.
They then held all her money for 6 months,pending an investigation.
She then had the money returned after the 6 months period,with no details or explanation given.
It seems this is not a common occurance,so i imagine that they make a lot of interest on someone elses money.
Just imagine how many sellers have this happen to them,then you are left feeling the whole thing is a scam to make money.

[Tomaitch]

Morale of the story , do not use EBay for high value items and Paypal .

[demonloop]

Ebay are certainly geared towards business sellers now, but as one of them I can tell you life isn't much easier.

I've gradually reduced the number of lines I sell on eBay from 500 to around 150 over the past few years. Ebay accounts for about 30% of my turnover, and 70% of hassle.

They've tried so hard to be the buyers friend, they've forgotten they need sellers to have a business.

[bloater]

Paypal are a bunch of thieves end of story.
We use them (well maybe not for much longer) for online transactions we had funds held for an item that wasn't received, so we show the tracking details even the confirmation signature, all goes quiet, a couple weeks later it happens again for the same transaction saying item not as ordered, so we show an email exchange that askes for it to be altered.
Money released, then we get it withheld again as it was fraudulent card use, then case was closed and money released again.
Fast forward a couple of months and PayPal have taken the money out of our account, so we are starting this process all again.
We put tens of thousands through PayPal each week but it can be a lot of hassle.

[Michael 38]

I think they used to do this with phones as some people would sell mobile phones then wait a couple of weeks and report them stolen and get a new phone on their insurance and the phone they sold on ebay would get barred