Paypal won't release my funds after 21 days

[kaseykang]

It's been over 21 days since the transaction date, the item was confirmed delivered weeks ago and I've called paypal 6 or 7 times since then. 

Each time they promise to release it the next day or "we'll send it to management" but now it's been another week and no one has done anything.

They just refuse to give me the money even though legally they're not allowed to do this.

Why is paypal stealing from me? Should I open a small claims case in court? 

[janicho]

I am quickly approaching the same issue and was just wondering what recourse I might have. I'm not quite at 21 days yet, but my item was confirmed delivered a week ago and the seller left positive feed back. I uploaded the tracking information at time of shipment as they recommended. Now, it takes them three days to respond to an email and their response was to call them. I had previously told them I am not going to wait on hold for 2 hours and will not plan my day around a "call back". I am not able to carry a phone in my office, so their solution just doesn't work for me. There is no justification for them to continue to hold my funds at this point, they are obviously just collecting additional interest on my, yours,  and thousands of others money. I figure I am at their mercy for the 21 days, but then what? If they don't have any legal claim to your money, and it's outside of their 21 day policy, I wonder if it would be considered theft. To say the least, I will no longer be accepting paypal as payment. If they would at least follow their policy, which reads they will release your money 3 days after confirmed delivery I would be ok. That date has come and gone. The date my money will be available reads 12/31/69...so, that's less than accurate. Anyway, good luck getting your money. I hope to not be in your situation in a few days.

[kaseykang]

Hi, I'm sorry to hear that.

After nearly two weeks and 21 days after the original transaction date, I was able to get credit into my account by demanding payment and warning paypal that I would be filing a small claims case against them. This may help you, as you are in a similar situation. I emailed my demand and evidence of my recent contact with paypal via email and phone to some of the management emails and the CEOs. You can easily find paypal's contact info online. Calling customer service seems to do nothing as none of their agents are actually able to make decisions. Calling out for help to the people in charge seemed to resolve my issue. 

I hope you can find a way to fix your issue as well.

[DPCreations]

PayPolicy states that a hold can go beyond 21 days when there are questions about it, but not beyond 180 days.

[kaseykang]

There were no "questions" about it as the buyer was completely fine with the item and was shocked to hear that Paypal simply took their money and ran. Holding it past 21 days without reasonable cause is illegal.

[DPCreations]

There could be an issue with the funding source, not with the buyer.  PayPal does not need to disclose the security and risk controls.

[kaseykang]

I do not know why @DPCreations insists on defending criminal behavior from Paypal. There were no security risks to this transaction. When I called multiple times with both ebay and paypal, they both acknowledged that it was simply an error on paypal's end and that it was being held without reasonable cause. I was told this multiple times for weeks.

Considering how I finally received the money after submitting my case to upper management, the company realizes this too. If I had taken this to court, they understand that it would likely have been ruled in my favor.

Defensible criminal behavior is still criminal behavior. And paypal is not defensible.

[janicho]

Same for me, positive feedback the day after delivery. I have even been in touch with the buyer post delivery and mentioned I still have not been allowed access to the payment. He was shocked, and asked if there was anything he could do to speed up the process. This isn't about anything other than Paypal being greedy. Again, if they would just follow their own written policy I wouldn't gripe. Despite not being fond of it, I understand we agree to it when we use their service. My complaint is they are not following it and there isn't anything we can do about it (well other than discountinue using them), but that doesn't do anything about the money they are currently keeping from us. Oh and in case it comes up, I have been on Ebay for 14 years, with 100% positive feedback. Only 138 transactions though and a majority of those were purchases, so I am well within Paypals not to be trusted group.

[Whac-A-Mole]

tell us what you have sold,whom did you sell the item to,where is this buyer and how much is the $$?

There is no way you can find out how they paid,except e check.

[kaseykang]

Obviously I can't give you specifics, but it was a US to US transaction. The buyer has over 400 100% positive feedback and paid using their credit/debit card and the money was removed from their account when they paid. The amount of the transaction was approximately 100 USD. 

I am a seller who has sold the same item the buyer purchased over 50 times without a problem and 100% buyer satisfaction as well. Like all my other sales, this one had zero problems-- it went into pending but the buyer did pay, so I shipped the item and delivered it on September 18th. Fast forward two weeks later. Paypal erases the transaction from my account, removes the money from pending but does not return the money to the buyer or place it in my account, when I call about it, says "oh sorry, not sure what happened, but it's just an error and it will resolve within 24 hours." They repeat this phrase for days until the full 21 days pass and I finally conclude that Paypal will not release the payment unless I take serious action.