Paymend Pending - eCheck

[Dan658]

I ordered a product on eBay which was about $10 on September 9th (1 week tomorrow) and my payment is pending with the line " eCheck estimated completion: September 19, 2017. We advise merchants not to ship until they receive payment.".

Why is PayPal holding my payment? I did 5 or 6 small purchases just a few days prior and everything else cleared and shipped the same day. As of now, the seller is waiting for the payment to clear before they ship (rightfully so) and its a little frustrating that PayPal is withholding such a small amount.

If anyone could explain why this is happening and if there's anything I could do to avoid this in the future, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

[Quandary]

eChecks work like paper checks and the processing time is slow as the check has to clear first - that can take up to 7 business days.

[Dan658]

Thank you for the clarification. It's just weird that this is the first time I've encountered this problem. I would think an electronic transfer of funds would pretty much be instant unlike a paper cheque.