Why do I have to wait 21 days to be paid

[Misterangry]

I have just auctioned my beloved keyboard on Ebay for £460.00. I was forced to sell this instrument which I have owned for 30 years in order to pay a bill which has to be settled right away. The winner of the auction is collecting this in person from me on Saturday. He will obviously inspect the item which is in perfect condition and test it out before taking it away. He has paid this money in full into my PayPal account.  However now I am told by PayPal that I will need to wait a further 21 days to be paid? Why? I have been running a business for 17 years and when a customer pays money into my account I can access it immediately. The bank can't just put it aside for 21 days in case the customer is not entirely happy with the product. This is a scam and it is wrong. I needed this money now, not in 21 days. I wouldn't have sold it if I realised that I would have to wait this long. I will have other payments reaching my account within 21 days so it is unnecessary. If people put up with being treated this way then more fool them. No bank would dare do this to a customer. This is my money it doesn't belong to PayPal and I am reluctant to release this item to the buyer until it has been paid for in full. That means until the money is in my bank account not in PayPals where it is now. Then the first thing I will do is close my account with PayPal and make certain that I make as many people aware of this scam as possible, so they don't make the same mistake.

[fed_up]

they have stolen £600 of my money, they say it has left my account but my bank does not have it, i would not trust this bunch of scammers as far as i could throw them

[vix]

Me too!  I "fast tracked" £500 four days ago (yes I know there is a bank holiday in that but it should have been in my account Tuesday).  Paypal claim it is in my bank's "holding account".  My bank says there is no such thing and it is Paypal's responsibility to trace the money.  Paypal say they won't do so for at least 14 days.  Why do i have to wait two weeks?!!!  Foolishly I was relying on that money coming into my bank account and I now have no money in my account...welll £3.50.  I have fast-tracked another £300 from my paypal account and am simply having to cross my fingers in the vain hope that will show up.  In the meantime....where is my money?  In these days of truly instant payments I feel I have had my money stolen from me.  I am responsible for my work's paypal account too and they are always trying to push products on me...I have emailed them to say NO.  I don't trust them anymore. 

[kernowlass]

Never ever accept paypal for a collection item.

There have been instances where this has happened and the buyer has filed non reciept of item. As the seller could not prove with a tracking number that the buyer had received the item as it was collected the buyer was refunded.

So if i were you i would refund the paypal payment and tell the buyer its cash on collection only. 

[Erika37]

I find this truly frustrating! I put an item on eBay for sale, had a message off a potential buyer who offered me more -in cash- if I ended the auction there and then. A message popped up from eBay saying that you should not accept offers like this, so I replied to the buyer saying that I'd rather he put in a bid doing the sale through paypal, which he did winning the auction. Now I read on this forum that I should not accept paypal for collection items-thanks, that's great, my buyer is picking up the item tomorrow and I can only keep my fingers crossed that he gives me feedback so the money that paypal holds is released.

Something is very wrong with this system, often people have to sell stuff just to pay a gas bill or buy some food, it's not fair for paypal to hold the money for so long.

Please, please paypal think of something a bit fairer, don't penalise  people in need of some cash.