how exactly does paypal come to the opinion that this is an acceptable policy? this creates nothing but problems, and is entirely reliant on customers (buyers) being nice friendly people who decide to post positive feedback.
you are also expecting new sellers to have funds available to pay for shipping for items, then also funds available to buy new stock for sale on ebay, which is clearly not going to help anyone.
does the old addage of "the customer is always right" not mean a thing in paypal? as a fee-paying seller, I am your customer not the buyer from me. I understand the need for protection for buyers, but after full verification and proof of business status surely this is something totally excessive and unneccecary?
and then, when you do finally have your funds released, you have to pay £5 to have it in a day or two - or wait 4-5 days for it. This is STUPID!
i think it's about time paypal considered implementing a new system that does the following
1) checks the account is verified
2) checks that the figure is less than, say, £50
3) checks that the buyer has not filed issues before
4) checks that the seller has offered acceptible terms and conditions in ebay
if the above four conditions are met, then payment is released IN FULL upon proof of POSTAGE not receipt.
oh, and as for paypal's humerously overactive security model - that is beyond a joke! I withdrew 18.35 and it is clear that the security model (which decided to freeze my payment for 3 days) thought i was committing international money laundering or terrorism! it's 18 blummin quid! if the figures on the front of the login screen are right, and you work on an average of just 1p per transaction you're making £200,000 + per day of transactions. time for a rethink paypal, before the FSA and other bodies investigate you.
