Can I refund funds that are being held, or will it take them from my bank?

[20091102]

I cannot believe that PayPal won't let me have my money until 21 days and only if the buyer is 'satisfied'

This has already caused me financial problems because when the funds were in the PayPal acct, I thought I sent them to my bank, so I could withdraw money to pay for shipping the item.

It turned out that instead of the funds that I had received for the eBay sale, it took funds from my debit card and sent them to my bank account - which is the same acct. So they charged me to send money to myself.

Very deceptive how it says transaction: COMPLETE.   Then if you look closer at the top it says "Pending Balance"

This nearly caused my account to be overdrawn.

Thanks to PayPal I cannot afford to send the items to the buyer and also am not willing to risk the fact that PayPal's

policy is now that the funds may never be released.

If I refund this transaction, will it be taken from the pending balance (as it should) or will they screw me again and take it from my card overdrafting my account?

[smallHOST]

Paypal generally places a hold on the funds due to or generated by the buyer. This is for your protection and could be due to potentially fraudulent credit card use, or a buyer claiming non-receipt due to a lack of communication from the seller.

How would you feel if you received the funds, shipped the item and then received a chargeback? This is how a regular retail store deals with credit card chargebacks, and there is no way to recover the merchandise or the money. Paypal is doing you a favour by ensuring the money is not accepted if it shouldn't be.

Complain all you want, but I would bet that most complainers would not be eligeable for a merchant account from any other provider.

Read ALL the fine print before you use a service. If you don't understand it, ask. It's not fair to blame a service provider for your own ignorance.

[luiscolorado]

I am extremely upset with PayPal's and eBay policies. And it upsets me even more the contempt attitude of some ebayers. I have sold items with eBay and PayPal for many years, I have a 100% positive feedback, and I never had these kind of problems before. Everything was quick and easy. Now it is complicated, upsetting, and very frustrating.

The infamously notorious "hold" is spinned like a "protection" for the sellers. Well, I would prefer to have the option to choose such "protection" or not, or pay an insurance that really protects me, instead of an arbitrary "hold". After all, eBay and PayPal are not giving you a "free" service, why can't they use our fees to isolate tenured buyers and sellers from fraudulent people?

I don't make a living of selling eBay stuff (thanks goodness!). In so many years, I haven't sold more than a 100 items, why should I be punished?

What happens if the buyers doesn't reply to your requests to leave feedback? What happens if the buyer email account is full? I'm trying to ship right away, but I don't have funds available in my PayPal account because they have been held.

Ebay wants you to ship as soon as possible, but, how can I do it? Putting funds in PayPal will now take 3 to 5 business days. On top of that, they give you the address of the buyer, but not the phone number. UPS will not accept shipments to Canada without a phone number. So I have to email the buyer, ask for the phone number, and lose a day or two waiting for the answer, even though PayPal has the phone number!

I guess that the next time I will ask for check or money order instead of paypal, or I will list my item on craigs list.

Too bad. eBay has become a quasi-monopoly, and behaves accordingly. Fortunately, there are other ways to sell stuff we don't use any more. It is sad, though, because it was my favorite place to find rare and cheap stuff, but now who knows if other sellers will keep using payPal or eBay to sell stuff.

Good luck to all. I'm looking forward for a class action, and hoping that eBay and PayPal recover their sanity.

[janetpetrich1]

God, i havnt sold in a while, and when i did, it was using paypal only, you're better off getting a personal check from somebody and waiting for it to clear from the bank, this is the dumbest thing i have ever seen, putting a hold on my money, hoping the buyer leaves positive feedback on an AS IS  product?/?

how stupid

It definately **bleep**s you over if you needed the money from the payment to ship the item.

[JRLUNA]

   hi,I agree this is totally unfair this will definitely slow down ebay  grow by a 70% since a lot of people usually buy right after they sell an item.Ooh well they always make rules so that they can have access to our money just like major banks that **bleep** a lot of people good job paypal ceo's definitely this will make a lot of people go overdraft

good luck I hope the change this new policy..

[MusicMadness201]

Ok, so I'm a college student and just trying to sell some stuff I don't need. I posted it on craigslist and made this because someone posted that they would gladly pay me for the item and even include shipping costs. What I didn't know was that the person was all the way in Nigeria and that my item was 70 but I'd have to pay 140 in shipping, before I'd be able to get the money he put in which was 210! I haven't shipped the item yet but I need to know how to refund him or cancel the transaction or something!!! Help!!!

[My_Money_or_not]

Yup Mine Too!!! wtf???

[checkslookgood]

More crap to deal with! How about this; I make a camera purchase from an on line photo store I tell them to send me the camera and I’ll pay them in 18 days! The way it works in the real world is you send them the money (credit card) then you get the camera. That’s what they want- send the item and maybe get a positive review. I’ve sold many items with no response. I just sold an item and had to tell the buyer to wait 18 days till the funds clear. Of course he wants his money back, I would too. I guess it will be buy with a check from now on and wait till it clears and skip paypal. I hope the class action suit goes through and all this nonsense stops.

[amico1949]

I am furious over this policy. In my case the buyer requested premium shipping which cost me a fortune, and I can't get my funds released for 21 days? This is horrible service and I will not be using PayPal again for any sale.

[jere]

does anyone remember this scam???

Re: Nigeria Scams?

12-07-2009 04:44 PM

yes, I have been approached to mail a computer to nigeria just today - said the money was waiting for a shipping number...

0

paypal is supporting the scammers by allowing our money to be held. Now when people get the fake emails stating that funds will be releasedpending a tracking number, no one will be suspicious, huh???

GOOD JOB PAYPAL!!!!!

[jere]

yes, I have been approached to mail a computer to nigeria just today - said the money was waiting for a shipping number...

[Ojy]

What several of you do not seem to realize (or maybe it is just that you don't care) is that the items have been paid for. Meaning the money is there, and you will get it. If the money is pending in paypal, it has already been paid by the buyer, and has left their hands (or else how could you offer the refunds?). So it is nothing like the Nigeria scams, where no money ever goes out.

I agree, it is lousy sometimes having to come up with shipping money, but by now you should plan ahead for this. The buyers have every right to be upset with you if they are waiting for something that they have already paid for. They expect sellers to have a level of professionalism, like stores. What would you say if you walked into Wal-mart to get a gallon of milk, and they told you they couldn't even order it for you until they had your money in their hand? They wouldn't get a lot of business, would they? At the very least, the regular sellers should understand that they will have to put out money, up front, in order to make a profit.

If you don't like the security measures taken by paypal, the best way to avoid them is to not use paypal. There are other options out there. Probably not any near as accessible or affordable though. This is because Paypal has taken a lot of time to get where it is. And many buyers and sellers have been scammed by other buyers and sellers in the process. And this is what they are working to avoid.