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?

[temp20181130y]

I am new in Ebay selling and in using Paypal. My husband and I both uses Ebay and Paypal and we are really really **bleep** off about the "pending balance". They do not have the right to hold our money because we have paid them already by instantly deducting Paypal fees. This is total manipulation. We need the money to ship our goods and merchandise. We should bombard Paypal with phone calls telling them that we're not happy about what is happening. We are their customers. Paypal is not our customer and why are they controlling us? We're paying them to process the payments. Paypal's not the one paying us. WE PAY PAYPAL TO SERVE US but they are reciprocating the real Paypal and Paypal customer relationship.

I am MAD!

[tlm]

Paypal has just done this to me to. Little different situation though. I had a  large item sell, I stated in the auction local pick up only, the buyer lives in California and I'm in Ohio. He is having the shipping done and paid me through paypal. Well, paypal has decided that they need to hold that money until delivery, but it is being shipped through a carrier that isn't listed through the tracking on paypal. So if the buyer decides to not leave feedback, then I will get my money in January......JANUARY! Gee, I'm sure that my kids are going to love that they have to wait until January before they will be getting Christmas.

Thanks Paypal!

[Nephillim]

I have the same problem too! My funds were held and were not retrievable until 18-21 days. I have excellent feedback rating with no negative feedback! I don't know how this happened. I couldn't ship the item as quickly as I could to the buyer because the funds were being held. I really losing hope with paypal now.

[refundthemoney]

Happened to me on 2 occasions.  I just simply refund the money and cancel the transaction with ebay. Ask the buyer to agree to cancel and you dont pay ebay selling fees.

Email the buyer the email you received from paypal stating the funds are frozen, so the buyer understand you are not making this up. 

There are alot of buyers that do not leave feedback, so you will never get your money.

Guys, Gals,

We dont make the rules and we cant change them.  Yes it sucks but thats the price to pay for using paypal.

[knth2]

Hi there,

i find myself in a very simiar situation to yourself. I cannnot fathom what has made me stand out to Paypal for them to hold my money in a pending transaction. I have 100% feedback and many of them say how fast my shipping is and what a great seller I am. I spoke to pay pal yesterday and they told me that they hold the money until they know or {21 days} depending on what comes first, that they buyer has recieved there product. To which I told them that I was not willing to mail a product that had not been paid for. This went around and around in conversation for sometime and I did feel that the person I got on the line was very cagey with information I was asking about my own account. He said that if I contacted the buyer that they could realease it, he also said that paypal needed to see a tracking number {which I ALWAYS UPLOAD ASAP} I did this while he was on the line, which has **bleep**ed me because now I have to choose if to post it or not and risk not recieving payment for my item or worse, risk a P/O buyer that ruins my 100% feedback with a angry feedback because they didnt recieve there item! I have contacted the buyer and expalined but have not had a response, I have probably freaked them out,  I told Paypal, it is crazy! Teh whole point of "selling" a item is that you get paid. Now I read a bit about this I also see that other people have done all the right steps that paypal suggest, they have sent there item and have got positive feedback and 4 weeks later they are waiting for payment still from payapl!!!  Please let me know how you got on, I am pondering what to do. I think another call to Paypal might be in order.

[refundthemoney]

get the buyer to agree to cancel the ebay transaction this wya you get a selling fee credit then refund the paypal money.

I forward  all my buyers any funny emails paypal sends me that way they know I am not making this up.

[dm3372]

Never ship anything before you get your money first, period. I don't care what the BS policy about the 21 days holding payment is. Why would you let paypal hold your money and then tell you have to ship the item first? Remember that PayPal is not an FDIC, nor is a real merchant account, it is a middleman between the seller and the buyer, more like AOL. When the buyer pay for the product I'm selling, who should get the money first? Me or Paypal? When I get the money, I then create an invoice to confirm the product was paid for, then I ship the product. Don't ever let someone take your product without paying for first.

[Annasophia]

Paypal tries to make it sound like there is seller protection,But that is not true!   I even provided a tracking # to an item shipped to a Buyer and Paypal ruled in their favor because they CLAIMED  they never recieved and I am out $55.00!! So she probably received the item and got a full refund. PAYAPL NEVER rules in favor of the seller!! NEVER! I even offered a 50% refund but couldn't give it to them because Paypal had a hodl on the funds in my account!

PLUS Ebay makes it impossible to leave Negetive feedback now to a buyer who does this!

[Amanda411]

Hi Annasophia,

Did the tracking number show delivery to the address listed in the transaction details? What was the reason you received from PayPal for finding the claim in the buyer's favor?

Amanda

[mamie860]

actually you won't have to wait the 21 days, once the buyer recieve the item and they feel the item is good and they go and leave a feedback right away the money will be released. I to was upset of this 21 day hold until i got an email that one of my buyers left me a positive feedback and i went into my paypal account and seen that the money he paid was released, now i'm just waiting on the other 2 buyers to leave there feedback so i can get the rest of the money.

But i still think the money should be available once the buyers pay for the item and not have us sellers wait until they leave a feedback because they don't always leave a feedback right away once they get the item, they have to inspect the item to make sure it's good and if they leave a bad feedback asking for a refund we won't get the money. but either way the money will be released once they leave a positive feedback and if they don't put in a claim against you.

Also try communicating with your buyers to see if they recieved the item they purchased from you. that's what i been doing to make sure they did get the package.