I recently had an eBay sale where funds were on a 21-day hold. I added the tracking information to the item, and it does confirm that the item has been delivered. Will PayPal automatically release the funds early or do I have to request for them to do so?
Also, with respect to the 21-day hold, I certainly do have frustrations, as most eBay sellers do as well. This particular sale was with a buyer who is outside of the United States. I do not ship outside of the US, but I did honor the sale and followed through with it. Of course, this meant multiple back-and-forth emails with the buyer and having to ship to an alternate address in the US and making a trip to the post office rather than ship from my computer. After I had shipped the gift card to the buyer, I did send an email with a scan of the gift card balance sheet and requested the buyer leave feedback so my funds could be released. BIG MISTAKE. At this point, the buyer no longer needed to keep in communication with me. Three days after my email with the scan information on the gift card, I emailed the buyer again asking a simple "Would you let me know whether you have received the gift card information I sent?" I received back a lengthy reply as to how the postal service works and how it would be 3-4 weeks before the buyer gets the card at the location where the buyer is presently residing. I did re-check the gift card balance at this time, and determined that all but a couple of dollars of the gift card had been used several days prior.
Moral of the story, buyers do not care whether our funds are being held. I have NEVER asked anyone for Feedback, but because eBay and Paypal stated that if buyer leaves positive Feedback, the funds will be released sooner. I will never assume that a person who I believe to be reasonable is truly reasonable, because they are not!
