What's the deal with

[Tandem]

We sold an item on ebay last Friday. The winning bidder turns out to be a partner with eBay and, consequently, with PayPal. Turchasor sent a little saying that "We will try our best to make a payment after the auction ends but please allow us 2-3 business days for the orders on weekends... write the eBay item number on the package/shipping label... go to the URL... and provide us with the shipping information. After completed the form on the URL, you will receive a positive feedback."

We wrote back saying, okay, as soon as you pay, we will ship.

Well, the firm paid right away, not in 2-3 days.

So, we prepped the merchandise for shipment, printed the shipping label, and posted the package (with the item number on the label) at the post office Friday evening via priority mail. We tracked the package, and it was delivered Monday at 1:37 p.m. Way to go Post Office!

We completed the buyer's form on Friday evening, and we received a positive feedback. Hello PayPal!

The e-mail from PayPal, notifying us of the receive payment reads:

This money is being temporarily held in your pending balance. It will be held for up to 21 days. While it's being held, it won't be available for withdrawal.

We'll move the money to your available balance after 21 days as long as your buyer hasn't reported a problem. It may be available sooner if we can confirm that the item was delivered or, if this is an eBay item, your buyer leaves positive feedback.

To get access to this money more quickly, please process this order right away and communicate with your customers early and often.

We completed the tracking details on the PayPal site. In fact, it's from that site that we tracked the shipment! Hello PayPal! We confirmed everyting. Why haven't you?

PayPal's site says:

The money for this payment is being temporarily held in your pending balance. It will be held for up to 18 days. While it's being held, it won't be available for withdrawal.

We'll move the money to your available balance after 18 days as long as your buyer hasn't reported a problem. It may be available sooner if we can confirm that the item was delivered or, if this is an eBay item, your buyer leaves positive feedback.

To get access to this money more quickly, please process this order right away and openly communicate with your customer.

We recommend that you:

1. Check on this page to see if you're eligible for seller protection
2. Ship to the buyer's address on this page
3. Use a shipping service that offers signature confirmation
4. Save all tracking information or other proof of shipment and enter tracking information

We've been a member of ebay and PayPal for years. Hello PayPal!

What kind of treatment is this? How can PayPal treat their bread-and-butter customers in this way? Holding funds for 21 or 18 or even 2 days while still claiming a transaction fee is nothing short of robbery.

What recourse do we have? Does anyone know?

[PayPal_Jason]

Hi Tandem-

The reasons for the payment hold are outlined at www.paypal.com/paymentholds.  As it notes there, this is not a criticism of your business practices, there are some categories that have a higher risk of chargebacks and disputes than others.

If you have received positive feedback or it's 3 days after electronic proof of delivery shows the package arrived, reach out to PayPal via the Contact Us link on your account overview or Help pages so someone can confirm your identity and manually review the transaction.

Thanks,

Jason

[NEWHANDLE]

 DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THE ANSWERS WE GET,

 ANSWERS SUCH AS:

JUST DO THIS,

THEN DO THAT,

THEN WAIT 21 DAYS,

THEN THEY KICK US OFF IF WE SAY SOMETHING THEY DOEN'T LIKE.

NO, JUST GIVE US OUR MONEY UNLESS WE DO SOMETHING WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TIME THE LAW GOT INVOLVED HERE.

THERE ARE SOME NEW SITES OUT THERE, MASS EXODUS ANYONE, ANYONE?

SEE YOU AGAIN IF I DON'T GET BUMPED AGAIN FOR SPEAKING MY MIND.

[Tandem]

Well, like any business, PayPal must take measures to protect itself.

I really wonder if it's really not the the buyer, instead of the product. We've sold similar products and never had an issue with them. Customer pays, PayPal credits our account. Lickety-split. No problems. In this case, it was a "partner" that buys from eBay and auctions what it buys in Japan. We're just a little guy, compared with that account that lists 27K+ in the feedback column for just one account. The organization has several accounts. That's gotta count for some "pull" with our payment processor. Should we switch to our merchant account? No. That can be a hassle, too.

Anyway ...

Today is Wednesday, 4-1./2 days after we received a "positive" from the buyer, 2 days after confirmed delivery.

I got tired of waiting for the funds to transfer from frozen to liquid assets.

I called to ask.

In less than 15 minutes, the "pending" became real.

I was told that the process would have been automatic within 3 days, or something innoccuous like that. It was kind of hard to understand the young lady because of her accent.

So, all is well tonight. I just hope that it doesn't happen again cuz it's a real pain!

[NEWHANDLE]

NO KIDDING!

THEY DON'T CARE EITHER.

 I TALKED TO A PAYPAL REP AND ALL HE DID WAS UMMM WELL, UMMM, WELL GEE, I DUNNO? 

HE HAD NO ANSWERS AND VERY LITTLE HELP ON THE WHOLE SUBJECT. I WAS POLITE BUT VERY FRUSTRATED, I KNOWIT WILL HAPPEN OVER AND OVER UNTIL I REACH 100 FEEDBACKS ON THIS ACCOUNT.

I FINALLY GOT MY MONEY. AS SOON AS THE BUYER GIVES FEEDBACK YOU WILL GET IT, AS LONG AS IT IS  POSITIVE.  IT STILL COULD BE A WAIT IF THE BUYERS AREN'T CARING AS TO IF YOU GET IT OR NOT.

IT IS VERY FRUSTRATING TO SAY THE LEAST AND SOME DAY I DON'T DOUBT THERE WILL BE A CLASS ACTION AGAINST THEM FOR USING OUR $$$ TO GET INTREST WHILE WE WAIT. I'LL BE THERE FOR THAT!

LITTLE GUY LAST?

 UMMMMMMMMMM

[Tandem]

So, what is everyone selling when we get caught up in this morass?

Ours was a Canon 35mm camera.

The winning bidder was a large "partner" of PayPal that takes their purchases to an auction site in Japan.

[NEWHANDLE]

OURS WERE COINS, BUT NOT THE FIRST ONES WE EVER SOLD.

THIS HAPPENED TO US A WHILE BACK AS IF WE WERE CHEATING SOMEONE BECAUSE THEY WE "HIGH RISK ITEMS".

IT  ALL GOT CLEARED UP AND THE BUYERS EVEN OFFERED TO CONTACT EBAY/PAYPAL FOR US. TELLING US THEY HAD SIMILAR EXPERIENCES TOO.

 IT TAKES TIME  TO GET YOU $ BUT YOU DO.

 IT' WAS THEN I FIRST HEARD ABOUT THE SITE EBAY S***S, WHERE PEOPLE GO TO COMPLAIN ABOUT IT.

AND THE SAME GOES FOR P****L.

 ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS..MONEY OR NOT.

[fourthaxis]

Wow, this happened on my GFs paypal account, and I'm stunned.  I'm a "top-seller" (whatever that means), verified, 2003, premeir, blah blah blah, so I've never seen this before. 

Is it certain categories, certian items, certain shipping destinations?  ebay, and papal have been anti-competitive for years, but this is too monopolistic for me. 

Dear ebay,

Will you please hold my invoice for 21 days?  Can you please loan my company the capital, interest free of course, to purchase and ship inventory? 

I think I'm going to refund the payment, and request the buyer pay MY account.  Otherwise, no dice!  I'm not in the business of interest free loans, and high risk shipping destinations.

Details:

Item: Apple Airport Express
Category: Electronics
Value: $60
Destination: Ecuador

[cgguy]

The 21 day hold happened to me recently also. And what a weird creepy email -- "To get access to this money more quickly, please process this order right away and communicate with your customers early and often." The email is even badly formatted and looks like a Nigeria scam. I refunded the payment rather than deal with it. Only coming here did I realize it was a legit email.

The sad thing is that palpal is totally burning bridges. A year ago I was scammed out of $200 from an "eligable" buyer and got back something like $5 (transaction charge or something). Now I need to deal with their automated system before I can get my money when I've shipped something to a buyer? Are you crazy? I'm not a libertairan, but when I listen to libertarians talk about the inefficiencies of government I think of paypal.

[plfriday]

I'm sorry, but this is nothing short of kicking the small man out of business before we even have a chance.  I have no negative feedback.  I have had no complaints filed.  I have 100% postive feedback as a seller and a buyer.  However, because my few customers never filled out the DSR thing, I haven't got a high enough rating not to have my money held.

Hello.

I can't pay postage without that money.  I live on SS Disability and make a few extra bucks sewing here at home.  I don't drive to the post office because of my pain meds.  WIthout the money being available I can't print the USPS label and my customer can't get their stuff.

Do you see what you're doing as the result of I'm not sure what?  You're edging the small man out just like WalMart did the little local grocery stores and corner pharmacies and general stores.  If you don't have money to spare, apparently you don't deserve to make any, either.

It's wrong. 

I'll be switching to RME and money orders and, I guess, taking my chances.  I don't have an option.

Thanks for nothing.