The payment will be temporarily withheld

[TKemps]

Dear,

I sold something yesterday through a 2nd hand stuff website. The buyer wanted to pay for the item through Paypal so I sent him a payment request. Now I get the message that the amount has been retained. I have already put it on 'processed' to have the money as soon as possible, but I'm afraid the buyer can still cancel the amount and want to scam me.

Is this possible?

Otherwise I have to wait for the money and only then can I send it to the buyer, which is also annoying for him of course.

Thank you in advance.

[sharpiemarker · Accepted solution]

@TKemps 

In order for buyer to get their money back, they'd have to "report a problem", aka "dispute" you for it.

PayPal is holding the funds up to 21 days and want to ensure you develop best practices and be a reliable account, and other reasons. Its not recommended that you wait for the money to be available before fulfilling order or buyer will be 'reporting a problem' to PayPal for taking too long and asking for tracking info. The money is received into your account, it's just temporarily unavailable.

Once order status is updated or tracking info provided, PayPal will either release money within 1 days of confirmed delivery with courier or you ask the buyer to "confirm receipt" to release funds by following these steps (it won't affect their buyer protection):

(may not be available for some countries):

 1. Log on to PayPal account.

 2. Click Activity at the top of the page.

 3. Find and click the payment transaction.

 4. Click Confirm Receipt.

 5. Click Yes to confirm that you received the order.