Useless Paypal hold

PeRmWaZe
Contributor
Contributor

I'm kind of upset in this situation because something that was put in place to circumvent scammers is both useless and honestly is only promoting scamming by leaving the buyer with little options.

 

I recently had a seller of a virtual good create an invoice for me. He originally wanted me to just send him an item as Goods and Services but I felt much better having him send a full invoice with details of the item I was purchasing and a list of terms that he agreed to. This way there was no argument on what that money was being sent for, and I wanted to cover my butt as much as I possibly could. Something Paypal should invest more time into. Why even allow all these other options when they lack any real security? There should just be send an invoice or send a gift...

 

Sure no problem, the buyer sent an invoice. Well actually he sent a money request because the invoice is now hidden and harder to find. Again literally 0 reason to have send payment, request payment, and invoices. Too many options! But eventually he was able to figure it out and sent one. I checked it over and was satisfied so I sent the payment. Then he went and accepted the payment and we were told he wouldn't receive his funds until the 27th. (7 Day Hold) Wait why is this happening? Well okay the premise makes sense but the execution is poor. Maybe on Ebay the seller would be more inclined to ship the item and this would speed up the process of them getting their money. But for less trusting Ebayers or in this case for transactions not backed by Ebay, the seller is a lot less inclined to ship the item without having their funds. There's no gun put to their temple to force them to deliver the item prematurely to them getting the money. Which is the case I find myself in. Maybe the seller who is already fed up losing a good chunk to fees doesn't want to lose in the situation and if he has to wait then so do I. Or maybe he just doesn't trust that he will get his money. Either situation he isn't in the mood to deliver the item until he gets his money.

 

So now we are stuck in a situation where we have to wait a week. Lord only knows if it turns into 21 days... For the funds to be released. We question our options. Okay he can refund the invoice. Perfect. Except he can't refund it without having either the same amount in his wallet or a active bank account connected to his account. So wait. Not only is the money being held. Which by the way is supposed to just be for a security purpose. But now the money is magically locked away and even a refund cannot be committed without an outside source of money being put in its place. That makes literally 0 sense. Who is going to refund something and have to pay the amount the invoice is for just to try to get the money quicker? They end up still out that amount of money waiting for the held money to come in...

 

Okay so we can't refund it. What is our other options? Well I could confirm that I received the item. In other words lie and say that I got the item just to quicken the hold process. But not only would that mean I would falsely claim that I got the item but I then lose all possibilities to file a dispute if I do not actually end up getting the item I paid for. Lovely so literally Paypal is saying you have to wait because we are protecting you when the seller isn't going to ship the item anyways and if you want to speed the process up you forfeit all your rights as a protected buyer and you get scammed because we were "trying" to protect you from getting scammed. The whole situation makes literally 0 sense and I am infuriated right now.

 

What other options do we have other than to wait around for literally no reason what so ever? Which gives the seller optimal time to delete his tracks and flee before I even have a chance to finish the deal. I mean I could file a dispute but I do not think filing a false dispute is a good idea. It could hurt his account and I know from past experience the funds will still be withheld for an extended period of time. You literally do not win in this situation. If the item you were purchasing was super important or you really needed the money you would be left without a paddle sailing up **bleep** creek.

 

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