Understanding PayPal Holds

[Neilskelton]

Hi everyone, My name is Neil and I have been selling on ebay using PayPal for 100+ days now. I would love some clarity on holds and some advice to end the dictation on my businesses finances! The first time I had holds was on my 5th or 6th transaction, I immediately called PayPal to address my concerns. The PayPal representative was informative and helpful and explained that holds are put in place to make sure buyers have their money available to process a return in the event they request one. Other reasons for holds could be for new selling activity, new seller, bad reviews or pricey transactions. Makes sense to me! I was told not to worry and the holds would clear 24 hours after arrival, or instantly upon positive feedback and marked as delivered by buyer. ...72 hours after arrival.... I called again and expressed that not only have the items been received, they all also gave me 100% positive feedback, days ago. Although I ritually upload tracking information into eBay and eBay automatically populates the tracking in PayPal, this time the tracking information did not populate in PayPal and I was told to go in and update the information, upon trying to update information my computer screen reset it self and then it told me I had already uploaded tracking days ago. PayPal claimed it was a postal service issue not uploading my tracking but the Postal Service said they have already uploaded it days ago. After calling several more times and reaching a supervisor I had the holds lifted as I met every requirement and then some! About me and my selling history: I’ve been selling over 100 days and have graduated from eBay’s hold policy, my seller score is 100% across-the-board with a couple items being shipped a day late. I have had 100% positive feedback from 80% of my sales and no feedback at all from 20%. My account has not been suspended and my PayPal and eBay are fully verified. So how do we either stop the holds moving forward, or how do I at least understand holds well enough to plan my business finances accurately? In a perfect world new businesses would have all the capital they need, but as we know entrepreneurship does not always come with a lot of capital to start, The PayPal holds have set me back months already. I currently have another item on hold that has been delivered for over 72 hours and the individual messaged me saying they were very happy but they haven’t had time to leave me feedback and they said they don’t often do that. PayPal told me to message my buyers and tell them I need positive feedback and the item marked as delivered in order to lift holds, but even when folks do that the holes don’t always lift. Tracking information only sometimes auto populates from eBay into PayPal. The regulations, rules, stipulations and methods of holds and other PayPal activity still remains a mystery to me even after 40 transactions and a few hours on the phone and at least 10 hours of Internet research, The policy is not consistent with the way my account is handled. Any advice? ( Disclaimer: I am not against PayPal holds and I understand the necessity of PayPal holds, I understand the necessity of strict policies with Internet sales, but as long as I can understand the actual rules I can organize my business much better, so far the rules change for every transaction and holds don’t have a rhyme or reason. There is a chasm between what I am told should be happening and what is happening).