paypal holding of funds

[steve3200]

recently my friend had a very unpleasant experience with PayPal, my friend had a payment of approx £500 paid to them via an eBay transaction, into their paypal account, eBay sent my friend an email saying the item had been paid for and to send it to the buyer, the buyer actual came to collect the item, but when my friend checked their paypal account it was discovered that the payment had been 'put on hold for 21 days' due to no recent activity on the account, and therefore the funds can not been withdrawn, paypal said that if my friend wanted it quicker they need to confirm collection from the buyer, the buyer tried to call paypal and find a way of stating on the paypal website that they had collected it but there was no mechanism to do this, both my friend and the buyer each spent an hour on calls to try and sort this mess out but it was futile, paypal were determined to keep the money for at least 21 days maybe longer should they feel inclined, it strikes me as corporate greed and worse, my friend decided in the end to refund the payment back to the buyer and to take a chance that the buyer would be honest enough to pay by some other means, PayPal what on earth are you playing at? you are simply alienating your account users with your shabby business practices.

[sharpiemarker]

@steve3200 

To get the funds released sooner, mark the transaction as shipped at eBay, then then go to PayPal account and do the follow:

Sellers/recipients do this to get money sooner (may not be available for some countries):

 1. Click Activity at the top of the page.

 2. Find and click the original payment for the item or service.

 3. Click Add Tracking Info.

 4. Select an order status.

Note: PayPal releases funds 24/48 hrs from delivery confirmation with courier by PayPal, if tracking info is provided.

Then ask buyers/senders to “confirm receipt” to release funds (may not be available for some countries):

1. Click Activity at the top of the page.

2. Find and click the original payment for the item or service.

3. Click Confirm Receipt.

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

***Not all transactions require receipt confirmation.

https://www.paypal.com/uk/smarthelp/article/how-do-i-confirm-receipt-of-an-item-faq4176

Please read all of this:

https://www.paypal.com/uk/smarthelp/home

Its basically the owners manual to the PayPal account and how it works instead of automatically assuming its greed.

[steve3200]

this is not available as an option (uk), the buyer went through all this but it was simply not possible to do on the uk website, also the standard of the PayPal helpline was very poor, as my friend and their buyers first language is English we were at an immediate disadvantage, the PayPal operators were no help, they just read from a predetermined script and could not and would not listen to the actual problem, also their language skills left a lot to be desired, being extremely difficult to understand, the bottom line is that PayPal has become disappointing and unreliable as a payment method.