Temporary Hold placed on my refund!!!!

[slhixsons]

So I'm guessing that the problem that I am having with getting my refund put back into my paypal account is happening to a lot of others!!!!! I purchased a pair of shoes from ebay on the 16th. On the 19th the seller contacted me and said that one of the shoes was damaged so she was going to refund the money. I told her to refund the money on the 19th, and she did. That's not the problem.....the problem is.....It is exactly 4 days till Christmas and I need to order another pair of shoes, but until paypal takes the temporary hold off of my refund I won't have the money to purchase another pair of shoes!!!!!!! If paypal can front the money to the seller in order to get them paid in a timely manner, then they should be able to front the money to me, so that I can order another pair of shoes!!!!! This is the first and last time I will ever attempt to purchase something as a Christmas gift over the internet using paypal!!!!!  This has been an awful experience!!!!!  

[mssam1]

I understand your frustration, because I have a similar situation.  I made a purchase on Overstock.com & had to cancel a portion of the purchase which Overstock immediately & very courteously processed.  That refund was processed on the 16th of November & shows up as transactions on my account, but Paypal will not post the refund to my account because they are blaming Overstock.  Finding out that Paypal blames Overstock took 3 phone calls to customer service reps that provided some of the most nonsensical expalnations.  Asking to speak to a supervisor each time resulted in a hold time of a 1/2 hour, then being cut off.  When I contacted Overstock with the "information" that Paypal reps provided they checked into it for me even though they said that information made no sense & said the Paypal rep had no idea of what they are talking about.  They really have no control over this transaction.  Basically they get to hold onto our funds until they are go and ready to release.  I have no idea of how to proceed further - calling them just connects you to an inexperienced drone.

It's pretty crazy - Ebay transactions don't require all this posting time - why do their merchant transactions?  Basically it seems that Paypal is to be avoided on transaction types if there is any other alternative.

[temp11222011z]

Same thing happened to me.  I bought tickets on ebay for $799.  Seller told me he didn't have the tickets anymore and promptly sent me a refund.  Pretty mad at this point but I had no idea what I was in for.  Receive a notice from paypal saying that there is a temporary hold on my refund that should take 3-5 business days.  Called CS for an explanation and they say its protocol and theres nothing they can do.  They tell me it'll be available by Monday.  Ticked off at this point but try to remain patient.  

Monday rolls along and I'm constantly checking my account waiting for the funds to be available.  Call again during the afternoon and says it'll be available by the end of the business day.  5pm rolls by and my anger level is rising.

I call again around 6:30 and now the lady says the other CS representative was incorrect and that it will be available by the end of Monday meaning by 12am.  I tell her that's pretty bogus but she says theres nothing she can do, it's up to the Fed to send the funds.  

Midnight comes and still no funds.  I call again and a woman tells me it's going to be another 3-5 business days til I get my funds.  I ask to speak to her manager, she says ok, then proceeds to hang up on me.  Steam is rising from my head at this point.

I call back and speak to the first guy that's honest with me.  He says they've been having a lot of issues with refunds lately and that he can't give me any definitive wait time at all.  I express my frustration and he gives me the same "I wish there was a button I could press to make it better" bull that I've heard from every representative I've talked to thus far.  I ask to speak to a manager and as of this moment I've been on hold for 25 minutes.  

It sounds like nobody there wants to take responsibility and expects their customers to just sit back for however long they want us to without access to our funds.  I've never had issues with PP before but I'm sure as **bleep** going to be wary of using their services again.  

I won an ebay auction for another set of tickets and I'm seriously thinking about driving an hour to the seller to do the transaction in person to avoid having to deal with paypal again.  In short, I have no idea when you'll get your money back and neither do they.

EDIT: I was hung up on for the second time tonight while on hold for 40 minutes attempting to speak to a manager.  I hope the media gets involved soon to put some pressure on these guys

[DaneBramage]

****IN THE USA*******THE ONLY WAY TO GET THE MEDIA INVOLVED IS TO DO SO ON THE LOCAL LEVEL. CALL YOUR STATION THAT HAS THE "ON YOUR SIDE" SEGMENT AND GET IT GOING THERE.

[DaneBramage]

I am doing this in the morning.

[artsmnm]

I agree that Paypal needs to do something with their refund process.

I paid on the 16th.  The seller refunded on the 19th.  It is now the 23rd and no money in sight!  I am told that it might be this friday or saturday for my refund and THEN I have to transfer it to my bank account - another THREE DAYS.

paypal has the money by now.  There is no excuse for this.   They also need to refund directly back into the original payment method for ALL methods, not just credit cards.  

I really loathe this refund scam that paypal is running here.

[DaneBramage]

8 days and no refind. I contacted my local TV news "On Your Side" lady. She's off until Monday. I emailed her and told her of the enormity of this problem. For every post here, mathematically, there's 25-30 who haven't posted. Probabally more.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi everyone,

Typically, the ACH process takes 3-5 business days for US customers. That means that a purchase made on the 16th would clear no later than end of business today... typically. I have seen a number of reports on the forums that it has taken longer than that, and I am researching it. Please hang tight while I collect data and do some digging to figure out if it's affecting a specific bank, or transactions from a specific time frame. There's no need to post that information here for the time being. I'll let you know if I need any other info.

If you've recently posted in this thread that you're waiting for funds and they have successfully cleared by now, please do post that - it will be helpful in filtering out those who are no longer experiencing a delay.

Thank you all for your patience and help.

Olivia

[DaneBramage]

OLIVIA!!!! Where have you been??

Hmmm I report you guys to TV and magically ADMIN apppears to "look into this problem"

As the "CHURCH LADY from SNL TV show would say..."How convineeeeent".

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi DaneBramage,

This forum is a venue for member-to-member communication. Moderators and Administrators answer posts when possible in conjunction with their other responsibilities, but are not always available to answer questions. I truly regret any inconvenience that you or any other customer have experienced.

I understand that your concern as previously posted is with the typical time frame of 3-5 business days. This time frame is something that is a fact of ACH processing and cannot be changed. My post here today is due to the fact that multiple people have reported a delay of greater than 5 business days, and I want to track down causes and escalate a problem if one exists with the process as it normally functions.

Was your original transaction from before the 16th? Your data is helpful to the research I'm doing.

To everyone: Please go ahead and post to let me know if your original transaction was from before November 16, and your funds have not cleared. At this time I don't need any other information besides that, but that information will be extremely helpful! Please double-check your transaction history to confirm the original date and the status of the funds before posting. I appreciate the assistance!

Thanks!

Olivia

[DXer]

Mine was refunded on the 16th and it is not there yet. Transaction was on the 15th.