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!!!!!  

[Carlan]

Olivia,

Maybe it would be helpful to PayPal customers to show a date that money will be made available when a refund is held.  My hold just gives the following message:

"PayPal has placed a temporary hold while we're reviewing it.  We'll contact you shortly with further information."

You give an estimated release date for the temporarily held money from eBay sales, why not on refund holds?

Also, why does the amount of the refund hold not show in the pending balance?

[tbyrd0529]

Why the holding of an instant refund? PayPal holds your money when recieving payment and holds the money to the payee. This is very irritating and as far as I am concerned, completely unnessary!

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi tbyrd0529,

I definitely understand the frustration. It's hard to imagine that a payment that is immediately sent to a seller can't also be automatically refunded. The reality is that a lot goes on behind the scenes to allow a buyer to pay a seller instantly using a bank.

Moving money from a bank to PayPal is not an immediate process. It takes 3-4 business days (that's in the U.S. - it actually takes longer in most other countries.) What makes an Instant Transfer payment "instant" is that PayPal is actually paying the seller on your behalf while waiting for reimbursement from your bank. When the seller refunds the payment, it's the "up front" money that's being refunded. Until the original money from your bank finishes clearing, it is still in transit and is not available for use.

Olivia

[rebfad]

I have read this same explaination about 50 times on here and I agree with everyone else.  If they can take the money out of your account within two days at the bank why can;t it be put back in in two days.  why in the world would it ever take weeks to get a refund.  I am waiting on one too and I will NEVER use pay pal again for this reason.  I never dreamed in a million years that this would happen.  I just want my money back too!!!!

[hazeofbane000]

I understand we signed the agreement to use Paypal for the sake of convenience.  And I fully accept that.

But this is not a matter of simply "A lot going on behind the scenes" as if there are legalities that Paypal has to perform.  That may be what they tell you reps, but it's actually more of a matter of business strategy.  This is what I do for a living, so I'm quite clear on how this works. In my line of work, I deal with brokerage clearing houses, capital markets, brokers and banks.

Transfers could be instantaneous.  Absolutely instanteous.  Perfectly legal, and I transfer money instanteously myself all the time.  The problem, is one of cost.  Paypal wouldn't be able to make any money that way.  So I understand, Paypal has to make their money.  But there is no 'legal requirement' to hold the money 3 or 4 days.  That's simply not true. 

Paypal is in the business to make money.  The money that paypal has at any one time, they take a percentage of that and buy short  term paper.  Which is exactly that.  Commercial paper of the credit markets with a return for a very, very short time period for a specific return.  And I understand the 3 or 4 day time frame is not really Paypals "fault".  With prime funds where they are at, the only short term paper that Paypal can make any money from is on a longer time period.  Thus, that money is held for 3 days rather than 24, so Paypal can make more on their money; since they are dealing in very much a "volume" business.  At least until interest rates go back up.  So there is really no advantage to referring a refund case to the BBB.  Paypal i sstuck, because with prime fund interest rates so low, the only way Paypal can make ANY profit whatsoever is to buy longer term commercial paper for the return, which is going to torque off their customers in such situations that a refund takes place.  Sellers don't want to make their clients wait for refunds, so sometimes they are a little too quick to refund the money, before something can be worked out (that one has happened with me), and then there is the buyer in the middle. Paypal is just stuck with buying the paper that they can make the money with, so that they can continue to provide the service.

As someone that is waiting for my refund to clear, it's just that I resent that this is somehow framed in the context that Paypal could not (as if it was a legality or something) transfer the money sooner if they wanted to.

[Zaza]

WRONG AMD DECEIVING! Debit cards are convenient for both the customer and the merchant and transactions usually clear in less than 24 hours. Plus, business establishments accept debit cards more often than they accept checks, and businesses generally pay less to process debit card payments than they do to process credit card payments. unlike credit cards, the funds paid using a debit card are transferred immediately from the bearer's bank account, instead of having the bearer pay back the money at a later date. Most of ACH refunds are RETURNED WITHIN 24 hours what are you talking about?!!!

[tmgrood]

Paypal needs to understand that if for instance in my case I was accidently charged twice for a service I am using through paypal. This misunderstanding with this service I am using has almost caused me to go in the negative in my bank account and now I am waiting all this time for my refund from the company to get off hold by Paypal.

Each day paypal holds my money I am afraid something else may go through my bank account and put me in the negative.

[LionfromtheLake]

I was sending money to someone and when I was typing in their email to send the 200 bucks to them, that little automatic window that remembers emails popped up and inserted a different name then what I was typing. So I actually sent the money to the wrong person because of this pop up window that was trying to help me with a short cut but really didn't help at all, so I cancelled the transaction immediately within I'd say 15 seconds like oh know why is it going to that account until I traced the steps and figured out what happened. How long is this going to take to get my money back on a transaction I cancelled immediately because it has my debt card placed on hold and I can't even get gas or get to any of my money because they say there is a hold on it!!!!! ???

[damngdamng]

Bought something on Aug 9th.  The seller refunded on the next day Aug 10th.  The money was taken out from my bank account Aug 11th.. Today is the 15th...  Just wondering where do I count the 3-4 business days from in order for the temporary hold to be released... for future reference...  from the date of refund OR the date that original payment came out of the bank account???  

[rainwater4805]

Well that can't be true in my case. I paid for a game to be downloaded on Sunday the 9 th of Oct. The game, I didn't get the download. So I went and filed a dispute with paypal for a refund since there was no one to talk to on the game site. It showed the dispute was closed on Tuesday the 11 th and the money was refunded .But a temp hold was placed.The money cleared my bank  on the 11 th but the money is still being held by paypal. The refund from the game site was on the 11 th unless the refund has not cleared their bank as of this many days I can't see what the hold up is.