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!!!!!  

[rollingflintsto]

I too have had a temporary hold placed on my money. I believe that this is just a way for Paypal to collect interest on your money while they hold it. There is no way that it takes 6 days or longer for money to clear the bank. I am going to file a complaint with the BBB and see if I can't find a class action lawsuit taking place or try to get one started. I have always loved Paypal but I will no longer use them after this and I will warn everyone to stay away. This company has just gotten so big and greedy.

[Tofugrammie]

Well for what it is worth, because Paypal put a hold on my refund withOUT notifying me...would not have known if I had not had to come in to the account to check something else..... I am closing the account completely.  I paid with instant transfer of funds directly from my checking account and I expect the same with a refund...I  expect "instant".  Now they have lost my business and a business transaction.  I will not be placing that order with a corrected payment amount because my funds are tied up indefinitely.  i won't be able to pay and get the item in time.  Even with the refund.. I have to allow three to four working days to put it in my account after the "temporary hold" clears.  How can they put a hold without notifying you?  There is no reason given to me and no notification.

Melody

[MiaSara]

I am very upsett with the holds paypal is putting on refunds.  Just like everyone else is saying, if they can take the money out instantly, why can't they replace it instantly.  I ordered an item from target,  had to cancel it (and it was canceled before Target even got a penny), and paypal is still holding onto my money.  For what purpose?  I am contemplating closing my account.  Extremely disappointed!

[GrammarQueen]

The same thing happened to me. I ordered a watch for my daughter's birthday, and then I found out that her boyfriend had ordered the same watch. I contacted the seller to cancel my order, and the seller promptly refunded my money. Meanwhile, Paypal has put a temporary hold on my money. Rawr!!! This is the last time I am using Paypal!

[Volans]

how long before i get my refund?

i got the refund the same day i ordered because they said they had an item in stock but it seems they really did not....and my bank statement says -27.97 from paypal

and there has yet to be a deposit back into my account.....

it has been 4 days already.....

[l2rebel]

You know this is extremly frusterating, I placed an order with Bestbuy.com they refunded it. now I got a Temporary hold. I went to the contact us and BOOM NO 1-800 number. 

How about adding a 1-800 number for those that CANT afford the long distance call? 

I have spoken to Bestbuy.com they have released the funds. Extremly frusterating. I would drop paypal but unfortunatly I cant as other things I purchase are only though paypal. 

Im extremly irritated at the lack of choices for the Customer service options expecially the Call us options. as a World Wide buisness you should have a 1-800 not a 1-402 number that charges us when we need customer service. 

[sunflower4you]

I totally agree with you. The Paypal policy really made people crazy. I think if this policy is to be continued, the Paypal will loss a massive number of people using it. Why they hold our money for that long?? it is because they are holding and using our money to do their own business, they could probably use that money to invest in other activities or to lend it to other to get the benefit.  That is unfair since they already subtract some of our money during the transaction processes. They explained that is to protect the seller and the buyer. That is not a good reason. We do not need that. It is better to give users the options to confirm their action for sometimes to avoid the mistake. That's all! after confirmation, everything is fixed and can not be changed. That's all!!!!

sunflower4you

[tj0n3s]

It is amazing to me the amount of people who are not satisfied with this process.  Typical business practice would require a change on behalf of the company, in order to satisfy the one true reason that company exists... It's customers.

I purchased a memorabilia piece on March 14th around 10 PM.  I pay for everything I buy immediately, so the money was instantly drawn from my account, and I received a receipt via email.  The next day (March 15th) at 9 AM I was contacted by the seller and issued a refund due to the product being damaged.  He also sent me a transaction cancellation request so that he could be reimbursed some sort of seller's fee by ebay.  I completed this around 7 PM the same day.

Olivia, I understand what you are saying in regards to the way things work "behind the scenes".  However, when this action plan by PayPal becomes a stress to its customers, something needs to be altered.  PayPal fronts money to the seller in a transaction on the buyer's behalf, so that the order is not held up.  PayPal is not reimbursed for 3-4 business days by the buyer's bank, apparently.  This is understandable, and although may not be ideal in a refund sense, overall realistic and acceptable.  What I do not understand, is why can't PayPal take the same action once the money is reimbursed to them, and front the money back to the buyer so that it shows up in their account?  Instead, it seems PayPal waits for the money to come to them, and then sends it back which takes another 3-4 business days, causing the buyer to wait 6-8 business days for money to come back to them, when it took 6-8 seconds for it to come out of their account.

Just put yourself in our shoes, and imagine having money come out and nothing to show for it.  It's not as if we have done something wrong and consequently are stuck with some crazy time frame.  In most of these cases, the transaction was cancelled by the seller, not us. 

As I stated before, it comes down to proper business practices, and sometimes simply explaining the way something works is not sufficient.  PayPal has the ability to front money before it is in their hands to the seller... Why can't they front money once it is in their hands to the buyer?  It's just not right...

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi everyone, and welcome to the forums!

I understand what you're saying. I can see your point of view in requesting that PayPal release your money to you as soon as it's refunded. The problem is, what you're asking PayPal to do is release money that has not actually been given to us yet.

Let's say you and your friend Greg both decide to buy Girl Scout cookies from your coworker Jennifer. You give Greg your $7.00 because he's probably going to run into Jennifer first. Before Greg runs into her you decide to cancel your order and you head over to Jennifer's desk to let her know. Do you get your $7.00 back from Jennifer right then and there? No, because she hasn't gotten the money yet. Jennifer can't be expected to front that $7.00 back to you. You'll have to wait until one of you sees Greg.

Your bank is Greg. Once Greg comes through with the $7.00, it's yours immediately. Until Greg gives us that money, we can't give it to you.

So why can we front it to a seller? The reason why we can do that is because there is a credit card for backup funding in the event that 'Greg' doesn't come through. Why doesn't it work in reverse? Because that would be subject to different classification, rules, and fees from your credit card company. The use of your credit card as backup funding is solely for the purposes of the transaction for which you designated it the backup funding source, not for the cash advance of the refund of that transaction.

When the funding method is eCheck, PayPal is not taking the initial risk of fronting the money to the seller. A seller in an eCheck-funded payment waits until the funds clear from the buyer's bank before they can consider the transaction complete. This causes delays in shipping. We love being able to offer Instant Transfer as an option on transactions to avoid those delays. Whenever Instant Transfer is available as an option, PayPal is offering you that convenience as a service, free of charge.

I hope this helps!

Olivia

[Liznette2011]

I ask the seller a refund ,he did it  the same day,,,the next day I had my money on my account and I used a Debit card...Maybe people have problem using Credit card ,when It  takes almost 30 days to get their money back.