Had it with PayPal - pending funds

[SuitcaseMarvel]

After all the BS I've had to put up with PayPal, I think this tops the lot.

Sold a laptop on eBay. Funds are "Pending" investigation and won't be released until 21 days. Called PayPal, the best answer that anyone could give me is that it's because I sold a "high value electronic item" and do not do that very often. That's correct: I last sold a laptop of this value a year ago.

But I have sold several items worth hundreds of pounds in the past two weeks. It seems that PayPal can't define a "large value electronic item" either. Anybody know? £400? £600? £800? Beats me.

So now I have to either:

a) Wait 21 days - I can't wait that long for the money and the seller isn't prepared to wait 21 days for me to post

b) Ask the buyer for positive feedback (yeah, right) and wait until "more than three days' time" before providing a tracking number to "release the funds within 24 hours", according to PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/?cmd=xpt/Customer/popup/PPPolicyForEBayItemHolds-outside

Somehow I can't see this happening.

c) Wait for the buyer to cancel the whole transaction and go through this BS the next time I try sell the laptop.

I messaged the buyer to apologise and see if they will go along with option B. I'm really beginning to think eBay/PayPal isn't worth the time and effort selling electonic items. Absolutely ludicrous carry on. I have been a PayPal member for five years so it can't be the "you are new" rule.

[SuitcaseMarvel · Accepted solution]

As expected, the buyer has now cancelled and I will be very fortunate if they do not leave negative feedback.

To make sure I don't waste my time with all this BS again, can somebody who works at PayPal explain what a high-value electronic item is? As it doesn't say ANYWHERE on any support pages I've looked at, or service operators I've spoke to.

https://www.paypal.com/selfhelp/article/FAQ1646/2

Nice incorrect use of you're on the above support page too. Maybe the people at PayPal are illiterate and incompetent. Joking.

[kernowlass]

@SuitcaseMarvel

New seller hold that every new seller goes through. OR sometimes you are put back on it for high value items or if your star ratings dip etc.
Positive feedback is not one of the criteria for early release of funds.

https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/security/ebay-payments-learn-more

[SuitcaseMarvel]

Please refer to this part of my post: "I have been a PayPal member for five years so it can't be the "you are new" rule."

Anyhow, I ended up selling this laptop earlier this week - and I recieved the money instantly. Very odd. It seems there's a complete lack of transparency or guidance to let you know when this is going to happen. It could be random for all we know. One in every five transactions of high-value electronic items gets investigated. Who knows. The buyer was based in the UK, so from now on I will no longer attempt to sell high-value electronic items through the international shipping program. A small price to pay to save the mess, I think.

[kernowlass]

@SuitcaseMarvel

And read my post when i said >>>

New seller hold that every new seller goes through. OR sometimes you are put back on it for high value items or if your star ratings dip etc

But yes i guess sometimes it can be random dependent on seller / price / buyer etc. OR it could be because you were selling a high value item internationally?? That may possibly be the reason and the rest went through ok because they were within your own country?

[SuitcaseMarvel]

I suspect that you're correct and would advise anyone reading this thread and is thinking about selling a high-value high value electronic item to disable international selling.

[roadbike72]

oh surprise surprise this has happened to me aswell this week...

yeah i had this on a £665 payment.on a laptop.

so ebay charged me £68 for selling, paypal charged me for selling it and i hav had to post it and i have got £0

so worth selling stuff on facebook pages now, ebay & paypal have taken the **** for far too long

i phoned them and they say this is for security etc... even though i had sold stuff last week...

well they still have the cheek to charge you for the service but dont tell you this is going to happen....

i hope they are going to cover my missed payments and charges on my bills that i now cant pay as i dont have my money....

i am sure the fsa will be interested in this. surely charging for something that they have not had is wrong... will be checking with them tomorrow.

i have added tracking and posted the item but the customer was not in... so s this my fault aswell...

come on paypal looks like there is a pattern forming here...

[Picket]

Just had same experience. Sold goods for £200 on behalf of a friend. goods dispatched & delivered next day. Buyer left good feed back but told by PP must wait 21 days for money. Been with the nearly 16 years, got 100% feed back on ebay with over 400 plus feed back ratings. Is this a ploy by Ebay & PP to raise extra funds from interest made by holding these funds?

I have contacted PP & had every excuse under the sun. Bottom line is you must wait end of!

No matter what I say or do they are not going to give me the money.

needless to say that's the last time I will use them.

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@roadbike72 wrote:

oh surprise surprise this has happened to me aswell this week...

yeah i had this on a £665 payment.on a laptop.

so ebay charged me £68 for selling, paypal charged me for selling it and i hav had to post it and i have got £0

so worth selling stuff on facebook pages now, ebay & paypal have taken the **** for far too long

i phoned them and they say this is for security etc... even though i had sold stuff last week...

well they still have the cheek to charge you for the service but dont tell you this is going to happen....

i hope they are going to cover my missed payments and charges on my bills that i now cant pay as i dont have my money....

i am sure the fsa will be interested in this. surely charging for something that they have not had is wrong... will be checking with them tomorrow.

i have added tracking and posted the item but the customer was not in... so s this my fault

aswell...

come on paypal looks like there is a pattern forming here...

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