HORRIBLE IDEA TO HOLD FUNDS FOR 21 DAYS!!!

[gearhed78]

  Holding funds from sellers until the buyer leaves feedback is the worst idea EVER! Since when does Paypal become an authority on buyer satisfaction?? A smooth transaction is all that I wanted from Paypal. If they are going to hold funds, then they should make it very clear BEFORE you use them!  Keeping my money in their account for 21 days is a HUGE disadvantage of using Paypal. Stick to transferring funds,not trying to be a satisfaction authority!

[iCell]

Hi Andy thanks again for the explanation. Though what you are saying makes total sense as regards to the risk assessment reserves. My supplier has alway refunded monies attatched to a specific transaction when such has been requested by buyers. Therefore I am not sure how there is a risk to not being able to refund buyers. All cell phone traders (my supplier included) are very well aware that it is a high risk industry especially when trading used handsets. Especially is the case on places like eBay because many buyers are absolutely illiterate when it comes to item descriptions.

I have only had to to 9 refunds out of 52 transactions which mean 43 were successful ones. The majority of these refunds involved me being in constant contact with each individual from beginning to end as I also offer a replacement if there's a problem. To base a risk assessment for a reserve largely upon the number of refunds is absurd as such an assessment does not take into account WHY the refund was executed. As stated above, manybuyers on ebay do not carefully check the item description. 6 out of 9 of the refunds I had to do was because eBayers did not fully understand the difference between various details of my handsets DESPITE IT CLEARLY BEING STATED IN THE DESCRIPTION.

This means only 3 refunds were legitimate refunds as the handsets were indeed less than the stated grade B.

So you tell me Andy, How is it that an excellent reputation (only having had 3 legitimate refunds) warrants a reserve?

How can I lower my expenses when your (including eBay's) fees are so high?

I am not writing this, by the way Andy, to have a rant and rave, I really do want answers to these questions as the lady that contacted me about putting a reserve on my account kept on giving me the reason that I have had a 67% refund rate (rubbish as I am sure you know this having done the above calculations yourself). So if the premise for putting on a reserve is faulty, then it logically follows that the actual putting on of a reserve would likewise be wrong and faulty.

I don't want an answer such as this: "I'm sorry I can't comment on what another colleague has said"

Simply because you all go by the same rule book, right? 

[PayPal_Andy]

iCell- I completely understand what you're saying and as much as I would like to explain to you exactly why we're doing what we're doing, that's not possible here on the Community Help Forums.  I can provide you a rationale for the reserves based off of what you have stated and my own limited knowledge of the subject, but I would not be able to explain to you personally why this is happening.  My explanation may be completely off base for your particular case.  The only real advice I can give you is to call our customer service so they can maybe give you account specific assistance and if you have contact information for the person who placed the reserves, keep trying to work with them. 

I wish you the best of luck with your business and hope this turns out ok for you.

Andy

[jbeeman02]

I stopped using eBay and closed my Paypal account years ago due to this stupid policy which is worse today. However, Paypal and eBay are sister companies. So, you cannot purchase a thing on eBay unless you "submit" to Paypal. To the monopoly leave you and me with little choice but to succumb  to their rules. All of Andy's explainations are true but the viewpoint is incorrect. He writes from the aspect that it is for YOUR protection. Bologna. Paypal is simply protecting THEMSELVES from disputes under their guarantee's to buyers from seller accounts that don't have any money "left" in the account to deduct from. Simply, they hold your money so IT a buyer makes a dispute under the guarantee...they can settle it using the sellers money they have on "hold" and in "reserve". Simply protecting themselves. Also making a pretty penny in interest while your money is held for MONTHS.

[iCell]

"Say you are selling high end electronics, something that's really hard to get. You've sold thousands of dollars worth of items, then your supplier falls through. Suddenly you have disputes coming out your ears and your PayPal account is thousands of dollars negative because you've used those funds for... I don't know. Mortgage payments? Things like that. So at this point you owe thousands of dollars and may have serious issues repaying that. I'd say we could consider the business, regrettably, failed.

Here's where the reserves help you. Rather than you trying to get a loan from a bank or having a gigantic negative balance effect your credit, we apply your reserves. Suddenly, the debt is more manageable if not gone all together (as we attempt to base those reserves on the risk your business model presents)."

--Quote from Paypal_Andy

Hi Paypal_Andy, I don't know what you are expecting me to believe here?

You have just said that (as an example) if a small business had a supplier that folded his business and as a seller we had (for example) thousands of dollars to pay back to buyers, you would apply the reserves to make the debt more manageable.

Utter rubbish Andy. My supplier had indeed folded his business and I was left with 2 buyers to refund, which was actually the equivalent of the over £500 I had in my reserve balance.

I cannot tell you how many time I phoned and emailed Paypal to refund those 2 buyers out of the reserve amount as IT WOULD COVER THAT DEBT and just to stress I had nothing in the bank and nothing in my primary Paypal balance, hence me asking for Paypal to "apply the reserves" just to quote you again Andy.

I was told that Paypal could not do this as I had to initiate a refund myself (according to Paypal) where once I click "refund" the 20% that was originally held in reserve would be released into my usable Paypal balance. However the entire refund amount would still have to come from my bank or Paypal balance--WHICH I DID NOT HAVE!!!!!!!!!!

 This was the whole flaming problem I was getting at to start with. I didn't have the funds to refund in the first place and was asking Paypal to use ALL OF THE RESERVES WHICH THEY TOLD ME THEY COULDNT AND YOU HAVE JUST CONTRADICTED THAT BY SAYING YOU CAN. WHY DIDNY YOU DO IT WITH ME??????????????? I WANT AN ANSWER IMMEDIATELY.

[karst]

Paypal has been a largely unregulated business.

The only way to change things is to write to your state's attorney general and let them know about the arbitrary actions that Paypal implements.

Also write the Federal attorney general about the same issues.

Writing congressmen and senators is a waste of time as they are all bought and paid for by businesses like Paypal.

I've been selling things off and on on Paypal for nearly a decade and now they say they are holding my money until I establish a good sellers record.

Act

[g-and-g]

So WHY is PayPal refusing to allow me my funds for 21 days?  Out of the blue.  NEVER any chargebacks, NO disputes, what is going on?  I'm extremely agitated over this -- return from hospital CCU unit to discover email from PayPal saying I can't have my paltry $13.91 for 21 days???   THIS IS NOT your money!!  I want this 'hold' lifted immediately, and a decent explanation as to why it was placed.  

[m1a2n3]

dont use Paypal anymore use moneybookers or if u live in the u.s. google checkout. Ur better off with propay. paypal people are sucmbags. now everytime I see the paypal symbol i think of it as a scam just like ppl do with western union 

[YourStupid]

Paypal and Western Union are not scams.  They are legitimate companies utilized intelligently by scammers because so many susceptible fools like yourself use them.  Dont want to get scammed quit putting your head in the crocodiles mouth.

[Jazzman123]

A merry Paypal ruined my Christmas to all. We've had an account for over 10 years and my kids decided to sell some stuff to have money for presents. Now our account is on hold for 21 days. From what were hearing they may keep our money indefinently.  My kids and I want to know why they would do this to us when we have always had an account in good standings.  We never expected Paypal or Ebay to pull a dirty trick like this.  Do they think they are so big that they can get away with this? Well....Get ready Paypal.  People will only let you steal from them for so long.  Eventually a federal judge will put a stop to these thieves. Wish I never done biz with Paypal. But, it will be a pleasure to watch this empire crumble. It'll be interesting to see if it drags Ebay down with it. Does anyone think the brain child of this scam realized we're in an election year? In Montana we call it several things. In most states they just call it theft.  No grey area here. Just thieves.

[Stimpygato]

This is PayPal and eBay putting themeselves first, and trying to sell us that they're looking out for the Buyer.

It's BS, and they are actively damaging our small  businesses. PayPal / eBay YOU are the problem here, not the ecomomy!

What happens if enough sellers band together and calculate the monetary value you have cost US the small sellers?

So now eBay / PayPal active market themselves as Anti-Seller?  Last I checked there are alternatives. Seems like they are just pushing us away.

Poor poor customer policy guys.

Sincerely,

A very dissatisfied member, Noel

ebay ID: Stimpygato