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!

[striker911]

No way to know how long it will take. Ebay is its own country. No morals or customer satisfaction needed. They should make a motto. It could be something like "Pay Up Sucker". Wait till u see how much they take out. Its not over right when they take at the end of the sale. They wait a month or more to steal the rest. So don't spend the money for 6 months cause they keep taking money.

[bassman59]

In early December, I cleaned out my closet and sold a bunch of items on eBay. All of the transactions (a half-dozen) went through fine; the buyers paid immediately and the items shipped out the next day, and all was well. As soon as the money hit my PayPal account, I transferred it to my checking account. It should be obvious why I did that. Apart from the annoying 3-day float, that worked.

The last item sold a couple of days before Christmas, and I sent the buyer three invoices and he didn't pay. I had to open a dispute-resolution case with eBay because I never got any replies. (Yeah, yeah, it was a holiday. That's not my problem.) Anyways, soon after the dispute case was opened, the buyer paid.

That was when I saw the 21-day hold thing. How annoying -- after several successful sales, of more-expensive items, PayPal decides I'm not worthy.

So the rules for getting your money seem to be: a) wait 21 days, b) wait for the buyer to give me positive feedback, c) wait for the item to be delivered and wait three more days.

Well, the item was delivered yesterday; maybe my money will be released tomorrow or Monday.

I don't want to leave positive feedback for this buyer because, quite frankly, not responding to e-mails and forcing me to go to dispute is pretty much the definition of a crappy buyer who deserves at best neutral feedback. Since sellers can no longer do that, our only option is to simply leave no feedback at all.

I'm sure the buyer is waiting for me to give him feedback before he gives me the positive feedback I need to get my money.

So the end result of all of this: once I get my money, I'm closing my PayPal account and will no longer do business with them. I don't sell enough on eBay to be a "Power Seller" and seriously, at this point, I'd rather take the unwanted stuff to the dump than to try to unload it on eBay. As such, the eBay account will be closed as well.

Seriously, this check kiting scheme is illegal and why PayPal is allowed to continue to do it is rather astonishing. Even more ridiculous is the anti-competitive requirement that buyers and sellers use only PayPal.

"Most-loved way to send and receive money?" That's the very definition of hubris.

[whyte66angels]

Sorry here you have now joined the thousands or millions of sellers ebay has done this to. Fact ebay is the one who has paypal put the holds. Only ebay can have it removed! As for all the other B.S. you will be lucky IF you see your funds before 180 days. They did this to me & told me I dont make enough money or sell enough. Also DSR honey will ruin you. Buyer have complete control & ebay backs them up. Want to sell I have found an auction site that is ripe for building! ebid.net I look forward to seeing you there! All disgruntled ebayers are welcome.

[sm1715]

@bassman59 - A buyer leaving feedback does NOTHING to help release the hold anymore - it hasn't for months. PayPal finally updated their site like eBay did quite a while ago. You can read about it here: https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=security/ebay_payments_learn_more If you used delivery confirmation and PayPal has the d/c#, then you SHOULD get your money 3 days after delivery (there are occasional glitches - call if the hold isnt released when it should be). If you didn't use delivery confirmation, then hopefully you marked the item as shipped, because then the hold will come off 7 days after the latest date of your estimated delivery (calculated by adding your handling time with the estimated delivery time of whatever method you stated in your listing).    (This is no longer directed at bassman):   Now, to the people who say they can't afford the postage to ship the item - if you print your label through eBay, you will be given the option to pay for the shipping out of the buyer's funds, even though they're on hold! EBay won't withdraw the shipping amount until the hold is released. I have been posting on this thread for almost 2 years and I know that it's not possible to read every single comment, but people should read enough posts so they understand what's going on. I have never seen a topic so full of misinformation and misunderstanding...

[whyte66angels]

If you think I have miscommunicated then you better read the last 608 pages of people who are P.O'd that their funds are held because EBAY said so. Just about every seller complaining on this board has called paypal & ebay on this matter. Everyone in this board has tried to file some kind of complaint even right down to the attorney general! You can sceam all you want & trust me you will NOT see your funds before the 21 days. You signed the ebay user agreement allowing ebay to do this. I was with ebay for 11+ years 2076 feedbacks with 100% feedback rating selling 10+ items a week. They did it to me because of the DSR. I like everyone here in this community board called,filed & complained. All to deffening ears. The only way to make it stop is to QUIT ebay. I did I went to ebid.net I can still use paypal. I sold some things from there already & guess what NO 21 day hold. End all your auctions & refund the people who bought & funds are held. Leave & go to ebid.net they are having a special right now $49.95 Seller + Life time! 1 time fee & with this you get up to 5 stores, up to 5 picture per item, No listing fee, No picture fee (unless you need more than 5 picture), Free buy it now & list your item until sold.No shipping fee & a small final value fee if 2% not 10% like ebay. For what you save in fee's you can get the Seller + lifetime. Plus when you join you get buddy points. buy & sell item & get buddy points. These can be redemmed for items such as Kindles, X-box or Tv's. Spead the word & get more buddy points. Why stay with a site that dont want you. Try ebid.net

[likeflint]

I'm done with them too. That was the last straw. I'm going to Amazon Marketplace where I can give money and receive a product and sell a product and receive money. Isn't that why we joined these sites in the first place?

[striker911]

I deleted my first account 4 years ago. That was when I noticed the stupidness starting. Only I had to come back or travel the country looking for a $10 car part. That would be dumb. So I will buy if its in my favor but selling on eBay has long since been over. I seen it all crumbling back then. Everything was fine till they started getting greedy. First they didnt stand behind bad sales. I know cause I was ripped off for $400 and they did nothing. So then they step in and make things correct. Only they where loosing money now. In all that they ran off a lot of people that didnt want to get ripped off. So now the fees and loosing more buyers along with sellers. Then the sellers that did stay, on lets see what we can do to nail them. They are all we have left so lets get um. Whoever makes rules for this place is so money drunk it would not surprise me if he forgot how to spell his own name by now.

Whats worse is they where emailing people surveys a lot in the past. As much as this place makes from me I wont say a word. I want to get paid for my consulting cause Im 100% sure that I have way more common since then this guy does. U get paid for a darn picture that I post. I want paid! Heck the way they do things, I should have sent them a bill for sending me an email. That's the eBay way. Take it out on the customer and it will back fire every time. Only eBay has done this time and time again. I wonder when this site will just shut down. When is the last bunch of guys going to walk away? Maybe when the bill comes due for the eBay stores.

[joe44850]

This shouldn't even be legal. It protects no one. I'm not about to hand over the merchandise to the buyer (local pickup only), even though he has paid, because PalPal and eBay have decided to "babysit" my account for 3 weeks. So, while my money is accruing some nice interest for eBay/PayPal (they are the same company), I'm left in limbo. Had I known about this ridiculous rule (I am high risk? I have had my eBay account for TWELVE YEARS! I have exactly 0 negative feedback!). And there is nobody to talk to except for a very nice lady from Bengal that speaks broken English and repeats eBay policies back to me.

[911Runner]

I believe this is a class action lawsuit waiting to happen - they can't work with our money for free -- especially when they already charge us -- I would like to see interest applied to my earnings after 3 days of delivery of product.... I guess I will have to check out Amazon and someone mentioned GooglePay - maybe they will treat loyal customers a bit better and with more respect and class.Specially when you have nothing but good feedbacks...... This looks to me like typical corporate GREED..... Guess I just wait for the Class Action and cash in on that ---

[jrwelcker]

I've had an online business since 2001. Always used Paypal. Haven't sold much until last year, which was a record. Didn't sell anything for more than thirty days. Then I got an email about Paypal witholding funds.Frustrated and confused. And the buyers are totally in control here. We are helpless. well, I got to thinking, I bought a bunch of small items and sold for less than I paid for (yeah, I know big loss) and free shipping and try to get positive feedback. I've sold big items and only 1 complaint. But for Paypal doing this fund witholding is idiotic to say the least. Well that's it for now.