@PayPal_Wayne wrote:
Hey all,
sandypurins has answered this question but there are two things I wanted to clear up.
- The main reason behind placing holds on payments is to reduce fruad on eBay and PayPal. From buying and selling on my own account I know the majority of fruad happens on high risk items and accounts new to eBay. Until a user becomes experienced, holds may be placed on their payments in order to safeguard the whole PayPal system. The more positive feedback gained as a Seller the more your reputation with eBay and PayPal is increased, which leads to holds being placed less and less.
- There is no interest gathered by PayPal as the funds never leave your account while the hold is placed. The funds are placed on hold within your account, they never leave. To PayPal, there is no different in funds on hold and funds that are not on hold. They are both within your account so no interest is gained.
I hope this information helps you all
Wayne
OK - I have a question about your reply to sandypurins. First, I came to the Paypal Community today for the first time because I cannot get a reply or an answer from Paypal regarding this new policy after three telephone calls and one email. When this new policy began and I saw that bed block with the message that Paypal would be holding funds from my ebay sales for 21 days - I thought, what the heck?!! So I read the policy several times and I did not fit into any of the categories or reason that the policy would be applied to my account.
I've been a seller on ebay since 2003 and I have always had 100% feedback. I called Paypal after reading the policy to ask why this 21 day hold was applied to my account. The rep didn't know and said she would release the money and send my account to a specialist to be reviewed and they would contact me by email - never happened. I emailed to ask if the review was complete and what was the result. No reply from Paypal. I called again and was told the same thing as the first telephone call. I pulled all of my listings off ebay. I'm not a power seller and never will be. I sell on ebay to supplement my income because I need it - not to have "mad money" - because I need the additional income.
I always ship within one business day from the time Paypal notifies me of the buyer's payment & funds cleared. Most of my items are from estates and roughly 1/3 of my buyers are international buyers. No one wants to pay more than First Class International mail rates, especially when they probably will be paying a VAT. There is no way to track First Class International mail and Paypal does not distinguish that from domestic mail which we can track.
During both of my first calls to Paypal I asked the rep to looks at my Seller Dashboard as I read it to them. Everything on my Seller Dashboard is the best it can be.
I called for the third time this week and the rep said she would send my account to a specialist to be reviewed...hmmm...I heard that before and I told the rep that and requested that the account specialist either telephone me or email directly to me because I need to get this issue resolved.
As an example - I have had a huge increase in medication expenses over the past few months, so the money I make by selling on ebay has been a tremendous help with those expenses. Now, it is quite feasible that money I make on ebay in one month, being held by Paypal for 21 days, will not available to me until the next month. So if I have to depend on that money for a medication, I could be without it for a week until I am able to buy it again.
It is not fair for Paypal to adopt such a restrictive policy to prevent seller from having access to money they have made and have paid fees on - both to Ebay and Paypal and to slap that policy on sellers who have no history of any discontent, returns, or refunds to buyers - especially sellers like myself who go the extra mile to satisfy their customers. I use Stamps. com for all of my international sales so I can print the First Class International mail stamp immediately when Paypal notifies me of the buyer's cleared payment. We have specified mail pickup everyday, Monday - Saturday specifically for shipping. Sometimes my packages go out on the same day Paypal notifies us of the cleared payment! I treat my customers the way I want to be treated. Last year a package going to the UK was taking longer than ususal. I took a copy of the customs forms to our local post office and asked one of the clerks to see if they could use the numbers on the customs form for that package to find out the date it left the U.S. The clerk did find that out and I emailed the buyer. I spent the money for a call to the UK entry post to find out the day the package arrived there and followed along with my customer until it arrived at her address.
Where do sellers like myself fall into Ebay and Paypal's appreciation and acknowledgment of best practice scales? A 21 day hold of funds as a thank you? I really want an answer to that as I know many other sellers do. At some point Ebay and Paypal have to be accountable to the people who are their customers and with this policy the time for that accountability should be right now. I have not listed anything on Ebay since I pulled my listings and I am having problems this month because I don't have the additional income; but at some point even small sellers such as myself have to take a stand.
