Just received this Ebay policy update on 7/21/2010: "Clarification is included about instances where seller funds may be held as pending in their PayPal accounts. eBay has at times requested, and may continue to request, that PayPal hold seller funds to help facilitate smooth transactions. eBay will make such requests based upon factors including, but not limited to, selling history, seller performance, riskiness of the listing category, or the filing of an eBay Buyer Protection claim. PayPal may also hold funds pursuant to their own Funds Availability Policy." This is what Ebay's policy states as of 5:35 am EDT 7/22/2010: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/buyer-protection.html#holds "Holds To protect against the risk of liability, eBay has at times requested, and may continue to request, that PayPal hold seller funds based on certain factors, including, but not limited to, selling history, seller performance, riskiness of the listing category, or the filing of an eBay Buyer Protection claim. PayPal has held, and will continue to hold, seller funds pursuant to the terms of the PayPal User Agreement, PayPal policies and any other agreement entered into between PayPal and its users." The differences are shown in bold print. I'm not sure why there is such a difference. Perhaps the policy update was sent out before the Ebay policy online was changed. If that's not the case, isn't there an subtle and interesting separation of Ebay and PayPal inferred? Didn't Ebay purchase Paypal? Doesn't the separation of PayPal's policy and Ebay's policy allow for the withholding of funds by Ebay without the appearance of financial gain? The theory has been that PayPal made the decision to withhold funds to benefit from interest accrued on the money withheld. ! If Paypal benefits Ebay benefits. If Ebay benefits PayPal benefits. SMOKE AND MIRRORS. Common sense would indicate that this is a policy change in name only. I wonder if there is a legal loophole.The FTC needs to take another look.
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