PayPal has gone to a lot of effort to not be classified as a bank. They are a "deposit broker" and regulations for those are regulated by individual states in the US. In all states there are no regulations requiring PayPal to release these funds AT ALL within any particular time period. They could hold them for 3 months or years if they decided that's what they wanted to do. They'd have no business if they did this however, it appears there are limits when it come to abusing its members. There is pretty much nothing you can do except making your sellers angry and create as a result of this policy a bad or perceptively unsafe shoppoing experience for buyer. Especially if you do not have the money to pay for shipping in your pocket. Shame really. Many people in the current economy have turned to Ebay and PayPal to make a living since the unemployment problem came in during this recession. Many cannot afford the hundreds or even thousands of dollars they would have to "put up in advance" to cover shipping funds. (This is what PayPal says is the solution BTW) The items I sold had shipping fees up in the hundreds of dollars per item. So I had to put money in advance in my PayPal account for each of the 1000 or so items I had on eBay. Just to cover shipping costs it cost me thousands of dollars I had tied up and unusable for business purposes, even though buyers pay for shipping at the time they make their purchase. It became very difficult to do this consistantly over time, Obviously this policy making a "safe shopping experience" for buyers and sellers is a lie told by PayPal and eBay. It is a lie, plain and simple. I no longer sell on eBay nor use PayPal for my business as result of this policy. I hurt too many eBay sellers. I had too many cases opened as a result of delayed shipping due to cash flow problems because of the holds. For me because of cases and complaints from customers due the cash flow problems these "Hold" problems persisted for several years. Yes... years not 90 days, years! Anything considered a risk will put you back on the "Hold" list, (A high priced item, a risky buyer, a case opend due to item not received even if caused by this policy, etc. And this decision putting you back on hold is done by software, not the judgement of a human being). Furthermore, once you are put back on the hold list you have to start over. For buyers who sell high price items and sell under 100 items per year, the DSR and feedback rating takes a year to clear up, so the holds can persist for years. Not just 90 days. Be Warned!!!! These policies very heavily damaged my businesses reputation. I could not operate my small business using standard cash flow management since funds were delayed by PayPal. I was in and out the "hold" category for years. My accountant couldn't even figure out how to account for this for my financial records. He had to create a way to account for these delayed funds in my accounts receivables. This is non standard accounting, since no other finacial instiution does this. Only PayPal. I was audited by the IRS due to these "inconsistencies in receivables as filed" according to the IRS. It became clear to the IRS what was going on as legit and I was cleared, but again this creates problems for business acounting and I had to endure an unwarranted audit. These policies are very problematic for businesses. According to PayPal VP's in response to this in the media, the money PayPal makes off putting these funds in bank accounts for 21 days or even 7 days is estimated at only around 10million dollars per day. This is a drop in bucket when compared with the tens of billions of dollars in total revenue. Or at least this is the way PayPal has justified this practice in the media. However, if I held a up a bank and asked for only $5 the amount of what I stole would not determine the severity of the crime. I would still go to jail for the same amount of time. It is the act that matters, not the value of the item stolen. The value has no bearing on the act. However, since PayPal isn't committing a crime, the victims of the policy have no remedy other than not using eBay or PayPal. That's it. Take it or leave it, as they say. It may be unfair, but it's not illegal. If you do not agree with policy then your only option is to not use PayPal or eBay. If it really bothers you that much don't use either service. Otherwise, fork up the money so PayPal can make its "drop in the bucket" profits
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