PayPal Community

This is pretty ridiculous that there is ZERO notification by paypal to us that this issue is occuring. Don't they have any type of notification system when things are working in their system. I mean, geez, I'm only trying to run a business here and collect payments from customers. I sure look like a xxxxxxx when I say "Hey, why haven't you paid me yet?" and the answer turns out to be "Because paypal isn't sending invoices out and they didn't bother to let any of their customers know about the problem, leaving you to sit and spin wondering where your money is at."   Currently looking into other possible services that, A) work. and B) communicate with their customers when there is a problem. ... View more

Paypal needs to loosen the requirements to not be hassled by the 21 day hold policy. I've been using Ebay and Paypal for 10 years. 100% positive feedback on 60+ transactions. Yet I get the "your payment is being held" notification half the time I sell something because it's in a "high risk category." Why can't paypal give the user the benefit of the doubt? If they haven't had a problem in the past, then why pre-emptively limit their account?   It's also confusing from the perspective of giving your customers what they expect when they use your service. I didn't sign up to use paypal as an escrow service. When you hold payment until the item has been delivered, that's what Paypal is becoming, and almost no one uses Paypal with the intention to escrow funds.   Lastly, Paypal is in the dubious position of being the sole determiner of whether funds should be held or not, and then profiting off of the interest collected on held funds. It's a conflict of interest for them to be in this position, and from a user's perspective it looks very very shady. ... View more

^Yep. I've seen this many times with people who think that just because they sign something or agree to something, that it must be legal. Not very PC to say, but they're almost like the Uncle Tom's of society. Rather than fight against an obviously unjust agreement, they'd rather just keep picking that cotton and saying "yessuh." Don't want to cause any trouble for the massah. Maybe society has conditioned people to think that they can sign away any and all rights, I don't know.   The only problem I see in that complaint filed on 5/12 is that it doesn't address the 21 day holding, but rather focuses on the 180 day frozen funds issue. They're no doubt related issues, and the class includes anyone whose funds were held up to 180 days, but it would be nice if the complaint addressed the 21 day crowd. ... View more

The Original Poster had an excellent post. I agree with just about everything he said. And I'm also glad to see that a class action is in the works. As an attorney myself, I have no idea how this holding of funds could be construed as a legal practice. In essence, Paypal has turned itself into an escrow service. Last I checked, no one agreed to escrow funds in their auctions. Paypal is supposed to process payments, and for the trouble of doing so and dealing with complaints, they take a cut. Now they want to take a cut without taking any of the risk anymore.   The best part, as the OP stated, is that they set themselves up into conflicting positions of gaining interest on funds being held, while being the sole determiners of whether funds are held or not. Very very shady stuff. The best thing they can do for themselves is to cancel this policy immediately in order to lessen the amount of damages they will inevitably be forced to pay for this shameful business they're doing right now. ... View more