funds on hold? Infrequent seller?

[slvr-wlf]

I rarely use eBay anymore because of all the inconveniences related to it. Why do they make it so hard to actually talk to a person? Why do they hold your funds because you don't sell very often, have they considered that I don't sell very often because it takes so long to get paid? 

[lakefor94]

True, new and infrequent sellers are subject to payment holds. Talking to a person will not help. They cannot release your funds as it is automated. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/getting-paid/getting-paid-items-youve-sold/payments-hold?id=4816

[orangehound]

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@slvr-wlf wrote:

Why do they make it so hard to actually talk to a person?

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eBay is a public company that needs to show profits to its shareholders.  This is usually done through growth.

But, eBay isn't growing.  Despite the on-line sales market exploding over the last decade, eBay's leadership has been unable to chart a growth path for the company.  They've not only lost market share, but have actually had declining or stagnant growth most years.

Thus, to show profits, they've had to resort to raising the cost of selling and cutting costs.  One of the costs they've cut is customer service, as it has gone from bad to mostly ghost ... and should you find a moment when you reach one of the few still in customer service, they will say that they can't help you.

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@slvr-wlf wrote:

Why do they hold your funds because you don't sell very often, have they considered that I don't sell very often because it takes so long to get paid? 

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Every on-line marketplace is vulnerable to scams, thieves, etc.  To combat this, eBay enacts policies that make it more difficult for thieves to be successful.  One of these measures is to hold funds of new or renewed sellers for a length of time to ensure the transaction is successful, just in case a thief is operating it (for an existing account like yours, eBay wants to ensure it hasn't been hijacked or that you've turned bad).

[slyders_finds]

Yeah navigating through the menus on the site can be annoying. I found posing as a buyer(even though it was a seller problem) gets a quicker callback. 

[lux.ra_14]

I took a selling break during Covid. When I returned, the first item I sold was for $300-plus. Funds were held until the item was delivered (about a week) and that was the last hold on my account. 

No. Big. Deal.

[luckythewinner]

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Why do they make it so hard to actually talk to a person?

They make it so hard because it is expensive for eBay to have a live person field questions about things that customer support cannot change and that are clearly explained in the online help.

Why do they hold your funds because you don't sell very often?

eBay's goal is to make money for shareholders, not to make it easy for infrequent sellers to get paid. Payment holds are all about making money for eBay by managing risk.

People who do not sell very often may not monitor their accounts very often. Accounts that are not monitored very often are a target for scammers who are looking to hijack accounts and use them for fraud.

eBay appears to have analyzed the fraud on the site identified the accounts of infrequent sellers as a risk factor.

have they considered that I don't sell very often because it takes so long to get paid? 

I have no doubt that after eBay put payment holds in place, they measure the outcomes among the various demographics who are subject to holds, and make further decisions based on that.