eBay-Paypal's New 21-Day Hold on Funds

[atticofunclefred]

Last night I received a disturbing Paypal payment, it was definately different. The email said in part...
"You've received a payment....blah blah blah... We’ve placed a temporary hold on the funds for this transaction...blah blah blah....We’ll release the hold in 21 days..."

The email further states that Paypal/eBay MAY release the funds early if:
1. The buyer leaves you positive feedback on eBay.
2. We confirm that the item was delivered.* We can confirm delivery if you ship the item with USPS, FedEx, or UPS and either use PayPal shipping labels or upload tracking information from the transaction details page. This applies to transactions within the United States.

The email also instructed me to SHIP the item right away.

No. 1: I don't need eBay or Paypal to advise me on something I already do very well. Although we are relatively new at this, we have STELLAR Rating of 100%.

No. 2: A 21 Day Hold on our money is B.S! Its OUR money. But of course this maneuver allows Ebay & Paypal to significantly increase revenue by reaping (raping) the interest on millions of dollars.

I too want eBay to be a safe and trusted shopping venue, but this punishes those of us who follow the rules. It should be implemented on only those who are failing to provide quality customer service.

I also noticed the sneakiness involved. This was not widely broadcast in advance (I don't recall hear/reading anything about it) and It was implemented on a Friday afternoon. I sure hope everyone raises 2 colors of hell about this. Lodge a Formal Complaint.

Uncle Fred

[dude90001]

Hi everyone, I also had to cancel two transactions due to this BS... we all need to file a complaint with the FTC because they will investigate the interest collection as an unfair business practice....

This is a scam, ebay states I am upgraded and should not have a hold and told me to call paypal and have them call the safety and trust deptartment.

Paypal says they don't do this etc... Called ebay back and the woman said that is BS (ebay knows they will be losing sales to amazon from here out) that's what I had to do.

If a couple thousand people file complaints the FTC will definitely open a case!!! please post on Social media twitter etc.

Thanks Dave

[redbud_farm]

The holds are in the user agreement as are ways to avoid them

[geneo002]

Paypal is screwing me also! I just made a sale for $28 and free shipping I got an email from paypal I have been payed BUT my money is on hold NOW it wont let me print a shipping label to ship the item because there is no money showing in my balance. I have to go to the post office and pay out of my own pocket to ship this and have them make me a label and pay more for it This is complete fraud. Our money sits in their bank account and collects interest while we squirm and dont dare have them limit your account if you are one of the people that treat paypal like a bank I know someone right now with 10 grand on hold because they froze his account now he cant even pay bills or house payment PLUS he LOST his ebay busniess because it is a perm. Limit. He has to wait 180 days to get his money released to him. Someone should be in jail over this **bleep**!!!

[geneo002]

BTW I have a bank account linked to my paypal account WHY cant they take the shipping from there and let me print my label? When you sell on ebay you cant wait 21 days to ship your item!!! PLEASE FIX THIS because you are going to lose a lot of customers if this keeps up!

[redbud_farm]

Nothing to fix, read the policy and requirements to release some funds for shipping.

You agree to the holds by using pay pal, didn't you read what you are agreeing too?

[aventis_online]

Gee...great advice! Kudos to you my friend... you certainly are one smart cookie!

[grayjay0]

Except, no, they can't. They can set all of the terms of service they want but there are laws regarding funds availability and for normal banks, cash and electronic transfers need to be made available the typically same day as they receive payment or within one business day. 

Paypal is trying to pretend that they're not a bank and skirt the law, saying they're an "online payment processor" and only doing a handful of things a bank does.

I understand why they do it. There are plenty of ways to run a scam through ebay or any online sales platform and the costs of collecting on defaulted payments are way more than what they'd ever get back. Ebay wants buyers to feel like they can buy anythign and return anything but realistically most sellers can't afford to take the risk of selling to fickle buyers. Paypal to the rescue- yet again trying to act like a bank and trying to pretend they're not a bank. In this case they're trying to run an escrow but trying to predend it isn't an escrow. If they were just helping mediate a transaction between buyer and seller and make sure money is transferred they'd act like an escrow (or like a payment processor that they claim to be) and release funds to the seller once the buyer is satisfied, probably 3-5 days after the transaction, once the item arrives, and have an upper limit in case the buyer doesn't respond. Arbitrarily stating 21 days is nothing more than an attempt to ride interest accrual and frankly, yeah, they do need to have FTC complaints filed against them. 

And that brings me back aroudn to this new, arbitrary 21 day policy. Why 21 days? Probably because they just had to settle a class action suit for holding funds upwards of 180 days and failing to provide the correct documentation to sellers in the case of disputes. http://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/open-lawsuit-settlements/306260-paypal-account-hold-c...

[redbud_farm]

Pay pay ain't a bank . nothing you say will make them one.

[watchuseek2014]

Pay pal is, and has been the biggest scam going for years. I had over 1000+ feedback, 100%. Pay pal froze my money, buy putting it on hold, which after a period of time ruined my growing eBay business. EBay linked with pay pal, to monopolize the scam, telling sellers they HAD to accept Pay Pal as their sole form of payment. Because of this fact, there is no recourse through eBay to help you with Pay Pal. They have been one in the same for some time now. 

The criminal behavior and monopolizing won't ever stop, unless enough sellers speak up in favor of eBay supporting multiple ways of payment, or putting Pay Pal on the straight and narrow. BTW, my account that was frozen and held by Pay Pal for months, had thousands of $$ in it. Never was able to recoups all of it. I'll never use pay pal again unless sending money, without my bank account being linked!

[comchaseidf]

This is stupid today is the first day i ever had a payment held. I say if paypal wants to hold all the money and not release any for shipping. WELL then they should supply the label and they can get there funds back when ours gets released. Sellers are always getting in trouble always. Let me tell you i have had my fare share of stuff scammed out of me by buyers!! I am both a buyer and a seller, But let me tell you a seller i am going to be no more. Paypal and Ebay watch your sellers decrease like crazy. Then all your money will fly out the window!!

[redbud_farm]

First pay pal is separated from eBay , but I'm that separation eBay agreed to use pp for x amount of sales for x years.

And you can get postage released if you just read the requirements

[rytell]

Are you notified when the hold is lifted and the money can be used or transferred?

[leaky-bucket-labs]

I got my money held for the first time today.

I am not happy about it and am probably never selling again.

I would like to leave a tip though for people like me that hate seeing some smug, annoying signature.

Block it with ublock origin.

[redbud_farm]

EBay has plenty of sellers that understand the policies and do very well.

[rehashedshop]

I hope some ivory towers eBay managers are reading this! Today is the 29th March 2016. I've also had my funds frozen. First time ever in ten years of building my brand and seller standard. Two lengthy phone calls to eBay, and being passed along to various departments and I'm still not getting ANY straight answers. Apparently I've been thrown into below standard status as s seller because I had the nerve to cancel three orders - each of these that I cancelled, at time, I rang eBay to explain why. They were cancelled by me as the buyers were going outside of my selling requirements or not paying etc. I did not want to deal with these buyers as I sensed drama from the get go with them. I explained this to eBay at each instance. They apparently noted it in their system each time. I'd beg to differ. Today I ended up in a roaring argument with a rep in escalations. I questioned the legality of what they were doing and why they were holding funds on a perfectly smooth, happy buyers, positive feedback transaction? The rep could not answer me and began talking over me as I screamed at her that I wanted answers and how eBay was damaging my brand, livelihood and business. THE REPS LAME ANSWER AT ONE POINT WAS TGAT FUNDS WERE ON HOKD BECAUSE EBAY NEEDED TO GAIN TRUST IN ME AS A SELLER! Errrr **bleep**?! I then hit the nail on the head when I said (SCREAMED) at the rep that there is no reason because this 21 day hold is nothing more than dirty tactics and a smokescreen to garner interest on sellers funds. I am disgusted that after building my reputation on eBay as a 100% positive feedback seller, that I (and I now realise MANY OTHER fantastic eBay sellers) are being treated like this. We are the ones that make the money for them yet we are treated like dirt. I'm hoping my mortgage provider understand why I will now fall into arrears on my payment because of this. Do I give them ebays phone number and have them call them to explain? I have also taken all of my listings down from eBay as I'm scared I will get sales and my hard earned money will be frozen. Thanks eBay for the great Easter 2016 I had due this! How your executives who make these debilitating and alienating decisions is beyond me. REGARDS, Rehasedshop (100% positive feedback on 487 sales as opposed to the three I cancelled due to nutjob buyers).