eBay

charliewz · ‎01-21-2019

I recently sold an item on eBay. I received an email from PayPal stating that I had been paid the correct amount. However, when I sign into my PayPal account, there is no indication whatsoever of any transactions or any balances. I am reading that sometimes funds will go into a pending account within PayPal in certain situations (e.g. you're a new seller, which I am). This would be completely fine with me, but I have no way to confirm that I actually have the pending payment available after a certain date except for an email which cannot be validated by anything else.

PayPal's website seems to suggest that I should ship the sold item before I actually receive the money. But eBay's website suggests the opposite--that I should wait until I have the money before I ship.

I can't get past being a new seller until I sell something, but I seem to be blocked from selling anything until I am not a new seller. I don't know what to do.

If anyone has some insight into this, I would greatly appreciate your input.

southern*sweet*tea · ‎01-21-2019

Pending and held payments will still show in your Paypal account. If you do not have payment in your Paypal account, you have NOT been paid. You were sent a scam email pretending to be from Paypal. Scammers hope new sellers are naive enough to believe the email and ship without verifying the payment.

Double check your listing and make sure the email address is correct. If it IS correct, you have NOT been paid. Does Ebay show the item as paid for?

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

bayougeorgecollectibles · ‎01-21-2019

This smells like a scam. Do not ship until you see the funds in PayPal. Scammers will usually send a fake email saying the funds are there. New sellers are one of their favorite targets. So the best advice is to wait.

duncanvr · ‎01-21-2019

As the other reply stated if the balance is not in your PayPal its not been paid. You've likely received a scam PayPal email. Make sure you never click a link from an email directing you to PayPal. Send the email to spoof@paypal and immediately delete it. I'd also be iffy of the eBay ID that bought from you since you received a fake email. What did you sell what is the value? When you do get the real PayPal payment make sure you only send to the address in it after you verified the funds are in Paypal. If asked to redirect the item be very careful you may loose your seller protection if you ship to a different address.

ga-8370 · ‎01-21-2019

@charliewz wrote:
I recently sold an item on eBay. I received an email from PayPal stating that I had been paid the correct amount.

~~PayPal's website~~The email from PayPal seems to suggest that I should ship the sold item before I actually receive the money.

Is that what happened, @charliewz, the (fake) email from PayPal suggested ship before payment is received?

charliewz · ‎01-22-2019

The email did not say that; the website did. The email said nothing about shipping if I recall. However, it seems that this email was a scam anyway. I’m not sure how they would have gotten my email address, but I’ll ignore the email.

gopetersen · ‎01-22-2019

You should be checking your PayPal account AND your eBay Sold Awaiting Shipment list.

When the payment shows up in BOTH those places, then it's legit and you can ship.

charliewz · ‎01-22-2019

That's fine, but the thing is eBay is saying that payment has been sent via PayPal AND I have an email (supposedly from PayPal, though I have no idea if it is or not) confirming that payment was made. The only place it is not showing up is in my balance when I sign into PayPal; both eBay and my email inbox are telling me that payment has been made (see attached screenshot of eBay confirming that payment has been sent via PayPal and that funds will be available soon).

This has happened before and I'm getting very frustrated with it. I want to sell my items, but I cannot figure out for the life of me if a sale is legitimate or not. Additionally, now that the item has sold, I will have to take the listing down and re-list it if I cancel the sale on eBay. I have had to do this once before and so far have not ACTUALLY sold anything. It's getting to the point where this isn't worth my time and I might as well just give these things away to friends who will use them. This is a dysfunctional system.

gopetersen · ‎01-22-2019

@charliewz wrote:
That's fine, but the thing is eBay is saying that payment has been sent via PayPal AND I have an email (supposedly from PayPal, though I have no idea if it is or not) confirming that payment was made. The only place it is not showing up is in my balance when I sign into PayPal; both eBay and my email inbox are telling me that payment has been made (see attached screenshot of eBay confirming that payment has been sent via PayPal and that funds will be available soon).

This has happened before and I'm getting very frustrated with it. I want to sell my items, but I cannot figure out for the life of me if a sale is legitimate or not. Additionally, now that the item has sold, I will have to take the listing down and re-list it if I cancel the sale on eBay. I have had to do this once before and so far have not ACTUALLY sold anything. It's getting to the point where this isn't worth my time and I might as well just give these things away to friends who will use them. This is a dysfunctional system.

Messages in email mean nothing. You are over-thinking this.

As I said, when it 1) shows up in PayPal AND it 2) moves to your Sold Awaiting Shipment list—when BOTH these things happen, you can ship. Ignore any other messages you get. Messages are easy to fake. Just check those two things and when they happen TOGETHER, you are good to go.