Sold several items in the last week but still showing "awaiting payment"

[olivias28213]

I have been selling on ebay and using PayPal with no issues since 2014.  I have sold several items in the last week but have not been paid some some of them. I contacted the buyers who all told me that they have paid and that the money has been deducted from their accounts.  I contacted both ebay and PayPal which was not helpful because I can't get a hold of an actual person due to Covid-19. Is anyone else having payments delayed on put on hold for some reason? It's frustrating that I can't reach anyone who can help me. 

[reallynicestamps]

Payment has been deducted from their BANK accounts.

They all wrote you "e-checks" which now must clear the banking system.

This can take a few days.

It's unusual that so many are not using credit card backing which is truly instant.

But never put down to conspiracy what can be explained by coincidence.

Do NOT ship until the checks have cleared.

Tell your impatient customers that you cannot print a Paypal shipping label until the payment clears. Which is sort of true.

E-Checks like paper checks can bounce.

The most impatient buyer is the one with the rubber checks.

Make up appears to be one of the high fraud categories. Fortunately you have been trouble free so far.

Don't communicate with those who have not complained. Don't poke a sleeping bear.

EBay is currently using Twitter and Facebook for customer service and I hear telephone service has been reopened.  All are staffed by humans.

[perrance78]

If it says payment pending they never paid. If they are insisting they paid they are ether scammers, or trolls or they paid with an echeck. If it was an bid auction or buy it now with no required payment immediately than they would have an option for echeck payment.

Does your Paypal history show any payment received or payment processing/pending???? If not they never paid. My understanding is Paypal will show a message that its processing echecks in your history.

I would recommend that you start the process for canceling the transaction and see what the buyer does next.

Were the items high ticket?

[inhawaii]

Did you log in to PayPal? 

It should tell you if those payments were received and/or if those payments are on some kind of hold.

[sin-n-dex]

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@perrance78 wrote:

If it says payment pending they never paid. If they are insisting they paid they are ether scammers, or trolls or they paid with an echeck. If it was an bid auction or buy it now with no required payment immediately than they would have an option for echeck payment.

Does your Paypal history show any payment received or payment processing/pending???? If not they never paid. My understanding is Paypal will show a message that its processing echecks in your history.

I would recommend that you start the process for canceling the transaction and see what the buyer does next.

Were the items high ticket?

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An eCheck will show as pending in Paypal. If nothing shows in Paypal there was no payment.

I would just insist I'm not shipping until I receive payment and open a UPI.

C.

[slippinjimmy]

Check the listings in question to make sure the email you provided for PayPal was correct.

If a buyer sent the payment  and the email you used was incorrect the payment would have been sent  and would either be pending limbo on the PayPal side because it didn't match an existing account or of course worse some other PayPal user had that email address.

Could just be a typo in your email address for payment, if you were using sell similar the error would keep showing up on newer listings.

[sin-n-dex]

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@slippinjimmy wrote:

Check the listings in question to make sure the email you provided for PayPal was correct.

If a buyer sent the payment  and the email you used was incorrect the payment would have been sent  and would either be pending limbo on the PayPal side because it didn't match an existing account or of course worse some other PayPal user had that email address.

Could just be a typo in your email address for payment, if you were using sell similar the error would keep showing up on newer listings.

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You can check this by selecting "sell similar" and looking at what is filled in.

C.

[olivias28213]

Yes! I think that was the problem. I went back and checked the payment policy on all my listings. All except one was linked to an old email address. I updated them but now what do I need to do to get paid? Contact each buyer?

[dhbookds]

it may work to add the old address back into paypal........don't delete the real, present one.....but you should be able to add....  not for sure it will work, but worth a try..........

[inhawaii]

I would contact PayPal........

[sin-n-dex]

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@dhbookds wrote:

it may work to add the old address back into paypal........don't delete the real, present one.....but you should be able to add....  not for sure it will work, but worth a try..........

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AFAIK, they will have to be logged into that email to confirm it for Paypal.

If the email address is old, then that might not be possible.

If the payment is in limbo, the buyer should be able to recover that. I'm assuming that no one else is using that email addy since AFAIK most domains don't recycle them (at least they didn't years ago).

C.

[johnrj1226]

@olivias28213 

 As all your listings are fixed priced format you may want to add the Immediate Payment Required option to each of them.  It  has work well for me.  Read the attached link on how it works.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/immediate-payment-works?id=415...

[johnrj1226]

@perrance78 

@olivias28213 

it has been eons since I had an e-check payment as I use the IPR option but as I recall PayPal alerted me via an e-mail message to my personal e-mail account - they stated payment was by e-check & it may take 5 to 7 days for the e-check to clear (the banks) & PayPal with a note to "don't ship until it clears".  Am assuming this is still the procedure and the OP would have received such notification.  if not it sounds like a scam from here.

[buyselljack2016]

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@perrance78 wrote:

If it says payment pending they never paid. If they are insisting they paid they are ether scammers, or trolls or they paid with an echeck. If it was an bid auction or buy it now with no required payment immediately than they would have an option for echeck payment.

Does your Paypal history show any payment received or payment processing/pending???? If not they never paid. My understanding is Paypal will show a message that its processing echecks in your history.

I would recommend that you start the process for canceling the transaction and see what the buyer does next.

Were the items high ticket?

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Possible seller defect for each cancellation???  Maybe not a good idea except for high volume sellers.

[slippinjimmy]

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@olivias28213 wrote:

Yes! I think that was the problem. I went back and checked the payment policy on all my listings. All except one was linked to an old email address. I updated them but now what do I need to do to get paid? Contact each buyer?

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If you still have access to the old email account you can just add it to your existing list of PayPal addresses (I have 5 attached to my PayPal account). Once you had the address the payment will "immediately" show up in your account.

It might be more difficult if you don't have access but it may still be possible, it's been a long time since I added one but I think (maybe) that the confirmation message you get from PayPal is sent to the on file primary email address.

So first thing to do is try to add the old address and see what happens.

Back in the old days when you gave buyers your email and they went direct to PayPal to pay (and sometimes misspelling the address) I added a couple of the most common typos. Although those addresses didn't actually exist I have a "catch-all" on my email so any message sent to xxx at my domain will reach me, that is not possible if you are using a gmail account or a standard one provided by your ISP (ie: myname at verizon.com).

If you can't add the old address you might be able to do so via a phone call to PayPal.

If you do get it added and the payments come in you'll need to send a million apologies to the buyers and explain that it was entirely a mistake at your end.