Paypal 'security hold' on payment

[queenwaldorf]

Hi all. I have just paid for an item (on another site) and have gotten this message:

In accordance with our policies, we review certain transactions to make sure they don’t pose any risk to us or our customers. Your payment is currently under review. We will complete this process within 72 hours. Please note, this review involves this transaction only and does not affect the use of your PayPal account for other transactions.

It's a legitimate Australian clothing website, using the same PayPal account I've had for eight years. Any ideas why this would be the case? I need the item before I go on holiday and have paid for express post, but I'm assuming the store itself won't get paid until PayPal decides it will be so.

[kopenhagen5]

Unfortunately PayPal select transactions at random or if a larger than normal amount of sales is going through.

Not much you can do as the seller has probably been told to not post until PayPal instruct it's clear to do so.

[lyndal1838]

It has happened to ebay purchases too.....paypal does random checks of transactions.

[queenwaldorf]

Ugh. Why couldn't they have done it for non-important stuff yesterday? Guess I'll wait then!

[queenwaldorf]

Naturally they would randomly check something I need fast!

[kopenhagen5]

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@queenwaldorf wrote:
Naturally they would randomly check something I need fast!

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Yep, Murphy's Law. 

[brerrabbit585]

Why don't you ring the site (assuming they have a number) and ask can they cancel the order so you can re-do it, or ask them can they accept a credit card payment over the phone (assuming you have a credit card)?

This used to happen to me occasionally when I had my own website.  I always assumed it was because I didn't sell much through the site.  They usually didn't take as long to clear as what they said but I can't remember exactly how long it took.

[queenwaldorf]

It ended up clearing at midnight last night and my order was processed and posted today, so it all turned out okay!