21 DAY HOLD FINANCIAL SERVICE OMBUDSMAN WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU

[hmmar-spier]

Having lodged a complaint against Pay Pal and Ebay in regards to illegally freezing funds and also referring the matter to the privacy commisioner.  The Financial Services Ombudsman also wants to hear about accounts where funds have been placed under the 21 day hold. Their office is anticipating an across board deluge of complaints and they wish to be advised of individual cases as believe this is a breach of law.

[lyndal1838]

Yes, it is still useful to contact the Ombudsman and yes, many/most sellers who did so were successful in getting their funds released.

Most who have reported back here seem to have been successful in getting the hold on their funds removed permanently.

[kiya777]

I just lodged a complaint with FOS a couple of minutes ago.

First time ever this has happened to me that they've put my funds on hold, ridiculous!

I have 100% feedback, "Above standard" selling performance and never had a dispute or my account suspended etc.......like how they are basically penalizing good sellers on Ebay.

[lyndal1838]

Your problem is that you are a very low volume seller on this account and have not sold for over a year.

You may not have any luck getting your funds released as this is the sort of seller that they are targeting.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@kiya777 wrote:

I just lodged a complaint with FOS a couple of minutes ago.

First time ever this has happened to me that they've put my funds on hold, ridiculous!

I have 100% feedback, "Above standard" selling performance and never had a dispute or my account suspended etc.......like how they are basically penalizing good sellers on Ebay.

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It's probably because you've not sold anything for over 12 months. They are treating you as a new seller, so the holds apply. Hopefully the FOS will sort them out. Most people have had an answer in less than a week. Please come back and let us know the outcome for the benefit of others. Good luck!

[kiya777]

Thanks.

its just ridiculous though, they are punishing good and honest sellers yet they told me it was protection for sellers, how does it protect me? How about they put these restrictions on people that do the wrong thing , have **bleep** feedback etc not on us that have always done the right thing and have great feed back.

I am so angry, they have lost me as a seller.

I'm going back to selling my stuff on FB groups , no fees, nothing, have never had a problem, EBay SUCKS!

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

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@kiya777 wrote:

I just lodged a complaint with FOS a couple of minutes ago.

First time ever this has happened to me that they've put my funds on hold, ridiculous!

I have 100% feedback, "Above standard" selling performance and never had a dispute or my account suspended etc.......like how they are basically penalizing good sellers on Ebay.

---

It's probably because you've not sold anything for over 12 months. They are treating you as a new seller, so the holds apply. Hopefully the FOS will sort them out. Most people have had an answer in less than a week. Please come back and let us know the outcome for the benefit of others. Good luck!

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[davewil1964]

So contact Paypal and threaten them with the FOS, as the 600 replies to this thread have advised.

Even if you only read the first page you would have got many hits on that recommendation.

[kiya777]

I have done that already. Nothing has changed though.

Anyway I guess the only way around this in the future if I ever did decide to sell through Ebay again , is to stipulate payment will only be via bank deposit.

[lyndal1838]

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@kiya777 wrote:

I have done that already. Nothing has changed though.

Anyway I guess the only way around this in the future if I ever did decide to sell through Ebay again , is to stipulate payment will only be via bank deposit.

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That will end your selling career on the spot.  You cannot list anything for sale without a safe payment method which you must accept if the buyer wants to use it.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

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@kiya777 wrote:

I have done that already. Nothing has changed though.

Anyway I guess the only way around this in the future if I ever did decide to sell through Ebay again , is to stipulate payment will only be via bank deposit.

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That will end your selling career on the spot.  You cannot list anything for sale without a safe payment method which you must accept if the buyer wants to use it.

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And most will use it. I offer bank deposit on one of my accounts and I probably get 2 maybe 3 people a year that use that option. Most of them are new buyers who haven't set up a PayPal account yet.

Kiya, buyers much prefer PayPal because they have protection in the event something does go wrong. Bank deposit, they have none (and neither does the seller for that matter). If the FOS can't get your funds unlocked, my suggestion would be to buy some cheap $1 items from China and sell them off cheap ($1.50-$2 so they sell fast) to try and get your feedback score up enough whereby you no longer qualify for the hold. The hold is only for 90 days anyway, so if you have a few consistent sales, you'll have no more problems after the 90 days.

[locall1961]

i am about to start selling some things again after a bit of a break so I gather my funds are going to be held for 21 days too. How many payments do they hold before they stop doing that?
I do try and get my buyers to pay by bank deposit and I explain the reason why, due to double dipping of fees, and majority of my buyers are happy to pay that way as they can see no one has ever had a problem with not receiving an item from me. So guess I will now be adding about payment being held for 21 days if paying by Paypal, so shipping may be delayed until I can afford to post the item. This will be put in my item description so it will then be up to the buyer if they want to bid on my items.