Am in desperate need of help.. EBAY WILL NOT HELP...

[danco1920]

Hoping someone can help me find a resolution... I have been an ebay seller for over 10 years.. and have always conducted myself in a professional manner... HOWEVER..I had a problem in September, where 3 people lodged disputes saying they had not received their items, so a refund was provided... NOW...EBAY ARE NOW PUTTING A 21 DAY HOLD ON MY PAYPAL FUNDS.. 

I am so distressed... this is my main form of income, and now I have over $1100.00 OF MY OWN MONEY ON HOLD.. My items I send are suitable to be sent in a small padded bag, so I just buy stamps, so I can send any purchases at anytime.. so am unable to provide a tracking number... I am now in financial difficulty, as ebay is my main source of income, and I have sent countless emails to ebay, and have not had a satisfactoy response.. Now my seller account is restricted, as my fees are outstanding.. but I have emailed ebay and asked them to take the amount owing out from my paypal account.. but I seem to get nowhere..

Does ANYONE have any advise on how I fix this??

Lyn

[*tippy*toes*]

You should be able to make a manual payment to fix the arrears. As for the hold, it happens when eBay think you aren't towing the line. Your 3 INR's would have upset the bots. As you don't send with tracking, all you can really do is call PayPal after the buyer has left feedback and ask them to release the funds. They should be able to do it while you're on the phone. If the buyer doesn't leave feedback, it's unlikely they'll release the funds until the 21 days are up.  

If you want proof the items are delivered, if it's viable, send your items via registered post. Once the tracking shows as delivered PayPal will release the funds if you call them. I know it's tough, but it's only for 3 months. I know 3 months is a long time while you're struggling for money, but without proof of delivery, you've got no hope of early release.

[englishrosegardens]

To prevent the same thing happening in the future, lengthen your handling time to at least 3 days but still post straight away. A lot of other sellers have done this and it hasn't affected their sales.

You could also try the ombudsman.  I'm not sure how successful you'll be but it's always worth a try.  There's no need for them to hold that much money just because of a handful of slow deliveries.

[clarry100]

Not sure there is too much can be done to change the current situation you find yourself in unfortunately.

As has already been mentioned extend your handling time out to 3-days to help combat the ridiculous short ebay estimates of delivery and Australia Post's slow delivery times these days. We have done this and do not get any late delivery defects or INR's. We use mostly large letter like yourself. And we could not attribute loss of sale to this factor.

The other thing we do is download our cash out of PayPal very often so it does not build up to anywhere near the $1100 you mention. This way if they did hold then there is little in there to hold onto for them.

[glenbankloel]

Horrible situation to be in, sorry for you. As others have advised lengthen your handling time BUT still post quickly and when the customer receives earlier you will be a Hero!

Also as clarry has advised transfer your funds out of PayPal regularly so that they don't have control over too much of your money. We always transfer every cent above $100.00. We don't want anyone else to be about to have control over our $'s.

We leave $100.00 in there for postage costs, and just in case we have to buy a little bit of stock like bags, packing tape etc....but this amount pretty much covers those extras and over time have found that this figure works for us without being excessive. 

[davidc4430]

emails, waste of time really

allways call them, get a call back if you can, talk to a person and be firm without getting too angry or upset.

allways empty your Paypal account as often as you can, i withdraw funds after every sale as i dont trust PP with my money. you might need to do it daily or weekly depending on how much your selling.

like most big companies they have no 'heart' so weather their actions cause pain or not means nothing to them.

[casbit33]

Are ebay & paypal just holding the money from those three sales or all of it.

If it's the entire amount then contact acorn. They should not be holding more than the three items in question.

ring paypal, tell them you will contact acorn if they don't release your money, this is often enough to release funds.

[phorum_junkie*]

ACORN is for reporting internet fraud and this is just ebay and Paypal applying their policies which all of us agree to when we sign up.

Others have had success contacting the ACCC and the FSO.

[imastawka]

I'm thinking, maybe, the OP is trying to withdraw $1,000 or more.

Paypal won't let you do that unless you give them paperwork to prove

who you are.

OP, never let your Paypal account get that high in future

[chameleon54]

---

@imastawka wrote:

I'm thinking, maybe, the OP is trying to withdraw $1,000 or more.

Paypal won't let you do that unless you give them paperwork to prove

who you are.

OP, never let your Paypal account get that high in future

---

I have never heard that one before stawka. I regularly leave funds in my paypal accounts and withdraw amounts of over $1000 very regularly without any paper work or fuss. This includes paypal accounts linked to my two stores and my regular non store, 40 freebies per month account. I have never lodged any identification paperwork with paypal that I can recall.

Can you provide further information stawka as it is a new one to me.