Seller has refused to post item until her 21 day Paypal hold on funds is up

[imwems]

Purchased an item on 19th December, paid with paypal but received a message from seller advising that item would not be posted until funds are available to her after the 21 day hold. To add to the mix she will be on holiday and will post the item when she gets back on 15th January. It has been marked as posted with a tracking number but no information is available other than that, not showing "in transit".  Clearly hasn't been posted.
I messaged seller politely advising this was unaceptable and item should be posted asap, pointing out the item has been paid for, 21 day hold is because she is new ebayer (zero feedback) and not really my problem.

Ebay customer service told me to contact her again, advising once the item was received, tracking will show that, then funds will be released. I did, no response.

Any thoughts on what to do? Thanks

[kopenhagen5]

Sounds like you have done everything you can do.

Only thing left to do is mark down DSR stars and possibly neutral feedback when you do eventually receive the item. 

[davewil1964]

Once the due date has expired, you can open a case for item not received. You will win as the tracking will show undelivered. Whether you wish to do that is up to you, but it is an option.

I would consider it, if it was me. I am primarily a seller and I would never treat my customers that way, so that colours my attitude. 15 January is 27 days after purchase, so she is certainly pushing the envelope. And knows it, otherwise she wouldn't have uploaded tracking. That could avoid an automatic late postage defect. Maybe - I think there still has to be a tracking event within the handling time. So she may well get a defect even when trying to be cute.

Also note that you only have 32(?) days to open a dispute after the latest eBay estimated delivery date, regardless of how long the seller takes to actually post.

[brerrabbit585]

It sounds like she's pretty aware of how ebay works, otherwise she wouldn't have marked it as posted, so she wouldn't be new to ebay and is playing her own game to get around their rules and do everything her way.

I'd be extremely wary of her and would put in a claim for item not received as soon as the estimated delivery date has passed. If you get a refund but she does actually send it later you can always re-pay her. If she wants to play games she's got to expect others to do the same!

[springyzone]

Totally unacceptable.

Your purchase will have come with an expected delivery date range and it is there to prevent this sort of thing from happening.

For all she knows, you may well have been hoping to use whatever you are buying as a Christmas gift. It probably potentially had time to arrive before the 25th and in any case, many people catch up with friends between Xmas and new year. I know I have not given out all my pressies yet, but 15th Jan would definitely be way too late.

You're showing a low feedback score so she probably hopes she can put one over you, intimidate you & with luck you won't know your options. Or else, if she really is a brand new ebayer, maybe she doesn't know the rules herself, although the fact she uploaded a tracking number but hasn't posted suggests to me she has a fair idea.

Open an item not received claim as soon as you can, which I would imagine should be by now. You'll get a refund.

You'll get it way before 15th Jan too.

[*tippy*toes*]

I don't normally suggest this, but I think this seller knows exactly what she's doing. Open an item not received dispute and then negative feedback. I would say she has opened a second account and doesn't know how to get the 21 day hold lifted. I also agree with someone else who said she might be trying to pull the wool over your eyes because you have low feedback.

EBay state in their policies that sellers are not allowed to hold of sending because of the 21 day hold. I'm guessing she bought a postage label, which is why there is a tracking number with no events showing. It will automatically mark the item as posted and upload a tracking number. She knows what she's doing, she needs to be taught a lesson. You can always revise the feedback to neutral if she everything works out in the end and she sends a revision request.

[padi*0409]

Not so long ago I had a seller that I suspect was under the 21 day hold policy (and I also suspect there was shill bidding going on with previous completed listings). They made 6 promises to send my item and eventually only posted after I opened a dispute under the MBG after 24 days from cleared payment into their Paypal account (which would have furthur frozen there money until I closed the dispute).

Yes, they did end up with what I considered to be a well-deserved neg, though I didn't report them for the suspected shilling activity - which would probably been a waste of my time anyway.

[cezm]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

EBay state in their policies that sellers are not allowed to hold of sending because of the 21 day hold. I'm guessing she bought a postage label, which is why there is a tracking number with no events showing. It will automatically mark the item as posted and upload a tracking number. She knows what she's doing, she needs to be taught a lesson. You can always revise the feedback to neutral if she everything works out in the end and she sends a revision request.

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Or is possibly a new seller, bought the postage label which automatically marked the item as posted and uploaded the tracking number and then realised the money would not be released by PP for 21 days.

As a new seller she possibly hasn't read Ebay's policies re sending itmes and may not know that the funds could be released earlier if the item arrived.

[curraone]

So it is a new seller,  I agree that she probably printed the label,  and then realised she couldn't get the money straight away.

Probably put it in the too hard basket because she was going on holidays.    No point yelling at her, she is now not at home and couldn't post it anyway.

Maybe,  dare I say in the spirit of Christmas, let it go and wait for her to come back on 15th and post it like she says she will? 

I certainly don't agree with opening a dispute, she has explained her problem, even if she has the facts wrong.

[brerrabbit585]

With all the problems experienced sellers have had printing the new labels, I'd say there's a fair chance she's not really a newbie seller if she's been able to print a label. Most newbie sellers probably wouldn't even know about using ebay satchels or printing labels.

If she knew about the 21 day hold she should have stated in her listings that items wouldn't be sent until the money cleared. If she didn't know about it and the OP eventually receives the item and re-pays, she won't have lost anything but she'll have learnt a valuable lesson.

At the very least she should have been more communicative with her buyer and possibly not sold so close to going off on holiday. Not everyone has access to a computer while on holiday but most people do so she has no excuse for not communicating further.

If the buyer waits for it to be posted after the 15th (will she actually post it on the 15th) they could be out of time for the MBG by time it arrives.  They paid in good faith and shouldn't have to be out of pocket because someone decides to sell without reading any of the rules.