Can PayPal Legally Withhold Money From Ebay Sales For 21 Days?

[buythis005a]

Can PayPal legally place a 21 day hold on money that came from selling an item on ebay?

I sold an item for $200 ($194.90 after palpal had taken their fee) and as soon as the buyer paid PayPal placed it into a 21 day hold.

I have a 100% seller rating and this is the first time I have been denied access to my own money. I would have received a negitive feedback if I held off from posting the item until the funds had cleard.

Basically Paypal have found a way to give themselves an interest free line of credit at our expense. 

Surely this can not be legal in Australia?

[lyndal1838]

Did you look at the dates on this thread before posting your suggestion.

Anyone who uses your suggestion of a direct bank deposit is wide open to being scammed by a bad seller as there is no protection for buyers or sellers.

[davewil1964]

Maybe looking at the age of a thread before responding with not particularly useful 'information' would help. If the Op is still selling after all this time, I daresay they have gotten past the 21 day hold.

Bank deposit only would alienate at least 95% of potential buyers, apart from being impossible to do on eBay. If you are talking about a merchant credit card facility, check what it actually costs to run. Most would find the 21 day Paypal hold preferable.

Gumtree is, anecdotally, full of tyre kickers and is geared towards local sales. eBay gives you access to world wide.

[senseismartialartsstore]

I hope there's someone from Ebay reading this. I'm in the exact same situation and I've just complained to FOS.  I'm closing my ebay store after this. I don't need this bull**bleep** bully tactics.  I can sell my products elsewhere instead of dealing with the arrogant customer service idiots who block my chat with them then write "I'm sorry you have not responded within the last 5 minutes so we're closing this chat".

Keyboard warriors.  Keyboard warriors everywhere.

[countessalmirena]

@senseismartialartsstore,

First of all, this thread is an old thread, and contains outdated information. It is better for members to start new threads when wanting advice on a specific issue... or find a thread with a more recent start date if it's an endemic problem or issue.

I think Lithium (who run these forums) have made it a little confusing for new board users. Instead of the button for starting a new thread being marked "Start a new thread", it's marked "New message".

Anyway, eBay's "Have us call you" option is by far the best way to get in touch with eBay. (Emails are useless, for a number of reasons, but primarily because the responses, when they are finally sent, are bot-generated.)

The Chat facility appears to be run by less well-informed CS reps so that the standard of information is lower than that obtained by contacting eBay via the "Have us call you" option.

eBay say: We'll call you at the phone number registered to your account, or you can enter a different number.

We’re available from 8am to 10pm AET, 7 days a week.

(And no - eBay (as far as we know) don't read the boards. There may be some eBay employees who do, but if so, no remedial action is ever taken on the basis of what is posted on these boards.)

[chienne911]

My daughter's lodging a formal complaint with FOS and ACCC now. Someone told her they would release her needed funds (why she sold her personal property in the first place), the buyer marked as received and now they won't release HER money until 20th October (today is 8th October). They immediately take their fees there is no reason why funds should be withheld if there are no disputes or negative ratings. It's extortion by stealth. 

[lyndal1838]

The best way to get funds released quickly is to have a tracking number which shows as the item being delivered and it also helps if the buyer has left positive feedback as well.

The FOS and ACCC will not get you very far.  Sellers who have had success are usually sellers with several selling accounts in good standing.  Ebay can link the new account to the older, established account and stop the 21 day hold.

[clarry100]

@Lyndal...
Yes this is exactly how we had the 21 day hold lifted when they first started with it all those years ago now ( don't recall exactly when).

PayPal refused to lift it upon our request despite having two long standing good record selling accounts on eBay.

So we raised a complaint with FOS citing our reasons why the funds should be released.
Within 48-hours the funds were released and they've never held again to this day.
So even if the seller does not have another good standing account I'd probably try the FOS route. It might just shake their tree.

[allhourstech]

I might try the Ombudsman. Hows this joke, eBay are hold a few hundred in funds from my sales, I sold these things because I was in the need of quick cash! Now not only do I not have that cash, I'm further behind because I still need to post these things, don't I. To top it off, today they placed a hold on my selling ability for unpaid eBay fees, more that I'm expected to find extra money to cover. But guess who has all the money I need to pay the fees! Trying to sell some items to pay a few bills has just screwed me and put me further behind!

[collect247]

Due to you being a new seller that's the reason your funds have been put on hold for 21 days.

You should always have enough funds to pay fees regardless if you don't receive your money from sales.

Yes you still need to post the items.

And why have you got a store when you don't have many items to sell?

You would be better off selling standard where you get 40 free listings per month so all you pay is the final value fees.

You need to build up a good seller portfolio before your funds gets released and you don't have to go through the funds hold.

Yes some people have had their funds released when they have contacted AFCA but my experience says they don't do it too often.

All the best.

[spacealien38]

Looks like ebay are doing this again. I will be making a complaint to the financial ombudsman.