Financial Obudsman Service & Paypal releasing funds - best way of doing it?

[berrmamdarre]

I posted a thread recently asking about this as I'm only new again on here after a long, long break, but have been lurking the boards for a while before actually selling.

I was looking at ways to increase my selling limits as I do have an old ID with all positive feedback (except 1 neg) from selling over a period of maybe 4 or so years. But long story short is that email (and everything with it) was hacked (hotmail acct) and it was impossible to get hotmail to actially verify things and allow me access to it, so in the end I just gave up and thankfully my ebay acct wasn't actually used, though it did become NARU as yep, all details had been changed so was lucky that whoever hacked it decided to not actually use my acct for anything dodgy, but nor could I access ebay and pay selling fees due. 

So realistically I know the chances of being able to confirm that account for ebay are non-existent as I started tha ID way back in about 2004, so yep, it's been a loooong time.

So for now I guess I'm stuck with the current selling limits - and how long roughly until they do look at increasing it? It is time wise or feedback wise?

But main thing I wanted to ask is naturally about the joys of Paypal and their 21 day hold as other's weren't too sure but I remembered seeing threads when it first started about dealing with getting them released.

So have finally search up a few old threads about it as I used to work for a bank, so do actually know that from a legal perspective, they can't hold funds - I just couldn't remember how people had them released.

I've meaning to call the FOS all week but school holiday's and all that, and I just haven't had time. So since hubby is home today (and realised he'd need to call anyway as acct is in his name as I've linked it to his credit card) and funds are pending as usual (yup, tracking etc have been uploaded both on ebay and Paypal) and decided to get him to follow up on it as a) it's a tight week financially and b) a sale of certain kids shoes I have been waiting on for my girls for summer started today and are selling fast, and being a shoe addict with 4 kids means I want to buy shoes lol. 

Yes, I sadly sell on ebay to feed my shoe addiction lol. Besides, kids leather shoes are so damn expensive and when the pairs (including school shoes) are selling at like $12 a pair then heck yes, that's totally a valid excuse 🙂

So shoes are calling my name.....and hubby rings the FOS to find it's apparently a public holiday in Vic and they are closed! Arrgghh. Don't they know how important shoes are? Sheesh lol.

So my understanding from previous threads is that if you ring Paypal and state you have lodged a complaint with the FOS they release the funds within 24 hrs, and no more issues. My understanding from the banking side of things is that I know perfectly well they are not legally allowed to hold funds anyway (and FWIW in case anyone wants to know, hubby worked at the same bank but longer and higher up than me in the fraud section and has said to make it VERY clear that any financial institution can actually be fined for this very thing, and Paypal comes under that) but am curious to hear from anyone who has just had advice over the phone from the FOS and successfully went to Paypal with that?

I could do an online complaint but knowing how the FOS works it's something that you would get clarification about from them in reply, but will take up to 14 days.

So yes, I do know FOS will confirm that Paypal must release funds but am being a wee bit sneaky - is it worth calling Paypal and saying I have already spoken with them? And those who have gone via the 1800 number and got advice and successfully dealt with Paypal, what exactly did the FOS say and what did you need to say to Paypal? 

I do already know it's illegal without even calling the FOS due to where I worked but just saying that isn't going to get anywhere unless I DO mention the FOS as like any financial institution, they know they can get fined for this sort of thing and just the threat of an official complaint tends to make them listen.

So worth calling do you think, and if so, what to say?

And yes, regardless I will still do an online official complaint with the FOS (and would encourage others to do so) as others obviously are, and the more official complaints the better, as they are more likey to end up being fined and end up being forced to stop witholding funds, do so here - https://forms.fos.org.au/OnlineDispute

So any advice is much appreciated 🙂

[cq_tech]

Absolutely ring Paypal and tell them that unless your funds are released immediately, you will lodge an online complaint with the FOS. You'll probably find that they will do so with no further action required on your part, but if not, definitely lodge an online dispute.

[clarry100]

When we opened up a new selling ID they held the funds.

But we already had other long term good standing accounts.

I rang PayPal and asked for the funds to be released based on that fact and they refused to release them.

So I mentioned I knew of the FOS to see if that would budge them but no.

So I didn't even both to call the FOS just went straight to their website and lodged a formal complaint about it.

Inside of 24-hours we had received a confirmation email from the FOS and very shortly after that a message from PayPal to say that our funds had been released.

And they have never held any of our funds again. Since then we have opened yet another account and no holds.

So we were pretty impressed with the speed of the FOS and how quickly PayPal released the funds.

So IMO I wouldn't bother with verbal FOS advice just raise the case if payPal refuse to agree to release. But let PayPal know you intend to lodge a formal complaint. Maybe it will shake the tree.

[digupatin]

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@berrmamdarre wrote:

So shoes are calling my name.....and hubby rings the FOS to find it's apparently a public holiday in Vic and they are closed! Arrgghh. Don't they know how important shoes are? Sheesh lol.

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Today's Grand Final day, much more important than shoes.

[*tippy*toes*]

I also lodged a dispute online with the FOS when I started my second account and had results inside 48 hours. The transactions that already had funds held still said they were being held until X date on my selling page but the funds were released. 

As for the limits,  I linked my accounts which increased my limit from 10 to 30 a month. It then increased to 50 at some point and when I reached 100 feedback  (some which were for buying ) , my limit increased to 100.

You can ring once a month I think and ask for an increase. Clarry knows more about that. In the meantime, sell some really cheap items to get some fast sales and feedback and things might happen a bit quicker. 

When I first decided to sell I bought some cheap pendant stones from China for less than a dollar and sold them for 2 or 3 dollars purely to get feedback and stars. It worked and then I moved on. 

[beautysecretfashion]

Could you imagine the impact if regular banks & credit unions decided to HOLD our funds for 21 days!!!!

Why is Paypal still allowed to do it?? Why hasn't the FOS and ACCC acted??

It is mind boggling:

[joethenuts]

how long have they, paypal had this policy for ,  has paypal changed it,

means only a few things 

because they can , or because nobody can do anything about it.

it seams if you report them they let you have the funds, 

so at the end of the day if 50% report them and get funds straight away, and 50% dont bother ,they end up averaging  about 10 days  holding on to the money ,  [not bad for them]

but i have to give them some credit ,in my case and lots of other sellers ,they do pay whithin 24 hours for transfers  to a lot of uses instead of the policy 3 to 5 days that they have..or whatever it is.

[collect247]

Well I don't get it then Joe,because why do you receive funds from PayPal because aren't all your items for pick up only?

So why would a buyer pay you with paypal when a pick up isn't covered?

You must sell other things then?

[joethenuts]

i have been selling paint on ebay for nearly 5 years pick up only , but i do a few courier as well .  aprox 33% of all sales are paypal, the rest pay on pick up.   i supose buyers are used to paying straight away when they purchase items. 

ps i would prefer all cash     then no paypal fees.

[berrmamdarre]

beautysecretfashion, that is exactly my point, it's utter madness isn't it?  I can't imagine having worked at the bank where I was and the proverbial that would hit the fan if any of them so much as considered it. As it was we regularly got complaints on how long it took for a bank transfer (usually first time so longer) to clear or cheque to clear. 

It was impossible trying to deal with irate customers who had someone do a online bank transfer from a different bank to see why it wasn't in there immediately, and n fact we couldn't even view the transaction until the other bank had done their updates (usually after 6pm & then after midnight), and to explain that it depended if they banked with us (so may clear at 6pm if transferred before that) or if it was another bank that varied in re;easing funds.

So only way to do immediately as I was forever telling people was for the other person to do it over the counter, or ironically via paypal.

I'm on tons of buy/sell pages for kids stuff and the unwritten rule for non local ones is gifted paypal or if you did pay goods and serices to add in the extra to cover the fees & it couldn't be letter post, it had to be registered. But now no one uses G & S as even just for those payments funds are being held!!

So you do have to rely on the fact that person is an actual person and that it does protect you somewhat as no one wants to be publicly outed as a scammer.

But I was shocked hearing they are doing fir non-ebay transactions as well. And yep, it is SO obvious why they do it - it doesn't cut down on scammers etc, it would be a huge profit for them. I would absolutely love to know where they have the held funds sitting as there is no doubt it's a massive financial bonus for them and agree with joethenuts there. Even if we had all new sellers (or obviously people selling anywhere really) know that they CAN actually do something about it, then they are still holding enough funds to make a very healthy profit.

But then I wonder how many genuinely new sellers would even have a clue it's not meant to be done? Unless you actively look or have bought/sold on ebay before there's no way you'd know the boards are here anymore, they've done a good job esuring they are hidden. 

*tippy*toes* I do actually mean to keep doing that. I find it's a cheap way of getting things to stick in the "reward" box for the kids like stickers etc. Funnily I did by a couple of things doing exactly that....and got the ones that don't leave feedback!! I really should go and do that and stock up on stuff for Xmas stockings.

 digupatin, lol, hubby would most likely agree with you there. I've been at him all morning to empty and clean the damn pool (it's a rare 29 deg in Tas today) to get the kids in there and not inside fighting for 5 minute, but noooo, he's watching the grand final.

He has seemingly forgotten that I have been asking him to empty and clean to pool since March, I'm quite certain there are some new species of mutated underwater bugs in there. If I have to get in there and do it myself then heck yes, shoes are totally justified - I think I really need a few pairs too.... 🙂