Major problem - funds on hold - 2nd account of experienced seller help please!

[redders_60]

My daughter (an experienced seller since 2011) opened a 2nd account for rare collectables. Made a $10 sale & $7.95 postage & ebay have put the sale funds on hold for an unspecified time. She rang Ebay just now & they were no help. She is supposed to send the item without receiving payment for a "time undisclosed" to make Ebay a better buying place. Where is the protection for sellers?

She is an Accountant & is pretty sure this against Au financial law to hold funds for an undisclosed time by a 3rd party. It is not PPal holding the funds (not that they are contactable today)

She has pulled all the listings on the new account. Is now thinking of not sending the item (after explaining to the winning bidder) 
& cancelling the order. If she cancels the order will the buyer get their monay back ASAP? Help appreciated please. PS account will be closed ASAP

[redders_60]

Sorry to reply to myself - more info is both her accounts have the same PPal account; Address & phone details etc (only the email differs - as it should for a 2nd account) She even had a 10 item limit lifted by Ebay customer service due to her good standing with her main account. Now this!

Thankfully it was the cheapest item that sold. Some items were worth much more! So does she send the item & hope she gets paid? Cancel order? & hope the buyer gets a refund? What a mess! Thanks Ebay! As the account will be closed negs aren't a factor. She would like to help the customer but doesn't want to end up out of pocket!

[*tippy*toes*]

First up, you can't close an account for 6 months after the last activity, so closing asap isn't an option. It is more than likely PayPal's 21 day hold but they aren't saying as much. I haven't had the holds for several years but as eBay no longer own PayPal, they may well have changed the wording to 3rd party. Even experienced long term sellers are subjected to it when they open a new account. Often a phone call to PayPal sees them sort it, if not, a dispute via the FOS does, generally within a few days. Any further accounts won't be subjected to it if the FOS becomes involved.

You are panicking and going a bit over the top by threatening to cancel sales, remove listings and close the account. You've been around these forums long enough to know how things work. Ring PayPal and get it sorted. There would have been a message when she listed the items for sale about funds being held. Mine was saying that on my 3rd account, even though funds were never held on that account.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@redders_60 wrote:

Sorry to reply to myself - more info is both her accounts have the same PPal account; Address & phone details etc (only the email differs - as it should for a 2nd account) She even had a 10 item limit lifted by Ebay customer service due to her good standing with her main account. Now this!

Thankfully it was the cheapest item that sold. Some items were worth much more! So does she send the item & hope she gets paid? Cancel order? & hope the buyer gets a refund? What a mess! Thanks Ebay!

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It doesn't matter how many new accounts by the same person are attached to the same PayPal account, they are all subjected to the 21 day hold. It's an automated thing. Yes, she should send the item. Having the listing limit raised has nothing to do with holding funds. Listing limits are an eBay thing. Funds held is a PayPal thing. I had over 10,000 sales on my main account with 100% feedback and was still subjected to the hold on the second account. It initially wasn't being held, then that came in, so after 3 months, the funds were being held. An FOS dispute fixed it within about 3 days from memory.

[redders_60]

Thanks Tippy! It's not me; It's my middle daughter - a natural panicker giving me the heebie jeebies! Just hearing her side of the convo with the ebay rep was an experience! Quoting Au financial law For whatsake!

I've never had a 2nd account - never wanted one! 

All Mig wanted to do was set up a dedicated 2nd a/c for her rarest collectables - aside from the main book site & small collectables she's had since 2011.

[*tippy*toes*]

Tell her to lodge a dispute with the FOS is PayPal isn't open today and it should be all sorted by the end of the week. If she doesn't want to do that, tell her to upload the tracking numbers into PayPal as well as eBay and the funds should automatically release 3-5 days after tracking shows as delivered. If it doesn't, a phone call will see them released while on the phone.

Pointless quoting AU financial law to a bunch of low paid plebs in the Phillipines. All she did was waste her time. All they would have heard was "blah, blah, blah, blah". EBay can't release the funds.

Plenty of people open second and more accounts for that reason, to separate items from each other. Everyone is subjected to the same rules (which she should have read and agreed to when creating a second selling account). If she wants to start quoting laws, then she should have read the legal stuff that was there when she created the new account. It goes both ways.

If she's going to have a hissy fit and not send the item and the buyer reports her, it could well affect her other account. If one account is affected, all accounts are affected. That's why you have to be careful if several people in the house have their own account. If one mucks up and gets suspended, everyone's does. That goes for the forums too.

[redders_60]

Thanks again Tippy! In all honesty I can help on the boards with certain things; But never havinga 2nd account myself; This experience is beyond me! 

Mig has pulled all the other listings on the new account. If anyone can tell me whether cancelling the sale will refund the buyer's money automatically that would be great. Mig is a good seller. so given an hour to calm down after her rant with customer no service  is wanting to send the rare item to the buyer & hope she eventually gets paid for it! BTW CS was the Phillipines & she speaks Tagalog amongst her many languages!!

[redders_60]

Item has been posted. Ebay mail tag & reciept from local PO - just caught them before closure. @ least the buyer will get their item - though the seller may never be paid! 

[*tippy*toes*]

Oh for goodness sakes, she will get paid. No-one has stolen her money. It happens to every new account so stop with the dramatics. Once the tracking is showing as delivered, ring PayPal and they'll release the funds. Then tell her before she lists anything else, read the rules and regulations. It's all there and everyone agrees to it when they open a selling account.

Even though the call centres are in the Phillipines, as far as I know, they are required to speak English. My Filipino friends have been told to speak English by the operators when calling. Possibly because the calls get recorded, possibly because there are different dialects and could be interpreted differently. I would be very surprised if they allowed her to speak Tagalog to them.

If she wants to stop listing because she didn't read the rules, that's her choice. It's not going to change anything.