PayPal 21 Day Hold On Funds - What We Should ALL Know

[twyngwyn]

I will try & keep this as brief as I can & it may help others who are having problems with this:

Just lost an hour of my life, first ringing PayPal to find out why funds are on 21 day hold.They said not their problem - Ebay has flagged me.

Rang Ebay - they told me it was because I have not been an active seller for a month (incorrect)....then because my item has no tracking (true).... I said this was BOGUS and asked to speak to a supervisor.....another long wait.

Supervisor came on (after obviously looking at the transaction) and told me that I had been misinformed and that the REAL REASON was because my buyer was logged into .com & purchased via USA site.....and as I have no record of selling internationally, I was 'flagged'.

Buyer is actually in Australia!!

So I told the supervisor that they need better software so as not to 'punish' the seller and that I could have easily taken the first person's word and then contacted the Financial Ombudsman.....all for a software issue

Supervisor 'unflagged' my account

[elderbluedragon]

check your paypal seller protection policy.

if you dont supply tracking you have no leg to stand on if unhonest buyer claims,    they claim through paypal usually not ebay..

hence i never ever send any items untracked , even if postage is more than i charge in my total fees for it.

as a private seller i cant write things like that off on tax  

[twyngwyn]

I'm aware of that....but I sell low value items

another thought...I know this will be a hassle too...i don't know the value of this 'hold' on your a/c, but if heaps you could:

cancel the transaction, refund the buyer, get them to re-buy on Oz site

[elderbluedragon]

yes i noticed that and probably the type of people that buy your items are nice/honest people. only adding extra expense to your sales

i sell my collectable toys that i have collected over 10-20 years . usually higher end prices  ( alot more untrustworthy people in that range  )

it was only $92 aud  .   its not worth it

but when these weird things happen for first time i always contact to find out why.

canceling is not an option for me.

the listing item was sold in was free listing and free final fees ( that promo has passed so i would be paying the +10% in fees )

[twyngwyn]

OK....please come back & let us know when they 'free-up' your funds...

Good luck!

[elderbluedragon]

will do 

cheers

have a good day

[jillywinkle]

Paypal appear to be getting a bit scammy. So many stories. Read your post re frozen funds for reasons only feasible to Paypal. Very stressful for you.

Story 1:

Recently my sisters Paypal account was hacked and she rarely uses it. Her bank account had $10 taken then $50 within minutes, but luckily PP send emails when transactions occur, so she removed all money (a substantial amount) from hacked account and phoned PP, whom she said were less than helpful on the day. Have yet to ask her if she got the money back as she is a recidivistic traveller and super busy.

Story 2: My roomie put $1800 (over a few weeks) into his PP account, saving up for a new computer. (Yes I told him that's not the way to use PP but he likes to do it that way.) Goes to buy computer online & PP froze his account. Two phone calls later...and they want lots of ID from him to prove who he is. Reason for freezing account,,,Australian govt are cracking down on money laundering.

Now, one hardly needs ID to open a PP acount (do they?)...his funds are still frozen..as he doesnt have enough ID right now. Lost some of it in the flood we had here a while ago & his mental issues make it hard for him to follow up on problems such as this. I do wish PP had not become so powerful...they seem to do what they like randomly...and are difficult to deal with at times. Mainly because the operators are all offshore and the conflicting accents (ours and theirs) always make PP hard to deal with. Let alone the ridiculous reasoning......the end.

[jillywinkle]

If you have vintage stuff use etsy...although they have just added Paypal to their site...argggghhh! Luckily most of my buyers used direct checkout there...phew..never a drama.

[maranock]

Had my account frozen once. A phone call and upload ID and it was sorted. Yes, they are a financial institution so are allowed to ask you for ID. It isn't that hard.

You can open an account without ID but you have to make sure the personal info is correct as they will ask for ID if they spot any behaviour that they think might be odd, it is for everyones safety. The only reason they don't ask at sign up is because they aren't a bank, but I, for one, are very happy with their dilligence, and will only use websites that offer Paypal payments. I like having some buyer protection.

Anyone who pays by direct deposit into a strangers bank account has rocks in their head.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@jillywinkle wrote:

If you have vintage stuff use etsy...although they have just added Paypal to their site...argggghhh! Luckily most of my buyers used direct checkout there...phew..never a drama.

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Careful with statements like that. You aren't allowed to encourage people to go to different selling sites. It's a sure fire way to get booted. In fact, you're not even supposed to mention other sites, so I'm not sure why there has been lots of mention of other sites lately and the mods haven't removed them.

[lyndal1838]

Lends a bit of weight to the suspicions that ebay wants to get rid of smaller sellers.