Payment Being Held????? Recommendations for Other Venues?

[craftymel1]

So now Ebay are withholding money.... I have to send a $300 dolar item to a customer without receiving a dollar for it untill 21 days later. Does anyone in Ebay actually have a clue what they are doing? Do they have any business experience at all?
Would like to know if anyone can recommend any alternative selling venues - thinking it's about time to abandon ship here.

[the_pooze]

I suspect that the holding of the funds is also pretty illegal (where's a Contracts Lawyer when you need one).

By my understanding we all have a "Contract" with eBay and a "Contract" with PayPal (a.k.a. the User Agreement), each of which is a seperate, not a joint, agreement.

By eBay directing PayPal not to release funds to the Seller (i.e. the Party with which PayPal hold the contract) and by PayPal agreeing to, and actually carrying out the request, both are in breach of the law...................unless we have agreed to a contract where we have allowed a Third Party to our Contract to vary the terms and conditions of our Contract (and, such a clause in a contract would, in itself, be illegal).

It is no different to my "real world" job whereby it is illegal for my Division of the Company to refuse, limit or delay supply of goods or services to any Client on the basis of a request or instruction of any other person, including any other Division of the Company.

Convoluted?  Hell yes!  But, I have to eat this contract garbage for one week out of every year so I'm pretty sure I've got the gist of it all by now. 

[thecatspjs]

You have such little selling history on your current Id.

You don't even seem to leave your buyers prompt feedback in return for feedback they have left on this ID.

Based on your post, you say you have sold a a higher priced item, more than $250, within a mix of low level sales of very low price goods - raises a flag for me based on commonsense, and it clearly has with eBay.

TBH, I don't think it is unreasonable that you need to earn some stripes first, maybe selling lower price items where the hold of any funds is not going to be such an issue.

I don't 100% concur on eBays position, I think there are other far more robust identification checks that should be in place when accounts are registered for selling AND buying, but I do think that a level of trust & safety measures need to be in place for new sellers AND buyers due to the signficant level of scamming that is occuring on eBay and more widely. 

In the absence of appropriate measures, I think it is better than some harsher measures are in place, rather than none.

[craftymel1]

I think they're probably counting on the fact that mostof us are 'little guys' and won't be able to challenge the legality of this. 
I can just imagine walking into a brick & mortat store and saying "I want to take this product now, but I'm going to get someone else to hold onto the money for a few weeks"..... somehow can't see that happening anywhere but Ebay....

[craftymel1]

As already mentioned in previous comments, this issue is on my other account, which I have had for longer, have an excellent rating, and mostly sell higher dollar items. Even on my new account, I don't think their action is reasonable, I can not think of any other situation where a seller is expected to send out goods without first receving payment.

[treasuress.4207]

He and I are in identical boats Sheep.  My only 'hurdle' is the time frame now - feedback is adequate and sales are adequate but until January I am still screwed.

[treasuress.4207]

Cs at Paypal told me that it was an EBAY hold - that Ebay were putting the hold on, not Paypal.

That said - when I informed him of the idiocy of the whole deal, and basically performed like a three ring circus, it was PAYPAL, not Ebay, who released the funds on that one transaction.... so who's really holding it?  They may not be the same company any longer but I suspect they are definitely still sleeping together.

[digital*ghost]

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@bigbrickshop wrote:

I wonder if you can find a small, cheap item that you could list that would sell quickly and get you the 25 feedback you need. I'd buy one, or two 

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eBay already thought of that - they imposed a minimum dollar value and the first sale has to be at least 90 days old, so a quick build up of FB for low priced items won't help on newer accounts, I'm afraid. 

Supposedly, the quickest way to get the funds released is to use eBay's postage system............ (<<that there ellipse is one of my more pointed ones  ). 

[treasuress.4207]

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@gec2002 wrote:

Ring Paypal and ask for a manager and tell them you want your fees released.  They will say its an eBay issue, then say you will be lodging a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman service (FOS).  They will either make a discretionary payment or say ok that is your right.  If they go with the 2nd opinion file a report, win or lose it costs paypal money.  If everyone does this, the stupid policy will disappear.

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Gec can you point us in the direction of said ombudsman?

[thecatspjs]

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@craftymel14 wrote:

As already mentioned in previous comments, this issue is on my other account, which I have had for longer, have an excellent rating, and mostly sell higher dollar items. Even on my new account, I don't think their action is reasonable, I can not think of any other situation where a seller is expected to send out goods without first receving payment.

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Why have you not left feedback for your buyers on this ID ? 

You also have what looks like a repeat buyer that has left an identical comment - it raises a red flag, even if it has no basis to.

I have started new IDs where I have had selling restrictions in place even though I have an impeccable record on other IDs, I worked within that restriction and built my track record on that ID and those restrictions were removed within a relatively short period of time.

[craftymel1]

Wow, I didn't know I was opening myself up to a detailed critique. I don't leave feedback on buyers, because I think it is an absolutley pointless exercise. Other selling venues have removed it as a feature altogether. I am all for feedback on sellers, it is how other buyers figure out whether or not they want to buy from a particular seller, but feedbcak on buyers?? Who does that help? Certainly not the sellers, I have been given the runaround by a number of buyers who had great feedback ratings, they're rating made no difference to their behaviour and if they don't make a purchase in the end, you don't get to leave them feedback.
As to the buyer leaving identical feedback, that one's completely out of my hands, I have no control over what someone writes as feedback.