Paypal payments pending / on hold :/

[silence_electronics]

Hi, as of yesterday paypal are now placing payments to me 'on hold' due to 'higher than usual risk'. Not sure if it was my increased selling volume lately or the fact I sold a Samsung Phone, but the next payment after that for a computer part was also held.The emails hint that it will be 7 days, yet after logging in it seems the release date is 21 days away!

I assume everything from now on until some arbitrary time when they 'trust' me again will be held, which is going to cause massive cashflow issues for me as this time next week I'll have probably another $800 on top of the $500 I was paid last night. If anything, I don't want to take the risk of selling any more now as who knows if their coinflip will determine that I'm entitled to my own money? Do I keep pumping thousands of dollars into a void hoping for the best?

Will calling paypal achieve anything? I've been using paypal for probably almost 10 years on the same account and not sure there is any of my ID that they don't already have on file.

[collect247]

It looks like you have recently started selling again?

All new sellers even if you have sold in the past will have their money put on hold for 21 days which really sucks.

You will need to prove to ebay that you're not a risk so I'm afraid it will be up to 90 days of sales and over 50 feedbacks needed from those sales before your money stops being held.

You can contact the FOS and get them to look into it but I know of people that had no such luck and just have to bare it.

The worst part about it will be that you will still have to pay fees so if you sell $$$$ and don't get it released then you have to pay out of your own pocket.

I feel for every new seller on ebay and it's a shame that past transactions don't count for anything.

All the best

[silence_electronics]

Yes, I started selling again maybe 1 month ago, a bit sad that over $100k in past sales doesn't count for anything.

Funny though, they didn't hold the recent ~$950 laptop transaction, or the $1-2k per week in the last few weeks, it must have been some $ threshold that got hit after that. No disputes or bad feedback either to cause any concern.

If I actually get the money then it's bearable I suppose, but given all the paypal horror stories, I won't be buying any more stock at all. The sudden requirement without any warning that I have to run a huge credit card balance to fund the whole thing due to such delayed cashflow suddenly makes things very risky/costly indeed.

I sold a few smaller things under $100 that didn't get held, so at least I'm not 100% restricted.. but the stuff under $100 barely makes any money anyway..

[collect247]

It's because of the high priced items you sold,maybe one or two don't have a hold on them but then you start selling more and more so ebay says hang on a minute this seller is selling out of the ordinary and there is a risk factor involved.

It's ebay that actually tell PayPal to put a hold on to your money and tell you that it's for your own safety just in case a buyer tries to scam you.

Putting a hold on the money is a safety barrier for ebay so if anything goes wrong it won't come out of ebay's coffers lol.

[lyndal1838]

If you have proof that the buyer has received the item (online tracking and/or signature on delivery) and/or the buyer has left positive feedback you can ring paypal and ask for the money to be released.

It is a nuisance and should not be necessary but it won't be forever....just until you have jumped through enough ebay hoops.

[collect247]

PayPal still won't release the money because it's ebay that tell PayPal to hold the money.

Even when tracking shows as delivered and positive feedback has been left by the buyer it still doesn't matter until you have met all of ebay's criteria's,which are smooth delivery,positive feedback and the killer of the whole stupid criteria is the 90 days of selling.

[*tippy*toes*]

I think what Lyndal meant was, with each transaction, once it shows as delivered, a phone call will see the funds from that transaction released. Unfortunately, if you want funds released early, you have to ring up for each transaction......or you can upload the tracking number into PayPal as well as eBay and it should automatically release 3-5 days after showing as delivered. Should being the operative word.

[collect247]

No phone call will not make them release the funds that are on hold anymore.

I personally called PayPal and asked what's the go with the hold and they explained to me that it is ebay that ask them to hold the money

until ebay are satisfied which now new sellers need to sell for 90 days for the hold to be completed.

Feedback and smooth delivery are also part of it but all 3 criteria's need to be met the last being the 90 days which takes the longest lol.

I even asked what about the fees that need to be paid to ebay and well they need to come out of the sellers own pockets.

So even if you sell $$$$$ worth of items and you have a hold on the funds you will need to still pay the fees,very unfair IMO.

Edit: what I meant about the 90 days part is that the funds will be released after 21 days but it will continue for 90 days of selling before the hold finally stops.

[foxette-in-sox]

It wouldn't hurt to phone ebay and make sure all of your accounts are linked for starters. I started

selling again last year for a while after a 4 year break, had same issue about money put on hold

(cheap clothing mind you), and after ebay linked all 3 accounts, and I could show tracking proved

delivery, money was released within a few days.

I had to phone every time but at least my money was released within a few days.

[collect247]

You're correct foxette but this criteria is for those new sellers that don't have any other accounts and have just started selling 

for the first time also know as newbies