Thanks for your interest, however eBay only allows paypal as a payment option for credit cards unless you have your own bank facilities. This is usually not viable for a private person who only wants to sell personal excess items. Calming down has nothing to do with it, Paypal was used contrary to my instructions & thereafter Paypal STOLE my money. When somebody takes your stuff & won't give it back to you it is THEFT/STEALING. Of course my "goat is up" somebody stole from me! Not only that they are covering it up by claiming they have the right to do so because they changed the original agreement I had with them. The way paypal operates is contrary to Australian consumer laws & practices.

Sorry but annoying and unfair as it may be you agreed to abide by Paypal policies at the time you opened the account and any changes you were informed of in the future. Every member received an email prior to when the 21 day hold was going to be implemented which laid out the new policy and told the recipient that if they agreed to abide by the revised terms they need do nothing but if they didn't agree they had to close their account. It is not true that Paypal is the only way of accepting payments if you do not have a merchant facility, Paymate is also a recognised, allowed payment method.

 

The reason Paypal is backing down when people complain is simply because it would cost them tme and money to fight their corner but should they decide to do so I fear they would win.

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@phorum_junkie* wrote:

 

 

The reason Paypal is backing down when people complain is simply because it would cost them tme and money to fight their corner but should they decide to do so I fear they would win.

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My understanding is that only successful complaints cost PayPal money (in terms of paying out a third party, there may be minor costs involved in having their decisions investigated, can't see it really costing that much to say "but we have a right to, and here's why", in all reality), but if they were so confident in this policy, it would be better for them to stand their ground, surely, and put a stop to all these investigations (I daresay if they conceded to the investigations and the decision was in favour of PP, people would stop advising sellers to make complaints, at any rate).

 

Besides which, it's an eBay policy. In other words, it's ebay instructing PayPal to put a hold on the funds - eBay, who have no hand in the payment processing, but like their finger in the pie, anyway. I would venture to say that's why they cave, because they only do it at the say so of a third-party who really shouldn't be having a say in what happens to the money in the first place, despite the fact that eBay's user agreement now contains certain authorisation permissions. (Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong, though). 

Although it may be that ebay is now asking Paypal to enforce the 21 day hold the ability for Paypal to do this was writtten into the terms and conditions some years ago, it made a bit of a minor splash on the boards at the time but as it was rarely used in Australia I guess folk just forgot about it.

3 days after contacting the ombudsman & filing a complaint PaPal released my funds. Thanks for all the advice on this board.