eBay Withholding Payment of $49

LRescue 26 on 28/11/2017 - 22:46
Last edited 29/11/2017 - 11:37 by 1 other user

I just sold an item on eBay.

Buyer paid immediately through PayPal, but eBay message states:

"Well done on selling your item! Although your buyer has paid, your funds will be held for up to 21 days and will be available by Date Unavailable"

Wtf?! It goes on to state something about high risk transactions, disputes, protection, blah blah blah. FFS it was a $49 bike computer! I have 100% positive feedback, never had a dispute and been a member for 13 years. My Current Seller Level is listed as "above standard".

Is this a new policy or have I been mistakenly singled out? I wouldn't have listed the item if I'd known this was going to happen. eBay certainly never flagged it when I was preparing the ad. I have sent a complaint. Awaiting the reply.

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Comments

  • Axelstrife on 28/11/2017 - 22:58
    +1

    How long since you last sold something?

    6 year old account here with over 500 feedback majority from buying and have never experienced this myself.
    though lots of people ive bought from have had the 21 day hold which was cause they where new accounts or under certain feedback.

  • Yttrium on 28/11/2017 - 23:04
    +1

    What did eBay say when you complained ?

  • FireRunner on 28/11/2017 - 23:05
    +1

    I've had some sellers telling me about this as well, although they were all new accounts.
    Never had it myself, how often do you sell things?

  • donnot on 28/11/2017 - 23:06
    +1

    This page may be of some help. I'm using an ~12+ year old account, 100% positive feedback with ~300 * and still get money put on hold as I've only had a few sales. All payments have been cleared 3 days after delivery though (otherwise, contact PayPal).

  • Rescue 26 on 28/11/2017 - 23:18
    +1

    My seller dashboard says I have 25 sales worth nearly US$6000. Last sale was 6 months ago. The eBay user agreement states:
    "To protect against the risk of liability, eBay may request, and you agree to authorise the request, that PayPal restrict access to funds in a seller's PayPal account based on certain factors…"
    EBay never requested and I certainly never authorised any restriction so they appear to be in breach of their own user agreement. Unless I am misreading the agreement and the EBay request refers to Pay Pal, not me, and I agree to the request by virtue of using their site.

    • HighAndDry on 28/11/2017 - 23:33
      +1

      EBay never requested and I certainly never authorised

      Uh, hate to break it to you champ, but you know that part you just quoted?

      "To protect against the risk of liability, eBay may request, and you agree to authorise the request, that PayPal restrict access to funds in a seller's PayPal account based on certain factors…"

      EBay requested PayPal, and by the User Agreement, you automatically agree to EBay's request (again, to PayPal), to restrict access to the funds in your PayPal account.

      • Rescue 26 on 28/11/2017 - 23:36

        Yep, no doubt your interpretation is correct. Still, I've never had it happen before.

        • HighAndDry on 28/11/2017 - 23:39

          It's an anti-scam/fraud mechanic. Has your account been fairly dormant for a while? I think thatonethere has it right below: it's not uncommon for hackers to use a dormant eBay account (still with good ratings) to scam people. Search around here, I remember seeing a thread a month back where someone here fell for that exact scam, sending money to a hacked eBay account.

          Edit: Example I was talking about: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/5266018/redir

  • Ughhh on 28/11/2017 - 23:21

    Nothing new

  • thatonethere on 28/11/2017 - 23:33
    +3

    This is usual unfortunately…

    What im told from the inside that old unused accounts are often hacked and suddenly pose heaps of auctions fraudulently. So ebay holds the payments for potential refunds.

  • Strahany on 28/11/2017 - 23:38
    +1

    I have sporadically sold things on eBay over the past 5 years or so, with more consistent selling coming in the past 12 months. At the beginning of said 12 month period, I hadn't sold anything for over 6 months, and had my funds held, despite 100% feedback for both buying and selling. eBay/PayPal are aware of the high number of old accounts with good reputation being hacked and used as a front to fleece money, so try to cover themselves as much as possible by blanket-blocking semi-dormant accounts.
    After you've done it the one time then you should be fine (although it may be required again if its a long time until you sell your next item).

    I suspect eBay will tighten up even further once Amazon takes over completely; they'll need to cut seller fees to be competitive, and with less seller fees theres less profit with which they can use to cover losses.

    • foxmulder on 29/11/2017 - 09:44

      Amazon selling fees is 15% for sellers, eBay is around 10% and less again for seller with store subs. Don't think they will change anything much on selling fees.

      • D C on 29/11/2017 - 12:39

        Don't forget PayPal, that bumps up the eBay fees.

  • djsweet on 29/11/2017 - 08:39
    +1

    I've had this happen to me too even though I have made a lot of sales on eBay. If you don't sell for a few months it happens. Just the first few times. After a buyer leaves feedback you should get the money, and then Paypal will stop holding funds. Just an anti-fraud measure.

  • narcoleptic-haze on 29/11/2017 - 09:12

    Yep last time I sold something on eBay I had something like this happen. The reasoning was because I didn't do "enough" to be a "good seller" so this was a sort of punishment. He's what I did:

    • Answered a question minutes after it was asked.
    • Item was purchased while I was at work, so first thing next day I posted the item.
    • I gave positive feedback to the buyer.
    • I got tracking and marked it as posted with the tracking information as soon as it was done.
    • The buyer received the item the following day, gave positive feedback.
    • I have a 100% rank.

    Reasons why my payment got held up:

    • I did not offer free postage.
    • I did not post the item the same day as the purchase.
    • I did not use eBay's own printed shipping labels.

    I have never sold on eBay since.

    • HighAndDry on 29/11/2017 - 11:50
      +1

      The reasoning was because I didn't do "enough" to be a "good seller" so this was a sort of punishment.

      That's not a thing afaik, and has never been a thing. eBay doesn't do this to "punish" sellers - that's what ratings are for.

      • narcoleptic-haze on 29/11/2017 - 12:15

        Well, it was heavily implied that was the case. I emailed them directly to ask about it and they specifically said in order to speed up receipt of payment, as a seller I'd have to meet certain criteria (the things I listed). They said because I didn't do those things, that was why there was a delay in receiving my payment. But this was about 6-12 months ago.. Maybe it's changed.

        In the end I told them it was pretty unreasonable to expect a casual seller (ie: not a business) to post an item the same day it was purchased. I'm not going to haul around my items for sale and leave them in my car baking in the sun everyday just in case someone buys them. And without a mass use relationship with Australia Post offering free post is hard to factor into the sell price.

        • HighAndDry on 29/11/2017 - 16:21

          They said because I didn't do those things, that was why there was a delay in receiving my payment.

          That's far and away not the same thing as "punishment", and in this case, seems to be obviously linked to the ability of eBay to track and confirm delivery of the goods sold - which has a clear link to releasing funds paid for those goods.

          In the end I told them it was pretty unreasonable to expect a casual seller (ie: not a business) to post an item the same day it was purchased.

          Irrelevant - if they can't track/confirm delivery, they have reason to delay releasing funds.

  • avidd on 02/12/2017 - 09:55

    Don’t worry - I had this happen a few times when I didn’t use eBay’s postage service (item didn’t fit in a prepaid bag). Once I uploaded my tracking number from the post office the money was released within a day or two.

    Only seems to happen for certain items/categories I think as well.

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