Paypal shenanigans, IMHO

H

Heckler

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Just sold an Eber on Ebay, see that it was paid for and am now in the office ready to pack and send, get an email from Paypal see below:

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Payment has been received - you can now post the item

Dear Davies Computer Services Ltd,


You've received a payment, detailed below. We've placed a temporary hold on the funds for this transaction.

eBay and PayPal are working together to make it safer than ever to buy on eBay. One of the boldest steps is to identify transactions that pose the greatest risk of fraud and holding the payments from sellers for a period of time to help ensure that the transactions go smoothly.

We'll release the payment for the eBay item if either of the following occurs:

The buyer leaves you positive feedback on eBay.
It's been 21 days since the payment date and you haven't received a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal on the transaction being held
Additional hold period

If you receive a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal on the transaction, we may hold the payment until the problem is resolved.

Learn more about the PayPal policy on payment holds for eBay items.

We will notify you by email when the funds are released. You can also check the status of the hold in your Transaction History.

So they keep my money for 21 days, then they keep it for up to 10 days whilst they transfer it!!
Got on the phone to them, spoke to a Mid atlantic drawl, who knew their terms and conditions backwards, all the platitudes in that sugar coated well trained call centre voice, I thought of reversing the transaction and phoning the piunter up, cant do that wont reverse until the funds have been transferrred in 31 days!!
I am highly pissed off, what does the panel think?
Stu
 
I will have nothing to do with paypal.

I have never had a paypal account. Nevertheless, when I tried to open an account for a specific purpose I got the message that I already had one - NOT true. Worse, I found a payment had been taken out of my bank (£40) some months earlier by paypal. I can only assume that they had my details because I have a skype account and this company was taken over by e bay, which also owns paypal.

I have never got to the bottom of this. My bank couldn't help and paypal responded to ALL my e mails with stock responses, probably automated, that had nothing to do with the issue. Nothing I said would change that. Couldn't ring them because I don't have and never did have an account and you can't get past their automated phone system without giving account details.

Look on the internet and you will find many sites detailing problems with paypal. They don't make barge poles long enough to tempt me into any further contact with them.
 
Paypal is great when it works but [--word removed--] when idt doesn't. I tend to use a CC to pay into paypal because I can get a charge back, which may be why the OP has to wait 21 days, because from experience I don't trust Paypal to get my money back if it all goes tits up. Paypal does try to discourage the use if CC payments and extols the use of debit cards instead because there is no charge back facility.
 
Had the same experience myself (delayed payment by PayPal) when selling an item recently: like you I wasn't amused. However a quick email to the buyer resulted in the necessary feedback being made and the cash released into my PayPal account in two days.

I think that once you have had a number of successful sales (five?) on Ebay, this delayed payment no longer applies.
 
Very interested in the sequence of events for this one as we have a warehouse shop selling a lot of product into the 0000's per month!

Did the transaction show as "completed" in paypal before they held the funds?
What was the delay inbetween the ebay transaction completed and the paypal email.
Did paypal indicate that you had received payment but not tell you they had held the funds?

Did paypal indicate more of a reason why the held the funds? I can see two reasons - 1) they think you may not fulfil the order or 2) they think the paypal account may have be used fraudulently. Obviously, reason 2 is a little more of a concern for you/us as it could mean that we have sent goods with little/no chance of recovery.

We believe our level of trade is largely due to the speedy service - we usually dispatch same day - so delays in the communication of payments being held may have a huge impact on our business .... could be back to CC transactions only!
 
I wont touch them either. Was quite happy with them for a couple of years bought things on Ebay no problem and then when you have a problem (someone took $50 for no reason out of my account out of the blue!) a wall of disinformation and irrelevancy comes down. Useless t*ssers was my verdict.
 
I use paypal for small transactions < c£100, but I despise the way they and ebay (being the same company) have absolute control over your money. They are also VERY expensive. I think it's getting on for something like 10% in fee's by the time you have paid dues for the auction. For an automated service with few staff to maintain that strikes me as a touch unfair. Unfortunately, there's not a lot anybody can do about it. Ebay has the monopoly over online auctions, and because they own paypal, there's bugger all chance of them opening up other payment services, like nochex for example.
It's also a violation of ebay T&C's to insist on a surcharge for payment via paypal to cover the extra commission costs. Great eh!

So, bend over and take what paypal give you, because there's no way around it unless you deal with the transaction yourself with bacs, or cash. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
I have used paypal for a few years now on the principle that its slightly better than paying blind. Their claim that you are protected is just not true! I have had two instances where either the goods were not supplied or the wrong item sent and paypal wouldn't do anything to help. In both cases the items were small and not worth the time and money to pursue. One was in Jersey which makes it even more difficult.

Maxi77 sums it up well: great when it works and ******* useless when it doesn't - but you still have to pay for it!!!
 
Its all in the NEW terms and conditions, I have 100% good feedback (26) BUT they now do random further questions in the feed back process and you need ten of these before the random holdbacks stop.
Also the mid atlantic voice volunteered the fact that eberspacher deals are flagged as possible fraud ones. They obviously have had probs.
Arrogant twats is what they are and after/if I get my dosh will not be selling any more there!!
The email system is fully automated and is impossible to get around, even the auto phone system gives limited choice subjects and you need a number generated off the site to even get past the auto bit, this number is valid for one hour only. They work the system to make it as hard as possible to contact a human and they dont give a damn and wont deviate from their self invented rules.
The phone number is 08707 307 191
Stu
 
When selling on ebay you now have no choice but to list Paypal as a payment option.
As others have said it's OK for small amounts but I wouldn't trust it for anything over £50. I lost two £700 plus payments, Never again.
 
Entirely reasonable. They used to have llots of cowboys on ebay sending out duff goods and then removing the payment from their pay pal account instantly. Customer wanted his money back and there was no way paypal could get it.

They dont know you from Adam so it seems sense to me for money to be held for a short period to give time for the buyer top raise a dispute if there is one.

Was the Eber OK? Are you worried there might be a dispute?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Entirely reasonable. They used to have llots of cowboys on ebay sending out duff goods and then removing the payment from their pay pal account instantly. Customer wanted his money back and there was no way paypal could get it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Flip that round the otherway .... Customer pays for something via Paypal, Vendor sends out the goods, Customer claims they are not as described/didn't arrive and wants their money back .... Vendor is now minus the goods and the cash ...
 
I can see weve got a right bright one here, number one it takes up to ten days to get the money out of Paypal, they insist on having a bank account AND CC details so that if you stop the direct debit they can still go after your credit card for a charge back.
number two the person who you sold to can NOW lie and say the goods didnt arrive, that they were faulty or what ever pops in to their heads and the seller is stuffed
number 3 nowt wrong with the eber and i sell lots of them so why the sly allusion to it not working?
suggest in the future engage brain and make sure of your facts before opening gob!!
Stu
 
I think he's rather indicating that a couple of rouge traders spoil it for the rest of us ..... I'm still happy with the Eber we bought from you ... and it still works despite not being serviced (which means it will now give up the ghost ....)
 
[ QUOTE ]
Ebay has the monopoly over online auctions

[/ QUOTE ] That's not strictly true, but it seems that no-one was prepared to support Sailroom when offered an alternative.

- W
 
[ QUOTE ]
but it seems that no-one was prepared to support Sailroom when offered an alternative.

[/ QUOTE ]
Bit of a sweeping statement there - difficult to "support" something when it doesn't have the wide appeal which means you have either
a) a reasonable interest in what you're selling
b) a reasonable choice of items to buy

a bit chicken and egg really - nothing wrong with Sailroom, but the traffic just isn't there to say it is a (major) competitor to the other one .... which is probably because relatively few ppl use it .... and so we go round in circles....
 
Still available Nick, with over 500 members, but few currently listing stuff. Seems some prefer to complain but carry on regardless. PP is listed as one of the payment options but there are others too.
Still a case of few being willing to sell for whatever reason, so I use it to sell my own stuff and others sell bits and pieces too.
Sold my 102ft barge on there last year, and my boat trailer only a few weeks ago, no complaints so far.
 
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