lawrenson wrote:Hi,

bought something from someone off Ebay, and just had a message from him saying that Paypal won't release the money until I leave feedback for him.

I assume he is lying?

Or have I missed something?

Cheers,
Malc

It's not entirely true.

IIRC, they will hold it for 21 days after payment OR release it sooner if you leave positive feedback in the meantime.  If you don't leave positive feedback in that time frame, the seller should have their money released after 21 days(or somewhere around then).

bclarkie wrote:
It's not entirely true.

IIRC, they will hold it for 21 days after payment OR release it sooner if you leave positive feedback in the meantime.  If you don't leave positive feedback in that time frame, the seller should have their money released after 21 days(or somewhere around then).

100% accurate.

But...the problem for sellers is that paypal holds all the funds including shipping fees. While this may not seem like a big deal, it can suck. The guy can mail it and he can't touch his funds until you leave positive feedback or the 21 days elapse.

There are really three problems with this methodology.  

The first is that if you sell a bunch of stuff you can rack up a huge postal bill - and even worse if several items have to go overseas. This may come as a shock to some people, but not everyone has a ton a cash laying around to "pay it forward."

Secondly, there are tons of people who neglect leaving feedback. And in the one-sided world that is ebay, hounding them is not such a great idea. So sellers are stuck waiting 21 days for payment to clear even if they mailed it out the same day it sold!

Thirdly, you pay and ship. Then some sort of dispute arises. Seller is out the product, shipping fees and whatever the sales amount was.

I know as a buyer we might say "so what." But I can't think of any other business that operates that way.

Hi,

hmm... differring opinions...

Uk to Uk buyer.

I received item yesterday. All fine and dandy. Because I buy a lot, I tend to "do all my feedbacks" once a week or so, and will indeed leave him a positive in a coupla days IF he isnt lying to me.

I did some selling recently on Ebay, and I'm sure I got all the money immediately.

Cheers,
Malc

When I have sold something, I have never had PayPal hold the money, even when coming from an unconfirmed account. Weird.

Well, that makes more sense. I don't sell enough to really pay attention.

SoulCatcher78 wrote:There's a lot of reasons why Paypal will hold funds.  You might not have enough feedback as a seller, you might have a new account, or the item you're selling has a high fraud rate (software/video games come to mind).

I ran into this with two of the first things that I sold on ebay (the first due to being over $100.00 and the second to being classified as software/game).  It was something that I had not planned on and in hindsight seemed reasonable but trying to print the shipping label and having the site tell me my available balance wasn't enough (when you can see that there's money there (but on hold)) can get you fired up first thing in the morning.  

Ways to get the money released include the positive feedback (I'd be leary of giving it before getting the item), proof of delivery (takes some time buy then you have fewer hassles), or 21 days.  Any of the above work but all require patience.  

I've since started reading all of the paypal fine print as it applies to getting paid right away  

BAM!

Hi,

nope, a Ptolus.

Cheers,
Malc

mbassoc2003 wrote:Again, with UK sellers, this only applies to certain catagories of goods (consumer electronics). You can sell a boxed set at £200 and transfer the money straight out of PayPal that day. If you sell a £200 camera, PayPal freeze the funds for 21 days or until the buyer leaves positive feedback.

Actually it's US rules as well, I sold my Ipod a while back and they held the money for a bit, I got quick feedback so no biggy.

As an interesting side note I had to list twice;

On the 1st listing the bidding went all out of bounds...over $150.00! When you can snap them up for about a hundred new, and mine wasn't.

So later I get an email from the buyer, in the UK, where I wasn't willing to ship anyway. He's stating that PayPal was holding the money and I wouldn't be able to see it till I shipped and he left me feedback.

AND I needed to ship it to him in Obadan Nigeria. Keeps getting better and better. So before I fired up my turnip truck and headed over to the PO. I bounced jerky back an email stating that soon as the money, from that Bank of Liberia deal cleared   I'd send him the Ipod...

Reported it to Ebay, and suprise: pirated account. What I don't get is that I was the one that caught that and not them. Don't believe your private info is safe with them, not one bit!    

I've a seperate accounts for ebay use (bank & CC) just because of this kind of thing. I don't leave anything in that account ever & review my statement with a magnifying glass! Their server is far from secure. I can see where some people would've sent it because of greed factors, after all the "bell curve" is a real & true thing

In the last 2 years, I've had 1 buyer from Egypt and 3-4 from South Africa.  All transactions went smoothly with no problems.

I'm guessing that RPG items are less of a target in general for scammers than electronics and computers.