new eBay seller, still awaiting payment days later

[ninjakatca]

Hi - I am a new eBay seller, and I sold an item seven days ago and My eBay page still indicates "awaiting payment". As a first-time seller, eBay indicated on an info page that my payment would be held because of limited selling experience.

If the buyer had actually paid, would My eBay have indicated "payment being held" or something similar?

I've already shipped the item and it arrived successfully to the buyer. I've tried emailing the buyer a couple of times to confirm payment, but unfortunately I have received no reply.

Is my only recourse now to open a case? Or do I have other options?

Thanks for your input. I'm feeling a bit foolish if I've lost the payment and the item. Lesson learned.

[nudibranch4569]

never mail until payment is confirmed.

[pocomocomputing]

Check your PayPal account to see if there is a payment. If none there, then you are not paid.

[ninjakatca]

Thanks for all the comments, it confirms what I know so far. I checked my PayPal, no payment. 

Is eBay actually effective in resolution these type of payment matters? I guess I'll find out.. : /

[callydeal · Accepted solution]

You should only consider an item "sold" once payment is fully received and confirmed by PayPal.

Item is ready to be shipped when it appear in Sold - "Awaiting shipment" section of the seller manager.

That mean that payment have already cleared(in case of eCheck) and that PayPal have confirmed the shipping address with the billing address of the buyer.

-When you check order details, you can click on "PayPal Transactions Details" and then a window will pop up showing you all information about the payment. At the top of the window, you'll see if order is ready to ship or not, as paypal will tell you if there is something wrong with the payment and if you need to wait before shipping.

-You can also see if the shipping address as the "Confirmed" or "Unconfirmed" stauts that mean that PayPal have confirmed the shipping address and that package will reach it without problem.

"Unconfirmed" status of a shipping address does not mean that address is not good, PayPal have some difficulties in other country like Ireland, Russia, Brezil, Italy to confirm shipping address from buyer.

If you see an "unconfirmed" shipping address in USA or Canada, you can think about cancelling the order if order amount value is high (200$ and more) since dellivery will maybe not be covered by PayPal Seller Protection because address is unconfirmed. 

You'll see if the order is covered or not at the top  of the buyer shipping address.

Hope it could help some people since it took me so much time learning this alone :).

Regards,

Eric 

[pjcdn2005]

If you see an "unconfirmed" shipping address in USA or Canada, you can think about cancelling the order if order amount value is high (200$ and more) since dellivery will maybe not be covered by PayPal Seller Protection because address is unconfirmed.

Paypal has not required a confirmed address for at least a couple of years. If the item + shipping is more than $250, they do require signature confirmation for seller protection in an item not received case. I'm sure that you already know that but just wanted to add on to the info.