How Long ?

[labtec1980]

Guess I'm out of the loop . How long has PayPal been withholding funds  ? Haven't sold or bought anything for a while then sold an item a week ago and noticed a 3 week hold on payment? I've been a member here since 2002 with a 100% positive feedback rating so was a little surprised to say the least .

[pierrelebel]

PayPal has been holding funds for new sellers or those with low feedback as seller (feedback as buyer is immaterial) for about five years.  It is a safety measure and there is no way around it.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/track-paypal.html

"However, in some cases, the payment might be "pending" for a few days, or it might be held by PayPal for up to 21 days. Find out more about pending payments. "

[femmefan1946 · Accepted solution]

It's a relatively new Buyer Protection policy, about a year and a half.

Basically, new and occasional sellers are considered to be the ones who are most likely to make errors in listing and in shipping. The Hold for 21 days allows Paypal and eBay to learn about those errors without having to pay from their own pockets if a newbie turns out to be a crook (takes the money and runs) or just confused (set shipping too low and now refuses to ship, for example).

You can use the customers' cleared payment to buy a Paypal shipping label. And those still have discounts of 5% to 18% off PO counter prices.

The other new thing that confuses a lot of buyers is that the IDs of other bidders are now masked, as are buyers' and sellers' names in feedback.

And then there are the Detailed Seller Ratings...

[labtec1980]

I went and filled out that shipping thing there but never printed it . I chose to go to the PO and just buy and then later upload tracking. It was 4 bucks cheaper at the PO then the PP label . Not sure why to be honest. Anyways the buyers had the item since yesterday so hopefully I'll have money soon . Thanks for the reply.

[tobyshitzu]

the only way the post office could be cheaper is if you chose a more expensive service, or put in bad weight/dimension data

[labtec1980]

Well the buyer has now had my item in hand since Monday . Still no release of funds , this is such a complete joke . Be my last business dealings with Ebay , to many other places locally  now to sell stuff without this holding funds thing.

[labtec1980]

The PP form added extra insurance that wasn't needed or asked for. At the PO the basic insurance was included . That was the difference.

[pierrelebel]

The funds will be released 21 days after payment.

Rules are slightly different in the USA

[lady.stark]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

It's a relatively new Buyer Protection policy, about a year and a half.

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It has been in effect for longer than that... I started selling under this ID in 2011 and PayPal was holding my funds back then.

OP, if you have proof of delivery, just send it to PayPal and they will release your funds within 3 days if I am remember correctly.

[rose-dee]

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@labtec1980 wrote:
The PP form added extra insurance that wasn't needed or asked for. At the PO the basic insurance was included . That was the difference.

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I'm sorry, but this doesn't make sense to me.  The P.O. has the same shipping services available as are offered on Paypal, except that you get a significantly larger discount on the tracked services with Paypal labels.  

Did you by any chance have the wrong service selected in the drop-down box when preparing the Paypal label?  Or perhaps you inadvertently clicked on the radio button that says "Additional Insurance" (or whatever the wording is).  

What was the service you purchased at the P.O., and where was the parcel going?  I'm almost certain you would have got a better price using Paypal labels if you were purchasing a tracked service.  If you provide some details, maybe we can save you some money next time.