When does shipping timer counter start for "pending paypal payment"?

[ricarmic]

Hmm got one of these from a buyer in Germany today.

The paypal notice says that  the funds are coming out of their bank account and that if the $$$ hasn't been received in 30 days the transaction will automagically be cancelled (ie I don't get the $$$).

This seems a lot like how an e-cheque works (haven't gotten one of them in along time either).

I looked at the buyer and their history and I have no "spider senses" tingling so as I usually do for small ticket e-cheques, I'll ship it out, but my wondering is when the official shipping time counter in eBayland counts it as being paid for.

The ebay message for the payment says: "Payment was initiated on May XXXXX and is being processed through PAYPAL". 

To me this would mean in eBayland that officially it hasn't been paid for yet and therefore the shipping timing counter wouldn't be initiated yet?

Anyone know?

[maggiebvintage2010 · Accepted solution]

Is it showing under "Awaiting Payment" or "Awaiting Shipment" in Selling Manager?  The shipping timer is activated only when it shows as being paid.  When you look at the transaction in your Sales History, there should be an hourglass icon instead of a dollar sign.

I usually message the buyer thanking them for the purchase and letting them know that I am waiting for the payment to clear in order to ship.  They also will be advised when their payment clears, but many buyers don't realize that it takes a number of days to clear an e-cheque.  It seems as though you are saying that you ship before cleared payment for small amounts, is that correct?

[ricarmic]

Hi Maggie!

This is a great example why it is so much more efficient to ask simple questions like this on the board!

I have to confess that I am a "minimalist" user of SMP, normally I only use it to get the phone numbers of buyers when I'm doing the customs forms.

As you suggest, it is very clear on SMP that it is not yet paid for, which presumably also means the counter has not yet started.

In "myEbay" yes it has the hourglass which I presumed meant that it didn't count yet but one never knows anymore!

Regarding shipping before it "clears" yes. As you may recall from some old threads that "old timers" like me and Pierre and femme, come from a world where sellers send our stamps to folks trusting that they would pick out the stuff that is of use, pay for the stuff they kept and send the remaining stamps along with payment back (it is called an approval service, and I still do this today).

Compared to the level of trust and risk doing that, trusting folks who send cheques, or e-cheques or these pending things is much less "risky".

I do have practices to minimalize the risk ("spider senses" stuff) which this buyer passed so out it will go monday (Its under $20 item).

Thank you very much for your response and have an awesome day!!!

[maggiebvintage2010]

Hi ricarmic - yes that hourglass means "waiting for payment to clear".

On another account, I have a number of customers for certain items who don't like to use credit cards on line, or who don't like to keep PayPal balances.  So I get a fair amount of small payments that need time to clear.  I've always waited for that, but it can take 10-12 business days depending on buyer's location.  I think I may start to just send them out as you do - I've never had a problem with eventual clearance, and the demographic for those sales is extremely low risk.  Certain items, though, I would still wait for cleared payment.

Hope you have a great day too!  I'm heading outside for a bit of gardening before the expected and hoped-for rain begins.