eBay

ladybug2785 · ‎11-01-2017

Been selling on both ebay.ca and .com since 2013. Currently have 98 items listed. Usually have a bit more than that listed at any given time. Total sales transactions of 400 for $3662 US. Nothing wrong with our account, we sell lots of things regularly.

Our selling limits are as follows:

$24000 per month up to 480 items per month.

So yesterday oct 31 we sold a cassette tape to somewhere in the UK for $8.50 CAD plus $4.12 CAD shipping. Ebay promptly informed us that the funds are being held for 21 days and we cannot have them until nov 21, 2017. What is going on here? So I called ebay and spoke to a fellow for a quite a while. He first tried telling me that it was being held because we had not uploaded tracking information. That is misinformation, there is no such policy. Then he puts me on hold for 10 minutes and comes back to tell me that it is being held because we did not ship it yet. What??? It just sold an hour earlier. There is no ebay policy that requires shipping within 1 hour.

So then he starts again about the tracking number nonsense and tries telling me that funds have always been held for 21 days since we started on ebay in 2013. What??? That is just not true. There was a hold in the very beginning back in 2013 for a little while but that stopped over 4 years ago.

This is what we get when clicking on the "more details":

Congratulations on selling your item!

Well done on selling your item! Although your buyer has paid, your funds will be held for up to 21 days and will be available by 21/11/2017

To make sure eBay is a safe and trusted marketplace, we implement this common industry practice in some instances such as Limited User History, Past Suspensions, and/ or High Risk transactions.

If a buyer reports a problem with a sale or an item, it may take longer than 21 days to receive your payment. So respond quickly to your buyer to resolve any issues.

How to get your funds faster:
1. Ship quickly after your buyer pays
2. Add tracking details in My eBay under sold items. If you have used eBay to print your label, tracking details will be uploaded automatically

This whole scenario is insane!

ricarmic · ‎11-01-2017

Given the propensity of glitches lately, have you checked directly in your paypal account to see if the $$$ is actually being held or not?

Ie the message itself might just be messed up, lots of weird things have been happening lately....and the funds might be normal/available?

(I've been getting sold emails for stuff that sold 5 days ago and never got a message at the time it sold....)

ladybug2785 · ‎11-01-2017

Yes checked paypal and yes it is being held. It is the only thing being held. The sale from the day before (nov 30) for $28 US plus $6.99 US shipping going to USA untracked does not have a hold nor does any other transaction since sometime in mid 2013.

reallynicestamps · ‎11-01-2017

I understood that the 21 days on new (and questionable*) was a Paypal Hold and not an eBay Hold.

Perhaps you should be talking to PP rather than eBay?

Best wishes.

*I have no reason to think your selling account is in any way questionable.

dutchman48 · ‎11-01-2017

@ladybug2785 wrote:
Yes checked paypal and yes it is being held. It is the only thing being held. The sale from the day before (nov 30) for $28 US plus $6.99 US shipping going to USA untracked does not have a hold nor does any other transaction since sometime in mid 2013.

Ebay just continues to make it more and more difficult for the small sellers.

ricarmic · ‎11-01-2017

Ok another idea, have you checked your (seller level) standing in the UK, Ireland zone?

If perhaps you've had too many lates etc in that particular zone, the restrictions are only applying to sales from that area??

ladybug2785 · ‎11-01-2017

Just checked that out. Nothing wrong there. Above standard across the board for all regions. 0.00% defect rates for everything.

To get me off the phone the last time I called the ebay person told me the hold would be removed within 24 hours. That was at 7:09pm cst yesterday (oct 31, 2017). I will call them back again after the 24 hours has elapsed.

ricarmic · ‎11-01-2017

Hmmm have no new ideas a the moment.

No other sales after that right?

It will be interesting to see if the next one is held or not.

ladybug2785 · ‎11-01-2017

No sales since the last one yesterday as of yet. Will post here any further news and the results of the next phone call(s) to ebay and/or paypal.

rose-dee · ‎11-02-2017

Yes, please come back and keep us apprised of the outcome of this. How ridiculous, and very troubling.

I'm wondering if it's either another eBay programming bug, i.e. perhaps it's the buyer who is the "risky" part of the transaction, and eBay's bots turned on you instead. Or -- possibly even more worrying -- is eBay about to introduce a new policy requiring international shipments to have tracking, and just haven't told us yet?

It's no wonder we're all tearing our hair out, especially these days when sales are few and far between. I haven't had a sale to the U.K. lately, so I can't say I've run across this myself.

BTW, did you bring this up at the Wednesday chat? If not, I'd definitely bring it up next week, and be sure to save screen shots of the messages you got on eBay and the transaction details, to show the eBay Canada rep.

Best of luck in dealing with this -- it shouldn't really be happening at all.

lady.stark · ‎11-02-2017

Would like to hear of the outcome too. This is very troubling indeed.

maximus7001 · ‎11-03-2017

This is sad.

reallynicestamps · ‎11-03-2017

Or -- possibly even more worrying -- is eBay about to introduce a new policy requiring international shipments to have tracking, and just haven't told us yet?

That would be a horror show.

I looked at the cost of shipping a small paperback or a packet of stamps to Belgium (for some reason I get almost no British orders).

At 17x10x1 and 85 gm. the cheapest tracked service was $40.79.

Compared to $10.10 for Light Packet International which is not tracked.

Generally overseas customers don't really care about tracking in my opinion. That's a US fetish.

Although there are a few overseas scammers, frankly that's a manageable expense for most sellers. (Block countries, charge postage accurately and let the customer decide, use Cookie Jar Insurance or shipsurance.com, etc.)

ladybug2785 · ‎11-03-2017

Ok it has now been 54 hours since being lied to by the ebay staff member who said this would be resolved within 24 hours to get me off the phone. Tried calling today on my break but my break ended before they answered the phone, wasted my whole break on it. There is still no tracking uploaded as there is no tracking. It's an $8.50 CAD item with $4.12 shipping cost for the buyer. Actual shipping cost was $5.90 in stamps. How could we possibly have sent this item tracked like the ebay employee said has always been a requirement to not have a hold? What planet is this guy on?

So I now look at the click for details and it now says this:

Congratulations on selling your item!

Well done on selling your item! Although your buyer has paid, your funds will be held for up to 21 days and will be available by 03/11/2017

To make sure eBay is a safe and trusted marketplace, we implement this common industry practice in some instances such as Limited User History, Past Suspensions, and/ or High Risk transactions.
If a buyer reports a problem with a sale or an item, it may take longer than 21 days to receive your payment. So respond quickly to your buyer to resolve any issues.

How to get your funds faster:
1. Ship quickly after your buyer pays
2. Add tracking details in My eBay under sold items. If you have used eBay to print your label, tracking details will be uploaded automatically

Well it is nov 3 now and still a hold.

rose-dee · ‎11-03-2017

I hope you'll be sure to bring this up next Wednesday on the weekly chat, whether the hold gets taken off by then or not.

At the very least, if this is a ridiculous error on eBay's part, it should be looked into to ensure it doesn't happen again. If it isn't an error, you (and the rest of us) deserve to know what the heck eBay is up to now. In this case, it isn't so much about the money being held up as the principle of the thing -- the heavy hand of eBay (or Paypal??) coming down in a completely inappropriate way.

I'll be following this to see what the outcome is. Thanks for posting this occurrence, we need to be aware of these things.

esclyons · ‎11-03-2017

i wonder if in fact it is the buyer who has a history of filing items not received, maybe that is why they want tracking or to hold the funds because this is a known abuser..

rose-dee · ‎11-05-2017

@esclyons wrote:
i wonder if in fact it is the buyer who has a history of filing items not received, maybe that is why they want tracking or to hold the funds because this is a known abuser..

Wow, if that's the case, then eBay is punishing the seller for a buyer's bad behaviour? Something is very wrong with this picture if so.

I would think the fair way to deal with this kind of abuse would be to force such buyers to make immediate payment and refuse to allow them to file INRs after a proven string of such infractions.