eBay

ricarmic · ‎11-26-2022

Last night wooo hooo $499 US sale, to a repeat Canadian customer all looks good until....

I look at the payments and once again it's on hold till Jan 4th.

So I'm 2 for 2 now for large sales automagically held.

I've not heard much from other active established sellers here that are getting these all the time from the other thread I opened, so something must be triggering the BOTs to put holds on my large sales despite the fact I'm a long established seller with decent ongoing sales quantity.

I'm a problem solving kinda guy so I'm wondering what the algorithm is that the BOTs are using to determine when a hold is placed on me.

Here are things I know have coincidentally happened around the time of the holds:

-within a day or so before the holds I've received INR(s). For the first hold I spoke about in an earlier thread I had 3 of them from a Canadian buyer the dayish before the hold. For last nights hold I had an INR case opened in the US on Thursday, the .COM sale was early this (Saturday) morning. Buyer is from Canada though.

-Overall I've received 6 INRs within the last month, this is a first ever for me (this many in this short a time), they all have stories behind them which I won't bother folks here with, but from the bots perspective that's a lot of INRs relative to my usual "volume". As a note though, despite the quantity, I'm only over average in one category across all options on .COM and .CA, its the .CA domestic one, I'm at 0.45% against the average of 0.35% Not sure if this is enough to put extra focus in the algorithm on Canadian sales, both holds are Canadian buyers. The 3 Canadian INRs (same buyer) were all I have but raised the % over average in the domestic .CA category.

-the sale amounts of the held sales are very "high" compared to my average item sale price. I am selling a LOT of $10 to $15 items these days, which is no surprise given the current economic status. The average item price is likely in the $20-$25 per item range. The two held items were 20 to 25 times the "average" item price, so this also might be something that triggers the automagic BOT hold.

I would be interested to know of others who've been regularly selling that have had holds and any "circumstances" around that time that might have triggered them.

This is going to be another eternally elusive task same as the "search algorithm" that will also never be understood, but it would be good to see if there are any consitent "circumstances" that will cause them.

I'm spending the time doing this because whilst my cash flow model will handle this 30 day hold situation, I'm sure from what I've seen over time here on the boards, not everone else's will so if we have a general idea what things can cause it it might help us in the long term...

ricarmic · ‎12-09-2022

Just as a follow up, the buyer received the item on December 5th, at that time the estimated date of release dropped to December 10th, sometime since yesterday morning it became unheld, so I'm presuming it released it yesterday, 3 days after it was received the same as for the first one.

Again for this one it sold to a buyer who doesn't leave feedback, so the only trigger was the arrival of the item.

Now if I could just have a couple more $400 plus sales to see what happens with them, at this point I don't mind if they are put on hold, I would just like to have them in ANY case!

byto253 · ‎12-09-2022

Very noble to offer to be a guinea pig. I think the bot powers should jump on this and buy your 5 most expensive listings, spaced out in 3 day intervals. All in the name of system improvement of course!

ricarmic · ‎12-09-2022

More things to make me go HMMMMMMM....

Interestingly your comment provoked me to check how many items I actually have that are "worth enough" and I have to admit I am very surprised by the answer, and it might also provide some insight to another possible reason as to why I got the holds.

Clearly as I've been madly listing things the last couple years, I've been listing a lot more smaller stuff as a %.

My average item price is $26.

Only 0.006% of my items are worth over $400 as an item. So just over 1/2 of 1% of my items are priced at or above the level upon which I've had holds placed. Said another way one out of 166 items in my store are priced this high. (Only 1.7% of my items are priced above $200 per item).

I'm starting to think that this might also be affecting the algorithm that determines "holdworthiness". Certainly if a store is selling something that is worth a lot more than the average price (15 times) and is rarely sold at that individual size it might trip the bots to put a hold on.

This also might provide a corollary conclusion as to why I'm selling so much "small" stuff, apparently that's what I have the majority of!!!

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎12-09-2022

@ricarmic wrote:
More things to make me go HMMMMMMM....
Interestingly your comment provoked me to check how many items I actually have that are "worth enough" and I have to admit I am very surprised by the answer, and it might also provide some insight to another possible reason as to why I got the holds.
Clearly as I've been madly listing things the last couple years, I've been listing a lot more smaller stuff as a %.
My average item price is $26.
Only 0.006% of my items are worth over $400 as an item. So just over 1/2 of 1% of my items are priced at or above the level upon which I've had holds placed. Said another way one out of 166 items in my store are priced this high. (Only 1.7% of my items are priced above $200 per item).
I'm starting to think that this might also be affecting the algorithm that determines "holdworthiness". Certainly if a store is selling something that is worth a lot more than the average price (15 times) and is rarely sold at that individual size it might trip the bots to put a hold on.
This also might provide a corollary conclusion as to why I'm selling so much "small" stuff, apparently that's what I have the majority of!!!

@ricarmic

@byto253

I'm not sure this is of any solace but just did a general search for stamps. Currently there are 14 M listings available. I didn't do a breakdown by price. Unfortunately your listings didn't all come up as first. That was only 1 category. I'm afraid to imagine how many available listings there are in total for say books or electronics.

Personally, I miss having those high value sales like I did in the past. Not sure I would be able to deal with any wait to get my money from them IF they were to happen now. But I would if I had to!!!

-Lotz

ians_vintage · ‎01-13-2023

Hello,

Just wanted to add my two cents here, that even with over 20 years on eBay, 100% positive feeback in the thousands, and no problems at all with my account, I've now had two random sales had the payout withheld until delivery confirmation.

One is a sale to the US for around $80 Canadian, and the latest one was a 1 cent auction that came to $2.01 with shipping.

I spoke with customer service the other day about the $80 sale, they had no reasoning that they could see as to why it was being held. This new second one is hilarious. Really? Holding payment on a ONE CENT sale?

eBay needs to address this, especially with (very) long-standing sellers with very strong reputation on the site.

ricarmic · ‎01-13-2023

Wow I don't feel so ebay slighted anymore now!! 😉

I was surprised based on my old theory I had a $325 item sell this week and it wasn't held which I was happy about.

A $2.01 hold is definitely ridiculous.

ians_vintage · ‎01-13-2023

Just spoke with eBay customer service, and they can't give any reason why these are happening, nor do they have a means to release funds early for accounts in good standing or whatever reason.

Might be finally time to part ways with eBay after 20+ years.

Treating long-time members like we're brand-new accounts, is insulting.

ricarmic · ‎01-13-2023

I'm running stuff on a number of online venues and ALL of them have trials and tribulations, it's somewhat sad to say that ebay is the one with the least trials and tribulations for me at the moment!

I always use the Anne Landers "are you better off with them or without them" advice!

However that can change in a minute, one never knows!

lotzofuniquegoodies · ‎01-13-2023

@ians_vintage wrote:
Just spoke with eBay customer service, and they can't give any reason why these are happening, nor do they have a means to release funds early for accounts in good standing or whatever reason.
Might be finally time to part ways with eBay after 20+ years.
Treating long-time members like we're brand-new accounts, is insulting.

@ians_vintage

Especially whenever you call eBay, the first thing out of their lips is " I see you opened this account Fill in year here ago, thank you for your loyalty". Doesn't seem really loyal to treat a long time account that way!!

-Lotz

flipistics · ‎01-13-2023

I wonder if the holds have something to do with the buyer's financial details instead of anything to do with the seller? It would make some of the weird ones a little more understandable. Of course, then you'd have to question why we'd be asked to ship something immediately even if ebay thought it was a little sketchy...

reallynicestamps · ‎01-13-2023

Spoke?

That's not eBay.

The phone reps do not work for eBay so don't bother with them. They work for a subcontractor out of Utah.

  https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness/ — Message button in upper right on landing page. 

https://twitter.com/askebay?lang=en

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/How-do-I-contact-Customer-Support/m-p/32016431#M1783851 -> Automated Assistant, type AGENT -> enter. You will then get more options.  

The social media Chat accounts are covered by trained eBay employees with some authority.
And you get a transcript so you can compare what you heard with what you were told.