Is holding funds a new thing?

[3islanders]

I am definitely an "infrequent seller"; haven't sold anything in ages, and suddenly the funds from this one sale are being withheld.  Yes, I saw the article.  So I don't get paid until the "buyer confirms they’ve received their item" -- assuming they bother to do so, and I have to pay about $50 upfront for postage to send it?

Doesn't this kind of allow for sellers to lose both their item and the shipping cost if there's a problem?

UGH... I may not be selling anything else here....

[t_bjarnason]

If you upload tracking info, the funds should be released as soon as the package shows as delivered. If there's no tracking, it'll be 6 days after the last estimated delivery date. 

I'm guessing that they are holding funds because you haven't sold in a while or you're selling in a new category. After a couple successful sales, funds will no longer be held, assuming you're not below eBay's seller standards. 

If you shipped through eBay shipping, the cost of the label should be deducted from your pending/held funds. 

Doesn't this kind of allow for sellers to lose both their item and the shipping cost if there's a problem?

Not at all. eBay doesn't just automatically give the funds back to the buyer if a problem is reported. The buyer would still have to go through the same processes to report a problem and they'd still have to qualify and meet certain criteria to get a refund (Money Back Guaruntee). eBay holding your funds just guarantees that funds are available in the event that a seller tries to take the money and run and eBay can't collect after refunding the buyer. It's more just to discourage dishonest and scammer sellers. 

[mrdutch1001]

apparently no it's not new.. except maybe to those of us who were longtime, consistent sellers who found ourselves becoming less frequent with sales that labelled us as "occasional" sellers so now if we want to sell on eBay we get treated as occasional/new sellers with all the holds,etc...

am still contemplating whether it will be worthwhile for myself to return to selling on eBay again, as to me it means being required to ship items with tracking and a lot of what I had been selling on eBay was shipped via oversize lettermail. Using THAT method of shipping now becomes a bigger risk factor for proving delivery, especially when buyers are not so inclined to leave feedback anymore and/or let anyone know the item has been received.

[15westcoast]

There will be many "infrequent" sellers like myself who have 100% feedback and

a great track record that will likely not be selling on Ebay again because of this

nonsense.  Ebay will loose sales over this but because we are "infrequent" sellers

it really won't bother them.

[3islanders]

>sigh< never mind.

Several hours after she paid and I packed her item, now she wants to cancel because she "didn't realize" the shipping cost so much.

AFTER she paid.  >:[

Canada Post wants $20 more from me to ship it, than what they charged her.

[reallynicestamps]

So you have not shipped? That a blessing.

And she has asked you to cancel? (Remember only sellers can cancel purchases.)

And you had miscalculated your shipping cost?

Annoying as all this is, the outcome is Good News.

When you cancel, she will automatically be refunded.

If you bought a label already, you can cancel it. The Bad News being that the refund for the label will be slow.

[3islanders]

I did not miscalculate the shipping... l entered The size and weight for calculated shipping and eBay came up with the price.