PayPal Money Holds

[Maniah]

So I'm sure most people are aware by now that PayPal hangs on to your money if you sell something on Ebay, untill the buyers receives it. If they can confirm that the buyer recieved it, they release the funds to you. If the buyer leaves you positive feedback, they release the funds to you.

They are VERY ambiguous on what you can do to avoid having your funds held.

What can I do to avoid payment holds?  Here are some things you can do:
 

• If you sell on eBay, improve your Detailed Seller Ratings ( DSRs )scores
• Avoid buyer disputes, claims, and chargebacks
• If you have a buyer dispute, resolve it quickly
• Process your orders right away and ship quickly using a service that provides tracking and delivery confirmation
• Upload or save tracking information or Delivery Confirmation numbers
• Communicate early and often with your buyers
• Make sure you confirm the address and phone numbers associated with your PayPal account, and keep them up to date
• Verify your account and keep your financial information (like bank account and credit card numbers and expiration) up to date

So.. Yeah.. That all applies to me. They don't tell me to what degree the DSR scores need to be improved, and if there is any way to see how many stars someone left me for each catagory, I can't tell.

I have never had a dispute with a buyer. I always ship fast. I always have confirmation numbers since PayPal includes it. When I ship overseas, I submit the customs form number since no one buys the better shipping. My info is all up to date and verified..

So why is my money on hold? My account was inactive for a while, but now that it IS active, I'm hoping that they remove this when my 35 day review comes up.

Does anyone know how high your ebay feedback must be to satisfy them and get this HORRIBLE feature removed?

I feel like my money is being held hostage, especially when shipping to other countries, because SO MANY buyers fail to leave feedback when they get the item and they are happy with it. I have had to BEG for my buyers to leave me feedback half the time. I politely explain that Im trying to up my seller score so paypal stops holding my money.. But this is ridiculous. I have had a $90 purchase just sitting there pending for the last month.

[ponylady]

I can't believe they continue to do this.  There has been class action lawsuits over this dating back to 1999.
Here is some interesting information regarding one of them:

In early 2002, Plaintiffs Roberta Toher and
Jeffrey  Resnick filed separate lawsuits against PayPal, Inc. These two cases
were later  consolidated into one lawsuit in the United States District Court
for the  Northern District of California.
The lawsuit alleges, among several other
issues,  that PayPal has placed inappropriate restrictions or other limits on
customers'  accounts and engaged in several other improper practices. Based on
these  improper practices, the lawsuit sought damages for money unjustly held,
 negligence, and violations of consumer protection statutes.
Rather than dealing with a lengthy public trial
and  being forced to clean up their act, PayPal decided to settle out of court
and  pay $9.25 Million Dollars to Tens of Thousands of PayPal merchants who
processed  with PayPal between October 1, 1999 and January 31, 2004. (A mere
slap on the  hand for a company this size)
Instead of a Judge forcing PayPal to change
 their questionable business practices, PayPal agreed to pay the settlement and
 walk away from the entire allegation.
So what does this mean to current PayPal
merchants?  Unfortunately, this means that PayPal is free to continue operating
in the exact  same way it always has. Judging by the number of PayPal horror
stories we  receive every single day, it appears that the situation has only
gotten  worse since the settlement.

And on another note the DSR ratings is one of the worst things ebay could have ever implemented into their scheme of things.  It is abused and always will be!  Just wait till June when they roll out there new plan!

[NoDivision]

There are actual requirements as well as far as number of items sold, total amount of mnoey made, and how lno you've been on ebay. I don't remember the details but to get holds removed you have to meet all 3 - I think it's something like $500, 25 sales, and 6 weeks of membership.

On top of that, if any of your DSRs drop below I think 4.8 they put the holds back on.

[Eskara1862]

*sigh*  E-Bay madness again.  Sorry, Maniah, but you're never going to get a clear answer from eBay about how to get those restrictions removed.  They'll promise you one thing and renig on it when you meet the requirements.
 
I posted details about my battle with eBay and the 21 day holds on my blog.  The post is Why I Won't Sell on eBay .

[Maniah]

Thank you for that link. That was quite the read. And it has made me sort of sad. I also did a lot of Ebay when I turned 18.. But I stopped for a long time and am only just recently starting again.. I was under the impression that Etsy was for crafts and such.. Can you sell just stuff on there? Like unopened blind bags or old books or movies?

[naylastar]

And on another note the DSR ratings is one of the worst things ebay could have ever implemented into their scheme of things.  It is abused and always will be!  Just wait till June when they roll out there new plan!

Oh dear, what's the new plan?

[ponylady]

And on another note the DSR ratings is one of the worst things ebay could have ever implemented into their scheme of things.  It is abused and always will be!  Just wait till June when they roll out there new plan!

Oh dear, what's the new plan?

I was going to start a new thread about it in a few days.  I just got the email from ebay and I am still trying to comprehend it.

[ristvak]

I was under the impression that Etsy was for crafts and such.. Can you sell just stuff on there? Like unopened blind bags or old books or movies?

Etsy /is/ mostly for arts and crafts type things, but they also have a "vintage" category, so you can get away with selling G1s on there. Probably not so much the unopened blind bags.

On the eBay holding thing, along with bad feedback/low DSR sellers, they've been doing it with new or newly active accounts (I have a friend that was on a selling hiatus for a while and then came back to the fund withholding drama). She's gotten the run around from them about how/when it can be removed as well.

[Ringlets]

I cant add to what has already been said on the subject really - its something ebay/paypal have been doing with new sellers and ones who havent sold in a while, and its a real pain    
*is worried about what ebay will throw at us sellers next*    I havent had any notice of this and I am currently selling on there.. maybe it is starting in the US

[medleysong]

They did this to me after selling on there for years! I have never had a negative feedback, I always try to be fair. My problem is I am a saturday only shipper so I had two people from Italy (who had items held in customs) and one person from the UK mark my shipping time star rating down. Now I have a forever hold on my paypal account. It has been a while and even though my dashboard shows I am fine in all catagories, I still have the hold with no end in sight. Every month they say they will review my seller practices the next month on the 20th and when that happens, it never gets removed. I don't understand, but I have finished selling there for good. I still have some ponies to offload but I will do that here.
Does anyone know if the hold applies to transactions done outside of ebay as well? I am almost feeling at this point that I might just give the remainder of my ponies to my daughter and call it good. I have been so discouraged lately with selling on the internet. I sure miss the old days...*sigh*

[Unicorn_pops]

They did this to me after selling on there for years! I have never had a negative feedback, I always try to be fair. My problem is I am a saturday only shipper so I had two people from Italy (who had items held in customs) and one person from the UK mark my shipping time star rating down. Now I have a forever hold on my paypal account. It has been a while and even though my dashboard shows I am fine in all catagories, I still have the hold with no end in sight. Every month they say they will review my seller practices the next month on the 20th and when that happens, it never gets removed. I don't understand, but I have finished selling there for good. I still have some ponies to offload but I will do that here.
Does anyone know if the hold applies to transactions done outside of ebay as well? I am almost feeling at this point that I might just give the remainder of my ponies to my daughter and call it good. I have been so discouraged lately with selling on the internet. I sure miss the old days...*sigh*

Yes, sadly Paypal will still hold money even if it was not sold on ebay...but it does depend on amount of money you receive. Also having all banking/cards/addresses up to date does help prevent a hold.
 
Edit: A member from MLPtp was new to paypal and receiving large amounts of money and they put hers on hold.
That's how I knew they did hold other than ebay transactions b/c I had to wait for my items to get sent out. She was overseas and didn't have the funds for shipping since her money was on hold. She was Super nice and communication was great...I did receive all my stuff, just little delayed.

[Maniah]

Um no. PayPal does not hold ANY of my transactions done outside eBay. I sell all my customs through my tumblr and I have never had a single payment held. Only those from eBay.

[ristvak]

There are certain situations where paypal will hold money from a non-ebay transaction, but it's usually the result of drama lol. If you have the ebay hold I don't think it guarantees a general paypal hold =)

[Maniah]

I suppose it makes sense if it is huge sums. I never get more than $100 in any single transaction.

[NoDivision]

Paypal can't hold non-ebay funds unless you have had other issues through paypal. I never have any holds on anything I sell outside of ebay.