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sadface (21 day hold)
 

Happened on an aged Paypal account (from 2002) that was recently PP verified.

2nd payment triggered it.

:(

http://dl-client.getdropbox.com/u/43382/hold.png

Welcome to PayPal. :)

Well what kind of payment was it and amount? Section of ebay?

Haha thanks, aspkin! And thanks for hosting and maintaining this site. I've been a lurker here for a few years and it's without a doubt the best forum of its kind.

The item was listed in Home & Garden / Furniture.

And Paypal doesn't show method of payment. It definitely wasn't an eCheck though because the funds came through immediately.

Sorry about smudging the figures on the screen cap because I didn't want to be figured out by any PP/eBay narcs that might peruse the forums. The payment was only in the $200 range!

more interest for paypal on YOUR money, who else could get away with this theft!

Paypal put a hold on 2 of my payments that were $13.00 each. WHAT!!!! I was selling books and not e-books either. I put my own pictures and everything. I don't think there is a guideline for their 21 day hold C@%$.

What is your feedback score?

This excerpt from eBay's policy on cookies makes it sound like deleting cookies will cause holds and limitations:

Managing*cookies

It's not a definite thing. I always block flash. Period. Never been a problem. But, if you allow flash and then clean, then allow, then clean.... Well, they're gonna wonder. You could explain if neccesary that you use two computers (work and home) and that one doesn't have flash installed because it runs Windows 95. Good luck with that, though.

I suggest anyone making new stealth accounts should permanently disable flash in browser for that particular windows login and browser profile BEFORE making the new accounts. That way, there's no backing and forthing.

Well as annoying as this is, its just aprt of doing business with paypal. On most new accounts most payments over $50 are held but after you sell a few things it goes away. I never count the money I have until its safely in my bank account.

If you are a new account holder or even if you don't sell often you are most likely going to get your payments held. The only way around this is to ask that the buyer wait until you send an end of auction email invoice and then invoice through paypal. If they go through ebay, it's a 98% chance you will get your payment held. Even if it's for $5.

If they do hold it, my experience is that they will release it after 3 days of delivery confirmation or if the buyer leaves feedback. Some also say if you call them, they will release it. Calling never worked for me though.

So this is a proven way around the hold? For some reason I highly doubt that will makes any difference.

Yes that is a way around it, but there have been a couple reports of people having their accounts limited for sending to many invoices that way.

Yes, I thought I heard that somewhere too...that by sending too many invoices you can be limited. So sounds like a Catch 22...

Too many invoices for goods will trigger it. Maybe try alternating with services? Don't put an item number or any hint of a physical item in the invoice or money request.

Ugh. Buyer ignored my request to wait for an invoice and sent funds through Ebay and it was immediately placed on hold.

I refunded the payment and sent a money request (goods).

Will the payment be placed on hold again?

dude just deal with the holds. When you have like over 10 feedback or something like that, you will get less and less of them. Why go to all that trouble?

I'm dropshipping very expensive goods. Naturally I'd rather have the money in my account.

Don't do that too many times. When the holds first started I was invoicing from paypal on one account and would refund payments that came in through ebay checkout. They limited the account after 5-7 refunds.

Thanks for sharing that information. I think I've read that somewhere else too. When that happens I'm hoping that because it's a completely legit business account they will lift the limitation when I provide them with whatever they want.

I've also been thinking about sending a thank you letter with a tracking# to the buyer and using that tracking# to release funds. Think it would work?? Technically funds would still get put on hold but something like this could shorten the hold period a considerable amount.

^^^Good idea to have the tracking number & a little note for the buyer.
That sure encourages them to give FB quickly. That in turn shows paypal you are OK & the holds start to become less frequent.
On the matter of drop-shipping, you should try to have enough funds at hand. With the horror stories of drop shipping & delays, it is a sure way to get in trouble. :cheer:

Thanks GB! I know what you mean about the potential problems inherent in dropshipping. I am really concerned about fraudulent chargebacks and "Item Not as Described" disputes from shyster buyers. I'm SOL if that happens.

Also because most of my items are oversized, they always ship LTL-freight. It makes protecting myself with an online tracking# really problematic because most LTL-freight carriers don't even offer it - hence the thank you note idea.

On a sidenote, UPS Freight and Fed Ex Freight do offer online tracking but they are the most expensive LTL shippers and I can't use them and remain competitive.

*Big sigh*

Some peoples say only hold if more than $100. Can't believe they still hold you for $5.

I had some held for $0.99 on a new one I'm running. Then they let one for $15 go through without a hold. go figure.

Hi
i would like to share what i have noticed
1.Feedback score ( less holds after 20 feedbacks or so)
2.Category in which item has been listed(i have noticed no hold for audio books section after 20 feedbacks)
3.age of the ebay and paypal account.
There are more offcourse!!!!!!!!!
i just wanted to share with all of you guyz what i have learnt. May be this will help!!!!
Thanks!
Regards!

Okay, so it has been a week since the Buyer left positive feedback on this item and Paypal has still not released the hold. What is the deal?

I read that Paypal will release funds 24 hours after receiving positive feedback.

What's the deally-o?

send paypal a message. they'll release. it. treat it like you would a completely legit account that you want your money on.

Check your PMs plz. :typing:

It's not always 24 hours. If their server is busy, it can be up to 3 days after FB received or packaged tracked delivered. Also, don't count weekends and holidays. Worst case scenario due to package delivered on a Saturday then tracking hit delivery computer Monday, then server overload until Thurs (almost got your funds...) Buyer leaves +fb which starts the counter all over again and you finally get your money 10 days after the tracking said it got there. PP lies so bad and even they haven't figured this problem. If I emailed this explanation, they STILL wouldn't get it. So, you want the +FB or the tracking to release your funds before the other part happens. Or you want the +fb and the tracking to happen the same day.

They have the worst system set up for this.

I recently set up a new ebay account and was unable to use my Simoncard as my user fees payment method. So I used and old Paypal account that I had recently added my Bank account to. Sold a few things in ebay motors and required a deposit ($125)through Paypal to cover the listing expenses. No problem, no hold on it. Then I sold a bunch of other smaller items at $25-$50 and holds were put on most of them.
The holds went on everything paid through ebay checkout, but one was sent as a money request and there was no hold placed on it.
I then bought something last night for $10 and paid right away and an hour later got the suspension notice because it was linked (I'm sure through Paypal) to a previously banned account.
Now off to set up another account.

So its better to send request money then let buyers complete checkout ? And what should I do (since i am from small country) when people pick things up in person ?

Yes, there is nothing in the eBay Terms of Service that states invoices have to originate from eBay. A PayPal [goods] money request will successfully bypass any hold. The frustrating part is getting Buyers to wait for your money request before paying and also obtaining the Buyers PayPay address itself. Most people are conditioned to use the eBay Checkout system and will do so even if you ask for them to pay through the money request.

I've read that it's risky for Sellers to accept PayPal as a method of payment for pick ups because a dishonest Buyer can make a PayPal dispute and deny receiving the item -- even though they picked it up in person!!

This is problematic because the Seller will not have tracking information to provide to PayPal as proof of delivery since it was a pick up. In this situation, you may want to allow the pick up, and also send a "thank you card" to your Buyer with delivery confirmation, which could later be used as evidence if the Buyer attempts to defraud you. Alternatively, all of this can be avoided if the Buyer is willing to pay with cash at pick up time.

I currently have over $500USD on hold and I have drafted thank you letters and plan to head down to the post office tomorrow. My concern about using the "Thank You Card Tracking" method is that PayPal's system will automatically share the tracking info with eBay, and in turn, eBay will automatically alert the Buyer that the item has shipped and provide the Buyer with the tracking number. If this is the case, the Buyer is sure to be disappointed and may become concerned when they receive a thank you card instead of the item itself.

Good luck.

This hold is a laugh. On one of my new accounts, created 7/14, I have holds for $2.24, something easy I can print up and send out the same day. I dropship, so I don't sell those until the holds stop. I have some of the dropshipped items on hand for the holiday season when the company is too busy to get orders out quick. I listed a few - $9.99 + $1.99 shipping - no hold. Right now, my feedback is 9. The second, created 7/25, same concept. 2 sales - $2.24 each - no hold.

To say the least, the only thing we can expect from Paypal is not to expect ANYTHING!

I have got around this by requesting direct payment for "services" when the item was quite expensive to ship. Holds suck - I wouldn't mind if they only held the "item portion" of the payment and allowed sellers access to what the shipping fees were. But I guess that would make too much sense and cut into the interest the get daily on us suckers!!