3 Month old account - yet still 21 day hold - why?

[johnnyleeds]

Hi folks!

I've been running my current stealth account since the first week in January this year, so its coming up to 3 months old. I only have positive feedback, great DSR's and performance and no open cases etc.

However I still have this pesky 21 day hold on all my Paypal payments which is a proper nuisance. What can I do? Would it be risky to request Paypal to remove the 21 day hold?

See I have no problem sending people the item immediately and I do. Yet despite this some people still take months to leave feedback, which means I'm having to wait the full 21 days plus however long it then takes to transfer the payment into my bank account.

Also whats going on with this forum? I've been coming here for years yet suddenly a lot of messages are getting moved and put into areas on the forum where you can neither read the replies, or put my viewpoint across unless I become a paying subscriber.

Now I only come in here every few months so for me having to pay 6 month subscriptions to leave the odd message here and there is just something I cant afford to do. I bought my copy of eBay Stealth about 4 years ago and at the time there was never anything said about having to commit to a regular subscription. Maybe someone needs to create an 'Aspkins Stealth' forum - ho ho ho !!!

[Bam]

Hey,

Are you saying that they keep putting the hold on you each time you list? From my experience, you have to pay attention to answering your messages in a timely manner for starters. Also, you have to ship your items within 3 days of receiving the funds.

Even though I am a newbie, I can share what happened to me today. To make a long story short, I called ebay today because of the 21 day hold. The 21st day of the hold will be the 4th of April. However, my items was received on the 13th. The tracking number also stated "delivered". So after speaking with ebay, they manually released the hold.

Well I hope my story gives you a little motivation to call and see what the problem is.

[Laritha]

The holds don't stop. They may slow down, but they can reinstate them anytime, high feedback or not

[baloch]

johnny the best you can do is ship each item with tracking information this way when it is delivered then you get your money 3 days after.

[they_screwed_me_too]

this is sound advice, i do this and 21 day holds "usually" stop (for me) at around 1 month IMHO

[johnnyleeds]

Thanks for the advice folks, I'm not new to ebay though and I always send items out the day after the auction ends or I receive payment. I cant always provide tracking information as the majority of my items I send via Paypal's postage service using Royal Mail First Class Small Packets. You only get a proof of postage receipt for this.

To get a tracking number would involve sending everything by recorded mail which would mean I'd have to start charging ridiculous postage amounts and that would deter buyers.

In the past when I've had new accounts I seemed to get the 21 day hold for about the first 35 days then it would be removed, however its now over 90 days and I've still got the 21 day hold on every payment I receive via Paypal - which is virtually every single payment. So its taking me a full month before I see any actual money in my bank.

What I wanted to know was would it make me look suspicious if I emailed Paypals customer services and requested that they remove the 21 day hold - or should I just keep waiting and hope they automatically remove it?

[rsot]

I would not bother pushing the issue with eb/pp. These holds are across the board. Keep doing your shipping and tracking and hope that the holds will be removed soon. I would only call if you are prepared that PP may FIRE back with a ID verification request...

[NoneOther]

Originally Posted by rsot

I would not bother pushing the issue with eb/pp. These holds are across the board. Keep doing your shipping and tracking and hope that the holds will be removed soon. I would only call if you are prepared that PP may FIRE back with a ID verification request...

Had one take over 6 months for holds to be removed.

Patience is a virtue.

[johnnyleeds]

FFS! It just goes from bad to worse eh! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to live with it...

Thing is it would be almost acceptable if buyers would actually leave feedback so the Paypal payment was cleared as soon as they received their item, but they dont, and even after I've tried sending polite emails requesting they leave me feedback ASAP they still dont...!

Also when I previously had 21 day paypal holds on other accounts I would notice that the 21 day hold would only be applied to certain items, so about 50% of my payments were unheld, however with my current new account every item I sell and every Paypal payment I receive gets the 21 day hold treatment... Grrrrr!!!

Surely there has to be an easier way to make money than this... I've heard cleaning out public toilets can be quite stress-free compared to selling on ebay.

[NoneOther]

Their ball park their rules.

What I don't understand is why everyone gets so stressed about it.

Chasing buyers for f/b can work against you best left alone.

There is nothing that can be done to change it so you have to live with it. They will be taken off when p/p feel you are trustworthy enough which in real terms is all helping to build a strong account IMO

Dont upset the apple cart and it won't upset you.

[johnnyleeds]

Yeah, I know what you mean, I loathe having to contact Paypal or Ebay customer services so much that I dont do it at all these days. Its just with my previous stealth account I had the 21 day hold removed much quicker and with less positive feedback.

It just seems that Paypal are going out of their way to keep our money in their possession for as long as possible for no proper reason - other than it amounts to billions of pounds in their bank account which is earning them incredible amounts of interest while the rest of us have to scrimp and save while we wait to be drip fed our payments...

Its disgusting the way ebay / paypal have turned into blatent profit making entities who care more about wringing every last penny possible from us than how their policies affect us negatively. Its about time something happened that blew the ebay / paypal monopoly and stranglehold on the online auction market out of the water, but its not likely to happen...

[FizzyFish]

They come and they go.

On a 6 mth old act my holds left after a couple of months. It is a 100% act with over 4.8 across the board.

Today I got this lovely message:

We're writing to let you know about a change to your PayPal account.

Starting today, money from payments you receive will be placed in a pending balance for up to 21days. By doing this, we're making sure that there's enough money in your account to cover potential refunds or claims.

This change isn't necessarily permanent. We'll review your account every 35 days and re-evaluate if we should continue to hold your payments. If we decide to stop holding payments, we'll email you to let you know.

So someone has reviewed my act. The guy must be a numbskull - I sell stuff at the £15 mark and always leave over 10x that in the act.

Pah! How annoying. eB just upped my selling limits too! I love the close communication and corresponding business models of the two

Lucky I have other eB flavour pies to stick my thumb in to

[johnnyleeds]

Well from my experience of having run over a dozen stealth accounts the situation with paypals 21 days holds has gone from bad to ridiculous. They try make excuses as to why they are holding our money for longer than necessary yet the real reason is they want to keep it as long as possible.

Its just getting ludicrous that we are expected to part with our possessions at the risk of getting scammed or forced to refund the buyer for no good reason without having received a penny - plus we've also paid the postage to boot! What a laugh!

It would be like going into Sainsbury's / Argos etc and saying "I'm just going to take this shopping / product home, see if I like it for 21 days and then I might or might not decide to pay you" - of course that would be breaking the law and you wouldnt get more than a few feet out of the store!

Yet we are supposed to be happy to pay to post items to customers then let them take 21 days to break the item before saying it was already broken so they get a full refund plus cost of postage refunded and screw our good account standing up leading to us all repeatedly losing perfectly good accounts that we've built up hundreds of positive feedback on... Its a seriously flawed and corrupt system - and the fact that we are having to virtually commit identity fraud to cope with it is absolutely disgusting.

But you all know this, I dont know why I'm saying it, its just good to say it out loud I suppose.

[NoneOther]

You must be dealing with some very difficult customers for this to be such a big issue for you.

You have received the money although it is held. Most businesses run on 30 day terms so if you are supplying customers they don't usually pay you straight away. It's normally only retail that get the money at point of sale.

If items are sent tracked and this is clearly stated in your listing you are less likely to encounter scammers and if properly packed less likely to be damaged so in the majority of transactions the buyer will give f/b and your money is released well within the 21 days.

If its not then you may have to look at your business model as to why. Yours buyers would appear to be less than happy with the whole/part of the transaction.

Yes you pay the postage but p/p then release it from the pending balance so you are not out of pocket.

If you are anywhere near committing identity fraud then you had best look at how you are operating stealth because you shouldn't be.

[johnnyleeds]

I dont have a problem with my customers, nor they with me, my feedback and DSR ratings confirm this, its only Paypal that persist with the 21 day holds in their attempt to withhold money from me.

I've had the 21 day holds on accounts in the past and with less feedback and lower DSR's the 21 day hold was removed. I dont understand why 90+ days on I still have the 21 day hold applied - to every single payment!! In the past on other accounts it just seemed to be certain payments, perhaps in certain so-called high risk categories. Now though it appears every category is 'high risk'...!!

I like it how Paypal automatically assume that we the sellers are likely to be the scam artists and never the buyer, and regardless of however many hundred of positive feedback comments, great DSR ratings I have, Paypal will still take the word of a brand new buyer with ZERO feedback over me!!

I feel like I'm repeating myself, but again, its not possible to send every single item by tracked / recorded delivery, buyers dont want to have to pay the extra premium in the cost of postage. I always wrap my items properly. None of this is the problem its just Paypals greed in wanting to keep my money for as long as possible that makes my blood boil.

[jedd30]

Just to add , Its the eBay account that get the hold removed because I changed the Pay pal email on my listings to a brand new pay-pal Id just created it was fully verified and all.
And what do you know instant payments. But I had the eBay account for years with like 15 Feedback.