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Paypal thrown spanner in works with 21 days hold..!
 

Well its happened again, I've spent the past 7 months building up a good account with good feedback and DSR's. Then over the past week I've got a negative feedback over a mistake that I made. I lost an item that I'd sold, then offered the buyer an alternative. They didnt want the alternative, then a few weeks later I found the original item and reoffered it to the buyer, but they refused because I'd relisted it at £5 more than they paid, I'd meant they could repurchase it at the original price but the buyer assumed I was trying to scam them for £5! Please...!

So anyway they left negative feedback and no amount of pleading with them or any amount of courtesy on my part would persuade them otherwise. Then this past fortnight I've had a neutral feedback over a parcel arriving with the packaging torn (the item was fine), plus a vintage ceramic item arrived broken and despite me refunding the buyer I was given negative feedback for my troubles! Also I've just had a VERO warning because I was selling an old Sky digibox. The upshot of all this is that Paypal have stuck a 21 day hold on my account which has really pulled the rug from under my feet.

I have over £400 worth of auctions ending this weekend and I will be getting billed for nearly £200 in eBay fees in the next few days. The listing fees wont get paid because of the 21 days hold, and because of the volume of items I have selling this weekend there is no way I can afford to pay for the postage up front while I wait for the buyers to leave positive feedback and wait for the Paypal payments to get released.

So basically my eBay and Paypal account is about to crash and burn.... I cant believe it. All over a couple of negative feedbacks that werent really justified and how selling a 10 year old Sky box is a VERO offence I dont know.

So what can I do? I was relying on the money I would have made this weekend to be able to pay my eBay selling fees and pay the couriers to deliver the items. Whats going to happen is my Paypal account is going to go massively into the red over the eBay fees as all my payments will be 'pending' and I wont have the money to post the items so the buyers will all start leaving negative feedback which will furthur wreck my seller performance.

Any suggestions?

If all is lost I'm considering starting from scratch once I've tidied up this mess. I really wish I'd got multiple stealth accounts going but I'm intimidated by the process cos I dont fully understand how to do it, I have enough trouble managing one stealth account never mind 2+. Its just everytime I've got a new stealth account sorted I get complacent and I get busy buying and selling etc so the last thing on my mind is starting new accounts. I dont know, its taken 6 months to get to where I am and to see it all whipped away over nothing is very frustrating and depressing...

Unfortunately, this has happened to a lot of people. It does not sound like you were trying to scam anyone, you had some bad luck and a misunderstanding. To PayPal it does not matter. They have taken steps to protect their interests. They now perceive you as a risk.

Similar situations have led many forum members to stealth.

There IS one mistake here, however. Depending on proceeds from eBay sales is a dicey proposition. Whether you are depending on the funds to ship your items, pay your rent/mortgage or make your car payment is VERY risky. You need to have money set aside to cover these contingencies. Normally, this account could be salvaged by not listing any VERO type items, packaging well, shipping fast and giving good customer service. But the lack of money has now put the account in a death spiral.

Stealth is the answer here. Stealth and building a cash reserve to cover these situations.

Yes I agree with everything you've said jeffweico, I think some better business practises are called for on my part. I've just never put anything aside to cover any potential problems, its something I'm going to do.

What I find shocking is that despite my reporting the defamatory and libelous feedback comments left by a couple of buyers who said things like I was a 'con man' even though I'd already refunded them, Ebay did nothing to protect my seller account. Yet I left a positive feedback comment for one of the buyers just saying 'Warning - this buyer will leave nasty comments after you refund him' and within 24 hours Ebay had removed my comment and warned me about doing this, yet the slanderous comment left by the buyer that had been there for weeks has still not been removed! What an absolute joke...