Empowering Sellers to Research Payment Holds

by: Anonymous Annie

I'd like to be among the first to say: THANK YOU!

by: gutspiller

Ina, you owe my respect. Finally somebody with loud voice that dares to stand up against Ebay.

by: bitbybit

Ditto!

by: Anonymous Annie

Interesting timing... here's a copy of a message from PayPal that was in my email today. ~ Coincidence?

I had to audibly groan when I read the last sentence of the first paragraph. An ''exciting benefit''?? Really?

-----

Dear Anonymous Annie,

Due to your exceptional PayPal account performance, we are happy to let you know that your funds will no longer be temporarily held during the investigation of a claim, dispute, or chargeback filed by your buyers. This change will take effect immediately. There is no action required on your behalf to take advantage of this exciting benefit.*

Moving forward, there are a few important things to note:

• This benefit is only available to PayPal account holders like you who continue to have great account performance.

• PayPal still needs your assistance by responding in a timely fashion to such investigations, and the claim, dispute, and chargeback process will remain the same.

• Losing a claim, dispute, or chargeback will still cause your PayPal account to be debited at the time the case is closed.

• You may receive system-generated e-mails referencing your funds being held during such investigations. Despite this, your account is exempt from such holds at this time.

The PayPal Debit MasterCard Business Card® will also provide you with fast access to your funds. Thank you and we look forward to growing your business.

Sincerely,

PayPal

* Your account performance will be consistently monitored and the terms of this feature are subject to change based on your selling performance. In order to maintain this feature, above-standard performance is necessary.

by: Sales Smith

The listed information will prove helpful the next time paypal takes ''Hold'' of a payment.

This is exactly what many of us will need to get a quicker resolve.

Ina & David- Thanks for watching our backs.  

by: Sales Smith

Interesting message you received there Annie.

We'll have to see how many of us get one.

by: David Steiner

Thank our intrepid reporter, Kenneth Corbin. He did the heavy lifting in creating this chart.

by: Basset

I got the exact same email as Annie, Mastercard plug & all.  

Thanks Ina, David & Kenneth for the chart.  

by: trickstunt

Paypal is for idiots and scammers. They're holding people's money because the fraudsters are cleaning their clock and they'd be dead by now if not for sucking the life blood from honest members as they tell their obvious lies.

http://blog.webroot.com/2012/10/12/recently-launched-e-sh
op-sells-access-to-hundreds-of-hacked-paypal-accounts/

There was another one  for fake accounts that was simply called "The paypal store" Made me wonder if paypal isn't selling fake accounts on the sly

by: Bijoux Dragon

Thank you Ina - this is a great resource!

@Annie - I got the same letter today - gee, and i thought I was special ;)

by: mindelec

@annie  i got one too.  struck me as odd cause i've had like 1 claim in 10 years.

by: elpereles

I received the letter too.  

by: blaumann

So if my state, Pennsylvania, has none under hold, does that mean PAYPAL can't legally hold my funds?????

by: Steevo

First, the California link is dead.  

Second, my analysis of that regulation and my discussions with the people at that state agency indicate no holds are legal. They have to give the money over right away. There is one exception under the law: by order of the customer.

2101.  Every licensee or its agent shall forward all money received for transmission or give instructions committing equivalent money to the person designated by the customer within 10 days after receiving that money, unless otherwise ordered by his or her customer.

The only time the money can be held for more than ten days is on the instruction of the customer, in this case that is the sender of the money.  

In PayPal's case they are placing those 21 day holds on the order of Ebay, who clearly is not the customer in this law.

It's just illegal.

I put a complaint through congress and asked that Paypal and all other companies similarly situated be brought under full federal regulation, because this behavior violates Federal Reserve Regulation CC.

You should all contact your congressman now that the election is over and ask that they bring PayPal under federal regulation under the Office of the Controller of the Currency.  

OCC only regulates banks. They are loathe to be forced to lift a finger to regulate any other entity. PayPal must be forced to become a bank.

The EU already forced them to become a bank and submit to regulation in Europe or go out of business.

by: KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON THEM ALL!

David, Ina, Keith,

You have provided too many extremely valuable bits of information over the years to even count at this point, but this may very well be the one single MOST important thing you've ever done in sellers defense and to help them..

KUDDOS and a huge THANKS for being there for everone!!!!

by: wallflower

blaumann - no, I think that means your state has no limit on hold time

by: Terry in Texas

I received the note 2 days ago and wondered when the other shoe would drop as to WHY i received the note.......only 2 days for the shoe to drop. slower than usual......

by: Ric

Received the same PayPal note as Annie.

I figured that it might be due to the fact that I had a PayPal case filed for a non eBay Return due to shipping destruction by USPS where we communicated extensively with the buyer through the case details.

I promised the buyer they would receive credit for return shipping of the item as long as they did not escalate the case any further with PayPal and they cooperated with USPS Insurance Claim Investigation; if they failed to do either, we would retract our offer to refund return shipping.

Buyer was extremely patient as their return to New Jersey was caught in a prolonged backlog of mail deliveries which lasted for a week after hurricane Sandy.

The buyer followed my request not to escalate the case to a claim and provided us with necessary information to file the USPS Claim. We did refund their return shipping cost as promised along with their refund the day the package was finally received.

We thought that PayPal had reviewed the status of the case and rewarded us for both communicating and offering the best customer service we could under the circumstances.

by: tmooreseller

It's too bad the PayPal buttons don't function as well. They are not w3c compliant and I was forced to use Etsy to sell my products instead of direct from my own site. I have since switched to an email order form which lists PayPal as an option, but I'm not using PayPal buttons again. I would rather use the invoice system and manage all purchases myself than trust that joke of a payment processor to do anything right. No sales in over a year! So much for "easy" or "fast".

by: spirit-of-shiloh

WOW..The other day I posted a thread on Seller Central about the PayPal holds and info. Well,a few minutes ago I got slapped and it was taken down. Guess eBay does not want sellers to know their rights :(