*paypal Ripping People Off,witholding Payments Due To New Policies!*

TinChipMan

I just thought I'd try and spread the word about the current situation thousands of ebay customers find themselves in.

Paypal have recently just implemented a new buyer/seller policy, where any transaction that is made by a user that has not received a significant amount of feedback or the item is classed as "High Risk" or the Seller hasn't been an ebay member for that long, then Paypal will put a "Temporary" hold on to the money entering your account until.

1. The buyer has left positive feedback on ebay or
2 21 days have elapsed and the buyer has not filed any problem with the product.
(Simplified version)

That sounds sort of okay until you have your money put on hold.

In my case I sold a phone on ebay on the 30th of September. I received the Paypal payment into Paypal (not my paypal balance) immediately. I was then instructed by their new policy that I had to post the item straight away in order for the buyer to receive and ultimately leave positive feedback to get my money released, the buyer left positive feedback within 2 days and I waited patiently for the money to be released.

I waited 48hrs with no joy, then I contacted Paypal only to be told that a note had been placed on my file saying that positive feedback had been received and that my money would be released in 24-48hrs this was around the 10th of October.

Well okay due to it been near the weekend I thought nothing would happen until the following Monday at least, come the 13th money still on hold! I have contacted Paypal on numerous occassions over the last few days only to be ignored and when I am getting a response just being quoted their policy.

Thousands of people are in uproar about this at the moment and ebay/paypal are doing nothing.

Paypal are registered as a bank in the EU and are obviously using this as a tool to help them in this current financial crisis.

I appreciate that "Power sellers" or Businesses on ebay may be able to wait 3wks for their cash but for me and thousands of other ebay/paypal customers they cannot.

I'm getting no response from Paypal and I'm considering contacting Watchdog or obtaining legal advice, because in my view Paypal are witholding peoples money even when they're own policy criteria has been met ie... When positive feedback has been left Payments on hold will be released IMMEDIATELY!

MARTIN PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Thanks Martin

vikingaero

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

Malachi_Malagrowther

I have recently complained to the Financial Ombudsman about this - same scenario and despite positive feedback being left and several e-mails from PayPal saying the hold will be lifted still no luck.

This is totally unacceptable and I will NEVER ues PayPal again. If this means that I can't use ebay again, so be it. As ebay owns PayPal, they are ultimately responsibe. I have e-mailed them too to complain but they use the same generic bulls*it replies as PayPal - something along the lines of

"Thank you for your e-mail, I fully understand your complaint and sympathise with your problem but am utterly powerless and/or unwilling to lift a finger to help resolve it."

Please, I urge you to complain through the ombudsman - they may eventually take notice.

EOJ

I have just spent a long time on the phone to paypal as they have limited access to my account until I send them some photo ID and proof of address. I have apparently been randomly selected for this. I have used paypal since 2005 and have told them that if they wanted all of this ID they should have asked for it then, and how are they allowed to withhold my money, which could be earning interest for me. Funnily enough though, I can still transfer money INTO my account, just can't access it.

Ordinarily I would comply and just send them the ID, but I am fuming as to the way they have gone about it, and spending almost 30 minutes on the phone to them without getting anywhere before the supervisor hung up on me has not improved my perception of them. I want my money and I want to close my account, but can't without sending the ID.

charlotechai

Wow, thank you for your post, it really shed some light on the new policies that Paypal has been implementing. Obviously Paypal thought these new regulations would help protect buyers from sellers, but it definitely has a very negative impact on good sellers to sell to bad buyers. As an ebayer. . .I sometimes forget to leave feedback (it's not a #1 thing on my to-do list). . .I will make sure to give positive feedback to the seller next time I buy something from ebay!!!

I hope everything gets settled and that Paypal changes this new policy!!!

TomsMom

tatlukey wrote: »

Remove paypal as a payment method from your ebay listings accept payment by cheque or P.O or you could be ripped off too

I thought that one of their new "rules" was that Paypal had to offered as a form of payment. This is the reason I no longer sell my occasional unwanted items on ebay.

tatlukey

TomsMom wrote: »

I thought that one of their new "rules" was that Paypal had to offered as a form of payment. This is the reason I no longer sell my occasional unwanted items on ebay.

You can remove it as a payment option in your ebay account settings but its a bit of a pain they dont like people removing it so you have to go around the houses a bit to work out how to remove it

brightonman123

cant beat a fixed price (per line) ad in the paper, or maybe 50p-ish for a card in local shop window!