PayPal withholding payment. How long?

gchartou

Hi,

I bought something through ebay and agreed to pay the seller through paypal....something which I now regret! I have made the transaction through paypal, it has gone through my bank account but the money is withheld by paypal so the seller can't access it and therefore won't release the item. Paypal have put the transaction under dispute because they say they "have reason to believe someone else has accessed my account". When asked what the reason is they couldn't give me a straight answer. The status is currently "Being reviewed by PayPal".

Despite my two premium rate phone calls in which I authorised for the transaction to go through they're still "reviewing it". They both said that they escalated the issue to the security department and that they had set it as "high priority issue" (...as I found out in the second call this hadn't been the case after my first call). There's no way to talk to anyone else exept the operator who said it will be sorted asap, but was not able to tell me an estimate of when it will be completed. Also it seems there is no way to file a complaint to PayPal, if you click on "File a complaint through PayPal" link it actually throws you out.

I've been waiting for two days and nothing happened. I was wondering whether anyone else has had the same experience and whether you know how long does it take for them to do this?

Thanks

Yiannis

catmiaow

Tell the seller to refund 1p to you, this will release the funds. It is out of order Paypal holding the money.

catmiaow

If he does not do this, the funds will be released after you have left positive feedback(usually a week or more later than that) or 21 days from the transaction date.

Elias_2

Paypal are doing this to me too. I sell stuff on Ebay, get paid via Paypal and the transfer is on hold until I receive positive feedback or 21 days pass without dispute. Its bloody annoying. First time it took about 24hours to get the funds released after receiving positive feedback.

moneysavingallday

This is why I won't use Paypal.

soolin

moneysavingallday wrote: »

This is why I won't use Paypal.

Then I'm sure sellers love you, but as a buyer I think you are being somewhat foolish to think that having your funds held until you receive the item and are happy, is a bad idea.

gchartou

Hi everyone and thanks for all the replies.

Today was my third call to PayPal, still nothing is resolved. I managed to speak to the operator's supervisor (person called Shawn - who apparently is not allowed to tell me a surname) who essentially didn't tell me anything new, he just re-confirmed the mess that PayPal is in and that you should never ever ever ever ever ever (in true Martin fashion) trust them with dealing with your money!!!

He said that he could not tell me the reason why the transfer was blocked (stating their security policy). But even if i believe that something did go wrong with the payment, it's simply outrageous that they decide to take the money off my account first and then freezee the transfer. Again he could not give me a justification of why that was the case. He also said that there is nothing I can do to speed up the process and that it "normally" takes up to 10 days to resolve, even though all the operators that i spoke to before were providing misleading information such as "...flagging the matter as a high priority..." and "...will not take more than 3 days". He even said that the 10 days however was not a commitment! I made a point that there is nothing to investigate further since i have authorised the payment through the phone (2 times already) and since the seller has contacted them as well and confirm ed the transaction. When asked what else do they needed to investigate, he said that he "...could not reveal their security procedures".

So essentially paypal is withholding my money with the pretext of security and are unable to tell me when it will be released. So what am i supposed to do now? Just sit and wait for them to click a button? Does that really take them 10 days? Does anyone know whether they are even covered legally for this? In addition they themselves have not actually initiated any form of investigation since the freeze (no phone calls or emails to me or the seller asking for further information), all information was provided by myself and the seller by calling them through their premium rate number.

I asked the seller to refund 1p back, but the problem is that the money for that transaction isn't showing in his account so how should he do it? Also I can't leave positive feedback since I haven't received the item, and I doubt that this will resolve anything any quicker.

Any other ideas/suggestions/similar cases welcome.

gchartou

catmiaow wrote: »

Tell the seller to refund 1p to you, this will release the funds. It is out of order Paypal holding the money.

the transaction hasn't gone through. the seller hasn't got the money to refund. his balance is 0. should he refund from a previous transaction or just make a one-off payment? also why is it that PayPal needs that to close the case?

gchartou

soolin wrote: »

Then I'm sure sellers love you, but as a buyer I think you are being somewhat foolish to think that having your funds held until you receive the item and are happy, is a bad idea.

That would be great. But they have actually frozen the transfer and sent an email to the seller asking him not to send out the item until they review the issue. So essentially the seller doesn't have the money and I don't have the item and we're both waiting for PayPal to resolve "the issue" in their own sweet time.

catmiaow

gchartou wrote: »

the transaction hasn't gone through. the seller hasn't got the money to refund. his balance is 0. should he refund from a previous transaction or just make a one-off payment? also why is it that PayPal needs that to close the case?

What I usually do is get my boyfriend to pay me £1 and refund the 1p from that.

butephoto

moneysavingallday wrote: »

This is why I won't use Paypal.

Well, I'm in agreement. I've sold on ebay and am currently awaiting payment for two items which I can't get until I post the items. Now, that's all fine and well but I need to pay the postage on said items out of my own money and I'm really not happy doing that so I am now considering not accepting PayPal for ebay sales either. I have emailed PayPal and asked them to release this money and if they don't then I won't be using them again. A disgusting way to treat sellers.