sold phone- 21 day hold

[Deleted User]

Hi, just wondering if anyone can help with something. My daughter sold a phone on ebay for £92, it seemed to take ages for it to arrive, it was sent via 2nd class recorded. The buyer has finally said the phone arrived when i said i was going to raise an enquiry at post office. We still cannot release the money from Paypal, does this take a certain amount of time. I would feel happier with the money in my account, also out of interest, the track and trace shows its still making its way through the system, not sure why that is, or if its the norm, even though buyer has confirmed receipt of it.

soolin

Hi, firstly I've moved your post to a new thread to make it easier to follow.

OK, recorded was the wrong service to use for the phone, it may never update past the 'item in system' message, none of my inward or outward stuff ever changes. Therefore you cannot use that to ask paypal to release the funds.

You will have to wait the full 21 days for funds to be released now.

Please read the sticky thread on postage though before you sell anything else. When sending a phone through the post you need to insure it, recorded only covers up to £46 so it ought to have gone special delivery. If buyer had continues to say phone hadn't arrived you would have needed to refund and then been unable to claim the full amount back from RM

hermum

The money will be released sooner if the buyer leaves + FB.
If your daughter's not yet left FB for the buyer if she does that it may remind them to do the same.

[Deleted User]

hermum & soolin - thanks very much for the replies, we have another phone we might sell, so will defo send special delivery, also i paid £9 something in ebay fees, vat etc, which seems a llot for selling an item you own, how can they justify charging vat again, when it was already paid initially on the phone and presumably can be charged every time the phone is subsequently sold, god knows why the government got us into debt, they seem to be raking it in - sorry rant over.

hermum

The VAT paid is on the fees, not on the phone itself.
If you had sold it through small ads or Facebook etc then there wouldn't have been VAT payable as you don't pay for the service.
I've got into selling on local facebook pages over the last few weeks & mobile phones seem to go really fast. It may be worth having a look to see if you have any local selling pages & put it on there at a realistic price.
I'm also finding FB pages rather amusing when people have tantrums because they wanted something & someone else got in first. Great entertainment.

Crowqueen

They have to charge VAT on their services, when you paid for the phone, the phone company had to charge it. It's not optional.

The phone would have been unlikely to fetch £92 on a free site without the same advertising reach - the ability to pay for TV advertising, for instance, which brings buyers to the site a lot better than some places, which think the best campaign to run is spamming message boards like this one because they don't charge enough to be able to spend on TV ads. Amazon also charge a lot, but I've just got my second sale and am happy to pay their fees given they have enormous reach and an enormous customer base.

Either you pay £9 of £92 or £0 of £0.

EDIT - just seen Hermum's post on FB pages - how much do things fetch there? Sceptical of the lack of buyer protection on Facebook myself, plus you are limited to face-to-face buyers. But if it works, it works.

hermum

Crowqueen wrote: »

They have to charge VAT on their services, when you paid for the phone, the phone company had to charge it. It's not optional.

The phone would have been unlikely to fetch £92 on a free site without the same advertising reach - the ability to pay for TV advertising, for instance, which brings buyers to the site a lot better than some places, which think the best campaign to run is spamming message boards like this one because they don't charge enough to be able to spend on TV ads. Amazon also charge a lot, but I've just got my second sale and am happy to pay their fees given they have enormous reach and an enormous customer base.

Either you pay £9 of £92 or £0 of £0.

EDIT - just seen Hermum's post on FB pages - how much do things fetch there? Sceptical of the lack of buyer protection on Facebook myself, plus you are limited to face-to-face buyers. But if it works, it works.

The things that I know an approximate value of seem to go on FB for the same as on ebay.
I've actually sold a couple of things on FB that had lots of watchers on ebay but no bids and for more than I started them on ebay.
If you don't trade face to face you have the same protection on FB as you would on ebay using Paypal.
However the bits I've sold have been cash on collection.

[Deleted User]

thank you hermum and crowqueen i really need to be more read up on this stuff if im to sell more stuff, thanks for the Facebook tip, im not too good at fb, but did have a look and did not find anything, sure a google will help

Crowqueen

Glad it works, HM. I suppose that is the criterion everyone is looking for.

As someone who doesn't have their own transport FB is not something I'd look at immediately. I also prefer to buy high-risk items like phones new or at least from dealerships/businesses so maybe I'm not in OP's market.

I am finding eBay like treacle at the moment - very slow going, lots of looks but no bids, with two sales on Amazon. I still think it represents value for money - you get out what you put in. But...if you can get the best price then it's a good thing to keep in mind.

hermum

Save_Dosh wrote: »

thank you hermum and crowqueen i really need to be more read up on this stuff if im to sell more stuff, thanks for the Facebook tip, im not too good at fb, but did have a look and did not find anything, sure a google will help

I found my first local one by accident, on FB search for, for sale, & then name of town.
Play around a bit until you find at least one selling page. By looking at their friends or likes, you should be able to find lots of others.

Here's 1 for London, https://www.facebook.com/pages/Items-for-sale-or-free-in-London/175998082426457?ref=ts
Chances are depending on where you are in London, there'll be one for your actual area, loads came up though for London.