Urgent Help ! - Paypal Hold Pending Investigation of Ebay Transaction

motorguy

Ok, heres the story.

I was selling an item which sold for over £400. It was a fair price for the item in question. The guy lives 20 mins drive from me. I had in the ad, no charge for personal pickup - saving £35 postage (its a heavy item).

Guy pays via paypal. Not a problem. Picks item up. Not a problem. That was two weeks ago, just there now got an email from paypal saying ....

It has come to our attention that you may be the recipient of potentially
unauthorized funds. We have initiated an investigation into this event. In
the meantime, we have placed a temporary hold on the funds in question
until the investigation is complete. This temporary hold will show as a
deduction in your available balance. In the meantime, you are free to
continue transacting using your PayPal account. If you have not delivered the goods or services related to this transaction, we ask that you delay or stop delivery until our investigation is complete as you may be liable for the amount in question.

So my account is now showing a very strong negative amount. The guys address is a verified address via paypal, but personally i don't know the town well enough to know where it is.

Paypal are asking for all transaction details including postal details, tracking numbers etc. Thinking ahead here, if i say the guy picked it up, then am i effectively giving up the right to any paypal protection on this. Should i say i hand delivered it, which wouldn't sound unreasonable?

I fear i could be out a large sum of money here, and i don't want to give paypal information that could allow them a loop hole. I have tried looking up the guys telephone number on https://www.bt.com but he doesn't appear to have a land line. All his previous and current feedback seems fine. I have emailed him asking him to contact me just there now.

So any advice how i should proceed with paypal?

Many thanks in advance

Curry_Queen

If he's only 20 mins away why not go and see him and find out what's going on? I wouldn't lie to Paypal if I were you as it wouldn't look good on you if they discovered that during their investigations. You could always call at his house pretending to be from a research company to verify he even lives there if you're worried about a confrontation

HairyHatMan

Pull his contact details from eBay:

get member's contact details

They should include a valid tel no (if not report him).

Realist

Paypal and all crooks M8 and they just take the money from your account, pay it back to the original account holder and your out of pocket and the goods have gone as well. Paypal owe me over £500 and Im in the process of a claim via the finacial banking ombudsman because of there actions.

The mistake you did was allow them to pay via Paypal first, this is a 100% sure way scammers work. They use someone elses account to pay for the goods, collect them and thats the last you will ever see them.

You would of been better off by letting any potential purchaser pay in cash and not via Paypal.

Paypal will leave your account in a frozen state for how long they feel like it cos they think they are a law amoungst themselves.

Not a Paypal fan myself.

motorguy

All very valid points above! Curry_Queen - i will certainly be turning up on his doorstep, but he lives in a big town, so i'd have to set aside half a day to find his house - will definitely be doing that though given the sum involved if other methods fail.

I used HairyHatMans form to get his phone number and have phoned him.

He said that there had been a problem with the funds clearing from his account and that the funds have been resubmitted and will be cleared in paypal on the 15th April. I have to phone him 16th April if there is still a problem and he will drop me down the cash. However i have emailed paypal for their side of the story to see if they collaborate.

Already there is a little voice telling me that this may be a time killing exercise....

Lessons learned though - only cash accepted for items picked up directly from me, and i also note that according to paypal one of the 'rules' for you being able to claim is that for items over £150 someone must sign for it on delivery - its not enough to have proof of postage and a tracking number, ie what you would get with royal mail standard parcels, there must be evidence that it was signed for.

I guess i will have a very long week ahead of me. Many, many thanks to all those who replied so far (incl your horror story Realist!) and i've noted down that get members contact details page - very useful HairyHatMan.

Will post any progress...

Cheers

Paul

motorguy

.. and i've no idea why my signature says 'regards mark'!

Cat72

Well at least his contact tel number is ok so at least that is something.
Try not to worry too much and if you want to check out his address you could try a voters role search. Or look up his addrress with a map finder, A.A I think do one , I have auto router, so you know where to go. I suppose you could ask for the payment in cash as he has had the goods a while and you have no payment ? Personally I would probably do this , get myself a big fierce dog, a few fercious guys from the local bikers club and go round and demand my money !

vultura

A good site for finding places is www.multimap.com, just need address/post code.