I recently sold an item on Ebay, usually I would wait for the funds, then ship the item…but here is the email I got from Paypal:
**Hello “My Name”, ** Your funds are pending - please process this order You received a payment from “John Doe” This money is being temporarily held in your pending balance. It will be held for up to 21 days. While it’s being held, it won’t be available for withdrawal. We’ll move the money to your available balance after 21 days as long as your buyer hasn’t reported a problem. It may be available sooner if we can confirm that the item was delivered or, if this is an eBay item, your buyer leaves positive feedback. To get access to this money more quickly, please process this order right away and communicate with your customers early and often.
Shouldn’t this be the other way around?! → usually once I receive the payment and am able to access the funds, THEN I ship the item.
I went directly to my Paypal account, and read about this new Pending Payment deal, and it is legit, but it seems like a good way to get scammed…Lot’s of complaints on there help forum about this.
I don’t plan on shipping the item until I can access the funds and transfer to my bank account.
That is correct. Don’t ship yet. He basically authorized the PayPal transfer, but either doesn’t have the funds in his linked account or it isn’t set up right and they are awaiting transfer.
That said, I no longer use PayPal because of several issues (fraud, account hacks, chargebacks, etc.) - but I have seen this message before and everything worked out fine.
I had this problem last year too. eBay now is all about fucking sellers in hopes of keeping people buying, even though sellers are the ones that pay the fees.
I had to ship a set of 808’s to canada with no money in hand and hope that the guy would leave positive feedback so i could get my money. I was less than pleased with the transaction, but since they held my money, earning interest that I did not see, there was little I could do.
There are all kinds of complaints about paypal. eBay owns paypal…
If you are an infrequent seller or the item price is high, Paypal will hold the money from you because they are suspicious that you will follow through with the item. Had this happen to a good buddy of mine, he was on the phone with ebay/paypal to get the answer--------he needed to ship the item, then paypal will release the funds to him. Which they did.
Ah - re read Zach’s post. I think you are right. I was assuming no transfer of funds yet (which I’ve see), but PayPal is holding instead. Just another reason NOT to bother with PayPal again (I have not for over a year now)
Okay, I just have never seen this before. I’ve sold a good amount on ebay before, and at prices like this. It’s a difficult situation, b/c the buyer is from overseas, and I will be shipping to their friend (in the U.S.). I have talked to the friend on the phone briefly, but it’s tough to ship something valuable like this away without the money in your account.
Okay, I just have never seen this before. I’ve sold a good amount on ebay before, and at prices like this. It’s a difficult situation, b/c the buyer is from overseas, and I will be shipping to their friend (in the U.S.). I have talked to the friend on the phone briefly, but it’s tough to ship something valuable like this away without the money in your account.
Wait, buyer oversees and ship to a friend here in the US. NO WAY!!! I’d find another buyer. I’ve sold plenty to those in Europe (esp when the Euro was killing the Dollar) and never had this issue.
I agree with some of the other posters. The message is legit, as long as the funds show pending in you paypal account. The whole, ship to my friend, adds risk. Make sure any communication is in ebay for future issues. How much $$$ we talking, 100, 1000, or 10,000? 100 ship it, 1000 - do your due diligence, 10,000 - not a chance I would sell it on ebay. I can not recall how much you are covered for fraud w/paypal. how much feedback does user have also goes into the quation.
I just sold 2 items on Ebay and had the same thing happen. As was posted, depending on how often you use the service, this seems like a fair thing to have the money held in escrow. I shipped both products, let the buyers know the UPS shipping numbers, and when they got them, they put in a positive and the money was released. Weird at first, but the buyer no longer had the money either.
What Rroof said…you’re nuts if you sold it to person A and shipping to person B.
While I love my international friends, I won’t sell outside the US. If an international wants to buy something, they can tell their US friend about the auction and work out a deal by themselves. I don’t want anything to do with it.
There are actually international bidding services (located in the US) which will broker a deal for International Bidders if they are blocked. Just sold a few cyclocross frames last month via that method (but I didn’t know it at the time). They simply send you a note afterwards asking to pack with the labels stating a few extra numbers. Fine with me.
I sold a set of Zipps on ebay and they held the funds until the purchaser received the wheels and gave feedback on the transaction. As soon as that happens, the funds are released. You’re fine, just ship the items and wait for the person to give you feedback. Sometimes they don’t give feedback and that is where the 21 days come into place.
To add what jeretj said, yes…you can provide a tracking number and once it is confirmed delivered, they will release funds too.
No no no - only ship to the buyer’s confirmed PayPal address. If you don’t follow PayPal “protection” rules to the letter - the buyer could pull one on you and PayPal will side with him instantaneously. If he’s got his friend set up as a confirmed address, fine, but otherwise you’re setting yourself up.
EDIT: Furthermore, if the item is $300+, you must ship using a carrier that can provide signature confirmation - not just delivery confirmation. I would use UPS or FedEx and not USPS, as they’re a tad more reliable (I once had a package show that it was delivered according to USPS, only to find out that it was “mis-scanned” and was still in USPS possession - what?!). Bottom line is, take a few minutes to read thru the PayPal rules and save receipts with tracking/signature info on it. Majority of transactions go smoothly, but there are people out there who cheat/scam/exploit the PayPal “system”…waiting for you to make one mistake in the process.
Happened to me too when I sold my Rock Shox SID fork. I was pretty anxious about the whole deal. Ebay relies on the honesty of the buyer to claim that the auction is legit and the item was received.
My question to them was how do you deal with dishonest buyers or buyers who don’t care enough to confirm that the item was received? Their only answer was that if no complaint was filed within a given period of time, the funds would be released. I forget what the actual length was, but it was way too long from a sellers perspective.
Thanks for all the help, really is useful to hear your experiences and the last message from AR is a big one!! I have not shipped the item and won’t until that last issue is cleared up!!
It sounds like PayPal is acting in an Escrow capacity to protect themselves from fraud. I would confirm with paypal that this email originated from them and get in writing (email) what conditions are required for them to release your funds.