Paypal 'holding payment'

I've just sold my speakers on ebay and went to my paypal acc today to find that they are withholding payment:

PayPal and eBay are working together to make it safer than ever to buy on eBay. One of the boldest steps is to identify transactions that pose the greatest risk of fraud and holding the payments from sellers for a period of time to help ensure that the transactions go smoothly.

To get access to the funds sooner, please post the item as soon as possible. We'll release the payment for the eBay item when one of the following occurs:

* The buyer leaves you positive feedback on eBay.
* It's been 21 days since the payment date and you haven't received a dispute, claim, chargeback, or reversal on the transaction being held


Has anyone else experienced this and how long have they been doing it?

 

They've been doing this for 18 months or so now - I imagine it has earned them a fair whack of interest!

You've just got to hope you get an honest buyer. The buyer isn't aware that their funds are being held, so they're hopefully no more likely to try and screw you over.

I've known people that aren't keen on the idea to refund the money and sell the item as cash only.

 

yeah, I guess I'm lucky - as I sold my speakers through ebay too and on my advert I stipulated that I'd prefer delivery / collection (as I've had courier problems in the past) and thus cash on delivery...

anyway - the buyer paid with paypal but I still dropped them off (took the day off) and the buyer is happy (as far as i know!) - but I was able to transfer the money straight away and it should hopefully be sat in my account now...

 

JUST FOR THE RECORD:
i stopped selling on ebay 2 years ago when i heard that paypal was to become compulsory, i have heard horror stories from members that used to buy things from me, one was an elderly customer that run into financial difficulties and had to sell his tec £3950.00 cdp, when customer paid by paypal "new to ebay" he sent the player at end of auction, once the buyer recieved the cdp he withdrew payment and conplained to ebay and paypal agreed to send the cdp back, it did , box that is as inside it contained a £150.00 nad cdp, no leg to stand on, sad.
the forum is the best,
nando.

 

Funnily enough this happened to me last week for the first time and I wasnt happy either.The issue I have is not that the buyer is unhappy he may purchase an item and then decide it is not really what he wants and leaves negative feedback.They are then in a nice position of having your goods and you have no payment through no fault of your own.

 

I wasn't aware that they had been doing this for so long.

I wonder if the threshold has dropped. It really does take some trust on the part of the seller I feel. The two situations listed above are prime examples of how this could go wrong.

Let the seller beware!!

Still, they sold in 2 days and there was only 1 interested here (didn't try elsewhere but think the same people look) so I guess maybe take the rough with the smooth.

 

quote

the only thing that was quite amussing fron a customer that agreed on cash on colletion for an amp, not cheap, he turned up, coffe, chat audition, then asked can i use your computer and pay via paypal and take the amp away now with me? what did i say, not a swear word, sent him straight to the local bank to get cash, he did, and charged me £25.00 for his petrol, i could not be assed. mind boggles though.
nando.