I sold a phone a couple of days ago and the buyer sent the money but in my PayPal account it says it is “pending” and the status says “On Hold - Ship Now” but I told the buyer that I would not ship until the money is cleared and in my account. Well I received an email supposedly from PayPal today that says the following:
Dear (my name),
Hi, my name is Blaire and I am a supervisor here at PayPal. I was able
to speak to one of your recent buyers, (Buyers name). They have
given us the information that you will not send him the item without the
eBay hold being released.
PayPal may release the Payment Hold when one of the criteria is met:
· When you receive positive feedback on eBay from the buyer.
· After 21 days without a buyer dispute, claim, chargeback or other
action.
· 3 days after PayPal confirms item delivery.
We recommend that you ship the item once payment has been received. The
sooner the buyer receives the item, the sooner you’ll receive positive
feedback.
PayPal can confirm delivery if you use USPS, UPS, or FedEx to ship the
item and use PayPal shipping labels, or upload tracking information to
PayPal through the transaction details page. This applies to US domestic
transactions only.
If you ship through an alternative carrier or the shipment is not US
domestic, PayPal will be unable to confirm delivery. In this situation,
the buyer must provide positive feedback or 21 days must elapse without
a buyer dispute, claim, chargeback or other action.
If you no longer wish to send the item though, please kindly refund them
their money as soon as possible.
When a payment is refunded using the “Issue Refund” link, PayPal credits
the refund based on the source of the original payment.
· For payments funded with a bank account, PayPal credits the
refund to your PayPal balance.
· For payments sent using a credit card, PayPal credits the refund
to the credit card.
· For payments funded by a credit card and another source, PayPal
refunds the credit card portion to the credit card and the remainder to
your PayPal balance.
· For payments funded by a credit card using the payment type “Cash
Advance”, the funds are returned to the PayPal balance.
· For payments funded by a secure card, the funds are returned to
the PayPal balance.
Note:
· Refunds are in the same currency and we use the same conversion
rate as the original payment.
· Because of credit card policies, refunds to credit cards can
take up to 30 days to appear on your statement.
· When Redemption Codes/Gift Certificates are used to fund a
payment and the payment is refunded, the balance is returned to the
buyer’s Redemption Code/Gift Certificate balance.
Please let me know if you need further assistance.
Sincerely,
Blaire
PayPal Consumer Support
PayPal, an eBay Company
I need to know… is this real or what should my next step be? Thank you!
Payday Loans
January 18th, 2009 at 6:12 am
You can call PayPal’s customer support team to see if the email is legitimate. Just goto and click customer service and find their phone numbers. But I know for a fact that you should NOT send out anything until the funds are cleared in your account and never have I heard of anyone from PayPal telling me that it’s okay to release something when the funds haven’t cleared.
Always be safe. If the person is threatening you with negative feedback you can respond with “customer wanted me to ship item before funds cleared, I am a business person and need to protect my business” anyone selling on ebay will understand this. And you send negative feedback right back. What he is doing is petty and any smart person will see that!
Good luck to you
January 20th, 2009 at 7:54 am
I don’t know…sounds kind of fishy to me. I have sold stuff before using ebay and paypal and have never had a payment held up like that. The money is always immediately put in my paypal account.
The only reason I can think of that the payment would be on hold is that ebay/paypal was not able to collect the money from the buyer — perhaps an overdrawn checking account or over the limit credit card.
If you are concerned the email isn’t legit, log on to paypal and send an email asking them. Also, one clue would be the address the email was sent to. Is your legit email address listed in the TO: line? — the one you have registered with paypal?
January 20th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
This is EXACTLY what happened to me! It was legitimate. You have not had an account for more than six months, you don’t have feedback score of greater than 100 AND you sold something for more that $100.00 ! I drop-ship, and had this nice surprise hit me when someone bought a $125.00 item from and got this nugget from PayPal. They will hold it. I had to use my personal credit card to complete the order and pull all of my auctions that COULD go over $99.00 until the time passed and the feedback was over 100.00. PayPal advised this was there general practice but there is not an exact dollar amount or score, they gave me these as guidelines. Good Luck!