Has PayPal held money for anyone else recently?

[windianrecords]

A forum member is buying a GPU from me, and because of G&S versus F&F, it looks like PayPal is holding my money until the product is delivered? Has anyone seen this before?

 

[Deleted member 109755]

Yes, over a certain amount they will hold on to it until tracking info (and sometimes more) is provided, with G&S.

 

[windianrecords]

Yes, over a certain amount they will hold on to it until tracking info (and sometimes more) is provided, with G&S.

Interesting, glad to hear someone’s seen this before and its not like a per-account thing… its pretty annoying that delivery has to occur, though. What if a buyer scams you, says no arrival. Seems like you’d never see those funds.

 

[Zepher]

Item 5 on this list looks like why,
https://www.paypal.com/us/brc/article/funds-availability

 

[TrevorR]

Occasionally I do and I've sold hundreds of items on eBay and on here.

As for the delivery confirmation. Upload the tracking to PayPal asap. PayPal automatically releases funds once their system sees that it says "delivered".

 

[Deleted member 109755]

Interesting, glad to hear someone’s seen this before and its not like a per-account thing… its pretty annoying that delivery has to occur, though. What if a buyer scams you, says no arrival. Seems like you’d never see those funds.

In that case you would have recourse.. however, the limits likely vary per account and is likely linked to how many issues you've had over the years. My account is ~20ish years old and I've never had a chargeback or issue like that and I've only had that once on a high dollar item.

 

[LFaWolf]

Interesting, glad to hear someone’s seen this before and its not like a per-account thing… its pretty annoying that delivery has to occur, though. What if a buyer scams you, says no arrival. Seems like you’d never see those funds.

And also only sell to people with good feedback or long-time member, and buy shipping insurance for high-value items.

 

[NattyKathy]

They hold my G&S regardless of amount. PayPal's fraud prevention decision-making system is some sort of black-box and different accounts get different holds and limits. There is that list of conditions but once the "our computer decided something might possibly be sus" catch-all is in play they can kinda just do whatever they feel like.

 

[WorldExclusive]

All of my transactions for parts so far have been held until delivery. They'll release the cost of the shipping label if you buy it through them.

 

[bonehead123]

Yep, I recently sold quite a few things there recently, and sure enough, they held the funds until delivery was completed. This must be something new since they took over the payment processing from Paypal. But since I use USPS Priority for most things (w/ insurance for anything over $50) I get tracking numbers as soon as I print the shipping label & immediately upload them. And it seems that my payouts occur rather quickly afterwards (1-3 days), maybe it's because I have been on there for over 15 years or have a lot of positive feedback w/ 0 negatives or some other reason...

 

[trasixes]

They hold my G&S regardless of amount. PayPal's fraud prevention decision-making system is some sort of black-box and different accounts get different holds and limits. There is that list of conditions but once the "our computer decided something might possibly be sus" catch-all is in play they can kinda just do whatever they feel like.

Yep, this has been my experience as well. Paypal's fraud prevention algorithm is a real mystery - I've had funds held for low value items at times, but not high value. Then there was the time they randomly closed my account, refused to explain why except to say 'suspicious activity', and would not reopen it. I only used it for Ebay, and nothing else. I had about $300 held for months before they mailed a check. I immediately made a new account and have used it for years without issue, just never for Ebay. Crazy right?

 

[Thug Esquire]

When this happens, are you able to refund the held money, to at least clear the hold, and give the buyer their money back? I can't remember this happening to me, even when I've sold GPUs but those were G&S payments.

If this happened to me for any reason, I'd refund ASAP (I presume they'd let you). I don't factor the cost of held money into my prices. This kinda thing is why PayPal is my least favorite payment option and people should seriously consider non-PayPal, non-Venmo options like Google Wallet, Cash App, or Square (if you want CC/payment protection).

 

[thecold]

The first couple items I sold did do this. I can't remember this being a problem recently.

 

[NattyKathy]

When this happens, are you able to refund the held money, to at least clear the hold, and give the buyer their money back? I can't remember this happening to me, even when I've sold GPUs but those were G&S payments.

If this happened to me for any reason, I'd refund ASAP (I presume they'd let you). I don't factor the cost of held money into my prices. This kinda thing is why PayPal is my least favorite payment option and people should seriously consider non-PayPal, non-Venmo options like Google Wallet, Cash App, or Square (if you want CC/payment protection).

I did that for a Craigslist GPU sale this spring. Buyer paid G&S and PP put it on 21-day hold. Buyer offered another payment method so I refunded the PP and the money ended up taking like a friggin week to get back to the guy, totally ridiculous. Fortunately it was only $50 and he was nice about it but wtf PayPal.

 

[GoldenTiger]

I've used them for probably 20 or so years and never had a payment held. That's really weird.

 

[Mad Maxx]

This happened to me when I sold a dac on Audiogon, back in November. Never happened before. Apparently, it's standard procedure with PayPal, now.

 

[NattyKathy]

I've used them for probably 20 or so years and never had a payment held. That's really weird.

Yeah they've been getting worse and worse about treating different accounts differently depending on off-the-books criteria that are covered by vague ToS clauses. I've also been using PP for the better part of 20 years but my "cred" with PP must somehow not be as good as yours lol
IIRC it was around 2015 when they started holding my receipts and the duration keeps getting longer. But like I said earlier in the thread, their decision-making system is such a black box that it can be difficult for users to actually know why they're getting double-standard-ed and CS reps will just say "the ToS allows us to hold your money up to X days" and dodge clarifying questions

 

[GoldenTiger]

Yeah they've been getting worse and worse about treating different accounts differently depending on off-the-books criteria that are covered by vague ToS clauses. I've also been using PP for the better part of 20 years but my "cred" with PP must somehow not be as good as yours lol
IIRC it was around 2015 when they started holding my receipts and the duration keeps getting longer. But like I said earlier in the thread, their decision-making system is such a black box that it can be difficult for users to actually know why they're getting double-standard-ed and CS reps will just say "the ToS allows us to hold your money up to X days" and dodge clarifying questions

I'll have to look into other payment options soon... I also don't like the 180 day free returns policy. I just basically stopped selling stuff for the past couple of years due to Ebay being risky, and PayPal allowing 180 day returns, plus horror stories on them.

 

[NattyKathy]

I'll have to look into other payment options soon... I also don't like the 180 day free returns policy. I just basically stopped selling stuff for the past couple of years due to Ebay being risky, and PayPal allowing 180 day returns, plus horror stories on them.

Yeah same honestly. Anymore I do local/regional only- Craiglist, whatever apps are in fad (has OfferUp died yet? I can't keep track), and lately, FB Marketplace. The texting back and forth and negotiating thing is work, but it's nice to get that cash right in hand and almost never deal with shipping. Ppl talk smack, but 15 years of Craigslist reselling and I've never had a scary IRL experience and the scammers are fairly predictable. Never gotten burned as a local buyer either. Whereas PayPal + eBay have caused consistent inconvenience and stress with all their "protections"

 

[legcramp]

Yeah same honestly. Anymore I do local/regional only- Craiglist, whatever apps are in fad (has OfferUp died yet? I can't keep track), and lately, FB Marketplace. The texting back and forth and negotiating thing is work, but it's nice to get that cash right in hand and almost never deal with shipping. Ppl talk smack, but 15 years of Craigslist reselling and I've never had a scary IRL experience and the scammers are fairly predictable. Never gotten burned as a local buyer either. Whereas PayPal + eBay have caused consistent inconvenience and stress with all their "protections"

OfferUp is really good, especially if you deal with other people with good seller/buyer ratings; even my old man is a regular on OfferUp selling/buying auto stuff.

 

[NattyKathy]

OfferUp is really good, especially if you deal with other people with good seller/buyer ratings; even my old man is a regular on OfferUp selling/buying auto stuff.

Cool, thanx for the tip, maybe I'll try putting some listings on there again.

 

[slavie]

I haven't had my payment held in years, though the last time I used PP for a >$500 sale was about a year ago. Maybe things have changed.
My PP history is 15+ years, 400+ sales totaling over $40k, and probably double that in purchases. Several disputes in years past, had my account/funds frozen a few times.

I'll have to look into other payment options soon... I also don't like the 180 day free returns policy. I just basically stopped selling stuff for the past couple of years due to Ebay being risky, and PayPal allowing 180 day returns, plus horror stories on them.

That's because CC chargeback can be filed up to 6 months after transaction date, for most CC companies. PP just matches that.
But, don't fret, PP will drag buyers through decent amount of mud before the refund is issued, so it's not as easy to scam a seller as with eBay/Amazon where refunds are issued basically no questions asked.

I tried to get my money back through PayPal from a China purchase recently - I failed and lost the money, even though the seller sent the wrong color item. Seller requested I ship the item back at my expense, and PayPal backed up the seller and asked for tracking disregarding the fact that it was the seller who messed up. Internet search revealed that this is common - China sellers know shipping from USA is stupid expensive, very often costing more than the item itself, and they know PP has a policy to back them up.

The only reason I use PP these days is to conceal my CC number. PayPal security is fortunately pretty good, I don't think they've been hacked, yet. Unlike scores of other companies, not to mention that only a fraction of smaller company breaches are detected and/or reported. Haven't had my CC compromised in a few years now since I started doing that, whereas it used to happen every other year or so.

 

[windianrecords]

Re: concealing your CC number, look into Privacy.com - I use it everywhere I can, nice to not have to rely solely on PP for that anymore.

 

[SunnyD]

Sounds like y'all will be moving back to USPS money orders, will ship on arrival/no cross-ship soon enough, amirite?

 

[A15G]

I sold an exhaust. Uploaded tracking information and it was delivered two days later. This was well over a week ago. Still have money held from them 🤷

 

[Dan_D]

I use Paypal fairly infrequently, so whenever I do receive money for something they put a hold on it.