back to article PayPal glitch freezes sellers' cash for weeks

A problem with some PayPal payments being held by the company was just a glitch, not a cunning plan to claw more money out of buyers. Earlier this year PayPal introduced a scheme to flag certain transactions it regarded as suspicious. Payment for items where eBay determined the buyer might be dissatisfied would be held for 21 …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You can't please everyone

    Despite the carping it seems to me that Paypal is trying to maintain an honest, reliable payment system. Ebay can be a nightmare with scammers galore so I applaud Paypal for making the extra effort to insure proper transactions. If a scammer gets the money and disappears, then the buyer is the one who suffers with something less than what they purchased.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Intereting definition of high value

    I had this happen to me this week. Sold a camera for £150 and Paypal decided to keep the cash for a while. Been a member for years and no negative feedback. Thankfully the buyer's a decent chap and left positive feedback, but plenty of people won't be that lucky.

    Nerve.

  3. Alistair James

    Paypal Honest

    Paypal holding onto payments for anything up to 21days, how can that be honest, this new system is making paypal more money on top of the fees already paid, where are the funds held? surely these funds are accrueing interest and therefore paypal are coining it in if money is being held in an account for up to 21 days before it is released, I would be surprised if Paypal announce massive profits in the very near future.......

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    just say NO to paypal

    I don't know if they have changed things or not, but a long time ago (I think even before eBay bought paypal), I looked at getting a paypal account and they just wanted too much frikking information for me to feel comfortable with so I never got an account with them. Since that time I have not really heard any good news that would cause me to change my mind about them.

    Serendipity, thy name is chance.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Recently?

    Paypal have done this for a lot longer, by blocking anyones account that they feel is sketchy, which includes if their car is yellow.

  6. yeah, right.

    disagree

    Once is a mistake. Twice is a cock-up. Three times or more it's deliberate enemy action. This isn't the first time Paypal has tried these tricks. I'd rather deal with Western Union than with Paypal.

  7. Nick Davey
    Alert

    Still a problem

    I got positive feedback for an item sold last week and the funds are still on hold. Got a nice email from paypal when I complained saying that they have a problem with the system not releasing payments, so it still isn't fixed!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    AC @ 13:53 GMT

    "Ebay can be a nightmare with scammers galore so I applaud Paypal for making the extra effort to insure proper transactions."

    Since eBay owns PayPal, I'm not quite sure any extra effort is really being made.

  9. Andrew Macrobie
    Thumb Down

    Still happening...

    Three hours on the phone to PayPal on an Irish phone number plus numerous missives to get payments released four days after positive feedback was recieved. Just not good enough but sadly, PalPal are not subject to UK or EU banking laws and it seems that Ebay are comitted to pushing PayPal as the primary means of payment through their alleged "protection" policies...

  10. Mark Baker

    " Payment is released automatically after positive feedback is left"

    Except it doesn't appear to be, for one of my transactions. Even after complaining to pay pal and receiving a response saying the transaction will be un-frozen, it's still stuck there. Just as well that I'm not desperate for the cash.

    Things like this don't exactly improve my confidence in PayPal - I'm not sure who I'm more at risk of losing money from, them or the scammers.

  11. Alan Fisher

    Paypal in Ireland

    Despite being in an EU country with a good banking system, PayPal insists I have to apply a Credit Card onto my account as well as a bank account....the reason for this escapes me because surely, part of the Point of PayPal is to avoid using credit cards online or for those who lack a credit card (or in my case have a debit card no-one outside of ireland accepts..)??

    They lost my business and, I'm sure, that of many Irish people...odd really

  12. andy
    Coat

    risk to buyers

    "A very small proportion (less than 1 per cent) of PayPal transactions on eBay are regarded as potentially posing a risk to buyers"

    As apposed to the 100% of transactions that are potentially a risk to sellers...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re "Paypal is trying to maintain an honest, reliable payment system"

    wtf?

    why on earth would anyone use ebay or paypal?

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Christmas coming early for ebay!!

    Like the posters above, PayPal is also sitting on £140 of my money despite the buyer posting positive feedback 6 days ago. I just had to share the email response I got from their Customer Services, as it's so badly written (in tone and grammar). They say Christmas gets earlier each year and it already seems to be in full swing for PayPal, which claims that "yuletide" is a legitimate excuse for this! I also received a survey to complete today about my satisfaction with this response.... needless to say they still have my money!

    --------------------------------------------

    Thank you for contacting PayPal. My name is **** and I appreciate the

    opportunity to assist you with your questions.

    I understand that you are writing regarding the payment that is being held.

    I apologize for the inconvenience it has brought you.

    Upon checking in to your account its shows that you received your positive

    feedback on October 10, 2008. Since the yuletide season is fast

    approaching, the PayPal system have been flooded by a large volume of

    transactions recently. As a result, eBay and PayPal experienced some

    technical issues that affected some of our batch tools being used to

    release the hold for the transactions immediately.

    Rest assured that we take these issues very seriously and we sincerely

    apologize for any inconvenience this issue has brought to you. We are aware

    that this is completely unacceptable for valued customer like you since you

    have been a valued PayPal member. We hope you could attest to the fact

    that this is the first time this kind of issue arised.

    But please be advised that We have a technical team working 24/7 and is

    dedicated to resolve this and ensure that this won't happen again.

    I will be forwarding this transaction to our relevant department so that

    they can help us release the payment.

    I trust that I was able to help you with your concern. If you have further

    questions please feel free to call us and I am more than happy to assist

    you.

    Thank you for choosing PayPal.

    ------------------------------

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    So let me get to the sum of this

    Using paysmell is like getting a tonsillectomy through yer arse. Got it.

  16. Alexis Vallance
    Thumb Down

    PayPal evil

    Stories of them keeping your money for 180 days for no real reason are commonplace. Never ever leave your money in PayPal - take it out ASAP.

    And as for if you don't like it, don't use it, what choice have you got? People won't buy from you if you don't do PP and ebay has no real competitors (ebid is crap and nobody's on it).

    I really wish someone like Google would start up their own and wipe the floor with ebay.

  17. Michael Habel
    Flame

    I don't know how Fleabay works in your Contry....

    But, over here in Germany, the Seller usually will refuse to ship anything out until they get there Cash first, So what's the point of forcing the Buyer (me), into giving some (possible) loser some Positive Feedback when He/She doesn't deserve it. So the can collect the Cash and start to ship the "Product" out to me (by the cheapest means possible), after all the biggest wins are in the S&H Costs thankfully they average round only 8,00€ for inland sales. Some of the stuff from Hong Kong though is just laughable.

    But really what's the point if the Seller refuses (and rightly so), to ship "product" untill Payment is received???

    To Hell w/Fleabay and PayPal!!

  18. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Just comforting my opinion

    I have never cared for Ebay and I have never liked PayPal (the name itself is a lie) which has always played fast and easy with people's accounts AND money, without any support worthy of the name.

    And stuff like this just tells me I'm right.

    If PayPal was a real bank, there's no way it could just hold you money like that. Real banks do not have that kind of problem. And with a real bank, if for some reason the web-banking portal is out of service, I can always go to the brick-and-mortar version or even just an ATM.

    There is no way a real bank can lock my money from me unless it has a court order.

    But PayPal thinks it IS the court.

    Jackasses.

  19. Andrew Macrobie

    @ AC 20:08

    No surprise - I have a couple of word-for-word identical emails from paypal. It was obvious when someone had finally looked at the issue because the tone and grammar of the email I received was really quite different from the template mails they're sending out.

  20. Naich
    Unhappy

    Me too!

    Happened to me too. Useless gits. I would have a good rant here, but I've already done that on me blog. http://naich.net

  21. Nicholas Wright
    Paris Hilton

    Positive Feedback before goods are sent?

    WTF?! In the past I have paid via PayPal for an item, and the item gets sent to me. I don't leave *any* feedback until I have received the item.

    All this system is going to do, is give lots of positive feedback to people regardless of the service they provide.

    Ebay gets to claim that it is more popular and safer than ever. Crooks can create a dodgy seller, have someone win/buy something and give good feedback, and then the crooks can send any old crap to the buyer. Too late to change the feedback!

    While there aren't any alternatives to Ebay, people should look at Freecycle (http://www.freecycle.org/).

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