Ughh Pending Account Balances

[beartrapper]

I've been hoarding for about 18 months now and recently completed my first sale on Bricklink, and then my first sale on eBay.

 

My first transacation was completed, I added tracking info and the item was delievered. I received payment on 5/6/13 and it is still pending!

 

How long or how many transactions am I going to need to complete before payments to me are not pending so long?

[Maverick2k1]

I don't remember the exact amount of transactions required but the wait time is normal for a new account.

[elementalsobe]

I believe on eBay once the buyer leaves positive feedback your funds should be released! And as Maverick21 said I do not know how many transactions it will take for the funds to not have a hold on them. My guess would be somewhere under 10!

[beartrapper]

I've had an ebay account for 5-6 years but mostly just for purchases. Oddly enough I emailed PayPal, got the automated response, sent a follow up and magically the funds moved from Pending to Available.

[LowestFormOfWit]

Speaking of which. I am also stuck in the loop. I've had a long standing Ebay account, but also only used it for purchases here and there until recently. Now I'm having the problem loop of "can't sell well with low feedback, can't gain feedback since nobody buys, those that do buy aren't always leaving feedback". Ugh.

[beartrapper]

I hear that. The purchaser of my first Lego eBay sale never left feedback, and naturally our transaction was their first so the likely hood of them actually leaving any feedback is nill.

[Mdpadgett]

Funds are released 3 days after ensured delivery of the item or 21 days after you were paid. There have been times before when I have had to call PayPal to release my received payments when they weren't released on time.

[Grolim]

I hear that. The purchaser of my first Lego eBay sale never left feedback, and naturally our transaction was their first so the likely hood of them actually leaving any feedback is nill.

 

That was exactly what happened to me a while ago.  Was worried that my first buyer was a new account, but worked out ok.  Had to wait ages for the funds to clear out of Paypal though.  No feedback left from the buyer. 

[Snowcrash]

This is such garbage.  I really wish state regulators would crack down on Paypal.  No legitimate financial institution can freeze a customer's assets for no good reason for 21 days.  It's arbitrary and capricious.  If fraud is really such a big issue then Paypal needs to change their business model and work more diligently with law enforcement.  Somehow the banking system manages to operate without doing things like this on a daily basis to it's customers...

[TheOrcKing]

This is such garbage.  I really wish state regulators would crack down on Paypal.  No legitimate financial institution can freeze a customer's assets for no good reason for 21 days.  It's arbitrary and capricious.  If fraud is really such a big issue then Paypal needs to change their business model and work more diligently with law enforcement.  Somehow the banking system manages to operate without doing things like this on a daily basis to it's customers...

Unfortunately since Paypal is not technically considered a bank, they can get away with a lot more than a real one ever could. It is the main reason why I am resiliant in using their services unless I absolutely must.

[Fcbarcelona101]

That was exactly what happened to me a while ago.  Was worried that my first buyer was a new account, but worked out ok.  Had to wait ages for the funds to clear out of Paypal though.  No feedback left from the buyer. 

 

The more I sell, the more I get frustrated by the lack of feedback by buyers....

[Diabolos80]

It took me 17 sales on ebay to finally receive the 10 feedbacks needed for a detailed seller rating. And I still haven't gotten feedback on my three most expensive items. Oh, well, no feedback is better than bad feedback. As for the holding of funds, I don't think paypal does that to new sellers for very long. My funds are available as soon as tracking says it's delivered, and I'm pretty sure it's been that way since my 7th or 8th sale.

But yeah, Paypal is ridiculous with its fees and half ass regulations. When you add that on top of ebay's fees and buyer-biased protection, it's kind of a hassle doing business with them.

[LowestFormOfWit]

It is the nature of the beast. The online tax law mess will add even more fees to worry about.

[emes]

Here's my understanding of PayPal's rules around holding funds. It has nothing to do with whether or not your eBay account was used for buying or selling, or if your feedback was gained from buying or selling. It's much more complex than that...there are several criteria that is used to make this decision.

 

PayPal will hold funds if:

• Your eBay id is less than 6 months old, and you sell an item for more than $100, or
• Your eBay feedback score is less than 100, and you sell an item for more than $100, or
• Your Buyer dissatisfaction percentage is 5% or greater, or
• Your average DSR is less than 4.5, or
• You have received fewer than 20 DSRs in the last 12 months, or
• Your listing was for an item in a high-risk category such as gift certificates, video games, cell phones, computers or consumer electronics.

Your money will be held if any of these criteria are met.

 

Also it's a good idea to go through all of the address and bank account confirmation, as well as the identity verification that PayPal has.

 

PayPal stops holding funds if these criteria are met:

• Your eBay ID is older than 6 months, and
• Your total feedback score is 100 or greater
• Your buyer dissatisfaction percentage is less than 5%

Or

• Your average DSR is 4.5 or greater, and
• You have received 20 or more DSRs in the last 12 months

 

So keep in mind, you could have holds lifted from your account, then have the hold put back in place for poor performance, or lack of activity.

 

I would say on average we see about 1/3 or fewer buyers that leave feedback. Keep this in mind. In order to get 20 DSR's in a 12 month period you'll likely need a minimum of 60 buyers in a 12 month period. This is yet another reason why selling something small, like polybags, can be very beneficial to you.

 

I personally don't have a huge problem with PayPal holding funds, but then again I don't have holds on my funds so it doesn't affect me. It's a CYA for them, which I get. I compare the funds hold to accounts receivable for my business (and most B2B type activities), where my customers that pay the quickest are Net-30. I have some that are Net-45 and even one that is Net-90, so waiting for my money is something that I'm accustomed to.

 

BTW, it's a really good idea to build up more than 1 eBay and PayPal account.

[stephen_rockefeller]

What Emes said is correct. It has nothing to do with feedback.....think about how many Dbag buyers don't leave feedback. Some people would never be getting paid lol

[stephen_rockefeller]

Oh and I always leave DSRs.......it takes all of 30 seconds to do, there are some lazy MFers out theree

[LowestFormOfWit]

Oh and I always leave DSRs.......it takes all of 30 seconds to do, there are some lazy MFers out theree

It's why the power of the opinion and survey is so valuable to companies. It's why at the bottom of that receipt you see "Take a quick survey for a chance to win $10,000 bucks", "Take a survey to get a free chicken sandwich.", "Take a quick survey to get $1.00 off your next Frappuccino!". Even with incentives, it's mind-numbingly difficult to get people to take such a small time out of their day.

 

Which is why companies like Facebook shot into multi-billion dollar profit so quickly. It's users basically agreed to be a giant, living survey, with every action they took on, with or through Facebook.

 

It's why I continue to avoid social networking like the plague.

[Guest ph4tb0i]

It's why I continue to avoid social networking like the plague.

 

After doing some business intelligence work for a company that specialized in mining facebook data to give to corporations for marketing strategy, I'm inclined to do the same..

 

It's amazing how people don't pay attention to their privacy settings at all...

[TheOrcKing]

It's amazing how people don't pay attention to their privacy settings at all...

It is tempting those surveys at the bottom of a receipt, until you actually get to the site and see just how personal the questions are like "How much do you make in a year?" or "How much do you spend in a day? Month? Year?" and a bunch of other stuff that is nobodies business. Plus the chance of winning is like six million to one, and it's a dinky giftcard that you can only spend there so that doesn't help much outside of groceries.

[Darth_Raichu]

Feedbacks on ebay is a funny thing. When you have a little you do almost anything to get more of it. However, soon you realize there are many many things that are worse than getting no feedbacks.

[Studebricker]

Speaking of which. I am also stuck in the loop. I've had a long standing Ebay account, but also only used it for purchases here and there until recently. Now I'm having the problem loop of "can't sell well with low feedback, can't gain feedback since nobody buys, those that do buy aren't always leaving feedback". Ugh.

 

Yah, I'll take Ebay v.1.0 over whatever they're doing now.  It used to be great for sellers...