Is eBay holding your funds because you are a “casual” seller? Here’s what it doesn’t say in the fine print.
Did you know that if you are a low-volume seller on eBay, the company may hold your funds before releasing them to you – even if you’re a long-time seller on the marketplace? (Volume in this case refers to the number of items a seller sells, not the dollar volume.)
A seller who was subjected to the eBay Payments hold policy wrote about the issue on the Technical Issues board on August 18th:
“After being in Managed Payment since June 4th, my account is all of a sudden on Payment Hold status. When I called customer service, they said my account was just switched to “Casual Seller” status on August 14th. Now, I have to wait until an item is delivered for the payment to be initiated to my bank account.
“I have been selling on eBay for over 20 years, and recent sales have been over 2k for the last 2.5 months. I am told my payments will be on hold until I sell 20 more items.
“When I call customer service, they cannot locate any documentation of the on the eBay website, and they said this detail was not included in the Managed Payment contract that I had to sign.
“This needs to be documented so that everybody knows their payments will now be on hold, until delivery is complete, for their next 25 items sold, no matter how many sales they have had in the past.
“The counter stared in August, but is retroed back to when the seller signed their managed payment agreement. I happened to sign the managed payment agreement on June 4th. So, my counter started on June 4th. Now, everybody starts in the “casual seller” level until they have sold 25 new items. Then, they move up to the next level.”
“It’s the old “Lets punish long time members for not selling enough on the platform,” one seller replied.
Another seller was concerned enough to raise the issue during the August 18th eBay weekly chat session, writing in part:
“If a seller is going to have a status change to their account, why can they not see that on their MP summary page? Or somewhere at least? And what is this “Casual Seller” status exactly, how is it defined, how does it affect us, and where is the documentation on site announcing this?”
An eBay moderator responded, explaining that just as before eBay took over payment-processing, it would place holds on sellers’ accounts for a variety of reasons, including selling activity. “For members that sell casually (used to be called ‘occasionally’) we will place funds on hold until the item is delivered,” he said.
He described the policy, noting there was no documentation visible to sellers:
“A casual seller who has their payments managed by eBay is defined as: A seller who has not completed 25 transactions in the last 2 years. These holds are eligible for an early release based on proof of successful delivery and that can be done by CS directly.
“As to public facing documentation, there isn’t anything that goes into specific detail like I’ve shared, but it is briefly mentioned in the T&Cs for payments (the ‘Holds’ section in Section 7). Specifically, “Each hold may be based on factors including selling history, seller performance, returns, chargebacks, riskiness of the listing category, transaction value, the ability to make direct debits from your Linked Financial Account, or the filing of eBay Buyer Protection Program claims.””
He didn’t address the issue described by the seller in the other thread about eBay “starting the clock” in June after she enrolled in Managed Payments, rather than a true 2-year lookback.
Based on that seller’s description of what happened in her case, it could happen to others, even those who have sold more than 25 items in the prior 2-year’s of selling, if they’re new to Managed Payments.
We wrote about another issue sellers are encountering under the migration to eBay Payments – chargebacks – read more on the EcommerceBytes Blog.
Have you been impacted by other policies or practices as a result of being migrated from PayPal to eBay Payments – and are you seeing benefits?
Ahhh the crime syndicate strikes again!
As stated MANY times in various places, by various people … the San Jose Mafia is now in %100 control over sellers funds – good for the Mafia, bad for sellers.
Casual seller, enterprise seller – who knows – its all eBay mumbo jumbo that has no basis in US trade law.
eBay does it because THEY CAN. Because YOU are nothing to them and they can do what they want at any time – and just ask the eBay cheerleaders – they can do what they want – stop complaining.
eBay needs the float to pad their numbers, Wall Street is in on the con game – just go to the various sites – they will tell you that eBay is the best stock EVA (ever!)
eBay should of course be honest and upfront – though those 2 words arent in eBays lexicon …..but theft, deceit, misappropriation and others are.
Just another move by Ebay to somehow increase their revenues as they are getting more and more desperate to show some type of growth and it is very hard when your platform never shows what the buyer is looking for but only what Ebay wants to show them. Ebay knows they are losing sellers big time and have to make the loss of FVF fees and loss of store revenues any way possible and Mangled Payments was designed to give them the ability to do so as they now control all aspects of every Sellers business and think they know more about the Sellers business than they do. We all know just how hilarious this is since they cannot even run their own business without running con games on their customers, even the buyers.
All I can say as a “casual seller” is that I’m glad EB is not the only platform I sell on. Actually AMZ is similar. It releases funds every 2 weeks. If you want your funds quicker, you can request it and there’s something called Payability, it’s like a business loan against your funds.
I keep it simple.
It’s only 25 sales, deal with it.
It should take a day if this is how you make money.
If you’re that hard up for money, go get a 9-5.
If this is not how you make money, waiting until a buyer gets the item should be the norm.
Stops scammy new sellers from popping up.
It’s only 25 sales, deal with it. – if its “only 25 sales”, then whats the need to do so? Oh yeh – you need to keep the float.
It should take a day if this is how you make money. – eBay never holds money for “just a day” … unless on that day the sun stood still in the sky like in Joshua
If you’re that hard up for money, go get a 9-5. – people some times need to supplement their incomes for a variety of reasons – none of which are eBays business. If you make a sale and ship – thats the end.
If this is not how you make money, waiting until a buyer gets the item should be the norm.
Stops scammy new sellers from popping up. – correction – stops scummy cheerleaders and eBay mafiaosos
This is illegal in most states. Check with your state’s Secretary of Banking website for rules on money transmitters. Mine allows for holds of up to 5 days, after that, funds must be released.
More held money equals more “profits” for eBay from interest floats equals higher stock prices! Yippee! eBay wins! Drinks for everyone at Walker’s!
Many ‘”low volume” sellers are hobbyists. The new eBay payment system has turned a hobby into a non paying job!