I just sold my first ever item on eBay. And I’ve never taken a payment by PayPal before.
Got an email notification from PayPal saying the money had been transferred, followed by one from eBay saying the transfer was pending.
However, in my PayPal account there is still a zero balance, and there’s no record of any transactions in my eBay account either. The notifications arrived just over 30 minutes ago.
I checked the email headers and they both checked out. So my concern is that the money’s gone into someone else’s account or something. Or do these transactions just take a while? I kinda thought they’d be instantaneous.
In my experience the key word is “pending”. I think it means that the transfer was not made by credit card banking but by bank, and thus will take some time to arrive in order to be confirmed. Maybe 1 week or so… I can’t remember the exact details.
You might wish to inform the buyer that you will not be sending the item until money has cleared.
It’s coming, but pending.
I’m getting suspicious though. The winning user account was only set up today and has zero feedback. I have a name and email address, but the “ship to” details are completely different - it’s a woman’s name in the address and a man’s name on the account. It is a genuine address though.
Wonder if someone selling something similar was just trying to drive the average purchase price of that item up.
I would expect there to be some transaction header visible in your PayPal account - even if it just says the thing is pending.
Emails saying payments have happened, when no payment details are visible in the eBay or PayPal systems, seems to me like an indicator that something fraudulent is trying to happen.
I don’t think there is any reason for alarm. This has happened to me before, both on the buying and selling end. If you are still feeling unsure about this, go to one of the ebay help forums on the ebay website itself and pose your question there. You will get a direct answer.
However, I got a response from the buyer which prompted me to have a closer look at my PayPal account. It was kicking up a fuss because I hadn’t verified my current email address. When I did this, I suddenly got a “money’s there” notification. Not sure if that was a coincidence. Not a great interface regardless.
It’s under a potential 21-day lockdown by PayPal because it’s my first incoming transaction. Jeez, didn’t realise this would be such a pain.
Make sure the address you send it to is the one that PayPal considers safe/verified. Some of the fraud protection things only work if you send to the buyer’s confirmed address. Also, when you send it, use Special Delivery or some other method that includes tracking and compensation for loss/damage.
The majority of ebay sellers I’ve dealt with send the item the next day after getting paypal payments. I’ve only had two sellers “wait 5 days for the payment to clear”. It angered me and I left neutral feedback. I never bought from them again either.
The whole point of an electronic payment is instant gratification. I could mail a money order if I wanted to wait days and days to get an item.
I think most ebay buyers would react similarly. Most buyers expect their item to ship within a day of paying.
I’ve also been burned by ebay sellers that don’t actually have the item. They order the item themselves after you win the auction. You’re lucky to get it 2 weeks later.
The address on the paypal transaction details should be the one you’re sending it to, and somewhere on that page, it should say whether the address is confirmed, and the level of seller protection that exists on the transaction.
Absolutely necessary on an item of this value, doubly so with a newbie buyer. eBay will generally refund the buyer if they say it didn’t arrive, and you can’t prove otherwise, and it’s generally the case that the item is the responsibility of the seller until it arrives safe in the hands of the buyer.
The fact that the buyer is brand new and is buying an item like this first thing still makes me twitch a bit. I haven’t sold on eBay for more than a year though, so I don’t have a feel for how you can gain confidence in a newbie buyer like this one, or indeed on any new scams.
Getting upset because they wait until payment clears seems really, really silly to me. If you want the instant stuff, then pay with a method that is actually instant, not one that takes days to clear. Don’t punish the seller because you aren’t smart enough to do that.
Technically, I agree, however, eBay is trying to develop a culture where buyers get things quicker. Unfortunately, this is being achieved by loading additional risk and responsibility on the seller.
I sold an item on ebay and the buyer paid by check, somehow, with paypal. Paypal informed me that it would take a few days to clear, so I let the buyer know I couldn’t ship until I actually had the money (she was fine about it, good communication throughout). Turns out, due to some error by the newbie buyer, the payment (for about $200) didn’t clear. She got it worked out and I did get paid, but if I’d shipped with payment pending I could have been screwed.
Finally got my money. One day after the due release date I called them and the girl said “you should have called us weeks ago - the tracking information you provided should have automatically triggered the transfer”. Which was nice.