http://seekingalpha.com/article/105040-paypal-holds-sellers-funds-hostage?source=feed
Paypal Holds Sellers' Funds Hostage by: Dinah Balk November 10, 2008 | about stocks: EBAY Dinah Balk Is it a glitch? Or is it another way to increase revenue? Who knows? I guess Donahoe knows but he's not talking. What am I referring to? eBay (EBAY) cleverly wove the mandatory use of Paypal into its user agreement and now that it's gone into effect, Paypal holds on sellers accounts have increased by leaps and bounds. When is it going to end? My guess is when the State Attorneys General unite and regulate Paypal or when eBay ceases to exist – whichever comes first. My money is on eBay because there's been a 20% drop in traffic, the stock is at a low not seen in nearly 10 years, and disruptive innovations continue to drive buyers & sellers to user friendly sites like Bonanzle & Etsy. New Glitch. On the morning of November 6 many sellers discovered they could not withdrawal funds from their Paypal accounts due to a glitch that eBay/Paypal has yet to acknowledge or resolve. Is this related to the mysterious eCheck glitch? Sellers began reporting unexplained holds on their accounts as early as October 25 and within 2 days the glitch spread like a virus throughout the eBay selling community as one seller after another discovered their funds had cleared but were being hostage as there was no way to claim them. No resolution appears to be in sight and eBay/Paypal has yet to make an announcement or notify members. Paypal did offer sellers a few pennies on the dollar for the use of their money (if they had a Paypal Money Market account). Anyone want to guess how much money Paypal earned? One eBay member named Permacrisis has an interesting theory. The extra load/artificial spike imposed on October 20th overloaded Paypal's servers (insufficient band with) and Paypal had to choose between collecting funds and disbursing funds. Sellers have also reported that their funds are being held from a few days to months. eBay/Paypal excuses range from: 1) suspicious transaction; 2) no feedback from buyer; 3) less than 100 seller feedback; 4) false positives; 5) no shipping information; etc. etc. etc. none of which have anything to do with processing a transaction. I think this situation was best summed up by deltamaster who wrote "If Wells Fargo, Bank of America, US Bank, or any other financial institution were to conduct business in this fashion there would be regulators crawling all over them like fire ants on a grasshopper." Which begs the question, how can anyone trust Paypal because it is not regulated, profits from its failure to perform, and operates in a shroud of secrecy? _______________________________________________ Infowarrior mailing list [email protected] https://attrition.org/mailman/listinfo/infowarrior
