Sold item; Received eCheck as payment; Buyer asking what's wrong with their payment.

[jtz2]

Good Morning, I received an eCheck as payment for an auction item. I was fine with waiting on the payment to clear, but the buyer has sent a note asking me why the payment is "stuck." Here's my response: Here's the info that I received from PayPal about your payment: Payment Type: eCheck eCheck estimated completion: Oct 2, 2013 - Oct 4, 2013. Status: Uncleared  (Expected Clearing Date: Oct 2, 2013 - Oct 4, 2013) Note: eChecks work like paper checks and take your bank several business days to process. I'm trying to prepare myself for what this buyer may want to do next. Here's the question: Should I cancel the transaction so they can pay instantly? Would the transaction revert back to unpaid, so the customer can see it and choose another form of payment? Thank you for any/all suggestions.

[snowshoe]

See this FAQ:

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/helphub/article/?solutionId=11442&m=SRE

It may help you decide what you want to do.

[shorty2342]

You can not cancel a echeck until it clears. HOWEVER, the customer was ask at time of checkout, "are you sure you want to use echeck?" This can take 3-5? business days. Usually takes 3 so I am sure it has cleared by now. Be kind and refer that customer to the Paypal e-check processing link. I don't have that link but it is on the site somewhere! 

But when he/she paid, it ask "are you sure you want to process an echeck? and was advised on how long it would take!

[jtz2]

Thanks for stopping in. I did wait it out. Yesterday, my buyer's eCheck did clear.

The subject of eChecks came up in eBay's Answer Center. Here's what somebody said:

"A few months ago Paypal had a glitch where the funding source was defaulting to e-check with no other options available.  Sounds like it's back."

Looking around in eBay I was able to see that there are many more glitches happening this week. The worst one is a sale takes place on eBay. The buyer pays and the sale is showing up in the seller's PayPal account, but the information is not showing as a sold item in eBay. The listing for the item is still "live," too.

People were thinking it was a mobile/cell phone issue, but somebody posted that it happened to them and they weren't on a mobile phone. As of today, I think this is getting better.