After an initial call the other day to PayPal that basically ended with them telling me that it was not me, my account, or anything that I had done wrong as an eBay seller, that it was a new policy, I did a little more reading on their website. Their website states that "Generally, funds are available to you when the buyer pays. However, in some cases, we may wait to make funds available if we believe that there's a higher level of risk associated with you, your PayPal account or transactions."
Now I'm not my any means a big user of eBay or PayPal. I've been a member of eBay since 2000 and a PayPal member since 2005 or 2006. I use it occasionally to buy items and sell a few things (mainly when I decide to do a little house cleaning). Both my buyer and seller ratings are perfect. I've never had any issues. Zero.
In September and October, I sold several items (10-12 with a total value in the $500-$600 range). PayPal made my funds available immediately after each sale. This month, I again listed 10-15 items. When they started selling, the funds were held. Some has been released, and some hasn't (I still have some items for sale).
I called PayPal again today, determined to find out what about my account had changed to lead them to believe that I was now considered to pose a "higher level of risk" when 3 months ago, everything was fine. The person I talked to finally divulged that the hold on my funds was due to an eBay initiated hold. In other words, eBay had requested that PayPal now hold my funds. She then offered to transfer me to an eBay customer support specialist. I again explained my situation and concerns. This person reviewed my eBay sales history, and told me it looked like I met all the criteria to have the hold lifted. He never did offer to tell me exactly what that criteria was, nor did he explain why my account had been held in the first place. He did tell me that I had 26 sales transaction on eBay (for what it's worth).
After admitting that my account met the criteria to not be held, he told me that he would submit my account to be re-evaluated that that process would take approximately 24 hours. He then told me that he would 100% guarantee my next transaction on eBay would not be held. I have an auction closing tomorrow that has bidders, so I'll find out then if this guarantee holds up.
Bottom line, I was polite and diligent. I'll know in the next day or so if I was successful and report back here with the results.
