Is eBay Quietly Backtracking On Payment Policy Delaying Some Seller Funds Until After Delivery Confirmation?
Is eBay quietly backing down on controversial Payment Policy changes that delayed some sellers' funds until after delivery?
Sellers report payment holds are finally being mysteriously lifted just as suddenly and without communication as they were initially applied as transparency concerns linger.
The troubling new policy was introduced last year, when eBay made a change to their Payments Terms of Use that would allow them to delay payouts until 3 days after delivery confirmation for "some" sellers.
Liz Morton
eBay did not provide an exhaustive list of criteria that would cause the delayed payout schedule to be applied but anecdotally, most affected sellers seemed to have tripped at least one risk factor, including but not limited to:
- Being a new or infrequent seller
- Having unresolved claims from buyers or account defects or
- Having unusual selling patterns like a sudden increase in the number of sales or average value of items being sold.
But to add insult to injury, when sellers contacted eBay support, they were told this new policy will eventually be applied to all sellers on the platform - and alarmingly, that information was then directly contradicted by eBay community personnel in the US, UK, and Germany, leaving sellers wondering who they should trust and what's really going on with these holds on funds.
Liz Morton
UK sellers were particularly frustrated with the change as eBay recently signed The Office of the Small Business Commissioner (OSBC) small business payments pledge, promising transparency and fairness when applying holds on seller funds - which sellers say eBay has demonstrably failed to live up to.
dantekellmanthompson
That frustration has prompted many in the UK to report eBay's lack of communication and transparency about the payout delays to the OSBC, their local MPs and the Financial Ombudsman - and those complaints appear to finally be getting results as multiple eBay UK sellers report the delay on their payouts has suddenly been lifted.
Re: New Payout Rules for Business Accounts
Just had an email saying i'll be getting payouts within 24hrs now again lol, it's been bleep like this since july
We have had our funds held for up to 30 days since May. We have not received an email from ebay (I have just gone through and checked again) but all of our sales yesterday have cleared this morning so it looks like they are back to paying out within 24 hours.
All of the items sold before yesterday are still being held though so I guess it is just anything that sells from now will go straight into our account.
Some US sellers who have had the delayed payout hold applied for 6 months or more are also reporting they too are suddenly seeing a return to the normal payout processing schedule with no explanation from eBay.
Re: Ebay Holding Seller Payments Until AFTER Delivery!
Mine was lifted on Friday, after almost 6 months to the day. I sold an expensive item in April, got the dreaded email, called or emailed every possible customer service rep for months, finally gave up.
I didn’t receive an email or message update from eBay that the processing times had reverted back. I just realized something I sold on Friday had the funds available Saturday night.
Didn’t make changes to my shipping/handling time, my seller status stayed the same. I’ve been actually listing a lot less because of the dependence on shipping times to get paid. It looks like what others have said, you wait until the system decides the hold time restriction is over.
RE: Blanket Payout Holds - Resolution (not really)
I sent a letter to their dispute department and was about to go to BBB and blast them on EVERY social media site at least 100x, then magically the blanket hold was lifted this week. I still will post a BBB complaint.
I was flat out LIED to repetitively by eBay support (at all levels) that this is a new policy that will impact all sellers. LIE.
I don't think the letter to the dispute department helped. Given that it magically was lifted almost one year to the date, there was something that triggered this to be activated on my account which takes a year to expire.
If this happens to you, then you are likely looking at 1 year of EVERY sale being put on a payout hold with NO legitimate explanation. Very underhanded and no transparency from eBay on this one for sure!
I've also now heard privately from 5 other sellers who had this delay on funds applied for 6 months - a year and who have suddenly been switched back to regular payouts with no communication or explanation from eBay.
While that's a hopeful sign, it's still nowhere near enough of a trend to say for sure whether eBay simply reviewed these specific accounts and decided the criteria to have funds delayed no longer applied or if this is part of a wider quiet backtracking on the policy, possibly due to regulatory pressure.
If eBay has learned anything from this situation, it should be the importance of clear, direct and timely communication with sellers - especially when it comes to anything impacting finances and cashflow.
Unfortunately, it does not appear eBay has taken that lesson to heart, leaving impacted sellers just as much in the dark about how or why the holds were lifted as they were about why they applied in the first place.
eBay has not responded to request for comment as of time of publishing. Stay tuned for updates and let us know in the comments below if you were affected by this delayed payout policy and recently had it lifted from your account!
