Ebay holding all payments until upto 2 weeks of delivery

[cultman]

I'm hoping someone can answer my query here as ebay haven't been much help. 

At the start of last month ebay started holding payments on all items I've sold through my business account until anything between 3 days and 2 weeks of delivery confirmation. 

I thought this was something that was only brought in recently for private sellers, so had a look through the latest ebay announcements to see if they had rolled this out for business sellers as well but couldn't find any reference to it. I then had a look through their help section and found a couple of pages relating to payments and payment holds but couldn't find anything relating to business accounts having holds put on payments until delivery confirmation. In fact, it states "It typically takes 1 day from confirming the buyer’s payment for the sales proceeds to appear as Available for payout". 

I've contacted ebay and the only reason they could give me was that they do this for 'new or infrequent' accounts but I've been trading on ebay since 1999 and although don't sell huge amounts through ebay, still sell roughly 50 items each week and am a top rated seller with nearly 50,000 feedback. On telling them this, they said they would put through a complaint on my behalf which would hopefully remove the payment hold but I received a message from them just a hour later saying the complaint had been closed as they had given me sufficient information and that if I had additional concerns I should contact the Financial Ombudsman Service. 

I would like to ask, if any other business sellers have had this issue, where all of their payments are put on hold until after delivery confirmation of orders? 

And if this is not the norm, can anyone explain why they have placed these holds on to all of my orders? Is it something to do with my account that I can fix? Is it temporary or permanent?

Hoping someone has the answers as since 20th May I've sold around £1,500 and only had £45 paid out to me despite having delivery confirmation and receiving positive feedback for a number of the sold items.

Many thanks

[therenewalworkshopltd]

This kind of thing is usually because Ebay think that there is some kind of issue, or that your stats are poor etc.

I presume that you have checked everything?  A significant amount of returns etc?

This didn't happen to happen around the 20th of the month did it?

Double check all the email's that you have received from Ebay.  Check your junk folders, though you should have it on the Ebay account anyway.

[cultman]

Thanks for your response. That at least gives me hope that they will remove the hold at some point.

The only message I've had from ebay is a message saying they are putting the payments on hold but they didn't give any information as to why. They just included a link to a page on Payment Holds which didn't explain anything.

I've had zero returns in the last month and eveything on the account seems in good standing. See below:

Transaction defect rate

0.00% 0 of 472 transactions

Late delivery rate

0.52% 2 of 385 transactions

Cases closed without seller resolution

0.00% 0 of 472 transactions

Returns rate

0.00% 0 of 472 transactions

[cultman]

Thanks for your response. That at least gives me hope that they will remove the hold at some point.

The only message I've had from ebay is a message saying they are putting the payments on hold but they didn't give any information as to why. They just included a link to a page on Payment Holds which didn't explain anything.

I've had zero returns in the last month and eveything on the account seems in good standing. See below:

Transaction defect rate

0.00% 0 of 472 transactions

Late delivery rate

0.52% 2 of 385 transactions

Cases closed without seller resolution

0.00% 0 of 472 transactions

Returns rate

0.00% 0 of 472 transactions

[masonskingsshop]

Given the reply you've given suggesting your account is in good standing this would be the time to contact eBay and ask them for more information. 

Anything else from us is just guessing. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I agree, support is your only real option here I'm afraid.

[cultman]

I have contacted ebay already on three occasions and they haven't given me a reason. Twice they have told me that it is because I'm a new or infrequent seller, which I'm not and the other time they told me that it was their new policy and is the same for every business account. 

[therenewalworkshopltd · Accepted solution]

You haven't maybe just updated to Ltd?

You effectively become a brand new entity then, so it's a possibility.

But you need to get past 1st level support and try and speak to one of their managers at least.

I think that those you have spoken to, are just telling you a pile of rubbish...

In other words, they don't know and it sounds good!  🙂

I can however assure you that it's got nothing to do with policy and it is not the same for every other account.  Perhaps one of the mods here can take a look for you.  Can someone tag them please, can never remember their names.

[cultman]

Thanks. I will contact them again to try and find the answers. 

At least I now know that it isn't the standard policy so there must be a reason for it. It also gives me hope that they will remove the hold at some point. 

Many thanks for your help.

[theelench]

I must admit this is only a guess and a very, very long shot.

For how long have you been selling multiple lots of unused banknotes ?

I ask because I vaguely remember, during the changeover from paypal to MP, that there was some problem with coins and banknotes sellers.  If I remember rightly there was a bit of talk about the possibility of selling them on ebay becoming impossible.  It all blew over.

Did your problems begin after the 4/5 when you sold two lots of QE II banknotes ?

Could it be that whatever the problem was with MP was sorted to enable you to keep selling, but with a few extra restrictions in place?

Could this even be some sort of precaution against the money laundering / counterfeiting that we here so much about (but I've always thought was a bit of a joke?)

[cultman]

Thanks. It maybe a long shot but it sounds very much like something ebay would do.

We've sold coins and banknotes every now and then on ebay over 26 years but not regularly as we mainly sell them through our physical shop, so this is definitely worth looking into.

I think it must to be something like that. There has to be something on our account or something we have sold that has flagged up for some reason. 

Now I know it is not a new policy, I will contact ebay again and try to find the answers so I can rectify whatever the issue is. 

Thank you everyone for all your help.

[theelench]

Sorry I can't be more precise but it was years ago.  Yes, ebay does tend to go 'above and beyond' sometimes and a some flag might still be on your account that the sales of multiple notes could have raised.

You can search the boards by 'Content' of posts to try to find out more, but I must admit when I've tried it the results can be none too good 😞

[cultman]

I contacted ebay again today to try and get to the bottom of it but they were absolutely no use over the phone. Just trying to fob me off and say whatever comes to their head at the time.

I therefore tried a different route and sent an email to them. I have now received a response stating that the reason for the hold is confidential! 

I give up with it now. I really can't understand why they can't tell me the reason for holding my funds. I'll give it a month or two to see if anything changes and if not I think it will be time for me to close the ebay side of things down. It's not ideal but ebay is becoming more and more difficult to trade on and the customer support has really gone downhill in recent years. 

This is the response I got when asking for them to clarify why the holds had been put on my account:

"Many thanks for your reply, I'd be happy to clarify your concerns.

In regards to me not specifying reasons for this hold being placed on your orders, until we can confirm delivery, this is due to detailed information being internal and confidential.

I would direct you to our Payments Terms of Use - section 7; here, it details cirucmstances where we may hold funds, with a little more detail than our Help and Contact page link I sent previously:

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/payment/2.0/terms.html#article-7

Many factors are taken into account with our Transaction Hold policy and the information available within our Payments Terms of Use and our Help and Contact pages are the breath of information we share with our sellers.

If you can understand, some details of our internal systems are required to be kept internal due to the risk of users cirucumventing our systems in the future.

I trust I have clarified your query but if you do have any further questions in relation to the above our Customer Service team is available and are best placed to assist with real-time guidance.

Kind Regards,

Tracy

eBay Payments Complaints Specialist"

[dextronics]

Afternoon mate,

This wont necessarily make you feel better but I'm going through the EXACT same thing. I came across your post because, like you, eBay support has absolutely no idea or understanding of what the issue is. 100% feedback, top rated seller

They started this with me in January 2025, they said it was temporary and would only be for 30 days. Payments would be sent within 24 hours of tracked delivery OR collection code scanned. Really inconvenient for me as I sell large TVs so 90% of my stock is collection in person only... Which means people buy something and collect when convenient, often three weeks later. 

Anyway, 30 days passed, no change. 5 months later and its STILL ongoing. I call support weekly to work out why, some of the usual things I hear as follows: 

1. Thats the new policy for everyone now. (Incorrect, not for business sellers).

2. Thats not the new policy for business sellers, it will update at the end of the month. (It never does).

3. The hold ONLY applies to items you listed while the hold was in place, any newly listed items wont be affected. (Completely untrue).

I have spoken to nearly 50 different support representatives, 10 different 'managers', various different teams... No-one can tell me a reason why it wont go back to normal. The complaint email they send that reads "An eBay specialist has investigated your complaint and determined that you have received the correct information as per our policies. Since the appropriate information has been shared and no further action is required, your complaint is now closed" just rubs salt into the wounds, no appropriate information has ever been shared from them, hence banging my head against the wall.

Absolutely no idea what to do anymore. I will keep trying, if you do get anywhere please let me know!

Sam

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Someone else posted this link a little while ago.

It's basically for complaining about payments, so should be suitable in your case.

Apparently, they know what they are actually doing, as opposed to support!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/payment-policies/file-complaint-ebay-payments-brokering-financi...

Do post and let us know how you get on with it.

[dextronics]

Thank you for this. The link gives you a 'contact us' button to raise the complaint which just circles back to the usual 'contact us' page, they are so frustrating. 

I ended up trying the web chat instead of contacting support over the phone. They put me through to a payments 'specialist' who was equally as clueless but with a sprinkle of bad attitude too. 

Basically, they don't know why they are holding money for some business members. They don't know how long they will do it for or what it will take for them to stop. Such a frustrating way to operate. 

02:41:20 UTC Erisild

So just to confirm, you are querying the funds on hold on your account for 24 hours after delivery and want them immediate?

02:43:20 UTC dextronics

Yes, as a business seller and not personal the funds should become available 24 hours after payment. Not held for weeks until the item is collected and paid 24 hours later.

02:45:47 UTC dextronics

im still having payments held until delivery/collection like a private account

02:45:57 UTC dextronics

no-one knows why or can explain

02:46:22 UTC dextronics

forums show another handful of business sellers having the same issue

02:46:30 UTC dextronics

customer support doesnt know why

02:49:24 UTC Erisild

I understand, on this case I will make sure to report the misinformation given to you, private accounts have the funds held for 2 days after delivery or 14-30 days after the sale date. Business accounts mostly have the funds held for 24 hours after delivery or when the QR code is scanned for collection, this depending on the system when the account is marked for enough to have the payouts released immediately, it does not matter on days or top rated seller it is just a system process and it will be like this until it is determined by the system to have the payments immediate.

02:50:47 UTC dextronics

Im confused... Are you telling me ALL business accounts have their funds held until delivery or collection now? Thats also completely untrue.

02:53:13 UTC Erisild

No I am not saying that, as mentioned most of the business accounts have the funds held for 24 hours after delivery or after scanning the QR code when they register as business until the system determines that the account is safe for immediate payments.

02:56:04 UTC dextronics

I have been registered as a business account for five years with no issues whatsoever. What parameters does the 'system' use to decide its suddenly unsafe and what needs to be done to be determined as 'safe' again despite doing nothing wrong?

02:57:31 UTC Erisild

As mentioned above that depends on the system about determining the payouts to be immediate, we do not have any manual way to change this or step in, most I can do on this case is mark your feedback on the eBay back offices and development team for review.

02:58:47 UTC dextronics

Il just copy and paste my question again here

02:58:50 UTC dextronics

What parameters does the 'system' use to decide its suddenly unsafe and what needs to be done to be determned as 'safe' again despite doing nothing wrong?

03:01:09 UTC Erisild

And copy pasting again, that depends on the system to determine when your account is safe enough to get immediate payments and we do not have any specific parameters or specifics for that.

03:02:57 UTC dextronics

So you are saying you dont know? There are no parameters or reasons?

03:04:14 UTC Erisild

I am saying there are no specific parameters we have for a business account to receive immediate payments as that depends on the system.

03:05:32 UTC dextronics

So either the system has reasons for holding business money OR its completely random. If it has reasons then what are they?

03:07:02 UTC dextronics

If its just random then thats absolutely disgusting

03:09:23 UTC Erisild

The reasons for the funds held are as security checks to make sure the buyers receive the items, 24 hours after the tracking shows delivered for delivery items and after scanning the QR code to make sure the buyer got the item for collection items. Now when these holds will be lifted and you will receive immediate payments depends on the system to determine.

03:11:09 UTC dextronics

My items are collection only, how can the buyer not receive them? slightly academic as I understand the thought process behind the first part of your response.

03:11:25 UTC dextronics

Its the second part that I need answers to

03:12:19 UTC dextronics

How does the system determine when to return it back to normal? Again, what are the parameters?

03:13:08 UTC Erisild

Again, we do not have any specific parameters from the system to when it determines the account to receive immediate payments.

03:13:47 UTC dextronics

So you dont know

03:13:56 UTC dextronics

What about timeframe?

03:14:56 UTC dextronics

zero returns in a month? zero returns in a year? What does the system work with? What is it picking up that flags my business as 'unsafe'?

03:16:38 UTC Erisild

It does not have any exact time frame or specific parameters as mentioned above, this depends on the system to move your account to immediate payments and we do not have any manual way to do that, when it is determined that your account should be moved to immediate payments the system will auction that and your account will be opted in to that, this is all the information that can be provided on this case.

03:18:40 UTC dextronics

Great, so you hold all my money, kill my business, no idea why, no idea how or when you will stop. Depends on the 'system' which works with absolutely no rhyme or reason.

03:19:22 UTC dextronics

So how do I register formal complaint to anyone that MIGHT be able to answer any of my questions?

03:19:55 UTC Erisild

You can make a complaint on this email: Paymentsinfouk@ebay.co.uk

03:20:38 UTC dextronics

Right

03:26:28 UTC Erisild

I understand this is not the outcome you had hoped for today, however, I do want to assure you that all the information I’ve provided is accurate. With that being said, I have documented all of your feedback and I really appreciate you taking the time to reach out to eBay Customer Service today.

03:26:31 UTC

chat ended by Erisild

Appreciate your help anyway! 

Sam