Your funds will be available for payout once we receive delivery confirmation

[silverfoxx68]

Hi I've just received this message contacted ebay and is being sent to everyone 

That's me I'm done no more ebay for me bye bye

We are making changes to the way we process payments on eBay. Going forward, we’ll make your funds available for payout within 48 hours after we’ve confirmed delivery of the item. Until then, you’ll see a “hold” on your funds. This process helps keep our marketplace safe.

[sunshinedior67]

Yes the buyers money goes into eBays bank account making them interest from
money that belongs to you, so you're paying eBay not the seller. As eBay
doesn't own the property do you think it's fair they should be holding your
money & not paying the seller for 14 days or more? At no point is it their
property to make financial gains from. It's the property of seller the
buyer.

[eastern-lights]

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@sunshinedior67 wrote:
Yes the buyers money goes into eBays bank account making them interest from
money that belongs to you, so you're paying eBay not the seller. As eBay
doesn't own the property do you think it's fair they should be holding your
money & not paying the seller for 14 days or more? At no point is it their
property to make financial gains from. It's the property of seller the
buyer.

---

Do you have a bank account?

Does the money you have in your bank account belong to the bank?

Does the bank earn interest on your money by investing it?

[eastern-lights]

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@insidethe93 wrote:

(The 'truck' system became so widespread and oppressive that parliament outlawed it in 1831, extended to all manual workers in 1887. Anti-truck principles became incorporated in 20th and 21st century employment laws.)

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I must have missed the update where Ebay pay us in coupons that can only be used on Ebay. They are delaying payments. Not introducing modern slavery.

[vintique*violet]

Not the same at all.

eBay are holding funds and gaining high interest on items that are sold and still belong to you until successfully delivered with varying dates of "release" of those funds.  They have no claim on the item, it states it in their terms and conditions that the item still belongs to the seller... that is because the payment has not cleared to the actual owner of said item and it is not in the " hands"of the buyer. Therefore they are " holding funds" by default to garner interest AND to cover any " losses" that may occur, ie. claims/cases etc. which are covered anyhow and we are to believe the BPF is that added " protection"...so there is actually no need to hold any sellers funds, it is for eBay's benefit alone. 

Actually banks do "own" any and all monies in everyones account, that is why it is called a "deposit"... read up on banking law and information. 

[eastern-lights]

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@vintique*violet wrote:

Not the same at all.

eBay are holding funds and gaining high interest on items that are sold and still belong to you until successfully delivered with varying dates of "release" of those funds.  They have no claim on the item, it states it in their terms and conditions that the item still belongs to the seller... that is because the payment has not cleared to the actual owner of said item and it is not in the " hands"of the buyer. Therefore they are " holding funds" by default to garner interest AND to cover any " losses" that may occur, ie. claims/cases etc. which are covered anyhow and we are to believe the BPF is that added " protection"...so there is actually no need to hold any sellers funds, it is for eBay's benefit alone. 

Actually banks do "own" any and all monies in everyones account, that is why it is called a "deposit"... read up on banking law and information. 

---

Hmm, didn't know that (banks own your money). Everyday's a learning day.

I imagine Ebay will be putting held funds in a bank. To get interest. (Not too sure about "high" interest!). Which means it is the bank's money. Not Ebay's. They won't be holding "your" money, the bank will. And it won't be yours it will be the bank's.

[claymarsh_house]

Yes Banks own the money that u deposit, that’s how they can invest it and
make more money out of your money. You don’t see how much they actually
make out of ‘your’ money and you certainly don’t get any of it. Especially
with current accounts.

Also don’t forget EBay banks in Switzerland. Probably how they can get away
with these changes.

[vintique*violet]

I am assuming they are using Escrow accounts... which are usually for more complicated sales such as property or high value products... not for small marketplace sales, and this is how they are getting around it, as the monies accumulated will be colossal. 

[insidethe93]

Re Terms & Conditions/User Agreement/Payments Terms of Use - sellers not earning interest on their money while eBay withholds it pending eBay-defined proof of delivery:

eBay states to sellers: "You will not receive interest or any other earnings on the money held in your payment account."  That begs the question: who _IS_ receiving the interest earned? I myself suspect it's e-Bay but it doesn't seem to say.

Took me ages to find the documents and to read them...and to try and make sense of them! You have to click through a few times to find them, but for best transparency they should be immediately available by one click from a 'Terms & Conditions' link at the bottom of pages where eBay lists 'contact us' etc.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/member-behaviour-policies/user-agreement?id=4259#section11

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/payment/2.0/terms.html

[valueaddedresource]

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@insidethe93  

since October 2023, eBay's Payments Terms of Use has explicitly stated:

The balance on your payment account is not a deposit. You will not receive interest or any other earnings on the money held in your payment account.

And...

Funds received by [eBay] on your behalf represent an unsecured claim for payment against [eBay}, but do not constitute deposits. [eBay] may combine your funds with the funds of other [eBay] customers in pooled accounts and invest the funds. You do not have any ownership interest in these investments and any interest earned from these investments shall be retained by [eBay].

Anywhere in that last part where I've put [eBay] for clarity, in the actual terms it may simply say things like we or us (referring to eBay) or it may refer to the specific eBay payment entity which handles payments for your country, but either way it all means the same thing - eBay earns interest on funds that are processed their Managed Payments.

I do not believe they hold the funds in escrow accounts as my understanding is escrow accounts would be deposits - but I'm not a financial expert so take that with a grain of salt.

[papso22]

I am not a banking expert either, but I wonder if one of the key bits is that ebay is differentiating simply earning interest on the funds they hold, from what they say they do, which is invest those funds and earn interest on the investments. 

That second step provides a degree of separation between the payment by the buyer and the thing done that earns the interest.  I.e it's not interest on the payment, but on the investment that the payment is used for.

[eastern-lights]

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@sunshinedior67 wrote:
Yes the buyers money goes into eBays bank account making them interest from
money that belongs to you, so you're paying eBay not the seller. As eBay
doesn't own the property do you think it's fair they should be holding your
money & not paying the seller for 14 days or more? At no point is it their
property to make financial gains from. It's the property of seller the
buyer.

---

As a private seller you now pay no fees. Do you begrudge Ebay making money somewhere?

I posted some fag packet calculations on another thread, I'll repeat them here. Feel free to pick holes in them:

Imagine a genuine private seller that sells £200 worth of goods a month, every month, for a year. Worst case, 14 day delay in receiving payment, Ebay will be holding an average of £100 of the seller's money over the year. What interest rate will Ebay receive? I dunno, let's guess 5% pa. Ebay will make a fiver out of that seller. In a year.

Now imagine that seller was paying the old fees. 10% on sales of £2400. That's £240 to Ebay. Even if the seller always got the 80% discount offers the seller would still pay £48 fees.

By going fee free and getting delays in payments, this imaginary seller is actually £43 better off. He would in addition have also paid VAT on that £48, (VAT = £9.60) so is actually £43 +  £9.60 = £52.60 better off.

Sell less than £200 (chosen just to give an example to work with) and the saving will be less but so will Ebay's interest take be proportionally less. Sell £40 a month and they'll make a massive £1 off you in a year.

[insidethe93]

Thanks so much! I'm keeping your post in full and noting it was you who posted it.

[stripyzebras]

I think what is really irritating many sellers is the pretence that witholding payment is to do with "Buyer's protection" and the constant advertising that "it's free to sell on ebay" in an attempt to encourage people not to sell elsewhere. After 20 years on ebay I've seen many changes; being treated like an idiot is the one I'm most unhappy about. 

Personally would rather return to seller's fees (with the fortnightly 70% off). Like many, I always listed on these weekends and rarely paid 10%.  

Finally ebay is capable of working out who is a genuine private seller and who is a business disguised as a private seller; that's something they should have dealt with years ago.

[lucy_farmer]

'....being treated like an idiot is the one I'm most unhappy about. '

100% agree with you.

So patronising to be spoken to as though we believe ebay are doing stuff for anybody's benefit other than their own!

[jokers_toybox]

My concern here would be them just leaving anything , be it positive or negative, forcing someone to do something never usually ends well 

[jokers_toybox]

Yeah I know, I was responding to someone who looked like they were saying they wouldn't ship until the money was in their account, can't see a buyer liking that idea

[stripyzebras]

That would only work for a few sales; after that buyers would look at the feedback stating slow delivery and go elsewhere. Sometimes there are delays in shipping (things happen; we all have lives outside ebay), but a 14 day delay? Not acceptable.

[vintique*violet]

I will have a think on this and try and get my  banking  "work brain"  back into gear -but  thinking outloud for a moment .....🤔 for a company to " hold" anothers funds it must be in a separate " holding account"... they can name it what they like,  but those funds are not part of their business legally as they belong to someone else, they are being " held on behalf of"...( but the interest can)  by using Escrow... which is just a "thrid party contractual agreement" some call them Escrow Accounts...  usually escrow is used for transactions of high value or more complex ( ie property , Art, stock market and the likes )  it is overseen by an Escrow agent  and these can be banks or solicitors or even specialised service providers... it is a third party contractual arrangement.   The Escrow agent for simple terms works as such as they receive and disperse funds from said ( bank) account for the " primary transacting parties".... and there must be a " conrtactual agreement " already in place prior to this...

So eBay are " holding" sellers funds... in their terms and conditions they are stating...

Funds received by [eBay] on your behalf represent an unsecured claim for payment against [eBay}, but do not constitute deposits. [eBay] may combine your funds with the funds of other [eBay] customers in pooled accounts and invest the funds. You do not have any ownership interest in these investments and any interest earned from these investments shall be retained by [eBay].

The "contractual arrangement" is  in place,  under their terms and conditions,  because by you/us agreeing to their ( eBay) terms and conditions ie  " not constituted as a deposit" or " no ownership interest any investments" ... they are eliminating you from the " Primary transacting parties"  equation.. ie. your  " sellers funds" so that you can make no claim or hold any interest ie. profit from...

Further I cannot recall where it is, but in the terms and conditions it states that the " sellers items" belong to them and are responsible for their item until it is in the buyers " hands" so to speak... that means that the sellers ownership doesn't change even once posted, they still own that item, and the money paid by the buyer does not belong to the seller, eBay are now taking the buyers" funds" ( for your item) and placing them on hold until that " transaction " is complete... that is  actually a contractual agreement which is "Escrow" in a smaller way...because a " third party" is holding your funds until the completed sale of whereby once in the buyers hands, the monies are dispersed to you, the then rightful owner of those funds because the " transaction" is complete. 

  So any funds that eBay hold  they are depositing into an account ( bank ) which will be hundreds of thousands and there would be accumulated interest made on the account (as the buyers/sellers funds are dispersed after the transaction is completed hence also the delayed payments " pending funds" )  and by them declaring that you " hold no interest or claim on deposits"  because they are using the " additional funds" garnered by interest from the sellers/buyers monies and then are  "overseen" as it is used for investments ( or anything else for that matter) ...

So in my opinion it must be either they are a specialised service provider or using an  escrow agent and wouldn't be surprised if other fees go into similar accounts and are used this way. 

I hope I am making sense, it is just from my " memory" as it has been a long time and have tried to explain in an easy way. If anything is incorrect or I have missed something I will make an additional post but this is as far as I understand, is how it works and how it is being used in my opinion. 

@valueaddedresource 

If there are any spellings please ignore, too tired to edit and now have a headache   😩

. 

[vintique*violet]

Its a third party contractual agreement... I have just added a post in response which can hopefully shed some light. 

[game_raid]

I have sold a t-shirt on my private account, which has now got a payment hold, I have never seen a hold before and this is what I am seeing, is this what it usually looks like? If so you would think the message should say, you will be paid 48 hours after confirmed deliver if sent tracked.

I have shipped already and happy to do so as the money is safe.