I sold a product on ebay today. They held all the funds for 21 days or “until the buyer leaves positive feedback” knowing very well a lot of buyers don’t leave feedback. They consider this buyer protection. I consider it misuse of my money as they are doing this under the guise of buyer protection in order to hold other peoples money to generate interest. So I refunded the money to the buyer immediately and told him the product would not be shipped – it will be on Craigslist.
Through these actions against small, private sellers ebay has become nothing but a storefront for high volume resellers which comprise over 60% of their listing fees. They require private sellers to use Paypal, again under the false pretense of “buyer protection”. The reality is they don’t make any money through Paypal when a buyer sends a certified check or money order so they force sellers to use their revenue generating engine.
This is just like the banks telling their service reps to inform customers they process debit and check transactions largest to smallest for their own good. “So your car payment won’t bounce” they say. Bullshit, pure and simple. So it has nothing to do with the fact that this model generated an additional 17 billion in fees for the industry when adopted in 2006? Right.
Until government starts acting to fight financial industry manipulation of consumer funds for their own benefit more and more consumers will suffer and languish while they wait for access to their own money. No financial institution should be able to “hold” cash funds (note I did not say pending check deposits) or decide how and when to process payments and transactions when these actions result in a revenue stream or profit for the institution. That’s using my money for your net gain and I resent it and will not allow it. So, I’m done with ebay.