Okay, I’ve been an eBay seller since 2010 and I’ve managed to sell a few items, most of them on-time and most of them with a tracking number. Most of these did not result in feedback given back to me but that doesn’t matter much, what does matter is the funds; which I have always received instantly and manage to put into my bank account after the whole shipping process is done and over with. But recently I found something on the very bottom of the item I sold; something in bold, something with asterisk near it; and it particularly bothered me to the point where I slammed my keyboard in frustration. What you’re are about to see below will probably get you frustrated as well…

Yeah… “Estimated funds availability^*“, It seems like eBay has finally gotten so many complaints about fraudulent buyers/board members complaining about how eBay Buyer Protection is costing them money by the second that they decided to implement this in an attempt to provoke “successful fulfillment”… What? How does eBay think this will provoke “successful fulfillment?” All this does is make people want to leave eBay for other places, I mean seriously; whatever happened to trust? You mean to tell me that the times that I fulfilled the obligations successfully didn’t count? I’ve been doing this since 2010, I’ve shipped mostly on the day the buyer paid up front, I’ve been known to be honest in my descriptions, I’ve been known to communicate with my buyers whenever there’s a problem. So what is it with eBay treating me like I’m a first time seller and giving me restrictions that I worked hard to lift? Did they implement this months earlier, did they implement this today and I didn’t get a message about it? Well, disregarding the date it was implemented, it’s obvious that it’s a bad idea.

I mean let’s go to what they require for them to lift the “Estimated funds avaliability^*“.

• It’s been more than 90 days since your first successful sale;
• You’ve had more than 25 sales transactions; and
• You’ve had more than $250 in total sales.

Okay, it’s been 90 days since my first successful sale; maybe I’ve had about $250 in total sales but I don’t know if I had more then 25 sales transactions; point is, how is anybody who casually uses eBay able to live with this bullshit? I mean not everybody is here to set up a store, not everybody is a hardcore eBay user and not everybody is willing to wait 2-3 weeks for your money; some people need the money now and those people may be honest people who are willing to fulfill their obligations. I mean in two to three weeks, what happens if they don’t get their money by then… I admit, there are some people who are willing to scam people for a quick but but I feel like this situation can be fixed by eBay actually enforcing their rules instead of just implementing this weak ass quick fix; I mean billions of people wouldn’t be scammed if eBay just got off their lazy ass and enforce eBay. I mean why should we casual eBay users have to suffer just because eBay is incapable of enforcing their site? We’re not scammers, we’re honest decent people, why should we be put in the same group and be subject to very strict regulations that require us to meet these requirements in order to lift the restrictions? Answer me that eBay. Speaking of which, let’s see what’s under the asterisk…

Yes, you read it right. “^*The estimated funds availability date may change because of eBay or PayPal policies.” As if things couldn’t get any worse; I mean I have to worry about whether or not eBay or PayPal policies could affect the delivery funds; and as everybody knows, dealing with eBay and PayPal can be particularly picky due to the strict amount of policies and horrible communication that they have; I mean I once opened a PayPal case with a seller of an item who’s item didn’t exactly arrive; it took me alot of weeks of phone calls to PayPal in order for me to get my money back and the case resolved. Adding to that is the reasons which eBay specifies why your payment can be delayed; with reasons such as “not meeting the minimum performance standard required of all eBay sellers.” and “a higher then normal level of risk associated with this transaction or with your account.” What? You mean to tell me that I need to meet a minimum performance standard? But I already fulfilled the obligations, shipped the packages within one day and have reasonable community; you mean to tell me that all of that doesn’t count?!?! It seems like that if you want it to count then buyers have to leave feedback to you and since barely anybody does that (maybe “don’t forget to leave feedback.” should be fucking blinking?) I have a lower then expected performance standard then I would have if people left feedback… Maybe they should take into factors other then feedback?

And what is it with high-risk… I mean “a sudden spike of eBay Buyer Protection cases/PayPal disputes or claims” can mean anything, especially since a user account can fraudulently create cases and therefore fraudulently create risk. Not everybody is honest you know, and there are ways of gaming the eBay system, this is just a malicious way of doing it that doesn’t seem to benefit the users who legitimately file eBay Buyer Protection cases/PayPal disputes or claims and the people who work hard to ensure that everybody who uses eBay is happy; and even if it’s proven as fraudulent, it’s not going to get resolved instantly; no, it’s going to take a few days because eBay/PayPal will have some policies that they have to fulfill before they give you back your full rights you had before the case. Also… “unusual selling activity, items with an exceptionally high selling price, or sales in a new category or a category such as tickets, travel, or gift certificates” I can understand the new category thing (still think that eBay should at least do the trust thing.) but what constitutes as unusual selling activity or items with an exceptionally high selling price. I mean for all I know I could be selling the item at the appropriate price and I could be selling the way I usually sell, how can PayPal know what constitutes as unusual or exceptionally high?

You know the argument that’s been going on about what constitutes as copyright violations or fair use, same arguments apply here. The line between that isn’t exactly as clear as crystal just as much as the line between whether or not what they consider as unusual selling is considered usual to us, therefore PayPal/eBay can decide to lengthen the time before we get our funds due to what they perceive to be unusual selling or high-risk (that is to us usual or normal-risk) and there’d be little to nothing we can do about it because they’re the ones who control everything and well, with the way they handle disputes; it’ll likely take you many moons before you can ever get your point across and even if we manage to prove our points to eBay/PayPal; they’ll still restrict our funds because we still fit their definition of unusual selling/high-risk selling; I mean whatever happened to proof changing what we can do, whatever happened to our rights and our right to free speech (okay, I’m speaking in terms of fair use but it still applies here.) Speaking of which…

My estimated date the funds would be available would be four weeks; four. That’s pretty long for someone who has been on eBay for about a long time. I mean sure, I noticed that there were steps I could do to get quicker access to my funds like shipping the item. So I did and guess how much time it now takes me… Yup, three weeks… I just got a week cut off from the estimate. You know, I shipped it on time; I shipped it as quickly as I could and yet they all they can manage to do is take a week off my estimated funds availability. It’s just like this Discover commercial, except replace card replacement with expected fund availability. I mean seriously, I ship on time and I manage to get a week off. I shouldn’t even get a fucking four weeks because I’ve been selling for a long time, I mean do I, a longtime user have to meet their strict requirements in order for me to get my funds instantly? Even though they’re strict and they’re going to turn me away from eBay? Do I even have a choice in the matter? No… what do you mean no???

At least they’re doing a good thing by reminding us that the funds would be delayed, even though they didn’t remind me at the time I created that auction… Seriously check it out…

I mean now you remind me? Now you remind me that my funds will be unavailable?!?! All being pissed off aside, it would of been nice if they at least told us via an email or an eBay messages; I mean this is a major change, again I understand if you want to stop scammers in their tracks but this is something that affects all of us; seriously, even a quick Google search shows that there are people from 2010 who are pissed off by this change; those people are honest eBay users just like me, they just want to sell stuff, they don’t want to wait 4-3 weeks for their funds to arrive due to this “estimated funds availability^*” thing and what eBay/PayPal perceives as the reasons to implement it. I mean again, haven’t these people heard of trust, or is that for people who meet eBay’s requirements.

All I know is that eBay has to reconsider this feature or else their losing a member to the thousands who walked away from the site due to this bullshit.

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