It's a notification email saying that payment has been received from buyer. For an ordinary merchant, it's well, payment received and all set to ship the items.
In this case, this merchant has shipped the items without much hesitation, as clothings apparently carry a lower fraud risk.
However, the merchant has received another email from PayPal a few hours later. This time, it's about a case being raised on the said transaction and the related funds have been placed on a temporary hold.
At first thought, this sounds like a fraudulent transaction as the buyer has possibly cancelled the payment. So, this merchant has called the buyer to clarify but the buyer has denied reversing the payment.
The merchant then login to his PayPal account to investigate, and all the payments from that particular buyer have been held.
A further investigation has came as a little shock to the merchant, as he discovered that the payments are being reviewed by PayPal instead of being reversed by the buyer.
Feeling lost, the merchant had then called PayPal customer service, and following is the summary of the tele-conversation:
- The fund is being held due to potential fraudulent funding source.
- Merchant is advised to contact buyer manually to resolve this issue.
- On another hand, PayPal will also "email" the buyer to resolve this issue.
- Merchant can provide shipping proof to assist this matter.
Only ship the items 48 hours after accepting money via PayPal!This is an alternative version of "Seller Protection" to avoid potential fraudulent funding source by buyer, especially if he or she is a non-registered PayPal member.
Therefore, do not ship your items too fast if you are receiving money via PayPal, especially if the buyer is unregistered. But isn't that 48 hours is a tad too long to verify the funding source?
Any case of holding the payment should also come immediately, not in hours later.
It's a real dilemma for merchants, to be on the safe side, or to deliver happiness?
