I would just like to give a warning about selling on eBay Germany for anyone considering it.
When you sell an item, eBay Germany re-directs payment from your PayPal account to an account called eBay Services S.a.r.l. where it is held until you ship your item.
There is no way for the seller to track this payment. eBay Germany essentially holds the seller hostage. You must show proof of shipping and then they will pay you. Otherwise the wait for payout can be as much as 6 weeks.
This is a rather evil way for eBay Germany to make interest on other people's money.
This has happened to me in 7 cases in the past week. I refused to ship until I saw a payment into my PayPal account forcing me to cancel transactions and contact buyers to directly pay into my PayPal account. Many buyers were very cooperative. But, several German buyers got rather nasty, refused to cancel the transactions, even after I explained in detail and sent them the comments from eBay US about this illegal policy. This ended up costing me fees on money I never received. I should point out that eBay US, the parent company and PayPal both told me that this practice is a clear violation of eBay policy. PayPal is supposed to be the only holder of funds.
This explains why many sellers on eBay Germany refuse to use PayPal and want only wire transfers, because essentially funds are hijacked by eBay Germany and you don't see them for a long time. After this happened, I discovered that there are many sellers and buyers complaining about this practice on the Internet.
If I sell again, I will only use eBay USA. eBay Germany clearly has its own agenda, which amounts to theft. It does not work either in the seller's or buyer's favour because it creates all kinds of transaction problems.
When you sell an item, eBay Germany re-directs payment from your PayPal account to an account called eBay Services S.a.r.l. where it is held until you ship your item.
There is no way for the seller to track this payment. eBay Germany essentially holds the seller hostage. You must show proof of shipping and then they will pay you. Otherwise the wait for payout can be as much as 6 weeks.
This is a rather evil way for eBay Germany to make interest on other people's money.
This has happened to me in 7 cases in the past week. I refused to ship until I saw a payment into my PayPal account forcing me to cancel transactions and contact buyers to directly pay into my PayPal account. Many buyers were very cooperative. But, several German buyers got rather nasty, refused to cancel the transactions, even after I explained in detail and sent them the comments from eBay US about this illegal policy. This ended up costing me fees on money I never received. I should point out that eBay US, the parent company and PayPal both told me that this practice is a clear violation of eBay policy. PayPal is supposed to be the only holder of funds.
This explains why many sellers on eBay Germany refuse to use PayPal and want only wire transfers, because essentially funds are hijacked by eBay Germany and you don't see them for a long time. After this happened, I discovered that there are many sellers and buyers complaining about this practice on the Internet.
If I sell again, I will only use eBay USA. eBay Germany clearly has its own agenda, which amounts to theft. It does not work either in the seller's or buyer's favour because it creates all kinds of transaction problems.
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