Retention despite completed sale – when does risk management become unbearable? | Members help members

*littlebigman* · 2025-12-18T09:28:17.527000Z

I have been a member of eBay for over 25 years – from a time when trust was still the basis of this marketplace.All the harder it is for me to write the following.One of my sales is fully completed:Goods deliveredPayment madeBuyer left positive feedbackno open case, no return, no disputeeBay knows all the relevant details of this sale. There is no information gap.And yet the money is still being withheld.I am asking myself – and I am deliberately asking the community:What real risk is actually still being managed here?What could theoretically still happen:an extremely unlikely later contact from the buyera formal chargeback despite satisfactionWhat has already happened in reality:the sale is donethe risk is effectively overthe damage to me is realI am currently in an extremely precarious financial situation.For me, the withholding does not mean a “loss of comfort,” but a lack of basic necessities.This situation has already had medical consequences.And this is exactly where it becomes unbearable for me: a system that acts out of theoretical caution accepts real human consequences – even though all the facts point to a payout.I am aware that eBay has to protect itself.But morally, the question for me is:> How proportionate is an indefinite withholding when there is no longer any concrete risk – and when it creates existential hardship?I am not writing this out of anger, but out of disappointment.Long-term sellers who act correctly should not get the feeling that abstract algorithms matter more than real people.I am genuinely interested:Have others experienced something similar?At what point does “risk management” become an unfair burden?Where do you see the moral line?Thanks for reading.

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Retention despite completed sale – when does risk management become unbearable? | Members help members | eBay Germany