Payout withheld for 30 days despite confirmed delivery – experiences?
Summary: tama_2139 reports a delay in the payout of a sale amount on eBay, despite confirmed delivery of the item. eBay customer service explained this by citing the high item value and infrequent selling activity. sunrise1605 explains that this practice is common because of the 30-day buyer protection and a low sales volume. stubenkram adds that this could also affect other sellers. clever-production shares a similar experience and criticizes eBay, since their money has been withheld for months, which is putting them under financial strain, and they are considering legal action.
Hello everyone,
maybe someone here has already had a similar case and can share their experience with me.
As a private seller, I sold a higher-priced item for about €1,124. The buyer paid, I shipped the item with DHL and tracking, and the package was successfully delivered on 23/09. eBay also now shows the shipment as delivered.
Even so, the full sale proceeds are being withheld until 21/10/2026.
eBay customer service told me that this is due to the high item value and possibly because of infrequent selling activity, and that the amount is being withheld for 30 days. An early release has not been offered to me so far.
What I find a bit surprising is this: last year I already sold an iPhone for about €1,600 through eBay. Back then, the sale proceeds were available about two days after successful delivery.
So my questions are:
Does anyone else currently also have such a 30-day hold on a high-value item?
Was the amount actually only released on the date given for you, or possibly earlier after confirmed delivery?
Did confirmation from the buyer or a positive review change anything about the hold period?
I’m especially interested in current experiences from other private sellers.
Thank you!
holzbauprofi24
·1 week ago · EditedeBay has been doing this to me for over 12 months now without any reason whatsoever, 100% positive feedback, over 15 years of membership, top service status, no open cases.
At times, eBay was holding €17,000 and I couldn’t get to it; I always had to front the money from reserves. By now my reserves are used up, I can no longer pay my bills, simply because eBay is retaining the sales proceeds to generate interest.
That eBay is violating §307 of the BGB and thereby disadvantaging sellers doesn’t interest them. The contact person isn’t eBay Germany either, but Luxembourg, and they have different laws there—that’s how eBay deliberately set it up. I’m considering applying for an interim injunction, because withholding 30 days’ worth of sales proceeds on a rolling 12-month basis without reason is not permitted.
By now I’ve applied for a business loan at my bank, set up my own homepage, and will be limiting my selling activity on eBay, because the fees on eBay are too high as well; on top of that you always have to book campaigns that eat up an enormous chunk of the margin, and I’m no longer willing to throw even more into eBay’s greedy maw.
eBay does say that they were able to increase their profit, but that only happens through constant fee increases, not through the growth of potential sellers. You can read in the forums that many sellers have turned their backs on eBay.
This practice of simply withholding money and invoking Luxembourg law is a farce; accordingly, the antitrust authority should deal with it, because just because eBay is a US corporation doesn’t mean it has special rights, and after all eBay only pays a fraction of its taxes in Germany too.
Thanks to my new homepage, I now sell more than on eBay
stubenkram
·2 weeks agoHello @tama_2139
Since you’re a private seller, your question is in the wrong category; it would be in the right place here: https://community.ebay.de/forum/privat-handeln-diskutieren-zahlungsabwicklung-bei-ebay-71/
What customer service told you about withholding your payments is probably currently also affecting other sellers who have only a few sales in total, haven’t sold anything for a while, and are offering high-priced items where complaints could arise.
sunrise1605
·2 weeks agoHello @tama_2139
neither a successful delivery nor a positive review has any influence on the payout date.
Just so you know.
Sellers keep forgetting the 30-day eBay Buyer Protection that you provide.
It may be called eBay, but it’s on your head if the buyer decides within those 30 days to find some defect.
And with that amount, eBay is just cautious and often holds onto the money a bit longer.
Your sales activity also plays a role. Your last review as a seller was a year ago.
Few sales, longer waiting time.
You’re also welcome to read up on it here:
https://www.ebay.de/help/selling/getting-paid/einbehaltene-zahlungen-im-rahmen-der-zahlungsabwicklung?id=4816