Payouts withheld after delivery – my frustration with eBay is growing
Summary: microtower describes the challenges as a commercial eBay seller, especially the delayed payouts, which are only released after the 30-day buyer protection period, leading to financing gaps. Other sellers, such as modellautos-hessen, confirm similar experiences and express incomprehension about eBay’s measures. stubenkram shares sympathy and recalls past discussions about eBay’s payment practices. microtower later reports that he received a payout early, but points out that the high item prices may be the reason for the withholding of payments.
Hi everyone,
I’d like to share the perspective of a commercial seller here, because eBay’s current payout practice is becoming a serious problem for me.
I’m now among the higher-revenue PC sellers on eBay and regularly sell individually configured systems worth several thousand euros.
Up to now, the situation was basically understandable to me:
The item is built, fully pre-financed by me, and then shipped via DHL with tracking. As soon as DHL confirms successful delivery, the payment was released for payout after a certain processing time (1-2 days after delivery).
That wasn’t ideal, but economically still manageable for me. Especially with longer delivery times, I had to wait some time for my money anyway.
At the moment, however, it apparently looks like payments are still being withheld after confirmed delivery until the 30-day buyer protection period expires.
And that is exactly where it becomes problematic for sellers with high-value goods.
I initially bear 100% of the costs for:
all PC components
assembly and testing
packaging
shipping
and of course the not exactly low eBay fees on top of that.
The buyer’s money sits with eBay at transaction level in the meantime and isn’t available to me.
For a seller who sells items for 30 or 50 euros, that may still be somehow bridgeable. For PCs with item values of 2,000, 3,000 or over 4,000 euros in some cases, the situation looks completely different.
I mainly pay for my components with an American Express credit card with a billing period of around 30 days and a fixed due date.
If eBay now also holds back the sales proceeds for weeks after successful delivery, a massive financing gap is created.
A simple example:
If I have a good month with €30,000 in sales, I first have to pre-finance a very large part of that amount for components and shipping out of my own pocket or via my credit line.
The credit card bill becomes due – at the same time, eBay is still withholding a significant portion of my already completed and delivered sales.
In the end, I would therefore have to keep several tens of thousands of euros in liquidity on hand every month just so eBay can continue withholding the proceeds from orders that were successfully delivered long ago for a few more weeks.
The absurd thing about it:
A particularly good sales month doesn’t become something positive, but can suddenly cause a serious liquidity problem.
And this is for a seller who has been selling on eBay for years, has top ratings, and has never done anything wrong.
Of course, I have also already had returns of very expensive PCs with item values of sometimes over €4,000. That was never a problem at all so far.
If a customer exercised their right of withdrawal, eBay could simply debit the corresponding amount from my seller account or from subsequent payouts.
That is exactly why I don’t understand why all successfully delivered sales now have to be blocked as a precaution for such a long period.
If this payout practice remains in place permanently, I will have to draw my own conclusions:
Reducing my return period from 30 to 14 days, insofar as this is legally and via eBay possible.
Ending participation in the Top Service program if its benefits no longer justify this additional financial risk.
Significantly stronger prioritization of alternative sales channels.
eBay has already accelerated the last point anyway with the fee increase at the beginning of July. 7% (net!) on €4000 is an absurd increase compared to the previous approx. 3.5%.
The current payout practice would, however, be an even stronger reason for me to make my business more independent of eBay.
In principle, I have no problem with eBay protecting buyers or retaining safeguards for new or conspicuous seller accounts.
But for established commercial sellers with a verifiable sales history, tracking, confirmed delivery and very good ratings, I consider a blanket withholding of sales proceeds until the buyer protection period expires to be disproportionate.
Especially with high-value goods, a significant part of the entrepreneurial financing risk is being shifted entirely onto the seller.
I’d be interested to know whether other commercial sellers are currently experiencing the same thing – especially sellers of high-value goods.
Are your payments now also being withheld until the end of the 30-day period after confirmed delivery?
Regards
Jan
-MicroTower-
microtower
OP2 weeks agoQuick recap:
Today (18.08.26) I received my payout early.
The sales where, according to eBay’s information, the payout should only be available at the beginning/middle of September were already paid out to me today.
So that resulted in a payout 5-13 days after delivery.
That’s much better than the 30 days shown earlier.
By the way, the eBay customer service rep also told me on the phone that payouts only take place after the buyer protection period has ended (30 days for me).
Maybe the article here helped after all.
stubenkram
·2 weeks ago · EditedI honestly have no idea how I got the idea yesterday that you both have been commercial sellers on Ebay since 2002? I apologize, I must have mistaken you for someone else, I can see very badly.
@modellautos-hessen German Ebay has only existed since 1999, so not for 30 years yet. Did you make a typo? With this account, you've been registered since 17/08/02, so almost exactly 24 years.
@microtower You've been registered since 17/01/23, so for a good 3 1/2 years now. Then you really shouldn't still count as a "new seller" whom Ebay generally withholds money from for 30 days. Or are there some special rules for new goods or high-priced custom-made items?
Was that only recently or was it a long time ago? Even if the returns went smoothly, Ebay may now be taking precautions in case something like that happens again.
The red rating for the USB stick for 8.99 euros, with which a buyer was not satisfied in the last 6 months, surely didn't cause so much of your money to be withheld for longer now, did it? Good that you no longer offer such USB sticks.
I had this creepy fantasy that this would be a very easy way to get a competitor on Ebay out of the way. You have a few cheap products bought from them and leave negative feedback. Or have an expensive PC built from them and then cause you trouble with the return process.... and Ebay freezes your money.
Yes, maybe....
microtower
OP2 weeks ago · EditedPayments being withheld for so long is new. Before July 2026 I never had any problems with it. As soon as delivery was completed, the money was available.
There haven’t been any returns for a long time either. The last return was in January 26. But there wasn’t a dispute there either. Just a normal return process.
So I don’t think the withholding of payments has anything to do with my service.
eBay is probably more concerned with the amount of the payments or the item price.
The nice lady from eBay Concierge Service was left speechless on the phone when I told her my item prices. So I think the withheld payments are tied to the item price.
modellautos-hessen
·2 weeks agoCopyright © 1995–2026 eBay Inc. All rights reserved.............
We've been members of Ebay US since 1995, then formerly Alando, and have the old member number 14, which was transferred from Alando to Ebay in 1999. We had a different account back then.
modellautos-hessen
·2 weeks agoHi
Exactly the same with us, for 30 years we’ve been selling on Ebay, 100% rating, 0 defects, our own packaging logistics and just because we made more sales in June, our daily payouts are now only paid out after 50 days, after delivery and only if the buyer has no problem with it.
To this day, nobody has been able to explain to me why these impossible measures were taken.
Supposedly to protect the marketplace?? Yeah, right, to protect it, !!
As if we also have sooo many inconsistencies in our sales .
We’ve offered 24/7 mail support for 20 years, respond to all inquiries within 30 minutes, returns are processed immediately within 1 hour of being reported .
Since 17.6.2026, since the restriction, we have completely suspended 95% of our sales.
The fact that something isn’t right at Ebay is obvious from the fact that you write here and nobody gives even a single reply to such questions.
One can only suspect that Ebay is giving itself days-long interest-free credit with these measures, because these measures increasingly affect old, high-sales sellers.
Ebay is only harming itself with this, because sellers are either no longer selling anything or are heavily restricting their sales. Maybe that’s exactly what Ebay wants too ?
SoLong
stubenkram
·2 weeks agoHello @microtower and @modellautos-hessen
You have my deepest sympathy. ❤ That doesn’t help you, of course, but I still wanted to say it.
I’d rather hold back here on guesses about why Ebay is treating you this way, @modellautos-hessen 😉 You probably won’t get any useful answers from Ebay here; the employees are definitely bound by their instructions in this regard.
Since you’ve both been around for so long, you must still remember the discussions in the community in 2012 and 2015 about the then still new payment model? I haven’t forgotten them. Things got pretty heated back then, and the dissatisfaction among sellers was huge. Open questions weren’t answered, and the relevant posts and topics were closed very quickly and then disappeared into obscurity after a while. Some things were deleted in between too.
Some private and commercial sellers drew their own conclusions from that and left or stopped selling on Ebay. But most probably stayed. You too. And now you’re surprised?
I’m really naive and have absolutely no business training, but even back then it was clear to me that as a commercial seller on Ebay you’re jeopardizing your livelihood if you don’t have a second source of income, i.e. a brick-and-mortar shop, for example.
I’m fundamentally against that. From reading the community topics, I’ve gotten the impression that in some cases the reasons for withholding sellers’ money for that long or even longer are pretty ridiculous - and possibly restricting sales activity at the same time. On top of that, everything on Ebay is increasingly automated, and it takes quite a long time before a desperate seller is actually “heard” and their problem gets solved (permanently).
For commercial sellers with high sales volumes, all of this is even worse. But even little Ms. Everybody probably doesn’t think it’s great if, as a new private seller, she has to wait a month before she can access her 50 euros. Every little helps for Ebay too. For you, it just pays off even more.
Buyer protection? Yes, maybe. In some cases. Personally, though, I don’t feel better protected as a buyer since sellers have had to wait longer for their money. I’d only want this buyer protection for the few cases where I didn’t receive any goods at all.
Whether a collectible arrived intact and matches the description, I can tell immediately after unpacking it. So after my positive feedback, the (new) seller could receive their money from Ebay. But that’s not how it works. And if it was shipped without tracking, then even less so. I don’t think that’s fair. But the seller agreed to this payment system by listing and selling on Ebay; that was their decision.
By having Ebay collect the money first before the seller receives it, a situation is created that puts an honest and conscientious seller at a serious disadvantage if they end up dealing with a dishonest buyer. Because in case of doubt, Ebay will side with the buyer. But I wouldn’t call that “buyer protection,” I’d call it “crook protection.”