I recently made an ebay purchase from a zero feedback seller. I did my payment through Paypal as usual. I think it's cleared on my end, but it in my purchase history it is marked by an hourglass icon. In my Paypal transactions, it is marked "Unclaimed."

A quick search led me to this page:

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/article/?solutionId=10817&topicID=11500010&m=TCI

I'm thinking the seller might not have a paypal acct. He says he's looking into it, but it's been 5 days.

Do you guys have experience with this? Would I be out of line I just cancelled the payment?

it appears as if they didn't set up their email to make the transaction, aka your money is floating in cyberspace in a holding pattern.  As far as I know your money is safe at the moment.  Sounds fishy though, like the auction you bidded at might not be legit, or you have a dumb seller.  You should be able to get your money back though if it doesn't go through

...or you have a dumb seller... 

This is the most likely answer. I've heard of this happening but have yet to run into this myself with unclaimed payment. I don't even understand how eBay allows someone to sell without a Paypal account?

I think because eBay defaults to PayPal this can happen with new sellers. I will say that there are some weird rules to getting verified to PayPal so they could be legitimately be waiting for PayPal to get everything verified.

I think because eBay defaults to PayPal this can happen with new sellers. I will say that there are some weird rules to getting verified to PayPal so they could be legitimately be waiting for PayPal to get everything verified.

it's dumb because you can get verified very fast if you can access your bank account online.  When I first started w/ paypal, I remember having to wait for the bank statement to come in the mail....what a joke.  It shouldn't take people that long, even stupid people.  And then ur money is tied up 40 days or whatever it is interest free which is also dumb.

I had the same problem.  It was a huge mess.  The sellers ebay email and paypal email didn't match or something stupid.  Took around a week for the seller to correct the mistake.  He had to relist the item several times before we got it figured out.

I recently made an ebay purchase from a zero feedback seller. I did my payment through Paypal as usual. I think it's cleared on my end, but it in my purchase history it is marked by an hourglass icon. In my Paypal transactions, it is marked "Unclaimed."

A quick search led me to this page:

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/helpcenter/article/?solutionId=10817&topicID=11500010&m=TCI

I'm thinking the seller might not have a paypal acct. He says he's looking into it, but it's been 5 days.

Do you guys have experience with this? Would I be out of line I just cancelled the payment?

 

That $ will be return in 30 days if it goes unclaimed. 

Thanks for the responses guys. The seller offered to go ahead and ship, but I told him don't do that until the payment is sorted. Lowillsw is right, paypal will cancel the payment automatically after 30 days, so I suppose I'll just let it ride until then.

Ha, you could have gotten the money and the item had he never made an acct after 30 days. silly people

Ha, you could have gotten the money and the item had he never made an acct after 30 days. silly people

Karma.