Echeque issued - why??

[Richlyfruited]

Wondered if anyone else has experienced an echeque payment either as a buyer or a seller?

I've won an item in eBay but instead of an immediate payment as usual through PayPal, they've issued an echeque to the seller. I've never had this before as PayPal is always linked directly to my bank account which has funds.

It's taking ages to clear and the seller obviously can't post until payment received. It's really embarrassing as I can imagine the seller thinks I'm a time waster (I've been in touch to say no idea why this happened!)

Without knowing why it's making me nervous big using PayPal again for any further transactions.

I've given up on PayPal's useless customer service as they basically don't respond to messages and they're not taking any calls!

It’s happened to me both as a seller and a buyer in the past. A while ago, but I seem to recall they claim it’s a safe guard (against fraud, money laundering etc). I personally think it’s so they can hang to money for a while and make interest on it when it’s invested somewhere (your amount might be small but if they do it to a certain number of transactions per day it probably adds up considerably) and they use the ’fraud’ thing as an inarguable excuse. Either way, I don’t think there’s much you can do about it.

Ohh that's interesting - thanks @Judashascomeintosomemoney!

In my experience e cheques just pop up randomly. Contact the buyer and explain that you have received it as payment, and that you can’t dispatch the item until it clears.

I've had this when my card had expired, they take it from your bank instead, but it takes longer, hence the echeque.

When I started selling on ebay, a buyer sent me an E cheque which was recognised as payment received. I proceeded with dispatching the item not thinking twice(big error), the payment declined once the item was sent out. The buyer did not respond to any of my messages as you would expect.