A problem with some PayPal payments being held by the company was just a glitch, not a cunning plan to claw more money out of buyers. Earlier this year PayPal introduced a scheme to flag certain transactions it regarded as suspicious. Payment for items where eBay determined the buyer might be dissatisfied would be held for 21 days, or until the seller received positive feedback from the buyer. Then the funds would be transferred.
But a problem last month meant payment was not being released even after positive feedback for the seller had been posted. Extending payment terms to 21 days did go down with some eBay sellers.