Ebay Australia going Paypal only

[sam_m]

Just got an email from ebay.com.au saying:

"From 21 May you must offer PayPal on all your listings as well as currently permitted payment methods.

From 17 June you will only be able to offer PayPal on your listings and pay on pick up (i.e.paid for when picking up the item).

Pay on pick up can only be offered in conjunction with PayPal. No other payment methods will be permitted."

Is this only ebay australia or is this going out to everyone? Not trying to start an ebay bashing thread, just wondering.

 

[rich815]

This sounds strange. They will not allow people to pay with check, or MO?

 

[infrequent]

direct transfers would still work, no?!

 

[Al Patterson]

What, cash not good enough down under???

 

[__hh]

What's to stop people using the "pay on pickup option", and arranging alternate payment methods privately? Stuff ePay...

 

[amateriat]

That is weird. I have a PayPal account, but I wouldn't feel too good about having my payment options narrowed like this. (And, not to be paranoid, but PayPal has been part of eBay for a while).


- Barrett

 

[infrequent]

of course its just another way for eBay to fleece customers. another scare tactics to force ppl to stick with paypal. just prevents their liability when someone gets fleeced by alternative payment system. not that they are liable now. actually, this change is pretty much a non-issue for me. i much prefer paypal for international payments (have it linked to a debit card -- so no money in acct, no unintended transfers). for local, direct transfer to bank accts is free and easy even though a bit slow. lately its been just buying film.

 

[Al Patterson]

of course its just another way for eBay to fleece customers. another scare tactics to force ppl to stick with paypal. just prevents their liability when someone gets fleeced by alternative payment system. not that they are liable now. actually, this change is pretty much a non-issue for me. i much prefer paypal for international payments (have it linked to a debit card -- so no money in acct, no unintended transfers). for local, direct transfer to bank accts is free and easy even though a bit slow. lately its been just buying film.

Are you sure about "no unintended transfers"? I had my paypal account hacked, and they initiated a tranfer for more money from the account than was in the bank. And the bank sent it anyway, overdrawing my account. You may want to verify that with your bank.

(For the record, I did get the money back, including the NSF fee. I did de-link my checking acount from Paypal. Not sure I will EVER link to a checking account again).

 

[kuzano]

The signup for being a seller now involves PayPal.

The signup for being a seller now involves PayPal.

This is on the US site. In prepping for my last eBay class, I learned that Seller signup now does not include the checking and credit card check for identity. Now, when you sign up to sell, you initiate an auction listing and when you get to the beginning of the listing you are presented with the signup for PayPal. If you don't fill it out and offer up a credit card... no eBay seller rights for you. Total surprise to me in presenting membership to students in the class.

I tested this twice by opening up two new eBay accounts and was not confronted with the old method. Only this new required PayPal signup. I am going to be looking at this more, since I have another class beginning in two weeks.

Puzzling... no warning. If you already have a Paypal account you can log in, but if not, you can't proceed with a listing. This may not be true for existing sellers, but it certainly seems the case for new seller accounts, as in the two test accounts I set up.

 

[infrequent]

@al - i have confirmed this with my bank. they will charge me a fee for an overdraft attempt but not send the money. i do keep things interesting by changing my passwords at paypal and internet banking frequently. also keep sure never to click thru on any of the paypal spam emails.

there is no silver bullet...just managing the risks to your comfort levels.

 

[Sonnar Brian]

Ebay has gone off the deep end. If they pulled this in the US, they would have a seller revolution on their hands.

 

[sam_m]

Ebay has gone off the deep end. If they pulled this in the US, they would have a seller revolution on their hands.

Well as Australia is sometimes used as a test bed for things being trialed for use in bigger western countries, you might see it in the near future, depending on how it goes.

 

[RF-Addict]

Lately, eBay has been trying real hard to work themselves out of business. If this is reality and if they want to roll this out to other countries it would truely be a disaster - for them. There comes a point when sellers and buyers will have had enough - even though eBay does have a monopoly in the online auction business. Someone will offer a valid alternative and people will switch. Fundamentally that's what's really missing in this market segment - competition.

 

[sam_m]

What's to stop people using the "pay on pickup option", and arranging alternate payment methods privately? Stuff ePay...

I guess this could work, but I think if you put a note in your listing saying contact me for payment details, ebay might kill your listing. Because you would have "payment on pickup" listed as the only option, that would turn off most buyers not in your city, you would have to rely on people being savy enough to send you a message asking if you accept xxx payment method. I suppose payment on pickup could include COD though, but that ends up costing as much as paypal, but at least you get your money and can't be charged back.

 

[sam_m]

found an interesting article here:

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m04/i10/s01

eBay spokesperson Nichola Sharpe said the new policy applies only to eBay in Australia. "There are no plans to go to a PayPal-only model for eBay in the US and we haven't announced any other markets at this time."

Sharpe said eBay will evaluate the impact of eBay Australia's new "Safer Payment" requirements. "If we think these changes will significantly improve the buyer experience, we may expand them to additional segments of sellers or categories."

 

[Matthew Allen]

Ebay UK looks to be moving in a similar direction:

http://web.ebay.co.uk/businesshub/index.php?page=safe_payments

Matthew

 

[larmarv916]

Yes..the "Bull and Arm Twisting" by Ebay is not just a criminal act...But also it violates several State and Federal restriction of trade and racketeering laws. These people are Butt stupid andgreedy beyond imagination. This nothing more than another way to force everyone to pay Ebay one more time. But the worst part, and the most illegal is the fact that they will "float" all payments to sellers for several days and use the money for creation a a new revenue stream from placing the money with large banks for overnight deposits. Can you imagine what a couple Hundered million dollars or Euros every month will create as interest income....This is a form Skimming

In the long run I hope the California state attorney generals office will take an agressive prosuction of Ebay and it's officers for breakng about 15 -20 different laws related to banking, fair trade, and racketeering. But Please anuone who caares and understands the massive size of this SCAM.. Go to the California State Attorney General's website a Calfornia .Gov or Department of Justice. You can file a complaint online.......these people respond to the public and massive numbers makes things happen ASAP.....Best Regards, Laurance

 

[infrequent]

@larmarv916 - what you are saying is correct but i really doubt eBay will be stupid enough to pull this stunt in USA. its one thing to screw with us australians and another to scam americans.

 

[Al Patterson]

@larmarv916 - what you are saying is correct but i really doubt eBay will be stupid enough to pull this stunt in USA. its one thing to screw with us australians and another to scam americans.

Just because you don't live here, eBay is from here, and I resent that they are screwing those of you in Oz or anywhere. Corporate America gets more than enough bad press already. Maybe we on RFF should just boycott eBay and use the Classifieds here.

One would think that eBay has never heard of forums or blogs....

 

[David Murphy]

The silver lining to all the recent eBay abuses is that it's reinvigorating other Internet sales venues (like RFF).