More Ebay changes

[Guest]

[blackcat20]

I just got an email from ebay about selling, I assume this is applicable to all ebay sites, not just Australia...

These changes will be introduced in two stages:

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.
 
In other words, no more direct deposit, money orders etc...Talk about an ebay/paypal monopoly! 

[Scifi Cards]

Have not seen this on the US site, but it does not surprise me.

They have been PayPal Only for certain high profile items like Wii's and IPhones, with the justification that it gives buyer protection beyond what 'normal' payment methods provide.

I'd given them until the holiday season rolled around again to make the change, looks like they are a bit ahead of where I thought they would be.

I'm sure the US site will follow suit.

Ed

[ferdinand_the_yak]

I was just about to post this Kate! You beat me to it

All I can say is - aaaaaaaaargh! I've never accepted Paypal from Aussie buyers, frankly because the fees Paypal gouge from you are ridiculous, particularly their ludicrous exchange rates, if you're not dealing in your own currency. I've NEVER had a problem with direct deposit/cheques as a seller OR buyer. Its far cheaper for all parties concerned. Fair enough for o/s transactions, I can understand using Paypal, but not locally.

Another reason to NOT sell on Ebay

[kbmum]

There are also buyers who don't trust PayPal with their credit card and banking information.  I've had a surprising number of buyers who've paid me with money orders and even cash.  With all of the changes that have gone and will be going into effect, eBay is going to lose buyers and sellers.

[Nienna]

From what I've read, Ebay will implement this on the .uk site towards the end of this month (April) too. 
I don't like to be dictated to on which payment methods I 'should' be using when I sell ... looks like I won't be selling very much on there in the future either.
I had been thinking about accepting payments using Nochex for UK-based buyers and Moneybookers for buyers from overseas as alternatives to using Paypal - guess I won't even be able to do that either! *hmpf!!*

[sfmuggle]

Wow! looks like eBay/Paypal are making their way around the globe.  Although I've been selling a few things on eBay recently, I'm becoming more reluctant to to sell greater quantities due to the recent fee increases and other changes.  Unfortunately, I'm not too certain where else to sell that has the same audience (I guess Amazon.com but it has its limits).  Sigh!

Any word on whether or not this is going to hit the U.S.?  I've not seen anything myself but maybe one or more of you have some additional info.

[Nienna]

Maybe these changes will hit the US last ... normally it's the other way around! 
Perhaps they're playing the waiting game to see how well or badly the UK & OZ/NZ sites do before imposing them on US sellers?
I received a Paypal email which said:
Buying and selling on eBay made even safer

Starting in late April, eBay will now ask all sellers to offer PayPal on their listings. This means that even more items on eBay will offer buyer protection.

This is one of many new initiatives that eBay and PayPal are doing to make it much more difficult for bad sellers to operate on eBay. As a result, you'll notice a dramatic improvement in quality when buying on eBay

Hey ho, no prizes who will be the winners in this ...

[sfmuggle]

Wow! looks like eBay/Paypal are making their way around the globe.  Although I've been selling a few things on eBay recently, I'm becoming more reluctant to to sell greater quantities due to the recent fee increases and other changes.  Unfortunately, I'm not too certain where else to sell that has the same audience (I guess Amazon.com but it has its limits).  Sigh!

Any word on whether or not this is going to hit the U.S.?  I've not seen anything myself but maybe one or more of you have some additional info.

This makes it nearly impossible for some buyers/sellers who don't (or won't) use Paypal.  I recently sold a number of HP items on eBay where the buyers did not have (nor wanted) a Paypal account.  They sent Money Orders or Cashier Bank checks as payment.  I'm all for making some $$$ but this is becoming ridiculous.

[blackcat20]

The thing that annoys me about paypal, besides the fees, is that the exchange rate they use is always worse than that listed on ebay, so I always pay more than the ebay estimate. Given they are the same company, that seems pretty pathetic to me.

I usually wont accept paypal from within Australia either....but in this case I guess we have to, and the postage will go up accordingly to make it a little less painful...

[Hikarist]

This is insane. E-bay is really pushing it's userbase, and I hope it's just a trial run because at least in that case they can make amends (after the fiasco blows up in their faces, mind you!). I am a paypal user, but that's only because certain sellers won't accept any other form of payment. I'll usually send a money order...  D:

[De Orc]

What it needs is people to email the company (Buyers & Sellers) and complain in number also It might well be Illigal as it restricts your trade.  I think it has to rank as one of the stupidest ideas that they have come up with in a long time.

[allender]

Maybe the reason why you didn't see it in the U.S. first is that the laws are different, and indeed it might be judged an improper 'restriction of trade' here. However, I'm not sure if the unwashed-masses-on-eBay will be indifferent to, or delighted by, the policy change.

From eBay's perspective, it isn't a stupid idea, because they earn plenty of money from PayPal. And it might be strategically sound for them to try to corner the market before the PayPal alternatives get too healthy.

For every user who dislikes PayPal for all of the reasons stated, there might be ten users who love the convenience and who don't care about (or don't notice) the currency exchange rates.

Plus, as more and more fraud shows its ugly head on eBay, PayPal transactions have the benefit of being faster than any payment that involves sending pieces of paper through the mails. I'm sure there is a lot more difficulty in settling disputes when another payment method is used, and it's certainly more time-consuming. Especially for international transactions, where the PayPal presence tends to protect buyers who might not otherwise have a way to make claims in foreign courts.

So those two factors could mean that the majority of eBay buyers will welcome the idea. It will tend to increase costs slightly, especially for lower cost items, but most sellers have already caved in -- partly because it makes some buyers happy, and partly because it simplifies their bookkeeping. There are some big merchants who maintain websites but who list their items for 20% cheaper in eBay stores, even today.

I have arrangements with several "repeat" sellers where I send money by mail for any sizable pre-orders so that they can avoid the fees. They know my paper is good, and I wasn't getting immediate shipment anyway. Some other sellers still prefer PayPal for the ease of bookkeeping, even when I give them an option. I still think you're going to see even more transactions between repeat customers/sellers moving off-eBay. The combination of rising eBay fees and PayPal fees (and hidden costs) will tend to hurt eBay in the high-price end. But if I had been able to predict how successfully eBay was going to be able to maintain its user base, I would have made millions by buying their stock in the early days.

[De Orc]

question for you LOL what right have ebay to dictate how a person either pays or recieves payment for there goods?  You can pay by direct bank transfer, cheque, Postal Orders or Paypal if you so wish (or cash) but the choice should be yours and not imposed upon you.
If Ebay/Paypal wants the sellers to use there service then they should make it worth there while by offering incentives.  As for Fraud yes it happens even if you use Paypal and believe me you want to try convincing Ebay/Paypal that a seller has sent you a fake coin or even that sellers are blatently selling forgeries on Ebay.  Possibly the type of item I refer to is different to cards as I dont know how many of them are out there are fakes, but in the coin/Antique and cosmetic/clothing/DVD/CD end of the market there are a great quantity floating about.
As for paypal been faster even that is not exactly true, I have even had a personal case of a seller asking me for payment three days after I paid and received a payapl recipt because paypal failed to inform him that I had paid 
Now from this you might think I dont like Paypal far from it LOL for me it is a godsend I love it, but I am against anyone trying to force something on us saying it is for our benifit when in fact it is to boost there profit margin.
Have you tried contacting either ebay or paypal with a problem? unless you are willing to push matters the best you will get is a regurgatated stock response now that angers me   

[kbmum]

I don't agree with forcing sellers to accept PayPal, but unfortunately, I think eBay has the right to dictate the forms of payment.  We're using their site to sell our goods.  They can dictate any terms of service which are legal.

[grecopa]

Question:
I pay for stuff through Paypal, however...what 's to stop someone from asking a seller if they will take a money order instead?  How would Paypal know if a pick up was paid in cash?

[kbmum]

It's possible that eBay would notice a seller who doesn't receive many PayPal payments, but doesn't file non-paying bidder complaints.  There could also be a problem if the buyer later complains about the transaction, but there's no PayPal payment.

[LikORish-Spider]

I don't agree with forcing sellers to accept PayPal, but unfortunately, I think eBay has the right to dictate the forms of payment.  We're using their site to sell our goods.  They can dictate any terms of service which are legal.

Ebay is nothing without the sellers. Don't buyers generate zero revenue for ebay? Ebay should wake up and realise who is paying them. I like to compare them to a real estate agent, they get a fixed commission only if there is a sale. Also, they don't charge a listing fee. And another thing, real estate agents do all of the work. With ebay the seller does 99% of the listing labor and then gets the shaft with fees from A to Z. Ok, I confess...I'm a cynic.

[kbmum]

In a way, buyers do generate revenue for eBay, in the form of the final value fee.  But yes, without sellers, there would be no eBay.

[allender]

And if there are no buyers, there are no sellers.    Of course you could say that the buyers ultimately pay the fees, though the sellers administer them. It does make some sense to make it easier for the less-sophisticated buyers to bid and put the overhead work on the more-sophisticated sellers. And ultimately, drawing more and more buyers into the system is important to them and us.

The one place where the buyers directly generate revenue for eBay is by using PayPal. Maybe half of that is seen by the sellers in the transaction fee, but that's not much different from what the merchant fee would be with any credit-card payment. I expect to see more and more money-transfer systems sprouting up that could challenge PayPal and there will be a lot of competition on fees. If eBay can lock enough people into PayPal, they expect to be able to weather some of the future competition better.

Already we have some banks offering free or low-cost electronic fund transfers. They don't offer services for free unless they get their money some other way. PayPal pays 2.88% on balances in their money market fund, which isn't the best rate available, but it's better than what some banks offer in exchange for other "free" services.

So those places would be PayPal's real competition. And possibly that's why eBay might not be able to get away with requiring PayPal everywhere, and maybe why they won't even try it for U.S. customers. It might indeed prove to be illegal under U.S. laws. The question could be whether eBay is close enough to a monopoly so that they can't say "our way or the highway." We saw it before, when eBay's answer to the competition was to buy out the company that was doing it better, X.Com, and to rename it PayPal.

I'm not in the least bit surprised to see eBay trying everything they can to increase their share of all of the money flowing around. That's the model for "internet giants" ... who'da thunk that Google (and Netscape before them) would have raised so much capital by offering only "free" stuff? Lock enough people into visiting your sites, and the money will follow. It's slightly different with eBay now that it's easier to see what they're up to.

[De Orc]

I cant wait to see what happens when they try to impose paypal on Ebay Germany  there the norm (as in most of Europe) is Bank transfers. One other thing of importance Paypal states quite clearly that you should be aware  that to deal with people who have unconfirmed addy's (This is most of the known world outside of the USA?CANADA & UK) you are not coverd by there protection policy, Now if Ebay impose the ruling that a seller has to accept payment from any buyer who asks to pay via paypal then there could be a lot of problems arrising if the buyer is not from one of the confirming countries! and the seller would have no recourse in the event of the buyer claiming that they had not received there items