eBay Rips Off Users Increases Security By Making You Use PayPal
This time it’s eBay Australia. They’ve decided that our country is even more risky than the rest of the world when it comes to online security, so they’ve decided to get rid of all payment options for online auctions except cash and PayPal. And cash is only available when the product is picked up from you, which means all online transactions have to be through Paypal.
In their own words:
“eBay is no longer willing to stand aside and allow payment methods
on the site that are proven to be less safe for consumers. You’re four times less likely to have a problem on eBay if you pay with PayPal than, say, if you used internet banking.”
That nugget was from eBay trust and safety director Alastair MacGibbon. Thank heavens he’s looking out for us. He dismissed the theory that they were merely doing it to grab some extra cash, considering they own PayPal, which charges a fee of between 1.1 and 2.4 per cent per credit card payment.
eBay’s international stores plan on monitoring the developments in Australia (read: how pissed off we get when the changes come into effect in June), before deciding whether to make the same changes.
All I can say is that the Trading Post has never looked more appealing.
[SMH and News.com.au]
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Comments
As a buyer, I prefer PayPal anyway, since I know that if I get screwed over, it’s a lot easier to get my money back.
As a seller, I’m no longer a seller on eBay.
The honest truth is Paying via PayPal is easier, and yes as MIDDA said way easy to get your money back if the seller is a dud. It’s not like Paypal is perfect but it’s better than most other options.
I agree with you, but I did have a little issue with Paypal a couple of months back where they froze my account (complete with a heap of cash in there) and demanded that I give them details for my suppliers. Problem was, I was selling used stuff and gifts. It took 2 weeks to get my money. I swore I’d never use them again as a seller, and now I’ve got no alternative.
The other thing to consider is that even though this offers added buyer protection, the number of times I’ve “sold” something and the seller has never coughed up is too great to count. This does nothing to protect sellers – it just screws them over for more money.
@MIDDA, I concur. @TOBY, I concur too!
I prefer paypal, plus I always found the customer service top-notch
huh!?? PayPal makes buying stuff safer?? since when – all the seller has to do is send you a snail in a box – or actually just an empty box, via some form of registered post – so that they have a tracking number for proof and paypal will side with them every time citing they do not get involved in disputes regarding attributes and quality… so paypal use just ensures sellers who know the system can rip off with immunity – box up anything they want and send with registered post and they get to keep your money!
See here my experience with a large purchase via paypal:
http://www.cyber-mag.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1424
Security is important to customers but I don’t think Ebay is doing themselves any favour by limiting payment options to just Paypal
I think in 1yrs time, ebay will be history unless they get their act together
I have never used paypal but any company which reduces the payment choice to 1 is not doing this for the welfare of its clients. I will not be using ebay again either as a seller or buyer.
As both a seller and buyer, i stay away from any method of payment taht is not paypal or cash! I have never had any problems, but i have been lucky, some of my friends have forked over almost 1k to be screwed over! Paypal shoudl lower its margins however to accomodate sellers. Its bloody greedy as it is!
Yeah man this sux! You used to be able to pay cash a few years ago and still be entitled to insurance through ebay. But slowly they have changed the rules so only insured if you pay through paypal and now this. It sux balls if you ask me!
so what you’re saying is that giving out your bank details to total strangers over the internet is not a demonstration of total ignorance?
thank you for your angry and biased one sided view.
It is a pretty crap move. Whilst PayPal is easy to use and lets you pay for stuff on your credit card. It seriously is just a money grab by Ebay.
Who knows though, it may just help with prosecution of people scalping concert tickets as Ebay will have a transaction record. I still think it’s a case of bring your own lube though….
As a powerseller, I find paypal is stacked against the seller in many ways (and yes I buy a lot as well, using Paypal to pay for things). I get quite a few buyers “claiming” not to receive anything when they’ve chosen regular Aus Post – while I have clearly offered Registered Post as an option.
So, we get to pay eBay to list items, pay a % to eBay when we sell items, then pay more % to eBay/Paypal when a buyer pays using Paypal, because now there’s no other option, and then we get screwed over false buyer claims when they haven’t received anything, when I clearly have.
What am I going to to do? Easy. Bump up the prices on all my eBay items and S&H costs, and state clearly in the auction why I have to do so. I won’t like it, buyers have to pay more, and the clear winner is eBay.
And let’s not forget the recent F-up with eBay/Paypal not passing through Paypal notes to end of auction emails, making a lot of heavy sellers look ignorant. Again, very poor service to sellers.
A real Australian eBay alternative has never been so attractive, but it’s a community network problem – eBay has buyers and sellers, while a potential competitor has to start from scratch and is unlikely to get off the ground. But all that said, I’ll probably end up listing on all alternative auction sites as I no longer want to be reliant on eBay.
I’ll also be pushing all customers heavily to my site http://www.88speed.com (which sells my car vinyl designs), where they can buy my items (and ironically, pay securely using Paypal until I find an alternative payment gateway) with a larger choice than the 10 items I list on ebay.
Good onya eBay, keep on finding ways to grow profits while screwing sellers over.
I should have come up with the Ads.
http://img267.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ebaylolav5.jpg
I think this is crap. Now we have to pay eBay once and PayPal a second time for any transaction…
The conflict of interest between Ebay giving Paypal a monopoly on payments is to obvious to ignore. Putting their move under the guise of consumer protection insults the intelligence of the public. The four times less likely sound bite is unsubstantiated. Paypal should put its money where its mouth is and make public just how many buyer protection applications are successful. The Paypal fine print gives too much discretion to Paypal in my view and I see so many hurdles in front of me that I’m not convinced that there is much protection at all! Just read it and see what impression it leaves. It left a sour taste in my mouth by just reading it. If buyers don’t want the ‘protection’ of Paypal then they should have a choice. I’m washing my hands of Ebay if they do this, and I hope enough people do it as well that Ebay starts to pay attention.
I will not be using ebay anymore if I can’t use bank deposit express, it’s the only way I like to shop,
I have avoided auctions in the past that only accept paypal because I don’t want to pay banking fees!!!
enough bank fees at real banks, we don’t want bank fees from ebay/paypal too!!!!!!
shame ebay, shame.
I love paypal and much prefer them to the alternatives like direct transfer. I recently had a dispute resolved by them. Dud fake product, complete refund.
I’ll never use eBay again.
It’s third-line forcing, it’s illegal, and the ACCC should act.
As a seller you can already choose ONLY to accept PayPal anyway so who cares if a seller makes the choice to take a little more risk?
Personally I think this could be anti-competitive behavior; allowing access to other services to help build a large user base and then taking it away with no good reason.
I also feel a lot more comfortable knowing that I am giving my money to someone who has a bank account with an Australian bank rather than some nameless person with an email address.
I believe the only reason they left cash as an option is because they have to under Australian law.
They’ll lose my business.
I honestly don’t know why you people buying things are complaining about fees. Try buying the same thing in the shops, and see how the price compares!
As for sellers, maybe it’s a bit harsh.. but I reckon that there are a whole heap of people who have either stayed away from eBay because they’re worried about being ripped off, who will hopefully start getting involved.
For me, Paypal also simplifies the whole billing side of things.
Positives and negatives, but I’m hoping the positives will win through in the long term.
ACCC
Yeah I’m not happy with this. I use PayPal fairly often, but I like to have the CHOICE to use it – not being forced to.
I too would be interested to see what the ACCC has to say about this, and then even more interested in seeing how eBay weasel their way out of conforming to any “recommendations”.