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]