eBay Australia announces Safe Payment Initiative

Broken eBayOn 05.08.2008 at 12:33 pm Said:

PayPal is the reason why eBay isn’t a more “retail-like” experience similar to Amazon.com, Buy.com, and the majority of e-commerce websites. When I buy an item from most retailers online, I just need a credit card–it’s just me, my credit card, and the retailer. But with eBay, its me, PayPal, my credit card (or bank account), and eBay (or eBay seller). This is why I don’t buy on eBay: I have to open a PayPal account and agree to its terms, conditions, and bad business practices just to use my credit card. This is really dumb–forcing buyers to open another financial account just to buy on one site. eBay had a more retail-like experience before it acquired PayPal–it was called eBay Payments (BillPoint). Buyers were not required to have a BillPoint account to pay for items on eBay. Until eBay brings back a similar system, I won’t be buying on eBay. eBay is too cumbersome and frustrating to deal with.

Kevin_TOn 05.17.2008 at 2:31 am Said:

I have just logged into the Australian PayPal user agreement and note that two words have been changed in section 4.2.4.

QUOTE: 4.2.4 Limitations on the Seller Protection Policy. The Seller Protection Policy will not apply to a transaction if any of the following apply:

You combine eBay items paid for through separate PayPal payments into a single shipment,
END QUOTE

Changing “separate Ebay Transactions” to “separate PayPal Payments” means that multiple shipping can be done without removing my rights as a seller. I appreciate this improvement, and it has a major impact on my business, even if I feel that I should not have had to fight for the right to offer reasonable postage discounts to buyers on Ebay.

Mr Rule, if you contributed to change in the wording after it was raised here, please accept my thanks. Mr Brewer Hay, can you please forward him this response, also with thanks.

This still leaves sellers who offer pick-up-only items very vulnerable if they are still REQUIRED to offer PayPal as a payment option.

Regards, Kevin

TheBrewsNewsOn 06.05.2008 at 12:58 pm Said:

The former CEO of Paypal Germany, Frerk-Malte Feller (currently the Managing Director of eBay Germany) is selling on eBay as an individual.

Although Frerk-Malte accepts Paypal as a payment option, he requires copies of the buyers’ passport / ID as well as a scan of the credit card that is being used to fund the Paypal payment.

The former CEO of Paypal obviously knows how to discourage payment by Paypal since I’m guessing not too many people would give copies of both their identification AND credit card to an eBay seller.

Isn’t the point of using Paypal so that you do NOT have to give the seller credit information directly?

But then again, perhaps Frerk-Malte doesn’t have confidence that Paypal will have his back in the case of a chargeback. Frerk-Malte recognizes the unsafe nature of PayPal. That is certainly food for thought.

dimesOn 06.07.2008 at 11:28 am Said:

Paypal spokesperson Sara Gorman has confirmed to auctionbytes that sellers may indeed request additional information such as proof of identity and of the “financial instrument” being used to fund a paypal payment if the seller believes the payment may be risky.

http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/6/1212688011.html

As someone who until his recent promotion to head of eBay Germany was the head of paypal in Germany, Mr Feller is certainly in a position to know precisely what sellers would need in order to defend themselves against unauthorized-use paypal claims.

There is nothing in the paypal user agreement prohibiting sellers from demanding documents confirming the identity of the buyer and the credit card/bank account numbers registered on paypal.

The German managing director requires scans of both sides of the buyer’s credit card.

There are already over 3000 newly-listed items on the German eBay site that contain the precise wording he used, requiring the same documentation.

PhilipCohenOn 07.14.2008 at 5:20 pm Said:

eBay introduces absolute anonymity for (shill) bidders

In Australia, the UK, Ireland and the Philippines, eBay has obscured auction bidding to the point that genuine bidders have got absolutely no chance of detecting and thereby protecting themselves from “shill” bidding (a criminal offence in most civilised countries) by unethical vendors. Notwithstanding eBay’s statements to the contrary, this application of absolute anonymity (ie, Bidder 1, Bidder 2, etc) by eBay on these sites serves absolutely no purpose other than to deceive consumers by making even any otherwise obvious shill bidding undetectable; and the same criticism has always been applicable to eBay’s other shill bidders’ facility, “User ID kept private”. Again, notwithstanding eBay’s various pronouncements about shill bidding being banned on eBay, eBay is now effectively (and knowingly) “aiding and abetting” such shill bidders on these sites, at the expense of consumers. …

For those with a longer attention span, a lengthy critical analysis of this matter appears at:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=6498345#6498345
I apologise in advance for the length of the above-linked “rant”. If you are an unethical shill-bidding seller or a buyer who is not concerned that on the above-mentioned national sites eBay is effectively “aiding and abetting” such shill-bidding sellers to cheat you, read no further.

Patricia1On 07.14.2008 at 6:37 pm Said:

Yep those are the lengths ebay is willing to go to protect second chance offers…at least that’s why they do it here and I imagine they’re doing it there for the same reason. I can’t see how they can say they care about scams on the site and then make bidders anonymous like that. (shrug)