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.

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.

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.

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

It sounds like paypal got taken to court and the end result is paypal holds money for longer than 10 days, buyer can get refund no matter what.

I was hoping I was wrong, why I asked for clarification – because if that’s the case, there is literally no way in the world anyone from ebay/paypal can state they protect sellers.

I paid for an item yesterday, a non-ebay item, and the email from paypal had something I had never seen:

“RIGHT TO REFUND
You, the customer, are entitled to a refund of the money to be transmitted as a result of this agreement if PayPal does not forward the money received from you within 10 days of the date of its receipt, or does not give instructions committing an equivalent amount of money to the person designated by you within 10 days of the date of the receipt of the funds from you unless otherwise instructed by you.

If your instructions as to when the money shall be forwarded or transmitted are not complied with, and the money has not yet been forwarded or transmitted, you have a right to a refund of your money.

If you want a refund, you must mail or deliver your written request to PayPal at P.O. Box 45950, Omaha, NE 68145-0950. If you do not receive your refund, you may be entitled to your money back plus a penalty of up to $1,000.00 USD and attorney’s fees pursuant to Section 1810.5 of the California Financial Code.”

Doesn’t that literally sc*ew a seller if Paypal holds the funds 21 days?