UPDATED: 70% Reduction in Fixed Price Fee and much, much more…

TheBrewsNewsOn 08.20.2008 at 2:59 pm Said:

How wonderful that eBay employees have taken the time to come here and respond. Thank you.

I do have a question that seems to be very important to the people who contact me often regarding this issue —

When eBay moves to “paperless” payments (so that it will be extremely clearccut within the eBay system whether a buyer actually paid for an item or not) and given that sellers have to specify shipping costs in advance (max shipping in some categories) so that buyers know well in advance the TOTAL costs, will eBay then consider automaticallly removing negative feedback a buyer leaves for a seller (or prevent a buyer from leaving negative feedback) when the system shows the buyer never paid for the item?

DakotaOn 08.20.2008 at 3:30 pm Said:

2 money orders and 1 check in my mailbox yesterday -
2 money orders in my mailbox today.

eBay is just mad that they don’t get a take of them.

How stupid is that?
Our “partner” doesn’t like to see us, “it’s partner” make a little profit.

Shame on eBay!

TheBrewsNewsOn 08.20.2008 at 3:30 pm Said:

I’ll even further clarify…. would eBay consider removing ALL feedback (positive or negative) if a buyer doesn’t pay?

For example, I had a competitor email me to ask if I would accept a payment method other than Paypal since I listed my items as PayPal Only - PayPal Required. I stated that my listings were PayPal Only and that I would not consider other payment methods. Four hours later the buyer (also a seller - a competitor) purchased my items. Ultimately the buyer never paid and DID respond to the UID stating that he would gladly pay by money order if I would accept it. He has a paypal account (or would not have been allowed to buy since my items were paypal required) and he accepts paypal from his buyers on his listings.

Weeks later, the buyer of my items left positive feedback stating that they couldn’t pay for the item because we would not take money order. Now, because DSRs are “anonymous” I can’t say what kind of DSRs this nonpaying buyer (competitor) left for me.

Buyers who do not pay should not have the ability to leave negative feedback or even positive (with low DSR scores) for a seller.

JJHOn 08.20.2008 at 3:32 pm Said:

“he reason we are prohibiting paper payments for all sellers, even top performing sellers like you, and integrating the permitted electronic payment methods into eBay checkout is buyer trust and changing expectations. eCommerce shoppers expect online checkout and payment to be secure, fast, and convenient every time they pay .”

John, it that were TRUE then NO ONE would ever send a paper instrument for payment. But that is NOT true, regardless of your corporate speak. Some user STILL want to send paper instruments, so not all “eCommerce shoppers expect online checkout”. You’re just whisking away those that do want to use paper, and in the process you’re taking an acceptable loss of buyers. But, at the same time you’re causing financial loss to sellers whose buyers are now excluded from the buying population (because they don’t trust electronic commerce). While you may find this loss of buyers acceptable, sellers will not find this acceptable.

Please, save the corporate line, and speak plain English here, you’ll be more respected that way.

Brandon CrottsOn 08.20.2008 at 3:41 pm Said:

@Mechelle @Simon @ Dakota

This is Brandon Crotts, a Senior Account Director at ProPay. Many people have made the blanket statement that ProPay is more expensive than PayPal. Although some of our transaction fees are slightly higher than some PayPal fees most users will save money on other service fees. For most users our solution is more affordable than competitive offerings, a mere $59 a year (less than $5 a month) compared to competitive offerings that cost as high as $200 to $300 a year, resulting in huge savings. A ProPay merchant account also gives the seller the ability to defend themselves during a charge-back situation. In addition, we offer telephone customer service support.

A ProPay merchant account can also be used outside of eBay, which customers find extremely useful. For example, they could use the account to sell at a flea market or any business outside of eBay.

DakotaOn 08.20.2008 at 3:56 pm Said:

Brandon Crotts,

I would have to use your “platinum” service in order to accomodate my business.

Since I am not interested in your other services, such as phone transactions (I don’t want to know my customers CC #’s!), that constitutes more cost to me.

The true winner in this deal is for eBay to allow Google Checkout so that sellers can use a payment service that is truly a value to the sellers. (PS - they handle chargebacks also, although I have NEVER had one using Google on other sites.)

LurchOn 08.20.2008 at 3:58 pm Said:

The max shipping on records is way out of line. It works for a single record barely ok (record mailers a bit expensive and are usually added into the handling cost), but otherwise, not so good. I have a pricey 17 record set I’m looking to sell down the road a bit. That ain’t gonna be able to ship for 4 bucks. No way. I can’t even do a two-record set for that without losing a little money.

Is this going to be for both auction AND fixed price? It looks like the FVF change is only for fixed price listings, which is cool (I only deal with auction format), so maybe the max shipping only applies to fixed price? And really - you’re going to require a seller to offer a media mail option for something like this: http://tinyurl.com/6czrda
eBay thinks that’s a good idea? Safe for the buyer and seller?

I rarely sell 78s, but when I do - anything remotely pricey doesn’t go media mail. Half the collector buyers would crucify me if I did - heck, they constantly give me detailed instructions on packing not knowing that I have sold 78s occasionally over the past 20+ years.

I also have to agree with JJH on film - done a few 16mm features in the past — where does eBay get the idea they can ship for $6? Ever try to ship one on reels in cans? It’s a huge difference between a boxed Castle 8MM and a 30-minute episode of the 60s Batman TV show - or an 80 minute feature spanned over three reels.

Does anyone think this stuff through first?

DaveyOn 08.20.2008 at 4:06 pm Said:

@John McDonald

“eCommerce shoppers expect online checkout and payment to be secure, fast, and convenient every time they pay .”

Yes, and they expect the site to be reliably up 24 X 7, for features like promotional discount coupons to work, for shipping to be figured accurately, for competent customer service to be available, and for echecks to clear promptly so sellers can be release to ship.

eBay/Paypal has horribly flunked all the items I’ve listed above in the recent past. Glitches, of course. Is that the kind of service buyers really want to deal with? Not according to about 10 percent of my buyers…

One thing I would finally like a straight answer for, though: What makes Google Checkout unsafe? I mean other than to Paypal’s bottom line?

DaveyOn 08.20.2008 at 4:11 pm Said:

@Brandon Crotts

Your info site seems to be remiss at mentioning terms for international buyers, if they differ. Perhaps I didn’t look thoroughly enough.

I’m of the belief that Paypal will not approve any eBay payment services that are less expensive than Paypal, which I think exposes the real motive here. Of course, except for B*y, which is allowed GCO.

DaveyOn 08.20.2008 at 4:22 pm Said:

@Monroe

Of of the problems here with your assertion of what eBay should do in feedback removal for a UPI, is that long-term sellers like myself have have a track record of being exposed to eBay’s “worst of breed” customer service organization, where things that are supposed to happen never seem to. Things have a high propensity of not working the way we are pitched that they should. This detracts from credibility of things like the statement you made above.

If you’d like a sample of what I’m talking about, take a look at Griff’s recent help to a seller at Seller Central, which took a long, long time and some internal intervention to finally get corrected. This seller’s issue had exactly to do with UPI feedback removal, or lack thereof, under circumstances that were pretty straightforward. How are we supposed to believe you when the current “Customer Service” and “Trust and Safety” organizations (both huge misnomers, in my opinion) have such a bad track record on responsiveness and accountability, even to eBay’s published policies?

If you want credibility, make sure that the other structural problems within eBay are fixed first! You might also want to ask Griff to state his Rule #1 to you.

TheBrewsNewsOn 08.20.2008 at 4:22 pm Said:

Monroe,

Thank you for your response. Can you give some specific examples of what you mean about sellers possibly changing the terms after the fact? If there is a final price (either through auction or fixed price) and a stated shipping cost, as is required, then what additional information would a buyer need in order to make prompt payment (information that a seller could possibly “change”)? The only thing I could possibly think of is that a buyer asked for a change or something different AFTER purchasing. I just have a hard time imagining why a buyer would be subjected to a “change” by the seller after the fact when all the information needed to pay is already provided. So, I am very interested in your response.

Also, in the example I gave where the buyer left a false positive (ie that they couldn’t complete the transaction because I wouldn’t take a money order), what recourse does a seller have? Will eBay remove positive feedback and the associated DSRs when the buyer does not pay for an item?

TonyOn 08.20.2008 at 4:25 pm Said:

@ Monique Labouisse “Automatically removing negative feedback if the system doesn’t indicate that a buyer hasn’t paid is something that I wouldn’t expect eBay to do, however. I will defer to Brian Burke, eBay’s Director of Feedback for a final answer, but one of the reasons I’ve heard him give is that there may be a legitimate reason that a buyer doesn’t pay. For example, the seller changes the terms of sale after the item closes on the site.”

You’re talking about the Brian Burke who was happy to remove sellers the right to leave honest feedback because some sellers abused that system? I know it’s not your area but that excuse is complete baloney.

If a buyer doesn’t pay, no feedback should be left and then if there’s a problem with the seller, ebay should intervene, that’s precisely the role that trust and safety should be involved in.

MechelleOn 08.20.2008 at 4:43 pm Said:

Google Checkout Amazon Payment issue

What about Google Checkout, Checkout by Amazon or Amazon Flexible Payment Services? Will these payment methods be offered?

No. The electronic payment methods available on eBay already provide security and protections and are already used by the vast majority of our buyers and sellers. eBay will offer several other electronic payment options in addition to PayPal, namely ProPay to start, with more electronic payment providers to be added in coming months. Google’s and Amazon’s products and services compete with eBay on a number of levels, so we are not going to allow them on eBay.

HAHAHA- you selfish B……s!! I cannot believe that eBay has the audacity to make that statement when it place directly competing ads on the auction floor. What is your product inferior to these other two options? Is eBay afraid to have to compete and play in our marketplace legally? Can’t maintain PayPal’s share of the market if their is CHOICE? If you can’t compete then maybe it’s time to close down PayPal or increase it’s value.

You are delusional if you think this is just going to fly- it is not!

MechelleOn 08.20.2008 at 4:44 pm Said:

that would be market system- not place