[Steve]

Interesting one this...

eBay forces Aussies to use PaypalIt's that or pay in person mate
By Barbara Axt → More by this author
Rate this story Published Thursday 10th April 2008 12:54 GMT


eBay is forcing all its Australian users to use its Paypal service from the middle of this year sparking outrage over the percentrage of their sales that will now flow back to the auctions giant.

The auction giant's customers will have only two methods of payment available for transactions over the site from June 17: paying in person when picking up the product, or Paypal, a system owned by eBay itself.

All other payments, such as bank deposits, will be banned, apparently in the name of safety.

eBay trust and safety director Alastair MacGibbon said disputes between buyers and sellers are four times more frequent when users pay via deposit rather than using Paypal. "When you crunch the numbers and you look at the disputes that have occurred on the site you get to see some really powerful differences between how people pay and what happens," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

The announcement met with ire from users, who complained about the lack of options, and the fact that sellers will have to pay even more to eBay - Paypal charges a fee of between 1.1 and 2.4 per cent on top of the auction price.

The eBay Australia forum, hosted by the auction site itself, already has more than 600 negative comments about the move, which include claims that the changes are illegal and calls for users to abandon eBay altogether.

Users outside Australia are concerned eBay may be planning to implement the policy in other countries as well. eBay UK has not commented on this issue.

From 21 May, all sellers on eBay Australia will have to offer PayPal as a payment option. From 17 June the other options will be banned. From that day on, eBay will also expand its PayPal Buyer Protection programme, for users who fail to receive their goods, from $3,000 to $20,000. ®

Taken from The Register

[Dave]

One step too far I would say !!!!

[Charlotte]

This action could have been sparked by large amounts they've had to pay out under their "payment protection scheme" They are going to end up being their own worst enemy There have already been, for quite a long time, quite a few Sellers who boycott Paypal + refuse to accept payment by Paypal admittedly + openly 'under protest' of their conduct - which is a real pain in the backside, as I prefer to pay by Paypal, but still I can see their point. Ebay/Payal are just getting too greedy + "want it all" ... a recipe for eventual self-destruction methinks.

[Chris H]

Well if it comes to the UK I will bin ebay and find other places to buy from.

Ebay already has become a huge bussiness egg due to the little people who got it off the garound now being forced out by the big boys.

If you ever try selling on ebay now you can guarantee within months of your clever bargain there will be a million others selling the same.

I used to do hard drive caddies with a 40gb laptop drive installed, handy for 40gb's of pocket storage.

I bought the cases from one place and the refurbished guarentee'd drives from elsewhere, added them together and made a small profit on selling the complete item.

Sold about 60 then noticed the same thing was being sold by the big boys far cheaper.

With the recent change in listing fee's versus final bid fee's changing in favour of ebay, and paypal's as always rediculous fee's it's no longer really worth selling. So it just becomes one big shopping mall.

Think I'll be taking another look at Loot

[fionaB]

have to say i have never ever sold anything on ebay, and prefer not to use paypal to pay for anything.

Fi

[AQ]

I have also never sold on Ebay (yet) but when buying I stay away from sites that do not use Paypal. Funny how we have different ideas about that.