[ot] ebay now forcing sellers to use paypal - rant

littlepig · Post by **littlepig** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 7:53 am

I haven't listed to sell any thing to ebay for a while so last night I put my surplus Zoom G2 on. Got through most of the stuff then I went to the payment options and it told me I have to offer paypal as a payment method.

Bit pissed off about this becuase:

1. I think it is a way for ebay to earn itself more commision.

2. Ror a long time I was sceptical about paypal but I gave it a try last year. I sold a guitar and a few other things (total 300gbp), I was about to transfer the money to my bank a/c and I found that paypal had frozen my a/c because they said it had been on a dodgy site. It took me a month to unfreeze my a/c and get the money out. After that I resolved not to accept payments via paypal.

So I will be looking for another auction site to sell my stuff in future, anybody know one? (in the UK).

OK - my Monday morning petty rant is over, got to do some work now.

BTW if anybody is intersested in a Zoom G2 multi effects in as new condition the listing is: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=004

(UK only)

furrybum · Post by **furrybum** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:45 am

Also, if you sell on ebay and use paypal you leave yourself open to being screwed over. They offer "Seller protection" they say.........let me set the scene. You sell a synth on ebay, buyer pays you, you send synth via recorded delivery. A month later the buyer emails to say that there's a problem. They can then raise a dispute to get their money back. From what I hear, paypal usually side with the buyer too. On top of that, if the buyer paid with their credit card through paypal they can get their bank to recall the funds from paypals account. Paypal then recall the funds from your account and then your bank account. If the money isn't there they take legal action. You can dispute the chargeback but only if paypal side with you will they give you your money back. That's what they call seller protection. The advice I was given by people that sell on ebay a lot was not to offer paypal for expensive items as you leave yourself open to being screwed over.

littlepig · Post by **littlepig** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:39 am

furrybum > didn't realise that... I think my ebay days are coming to an end.

As I said I avoided paypal for a long time but people said 'oh, its so convenient...' but my experiences have not been good. Now I am being forced to use it I am annoyed.

furrybum · Post by **furrybum** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:04 pm

so far nothings come of the potential dispute I had. There's still a chance though. The thing to do is read the ts&cs carefully then chat to some of the users of the ebay support pages.

It's deffinately made me a bit warey of using it though.

monkey magic · Post by **monkey magic** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:22 pm

i got screwed over on paypal, i sold a laptop for £1800 one of those 00DJ ones (waste of money as it's s*it) so i decided to cut my losses and get rid, after id got through a few fake buyers from nigeria i managed to sell it had the money in my paypal which i was told means i was definately safe to post it out. Posted it out and that day the money vanished turned out the buyer was using stolen credit cards, spent hours tryin to contact paypal as i had to find the info from another ebay seller who'd been ripped off and when i finally got through to the customer services they just told me tough s*it which is great customer service and buyer protection when u've been ripped off for £1800

my advice don't use ebay or paypal they're as corrupt as each other

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:30 pm

I liek PayPal, always had really good luck with it, and issues I've had were solved supe rquick by their support. Bummer you guys had such bad luck.

Damon_Chambers · Post by **Damon_Chambers** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:48 pm

i personally have never had a prob with paypal, thankfully. not to say its not problem-ridden as there are 3:1 stories in favor of paypal sucking.

if we cant use any other method for ebay other than paypal i wont even open the site anymore.

Rogue Scrunt · Post by **Rogue Scrunt** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:54 pm

I make about $20,000 a year w/ paypal.
have not had too many problems.

I have never sold anything worth more than $2000.

you have to take the steps to protect yourself.

furrybum · Post by **furrybum** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:10 pm

mnt is that they seem to have an attitude that the seeler is guilty until proved otherwise.

The fact that a buyer can damage something then reclaim their money so easily sucks. I understand that in some cases the buyer is probably in the right but at the same time there seems to be a huge risk to the average (not professional) seller.

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:26 pm

furrybum wrote: The fact that a buyer can damage something then reclaim their money so easily sucks. I understand that in some cases the buyer is probably in the right but at the same time there seems to be a huge risk to the average (not professional) seller.

that's not sustainable behaviour... it's not something a scam artist would do, because there's very little gains in having your money refunded to you. It is something an opportunist might do because he's changed his mind for some reason, but then...there's only so many times he would get away with this until paypal/ebay notice. and besides that's what user feedback is for, and it's why you should only sell/buy to/from geezers with lots of positive replies.

I've had probs buying & selling, and paypal always came through for me. But I excercise plenty of caution in the first place. I only look at paypal as a safety measure, not a safety guarantee. Maybe you guys are expecting too much from ebay & paypal ? ...use some other services to sell/buy your goods world wide that can guarantee you don't have to think and you won't get shafted

furrybum · Post by **furrybum** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:35 pm

I'm not saying it's somebody trying a scam at all, and as I said, so far nothing has come of it. However, the general consensus from the ebay user groups were that paypal is great for buyers and bad for sellers.

Until now I've had no problems with them. It's only after looking deeper into their policies that I got worried. Let's be honest, a lot of people sell stuff on there because they're a private seller (not a shop) and maybe needs a few extra bucks. To then be told "ebay member joe bloggs has reaised a dispute for item number 89878732 saying that he's had it for a month but it wasn't working when it arrived", and being told by sellers that run a business through their ebay shop that paypal usually sides with the buyer is a bit worrying that's all.

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:48 pm

fair enough,
but at the end of the day what does it mean ?
Be careful ? ...No shit...

I dunno why this isn't surprising me, I don't dish out trust readily I guess and I've never assumed ebay/paypal are going to guarantee I won't get shafted. They are just brokers after all, and surely the onus is on the individuals buying & selling to scrutinize the seller/buyer ?

what would be a better system ?

(ps, now that I think about it, the majority of the shitty transactions I experienced with ebay were as a buyer)

noisetonepause · Post by **noisetonepause** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:51 pm

Personally I just try and stick to ebay.de as opposed to .co.uk, because Germans, unlike Brits, are trustworthy people who don't lie in their auction listings.

(grumble, grumble, grumble)

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:53 pm

plus, I think the sellers need to adapt to this new market.
Never before has it been so easy to be a merchant, from your own home, so let the power sellers deal with it IMO. .... if the postal service fuck up 1 out of 10 deliveries, that's an occupational hazard. adapt, prepare, calculated risk, etc...

the more I think about it, the more I agree with a bias towards buyer protection

b0unce · Post by **b0unce** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:54 pm

noisetonepause wrote:Personally I just try and stick to ebay.de as opposed to .co.uk, because Germans, unlike Brits, are trustworthy people who don't lie in their auction listings.

(grumble, grumble, grumble)

amen to that, I mostly deal with ebay.de too.