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eBay's Plan to Force PayPal Rejected Down Under

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the monopoly-schmonopoly dept.

Jm_aus writes "eBay's plan to force all users to use PayPal only has been rejected by Australia's competition regulator, the ACCC. This followed 650 submissions from eBay users as well as from Australian banks, other payment services, the Australian Reserve Bank, and (anonymously) Google, which aired a lot of dirty laundry about PayPal's unresponsiveness and failure to sign up to the local banking code of conduct. Apparently the public benefits from eBay's 'Bad Buyer Experience' elimination program are likely to be 'minimal.' There is a period for appeals."

16 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Right, because PayPal's better... by autocracy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As a buyer, I really want to use my credit card directly. PayPal, last time I used it, only covered a $200 return or so. I went straight through to my credit card company (which is linked to my PayPal account) and did a chargeback through them. PayPal sent me a nastigram saying if you keep that up, we'll cut you off.

    Yeah, thanks but no thanks EBay.

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    SIG: HUP
    1. Re:Right, because PayPal's better... by autocracy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I did my homework, and that's why they have my credit card on the back end (which, thankfully, can tell them to get stuffed). You're right about linking to any account that keeps cash on hand in it. PayPal also has a long history of locking cash in its customer accounts. Really, they're just terrible to everybody involved. I don't believe I've bought anything with my account since that time.

      From a seller's point of view: The EBay style of charging the seller commission, then charging the seller a percentage of PayPal too kinda gets me. Sure, they're treating them like the separate company they used to be, but come on. I suppose you get what you get for having something less than a true credit card merchant account (which costs).

      As an aside rant, I'm sad that nobody does a cash discount anymore. I'd happily pay you on a 2% reduction to save you the 3% or whatever my CC company charges. Well, really to save myself 2%, but you'd profit as a vendor!

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      SIG: HUP
    2. Re:Right, because PayPal's better... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The reason why you don't get cash discounts anymore is that it's against Visa/MC/AmEx merchant terms and conditions.

      It's even disallowed to require the transaction to be over a certain value to accept payment via credit cards.

    3. Re:Right, because PayPal's better... by travdaddy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Nobody does a cash discount anymore because it's against eBay policy. eBay is all about making the seller unable to get around eBay's exorbitant fees in any way possible. That is their entire basis for forcing PayPal.

      To give an example of their total fee structure: after selling a small item for $30, you're only going to see around $24.50 for it after fees, and then you still have to pay to ship it.

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      Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
    4. Re:Right, because PayPal's better... by tlhIngan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Lots of places still do minimum limits, though. "Your transaction must be at least $3.00 to use a credit card here."


      That's against the terms of the merchant agreement to require a lower limit.

      What you might be thinking of is the similar "Minimum $3 charge if using credit card". Your quote implies that if you buy a $1 item, you can't pay by credit card. My quote says if you want to buy a $1 item, you will be charged $3 for it instead if you use a credit card.

      It's a very subtle thing - it implies a cash discount (buy item for $1 via cash, or $3 via credit card), but it also isn't (if you buy 3 $1 items, it's $3).

      What I want to know is if merchant accounts don't allow cash discounts, why don't they go after the tons of people who advertise prices, then say "price is after 3% cash discount"?
    5. Re:Right, because PayPal's better... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Informative

      Unfortunately in the UK banks are no longer required to help you out or issue chargebacks in cases involving PayPal. The reason is that the banking code only requires them to do anything when you have a dispute with the person you had a transaction with, which in this case is PayPal. You send the money to PayPal, and then in a separate transaction they send it to the seller. So, if you problem is with the seller, they don't have to help.

      I started a petition to get the law changed: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/3partyccs/

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. Can somebody explain? by muellerr1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In most countries, why is PayPal allowed to act like a bank without being regulated like a bank? I've never understood how they get away with that.

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    steampunk web design
    1. Re:Can somebody explain? by PoliTech · · Score: 5, Funny

      For the same reason that Ebay acts like a fencing operation for stolen goods, but is never charged as such.

    2. Re:Can somebody explain? by arivanov · · Score: 4, Informative

      1. It is more counterfeit than stolen.

      2. The french have actually charged eBay with both on a number of occasions.

      --
      Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
      http://www.sigsegv.cx/
    3. Re:Can somebody explain? by Z34107 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Because PayPal is not a bank. It doesn't offer loans, it doesn't pay interest, it doesn't have a required holdings (no loans = 100% cash on hand), etc, etc.

      PayPal is as much of a bank as Chuck E. Cheese is a bank for handing out those game tokens and tickets. It's just a convenient way for you to give money to eBay before you spend it on an actual good (the appeal of which I have yet to understand.)

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      DATABASE WOW WOW
  3. And furthermore... by Barny · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... we would like to add, on behalf of the Australians who you are trying to blatantly extort:

    *ahem*

    "Like fuck you will"

    That was an extract from the actual brief, word for word, honest :P

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    ...
    /me sighs
  4. You're in luck mate! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    As a buyer, I really want to use my credit card directly.

    Just fill out the form at gday.ebay.mate/safecredit.asp and we'll get you started faster than a kangaroo can steal your vegemite sandwich.

  5. Re:elimination program? by clang_jangle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What's that ""Bad Buyer Experience" elimination program" ?


    If my personal experience is any indication, it's the process whereby upon reporting being victimised by an eBay "power seller" eBay threatens to find you guilty of being a "bad buyer" and threatens to place sanctions on your eBay and Paypal accounts unless you pay up. The workaround I found was to change all my eBay user info to the crooked seller's email address and a fictitious physical address and I canceled my paypal account. :P

    It probably helped that I did this within an hour of eBay finding in favor of the dishonest seller (item was a Chinese counterfeit and did not function properly, also they attempted to charge for two items when I only bought one item). This was about three months ago, I've not heard anything about the matter since. Obviously, eBay lost me as a customer.
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    Caveat Utilitor
  6. What about those of us who SUED PAYPAL and WON by RaigetheFury · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was part of the massive lawsuit against Paypal back when there were plenty of scammers. One such tried to screw me and even though I provide more than enough evidence to PROVE without a shadow of a doubt this guy was scamming the system, committing mail fraud, AND on top of that was using stolen credit cards, AND i gave him his confirmed address...

    They still sided with him. However, I knew this was a possibility and I moved the money out of paypal, and blocked them from charging me back through my bank who happily sided with me.

    About 6 months later I joined the lawsuit, and provided all of the evidence to them for exhibits. If you didn't know we won... and won big. Not happy with the default settlement offering I filed for the full settlement and received my check a few months later. I framed it... and I will NEVER do business with Paypal again.

    I don't care if Ebay bought them. They do not follow banking guidelines, they consistently have proven themselves untrustworthy and generally don't abide by the law OR their own policies.

    If Ebay goes to Paypal only, I think they'll soon realize the size of the mistake they will make when other auction sites blow past them at 90mph!

  7. Verfied Accounts by drxenos · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I found out the hard way that when you "verify" your account, the bank account used to verify your PayPal account becomes the primary account. All payments you make through PayPal come out of it by default. I called them because all my purchases were coming out of my bank account and not my credit card. They said the bank account has to be the primary, and the only way to change it was to revert to "unverified," which I did. I like the protection I get from using a credit card. Payments extracted from a checking account has no where near the same protection.

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    Anonymous Cowards suck.
  8. Paypal tried to steal $1200 from my wife by shadowofwind · · Score: 5, Informative

    Paypal claimed the seller had the money, and told the seller we (the buyer) had the money, and lied and stonewalled for months. Finally they just gave the money back without explanation after a state Attourney General inquired on our behalf.

    The previous time I posted this on /., I was modded down as a liar. But unbelievable as the stody is, it is the truth.

    In fairness to Paypal, our experience was shortly after it was purchased by EBay, so probably EBay cleaned it up some since then.