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eBay Australia Delays PayPal Change Indefinitely

Daehenoc points out news that eBay Australia has postponed their ban on all forms of payment other than PayPal. The ban had already been delayed once, but eBay Australia has now decided to simply wait for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to determine whether or not the move is acceptable. We discussed the beginnings of this story back in April.

14 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Buy a ACCC Ruling by Merls+the+Sneaky · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bid $10 000

    Buy it now $50 000

  2. Re:The ACCC is going to put on a show by Aereus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Cardboard box cartel? I've now heard it all... Crazy Aussies ;)

  3. Re:The ACCC is going to put on a show by timmarhy · · Score: 5, Informative
    err the cardboard box cartel thing resulted in a WIN for the ACCC and the biggest ever corperate fine handed out in australian history. pick another example. fuel prices are high due to factors well outside of the ACCC's ability to regulate - servo operators already operate on a razor thin margin of a few cents per litre, the real driving force is increased international demand and overseas oil cartels. so again, please try a different example.

    ACCC action has nothing to do with ebay stopping the trial, it's more likely the very public backlash they are feeling.

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  4. Use Google Checkout instead by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Although officially eBay does not allow Google Checkout, you can simply put that you "accept credit cards" with some credit card logos on your auction and then send people an invoice when they win.

    Unfortunately a lot of people assume that everyone on eBay takes PayPal and are shocked to discover that you don't, but PayPal is such a terrible system for both buyers and sellers I don't use it any more.

    In the UK PayPal make it impossible to deal with them. Any dispute always comes down to who can get a "police report" (crime incident report) which is impossible to obtain because the transaction is covered by civil law. In the event you can lie you way into getting one from the police, you automatically win - and if they refuse you automatically loose. If you are a buyer you can't ask your credit card company for help either because they only cover the transaction you make with PayPal, not the transaction made with the seller.

    Worst of all is the customer "service" which is split into two groups. The first group are useless time wasters whose job is to make you go away. If you email them you always get a standard copy-paste response, which is usually not even related to your question. Basically it seems like they deliberately avoid the question. If you call them they know nothing, can't do anything and can't help. The second group will never ever talk to you, but is responsible for making all decisions and controls everything. These are the people you need to deal with, but they are impossible to reach.

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    1. Re:Use Google Checkout instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Unfortunately a lot of people assume that everyone on eBay takes PayPal and are shocked to discover that you don't, but PayPal is such a terrible system for both buyers and sellers I don't use it any more.

      eBay in Australia actually requires that you offer Paypal in your listings. The ACCC action only stopped eBay from disallowing almost all other methods of payments.

      And Google Checkout doesn't operate in Australia yet.

    2. Re:Use Google Checkout instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I believe that Ebay's customer service is carefully crafted to 'Not provide' service. A couple of monkeys will send you pre-drafted sickly polite emails in response to your complaints, but noone will ever do anything.

      Ebay have only one goal in mind - the more transactions the bigger their profits. They do not give a damn if the transaction is legal or not.

      I think the ACCC needs to press for more regulations requiring firms like Ebay to clean up their act. Until that happens, Ebay is 'crim heaven'

    3. Re:Use Google Checkout instead by Bert64 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes, i have had many bad experiences with paypal and corrupt sellers taking advantage of the flaws in their system to rip off purchasers, take a look at:
      http://www.ev4.org/wordpress/category/fastmemorymanscam/

      Then there's their "subscription" service, where a company can automatically bill you on a recurring system, there seems to be absolutely no way to see which subscriptions are active or how to cancel them. A corrupt seller can lie to you about cancelling the subscription and you have no idea if they lied or not until paypal charges you, and when you dispute it they simply ignore you.

      ebay also cancel your listing if you try to recover the cost of paypal charges in your listing, because the idea of an extra 5% or so to cover costs would encourage buyers to pay by other means.

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  5. Re:Why? by Mike89 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is this something to do with Google.

    No, it's something to do with the ACCC trying to stop Australians getting ripped off. I'm glad someone finally stood up to Paypal and their bullshit.

  6. Re:The ACCC is going to put on a show by name*censored* · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't laugh, my mother was roughed up by cardboard box goons only last week! The scariest part was when they used the double corrugated bats - she's lucky to still be alive..

    --
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  7. Re:The ACCC is going to put on a show by dbIII · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The detail with the cartel is the ACCC can take no personal action against the perpetrator but they would like to so it as not seen as being a complete success. Rules are being changed so that they can do so in the future.

  8. Might it be... by EdIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That PayPal sucks?

    I'm not trolling here either. The serious problems that PayPal has are widely known. From buyers to merchants, everybody has a horror story that has prevented them from doing business in confidence. There is even a well known anti-PayPal website out there.

    A few months back when eBay started making those changes I canceled my account and told them reason why I was canceling the account. Apparently, I was not the only one. eBay used to be a place where the "common" man could go to sell his used items. Sure, it turned out to be a nifty place for people to setup shop as professional sellers, but it did not start out that way.

    Since eBay made it mandatory that you accept PayPal, regardless of what type of seller you were, it forced people to make a decision. I think there has been QUITE A LOT of those decisions made and possibly eBay is taking notice of it's user base diminishing quite rapidly, from casual sellers to professional merchants.

    Heck, I have not even visited eBay's website since that last announcement. I used to check it for prices and good deals, and now I just use Google Shopping instead.

  9. Re:The ACCC is going to put on a show by mattjb0010 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Cardboard box cartel?

    Yep!

    Crazy Aussies ;)

    That we are.

  10. Re:Paypal = bad? by MoonBuggy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The first thing I would say is that whether they're good or whether they're bad, it is absolutely unacceptable for one company with almost 100% of the market (eBay) to force you to use a specific service.

    In my opinion PayPal's dispute resolution process is dubious at best and the customer service is nothing short of abysmal. A more concrete reason to dislike being forced to use them, however, is simply that they are considerably more expensive than other equivalent services.

  11. Re:GOOD! by ejecta · · Score: 4, Informative

    I know what you mean, as a seller it's really wonderful to be charged a listing fee, a gallery picture fee, a final value fee, a 2.4% paypal fee and then another $2 to get your money out of paypal.

    Not to mention you have to also use registered post otherwise you'll automatically lose any dispute and paypal will sweep your account for price+postage regardless of the validity of the buyers dispute - A favourite of dodgy buyers here is to claim it the item was not received, if you have an express post tracking id showing it delivered paypal will still find in favour of the buyer as they only accept registered post tracking.

    Result: You lose your item and the auction value + postage fees, even though you can prove it was delivered!

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