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PayPal's 'Policy Update' Includes Price Hikes (paypal.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the send-requests dept.

"Buying and selling items on the internet is about to get a bit more expensive if you use PayPal to transfer money," reports MLive, noting that some of PayPal's fees will be increasing on March 29. Slashdot reader turbotalon also complains PayPal is disguising news of the price hikes as a "policy update". Roughly one quarter of the "policy changes" are rate hikes, yet their emailed summary glosses over the rate hike, focussing instead on a few of the "policy changes" with one sentence at the end about "changing some of the fees we charge". Additionally, they have added a "non-discouragement clause" for sellers that provides:

"In representations to your customers or in public communications, you agree not to mischaracterize PayPal as a payment method. At all of your points of sale (in whatever form), you agree not to try to dissuade or inhibit your customers from using PayPal; and, if you enable your customers to pay you with PayPal, you agree to treat PayPal's payment mark at least at par with other payment methods offered."

9 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Not use it? by sp4ni3l · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You could of course choose not to use it. This is a playing field with enough alternatives.

    1. Re: Not use it? by mmell · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Uh, credit card? Debit card?

    2. Re: Not use it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Idiot.

      He is mainly talking about sellers. Getting a CC authority is expensive and hard for many.

      On the buyer side there are benefits to not splashing your CC details to people on the net who may or may not store it and then get hacked.

    3. Re: Not use it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      > Sweden is estimated to be 97% fully surveilled and controlled.

      FTFY.

  2. Is it a payment method or isn't it? by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... you agree not to mischaracterize PayPal as a payment method. ... you agree to treat PayPal's payment mark at least at par with other payment methods offered.

    So it is a mischaracterization for us to call it a payment method, but PayPal calls it a payment method. More to the point, if it isn't a payment method—a means of transferring money to someone in exchange for goods or services—then what the heck is it and why would anybody want to use it?

    Somehow, this contract seems invalid to me, or at least guaranteed to reduce PayPal use significantly by preventing it from being characterized in any meaningful way.

    --

    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    1. Re:Is it a payment method or isn't it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I could be wrong but I got the impression that this sentence is meant to say something like "you agree not to mischaracterize Paypal's quality as a payment method" and it's just poorly worded.

    2. Re:Is it a payment method or isn't it? by Blue+Stone · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They mean, don't mischaracterise Paypal, not that calling it a payment method is a mischaracterisation.

      I think they just don't want you to say Paypal is shit and doesn't do this or that, or gives the seller some disadvantage. I guess even if those things are true, they're claiming it as 'mischaracterisation'.

      --
      Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
  3. Re:Well, I'm covered then by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "In representations to your customers or in public communications, you agree not to mischaracterize PayPal as a payment method. At all of your points of sale (in whatever form), you agree not to try to dissuade or inhibit your customers from using PayPal; and, if you enable your customers to pay you with PayPal, you agree to treat PayPal's payment mark at least at par with other payment methods offered."

    For something that's not a "payment method", they sure seem to bill themselves as a "payment method". They say it themselves: "if you enable your customers to pay you with PayPal..."

    I mean, if I can pay for things using PayPal, is it not by definition a "payment method"? In what twisted-logic universe are they not a "payment method"?

    Here's how you can tell if something is a "payment method"- you try and buy something with it and if you can, it's a "payment method".

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  4. Re:europe by Proudrooster · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Maybe you are correct, but Ebay is a hot shopping mess. Descriptions, categories, titles are a mess. Make a typo on Ebay and you won't find your stuff. Make a typo on Amazon and you still gfindet your stuff. Ebay is sloooow and requires critical thought to sort through inconsistent listings. Amazon has a faster website which takes you right to the lowest price and has Amazon Prime. Order on Ebay, get it in a week. Order on Amazon, get it in 2-days.

    Amazon is neatly organized and the ease at which you can buy stuff is far superior to Ebay. Amazon reduces the friction to buy with one-click ordering and now their Alexa product. Need to do a return? Amazon gives your money back as soon as the item is scanned for return while returns can be painful.

    Amazon lets people harvest local deals, stuff it in a 50lb. box, then send it to an Amazon fulfilment center where they handle inventory and shipping. If you are a good harvester, you barely have to touch the product. Using Ebay you have to harvest the products, store them, inventory them, and ship them.

    Amazon is clearly continuing to innovate while Ebay lumbers along playing constant games with fees.

    For full disclosure, I am an Ebay seller and investigating moving to Amazon.