PayPal made compulsory on all eBay UK listings
24/03/2008 at 13:07
eBay UK have just announced that from the end of April, all sellers on eBay UK must offer PayPal as a payment method on their listings.
This change shouldn’t surprise anyone; it’s been edging slowly closer for months now, with all new sellers and those in some specific categories told in January they had to offer PayPal. No doubt some sellers will object vociferously, but largely, I’m in favour. Anything that makes buyers feel safer shopping on eBay is good by me.
Sellers (except those in the specified “PayPal only” categories) are of course free to offer other methods of payment, so long as those comply with the accepted payments policy.
The Motors category is exempt from this new rule, which is entirely reasonable; it’s a shame that other categories which normally involve collecting in person (vending machines spring to mind) are not being treated with the same flexibility. I would have liked to see an exemption in categories like Business, Wholesale or Furniture, that if collection in person were listed as the only shipping option, PayPal need not be offered.
eBay UK have also reannounced the possibilty of 21-day payment holds by PayPal. Reading through PayPal’s guidelines, it seems that very few sellers are going to suffer with this: only those who are new and selling more expensive items, or who already have a track record of buyer dissatisfaction, are likely to be targetted. I hope that PayPal are communicating this to new sellers though: it’s hardly a great beginning to your eBay selling career to have your first £51 payment put on hold.
Finally, “we look forward to announcing the details of expanded protection for Powersellers in the coming days”. That’ll be the expanded protection that astute TameBay readers are already signing up for, will it?
whirly says
1:44 pm on 24/03/2008
Fake / False Paypal charge backs in last 3 years = 9
Fake / False credit card charge backs in last 5 years = 0
Dan Wilson says
1:58 pm on 24/03/2008
For me, this is a case of “what took you so long?”
Recently, the two trades that have gone awry for me (sorted in the end) were cheque payments. And they were slow, tedious waits from clicking to them plopping through the door.
It’s clear that eBay/PayPal has some work to do to boost seller confidence. But definitely a good move.
Sue Bailey says
1:59 pm on 24/03/2008
Whirly, take a look at expanded seller protection: I know what you’re saying, but I think a lot of those fake claims are now going to be PayPal’s problem, not sellers’.
Dave says
2:07 pm on 24/03/2008
In this new era of Ebay seller discounts I would certainly move to “Paypal Only” for a small discount.
Blighty says
2:10 pm on 24/03/2008
Has the reason for having your destiny in your own hands by opening your own website ever been more compelling?
whirly says
2:14 pm on 24/03/2008
As I have said before I only use eBay to generate traffic and make the phones buzz, I have a payment provider “Streamline” for which we had to undergo rigorous financial checks before they provided there service to us.
Perhaps if paypal required no more than a hotmail address to open an account it might be a bit more secure and not so wide open to abuse.
Store Your Stuff aka Jade says
2:35 pm on 24/03/2008
In my own experience buyers prefer paypal. I as a seller genuinely prefer paypal even with the charges that we have to bare. So this will further differentiate the part-time (non tax paying) sellers from the law abiding tax paying.
It’s one thing hiding cash, Postal Orders and cheques, quite another hiding an electronic, available for ages trail of transactions.
I welcome it.
Sue Bailey says
2:39 pm on 24/03/2008
I think at this point, we need to stress that part-time does not necessarily equal tax-avoiding (any more than full-time *necessarily* equals tax-paying).
Chris Dawson says
3:01 pm on 24/03/2008
I’ve always offered PayPal, cheques and postal orders with cash on collection.
Over 98% of my buyers appear to prefer PayPal, although that figure may be skewed by selling technology products. If 95% of all eBay listings already offer PayPal the remaining 5% isn’t an awful lot to change although it does now result in the inability to trade for anyone that is unfortunate enough to have their account limited
northumbrian says
3:29 pm on 24/03/2008
if ebay just gave me a little nudge and a sniff of a carrot
I would go paypal only
bored ridgid with the cheque/moneyorder/cash is on its way
that never arrives pillocks
Owen says
3:41 pm on 24/03/2008
I wonder why vending machines sprang to Sue’s mind
I offer Paypal anyway, but most of the time managed to steer buyers to other methods of payment.
If they use Paypal I have to take a calculated risk as pallet deliveries don’t have online tracking to qualify for any payment protection.
To a large extent I’m with Whirly on this one. eBay is a shop window and it generates sales by phone calls, and then I have the chance to sell up and make more money.
Sue Bailey says
3:44 pm on 24/03/2008
I was thinking of you, Owen
whirly says
4:10 pm on 24/03/2008
All our baths go on pallets Owen, that has been the main cause of previous problems…paypal ask you to prove its been delivered online which of course we can’t, sadly whats good enough for a UK Judge is not good enough for Paypal so you have to go through all the mundane dross of issuing a CCJ to recover the STOLEN funds.
Owen says
5:03 pm on 24/03/2008
Why thank you kind lady.
I have the same problem with the machines, Whirly.
Thankfully, probably beacuse I deal mainly with other businesses, I haven’t yet had a problem, but there is time yet.
Dee says
10:56 pm on 24/03/2008
As we’re not in one of the countries that enjoys any form of seller protection with PayPal, it will leave us totally unprotected. Even if we ship with tracking and signature internationally, PayPal ignores our proof of delivery, so we automatically lose every dispute for “non delivery”. Our only recourse has been to give negative feedback to warn other sellers (but that is soon to be no longer an option) and make a police (and sometimes “mail fraud”) report in the country of the fraudster.
We also accept bank transfers, MoneyBookers, GoogleCheckout and a host of other payment options but the canny eBay fraudsters are all being pushing into forcing PayPal acceptance. I guess we will have to be even more viligent in checking the bona fides of all bidders.
Paul says
12:04 pm on 25/03/2008
After 2 months of trying ebay with Paypal being a choice rather than the only option buyers have I have deceided, rather reluctantly, to make all my listings Paypal ONLY by default.
In the time of this trial I have had a only 2 non payers, but, and here’s the thing, a pattern is emerging where people win an item but then take an absolute age to pay. Often they seem to wait until the very last moment before paying.
I mean last moment as the time they get an email explaining that they are about to be isued with a non payment strike and a negative feedback comment (Do ebay realise sellers can still say after May in block capitals NON PAYING BIDDER).
The 2 reasons I removed Paypal as the default payment were:
1) It’s yet another ebay fee.
2) Paypal offer a seller VERY little protection.
I feel that ebay should still give sellers the choice of accepting Paypal payments though, or at least be honest about the real cost of selling an item on the venue in terms of fees.
I do like how they give you the FVF info when you go to post a listing but feel if they are going to make Paypal compulsory then this charge should be shown too.
Kate says
12:31 pm on 25/03/2008
Paypal should never be compulsory for items that are collected. When I have sold guitars for my partner I have never offered Paypal as an option – for as start he is likely to lose money on the transaction anyway (The second hand guitar market isn’t a place to make money), he only sells them to get the cash to buy something else and hopefully a better price than he would get by trading it in. On a guitar selling for £500 – £1000 many people would come and try it out before buying anyway (at least if it wasn’t new from a shop) or would at least collect it. Paypals fees are so high that he would lose another £25 + on the transaction and he can’t afford to do that.