Comments on: eBay for charity enable donations on all sales

By: Kate

Kate — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:01:13 +0000

I don’t like this idea at all, like other people have said, I will donate to charity if and when I want to, not because ebay shoves a box under my nose for some charity I don’t really support anyway.

By: Lisa Suttora

Lisa Suttora — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:17:44 +0000

I just paid for a Christmas gift on eBay.com and was presented with the option to donate $1 for charity.

On eBay.com it does not indicate that the donation is not associated with the seller’s preferred charity.

Which is totally misleading to buyers.

There was no announcement of “this is a new program” “this is how it works” “This is an eBay sponsored program.” etc.

For those who shop on eBay and are familiar with sellers who donate a percentage of sales to charity – it is an easy leap to assume that by donating $1 you are supporting the efforts of the seller to raise money for a particular charity.

Which is exactly why I donated on this particular purchase. The seller was awesome and I wanted to do something to support what I thought were her efforts to raise money for a cause she believed in.

Not that the charity itself is not worthy, or that program is bad – but eBay needs to word this clearly upfront so buyers know exactly what program they are donating to.

eBay needs to message this completely differently.

I also don’t think that it should be a part of the seller’s checkout process.

This is an eBay program being implemented on an independent seller’s checkout flow, it once again blurs the line between eBay as venue and eBay as retailer.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:23:29 +0000

Any donation I make is between me and my charity of choice. Grubby ebay and charity don’t mix. There’s a scam here somewhere as ebay do nowt for nowt.

By: Jimbo

Jimbo — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:09:53 +0000

Or the chuggers

By: northumbrian

northumbrian — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:51:06 +0000

its becoming the ebay equivalent of all those shop doorway beggars
not only is the begging bowl on checkout,
the SYI listing form has a charity or two lurking in the corner with its hand out

By: ebuyerfb

ebuyerfb — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:25:32 +0000

This doesn’t seem like a good move on any level.

@ # 18

It does look good PR wise and it does sound good on the surface until you actually think about it. I know here in the US it is common to see the convenience stores and retail chains offering a piece of paper for $1 claiming to be a donation for some charity.

I recently got a survey (I’m assuming most of you did) and it seemed like they wanted me to say the following:

“I like shopping at eBay because I can get a great deal and help out a good cause at the same time.”

I didn’t fall for it but I suspect this is what they are doing. eBay and PayPal both have a huge image problem and this is the eBay way of fixing it.

By: Dan Wilson

Dan Wilson — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:28:54 +0000

I saw this today and must confess to being confused. (Shame on me for not reading Tamebay before!)

This doesn’t seem like a good move on any level. I wanna pay: don’t make me think.

I had the option to donate a quid to a books charity. I have nothing against this in theory… but it did make me pause. And that’s bad in the checkout flow.

By: KeithS

KeithS — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:24:57 +0000

I’ve seen this somewhere else in the last couple of weeks. Paid by paypal, may have been to a US seller but the donation was 20cents

By: ebuyerfb

ebuyerfb — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:41:35 +0000

@ # 15

I suspect that was the real reason all along. Think about it, if all sellers followed that advice they make an additional 1.3 million sales just by adding a little checkbox at checkout. Huge ROI.

By: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:21:37 +0000

#14 That’s not good, but to be honest it’s a case of you have to tick the box to make a donation and if you don’t tick the box you won’t.

I’d recommend everyone buy something on eBay and at checkout you’ll be able to see how it works ticking/unticking the box. If you don’t want to make a donation it’s no problem, just pay for the item but at least you’ll know what your customers are seening.