Not using Paypal is akin to buying heroin on the street
According to Ebay
EBAY AUSTRALIA HAS firmly lodged its foot in its mouth, by comparing sellers who don’t use the Paypal option to heroin dealers.
At a "town hall" style meeting to discuss the fact that Ebay Australia will be scrapping all payment methods apart from Paypal, events went from bad to worse, with Ebay’s regional VP ending the evening with a comparison between people who didn't want to use PayPal and Junkies.
In April Ebay Australia announced that as of June, buyers would only be able to buy goods via the online commerce website Paypal, which just so happens to be owned by the online auction company.
Australians went hopping mad at the decision, which they saw as a ploy by Ebay to siphon off even more cash from user sales, to fill its overflowing coffers.
To try to appease some of the rage, Ebay decided to hold a meeting with sellers in Preston, Northern Melbourne. Regional VP Simon Smith, PayPal Australia MD Andrew Pipolo and trust and safety director Alastair MacGibbon were the execs chosen to head up Ebay’s panel, just asking for trouble by sitting under posters with the words "Making eBay even safer" and "practice safe shopping" emblazoned across them.
According to APC Mag, it all seemed to start out harmlessly enough, with Smith repeating the company mantra that Paypal was the most popular and safest option for buyers, and that keeping buyers happy would make them want to buy more stuff. This apparently didn’t go down too well with the crowd, but then Alastair MacGibbon decided to have a go.
MacGibbon, using a very random analogy, and responding to a question from a buyer who noted that she’d had nothing but good experiences from other payment methods, said, "I cross against the lights occasionally and I've never been hit by a bus, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea". As the boos filled the room and showed no signs of subsiding, MacGibbon stuttered "You can boo and hiss all you like, I can just tell you the simple facts."
But the ugliest part of the evening came in response to the question about why Ebay was taking freedom of choice away from the buyers. Smith, who attempted to answer the question, first fumbled around trying to make the point that many online shopping sites didn’t offer the luxury of choosing between bank transfers and credit cards, but when the crowd angrily rejected his initial explanation, Smith went on to say: "We're not allowing people to offer unsafe choices, just like in this democracy you can't go out and buy heroin on the streets". µ
L’Inq
APC
Mag
Comments
LMAO
Oh man Aussies are hilariousNot just in Australia
eBay is going to force PayPal also on the Germans. At least they will try. Let's see how eBay will insult its customers in Germany. And how about the "Old Europe"?http://www.pressetext.de/pte.mc?pte=080430033
http://www.nopaypal.com/
Paypal is awful
Personally, I think Paypal is like the anti-christ of online payment methods.They screwed up charges to my account one time (costing me like $30 bucks or somesuch because they tried to take money out of an account I had deactivated) and getting a hold of them was an absolute nightmare.
It required a concentrated effort to even find out how to contact them - and by contact, I mean 'email hell.' Each email to what they call their "customer service" took them about a day to respond to, with a completely unhelpful, hardly associated-to-the-problem form mail.
Getting a human response took a herculean effort, and when that finally came it, was unhelpful. I never did get my money back and gave up. The person I managed to contact via email would never answer my direct questions. The whole process was infuriating.
If you think I'm exageratting, try to find a customer service number on the paypal site. It doesn't exist. I read that it was only after some litigation (or threat of) that they even started posting that useless customer service email address that used.
concentrated effort, and herculaen
This isn't the first time, either...
Several years back, eBay did the same thing... TO PayPal users.At the time, eBay had newly acquired the online payment site Billpoint to rival PayPal (owned by X.COM at the time). With new competition, PayPal offered discount incentives to sellers who accepted PayPal payments exclusively. To combat the overwhelming success of this move, eBay quickly incorporated Billpoint as "eBay Check-Out" and forbid PayPal payments on their site. Sellers who continued to mention PayPal in their auction listings had their auctions pulled and accounts suspended. The decision almost ruined eBay, and they conceded to sellers' demands to allow PayPal. A year later, eBay deep-sixed Billpoint and acquired PayPal instead.
But to be certain, the reason eBay is limiting the allowable payment methods in the Australian market is to set a precedent so they can do the same in larger markets, including America. This is at an attempt to stave off lawsuits from Google Checkout and other payment methods that eBay has been fighting to banish. If eBay can show "with good faith" that they aren't holding bias against a single player, they might avoid costly legal battles. To do this, they have to forbid all Non-PayPal transactions; including Check, Money-Order, and Cash Pickup.
For some more fun, take a look at eBay's recent acquisitions; including regional auction sites, online payment sites, and search engines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_eBay
watch out for paypal
Paypal only wants your money .,They earn an obscene percentage
on every transaction you make.
If something goes wrong and you
want to claim they will use any trick
available to stop you from getting your money back.
Ebay will appease the masses by offering prizes
Dear Sylvie,Imagine my delight at receiving an email from Ebay a few days back, telling me I could win a share in 450 prizes. My immediate response was to fire a really nasty letter back telling them I wasn't interested in their prizes, but being able to pay on Ebay using more options than provided, like it was before. I spoke of this issue with a friend of mine just yesterday, he told me they are being investigated by the ACCC, a watchdog we have here, for their 'double dipping', stinging fees for selling items, then stinging again for using Paypal. The situation is ridiculous and will come back to haunt them for years to come, if everyone else can look beyond their prize give away.
Paul
So what's wrong with that
People who don't use paypal DO sell heroin on the street. They are crackhead scumball vermin! Everybuddy knows that.Once again thanks for STATING THE OBVIOUS INQUIRER......
Mad continent
So they don't have anti-monopoly laws in australia then I gather, no doubt because having protection from monopolies is like smoking crack while jaywalking.Anti-competitive?
Wouldn't this qualify as anti-competitive practices? Oh wait, it's Australia... they don't care.I hope that...
...eBay does the same thing here in the US.Maybe that way they can hasten their own sinking and we can wait and see what other online auction sites gain traction by sucking considerably less.
Next Please
It'll be Germany, France the the UK all just to get a them extra charges when transfering them to your bank account if under £50 that is.I recently had a security breech PayPal found it and closed my account till I provide information that it was me. I closed my 2 year old account and opened a new one with my new card to be safe.
I now change my password regulary for better security,
Am I alone on this?
Am I the only person in the world who has had 0 problems with PayPal in over 8 years of membership?PayPal
Forced to use payPal! it is better and safer? You have to be joking.I an others have a very long list of mess ups from PayPal. And of course they are never wrong!
Our company will not let us even use PayPal because of what has happened to them over the years. Yea , I bet they want to be the only one that handles the money.
Any one who would keep shopping with them after this is a fool. Sorry but that is just how I feel. The list of trashed accounts and what goes with it is just way to long!
this really sux
I saw the advert about this last night when I logged into My eBay to see how an item I am trying to sell is going. Was immediately annoyed as I totally dislike using PayPal when Bank Transfer is considerably easier, faster and has no fees. I have never ever had problems when using Bank Transer.I only got a PayPal account for the sake of buying/selling with overseas users. But for local purchases within Australia, PayPal is useless and so much slower than using traditional payment methods. I used to have my bank account linked to my PayPal account for ages, and transferring money from PayPal to my bank account was fairly painless apart from the transfer fees.
Recently for no reason and with no explanation however, my bank account was blocked so I can no longer transfer money from PayPal to myself. In order to get my bank account usable with PayPal again, they expect me to fax them copies of my bank statements. The whole idea is a joke and just a way to force buyers and sellers to pay more fees just like what the banks do...
Re:Am I alone
You are probably not the only person without issues, but that is not the point. When all goes well, you obviously have nothing to complain about. It's when there's a hiccup that service matters.With a bank, if you have a double-billing on your credit card record, you phone the bank or go see a teller, and the issue will most likely be very quickly resolved. That is because a real bank has the obligation of managing your money and making it available TO YOU.
Paypal, on the other hand, is NOT a bank. If your Paypal account has a problem, it's YOUR problem, not Paypal's, and if Paypal decides that your account has any "suspicious" activity, it will LOCK IT DOWN. For 90 days.
As a comparison, for a bank to lock you out of your account, it takes a court order in most countries.
Paypal is not your friend. They're in it for the money and they have no charter keeping them from doing whatever it is they want to do with your money. On top of that, it has taken a court order to make them display an e-mail address (and it will probably take another court order to make that address useful). Not only is this a telling sign of just how much of a "pal" they are, it is a sure sign that customer service is NOT the top of their priorities.
If you accept that and it works for you, good for you. As for me, and most likely anyone who has been on the wrong side of a Paypal decision, I do not accept that behavior and, therefor, refuse to use their service.
Old Paypal vs. Ebay_Papal
I dont know if many of you reading this ever started using paypal when it first hit. I was in high (long time ago) and a doctor (into tech insanely) told me about it. I never signed up for it until the following year I went to college. With the advice of a friend i made who was in IT, I joined Paypal. I can't tell you how much I loved it. A bunch of went to diners and other eateries, and share the expenses through our respective paypal account. Back then we could use a Palm Pilot (remember those) to transfer money from one person's account to another's. For example, if my friend was short on cash that night at the diner, he would just send his portion of the bill using paypal funds to my account using his Palm Pilot, in turn I had the physical cash in my wallet and I paid them.Back then they didnt charge the insane fees they charge now.
The culprit in my opinion is not PayPal per se.... this is the business model of the people who control eBay. When acquiring PayPal of course they wanted to make a profit...but it was ebay who put those strict policies in action. Before ebay's acquisition of Paypal, I was able to contact paypal easily, had friendly service and not a single issue.
As years went on, when I began selling items on ebay, using paypal became a nightmare, not any better from ebay itself.
But what am I saying.... WE ARE DEALING WITH ONE COMPANY, physcially maybe two ententies, but the mindsent and decisions are from one entity- and thats steadfast f u headed bloodsucking ebay!
Oz Ebay Spin Meisters
These Guys have been doing a few of these meetings around Oz and I got to go to one and the robots just keep repeating same old motherhood Spin (Ebay members do not know what is good for them so we have to do it for them).But it appears they may have just been poking the bee hive a little to much and not really had the facts straight as there are over 350 (and there are indications that there could be into the 1000's not yet processed) submissions against Ebay/Paypal's new policies on the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission's website ( http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/823668/fromItemId/776499/display/submission ) and most of them are opposing the proposed conduct.
Of particular interest are the submissions Australian Bankers' Association, Electronic Frontiers Australia Inc, Australian Securities & Investments Commission, Australian Payments Clearing Association, Reserve Bank of Australia & the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. From these major bodies it appears Ebay is really stretching the truth in their Notification of Exclusive Dealing which is an immunity from prosecution for breaches of the Australian Trade Practices Act.
Especially interesting is that unlike most Australian financial services (AFS) licensees that provide banking or non-cash payment services in Australia, PayPal has declined to become a signatory to the Electronic Funds Transfer Code of Conduct (EFT Code). The EFT Code is the key consumer protection code of conduct applying to the payment services industry, and covers fundamental issues concerning consumer rights, security, disclosure and resolution of mistaken or unauthorised payments.
So their mantra of chanting that Paypal is 4 times safer than any other payment method looks like getting blown out of the water and hopefully the whole changes reversed.
I consider it was really just a cunning marketing ploy to get the numbers of Paypal register users up because that is what has happened even if this all gets overturned and all for just $1000.00 (cost of lodging the Notification of Exclusive Dealing ).
Its being investigated
It is being looked it to, there's still a chance that it will be blocked:http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,23682888-15306,00.html