Who is the Paypal/Ebay Consumer

October 25th, 2009 by JoyfullyJanet

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My personal OPINION – by Janet C. aka JoyfullyJanet

Where are the consumer activists regarding Paypal?

I had been waiting for 20/20 and/or 60 minutes to do a show highlighting the consumer issues with Paypal transactions.

It would be great if it were possible to do a feature on the benefits of paypal; however, there wouldn’t be enough information to produce a sound bite.

I’m wondering, if there’s ANYONE, who uses paypal on a regular basis that has not had some sort of negative interaction with them.

I know that I, personally, have only used it, as a buyer, because if I wanted something, certain sellers only utilize paypal as their choice for online money transactions.

Ebay has created their TOS to limit sellers on their means of accepting money for items. Gone are the old fashioned days of accepting checks or money orders.

Payment methods not allowed on eBay:

For most categories, sellers can’t ask buyers to:

Send cash through the mail
Send cash or money orders through instant, point-to-point cash transfer services (that are not banks) such as Western Union or MoneyGram
Mail checks or money orders (except for items in categories specifically permitted below)
Pay through bank-to-bank transfers (except for items in categories specifically permitted below)
Pay by “topping off” a seller’s prepaid credit or debit card
Pay using online or other payment methods not specifically permitted in this policy

This information was taken, verbatum, from http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html

While I understand that this is to, supposedly, help prevent buyers from being ripped off; as well as sellers. Is it? Or is it actually a manipulation for people to use Paypal?

After all if you return to the url above you’ll notice that ebay’s accepted payment methods are not in alphabetical order. I can only presume that it’s topped off with ebay’s endorsement and their primary preference that is used.

Our Accepted Payments policy helps ensure that buyers and sellers on eBay are offered safe, convenient payment options.

For most categories, sellers need to offer one or more of the following electronic payment choices:

PayPal
ProPay
Moneybookers
Paymate
Credit card or debit card processed through the seller’s Internet merchant account

As an ebay seller, the major reason that I’ve kept paypal, is that it interacts with ebay and the risks of using paypal, at this time, for me, is worth it.

Perhaps I haven’t done enough research. Which, is hopefully the case, and someone will read this post and enlighten me to a better way.

So I’ll say, my presumption, is that with paypal for the purpose of ebay selling, automatically notifies me that I’ve been paid via my ebay dashboard. I can purchase my USPS labels, without having to integrate another system for handling my shipping needs. And…

Well, that’s about it. Those are my benefits that I don’t see offered when utilizing an alternative paypal resource.

Ebay buyers who are using credit cards, especially American Express, are protected by their credit card company. The credit card holder is paying for the protection, as well as the convenience of using a credit card. The credit card holder is the consumer.

However, when it comes to Paypal, who is their consumer? Who pays the fees for accepting a credit card? Who is Paypal obligated to?

As far as consumer protection. It is the seller who is the actual consumer of the paypal service, in most cases. I say most cases, because I recently purchased something via paypal, and the paypal charges were included, by paypal, at the sellers request.

In real estate, the REALTOR®, broker/agent, has a fiduciary obligation to the person paying them. In most instances, that’s the seller. However, they are also obligated not to intentionally omit negative information for the purpose of generating a sale. When I choose a real estate agent, I look for REALTOR® members, for their service integrity.

My opinion is that in lieu of integrity, Paypal and ebay have created TOS as a means to only protect themselves, as the receiver of commission payments from consumers of anything sold or purchased.

How many other companies have the luxury to make up consumer protection guidelines, where their consumer, isn’t the one paying for their service?

Am I the only one asking the question?

Please provide me with your comment.

Also, the BBB online, regarding paypal, may be found at the following link http://www.trustlink.org/BusinessProfile.aspx?ID=206039983

WHY I HATE PAYPAL – Youtube video

by: WhatYouOughtToKnow
June 26, 2008,