Losing Customers Due to eBays new payment policies

[Archive]

Posted By: Howie

Some of my regular customers who have been paying me by check or money order over the past few years have told me that they refuse to use Paypal. Therefore, they will no longer bid on eBay.

If I allow them to still pay me by check or money order, is that going to be a problem with eBay?

Your opinions are appreciated.

[Archive]

Posted By: Anonymous

Are you s troll? Or what kind of business person are you? Tell them that checks are fine! Geez.

[Archive]

Posted By: John S

That's awful to hear Howie. Not that they will change their policy; but have you tried to contact Ebay with this information? Thanks for helping me with my collection over the last several years. I will still be bidding on your items. Best,

John Spano

[Archive]

Posted By: John S

"Are you s troll? Or what kind of business person are you? Tell them that checks are fine! Geez."

What does Howie's question have to do with being a troll? He has posted here before and has a legitimate concern. Many of the NET54 members, including myself, are customers of his.

[Archive]

Posted By: JB

What can Ebay do about it?

[Archive]

Posted By: jdrum

can't they continue to send you money orders or checks. If they are regular customers they have your address and you theirs. Is ebay going to police each sale to make sure it was paid for by paypal?

[Archive]

Posted By: D. Bergin

If a customer requests to pay via a check or money order you are allowed to accept them. You just can't advertise it.

Just be sure they have your mailing address as it no longer automatically shows up on your Ebay invoices.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jason Carota

Every eBay transaction would require a corresponding PayPal or ProPay transaction, I assume.

[Archive]

Posted By: Donavon Arabie

They are going to lose many customers over this. Unless it's a car or a house, ebay is now saying you HAVE to pay with Paypal. Isn't that a conflict of interest, considering that Paypal is pretty much an ebay owned company? I guess they're figuring to maximize their profit....listing fees + the 3% charge to accept Paypal funds via credit card. It's truly tasteless & they deserve to lose customers. As someone who has had their bank account hacked via Paypal, I refuse to use it. So...my buying/selling on ebay is pretty much done.

[Archive]

Posted By: Frank L.

I have noticed that some sellers are still writing that they accept check/money order in the description. I would WRITE it in until ebay says something to you. When I am going to buy, I simply email the seller and ask if they accept check or money order. I have won from you many times, so I know you do, but others wont.

[Archive]

Posted By: jay wolt

I believe new eBay selling accounts can only accept Paypal
while older established accounts can also take other forms
of payment as they are grandfathered in.
Not that sure as eBay's policies change as needed.

[Archive]

Posted By: Frank L.

To gandhi1007

Dont give up on ebay. Most sellers still do accept money order/check. Just email them and ask if they do before you bid. I have been doing this. All of they have been responding back to me quickly. Dont have to go the paypal route.

[Archive]

Posted By: Stephen Mitchell

The Paypal only policy is not helpful - especially at a time of contracting discretionary dollars. We were contacted a couple of weeks ago by an eBay rep. regarding an eBay survey. I do not recall whether the Paypal-only policy was addressed but I did firmly emphasize that I was not in favor of eBay's form of "change" particularly in uncertain times like these.

Furthermore, several eBayers have contacted us requesting our address for purposes of paying by other methods than Paypal. Each has been advised that we are pleased to accept their check or money order (or Paypal). It is unclear if this is against eBay rules; I guess we'll find out eventually.

Strangely, we have seen some listings (ours and others) that still list options other than Paypal and even some of our own invoices have permitted us to check other options although none (to my recollection) the past week to ten days.

Steve (and Linda) Mitchell
TheBaseballHobbyist

[Archive]

Posted By: Jason Carota

"I would WRITE it in until ebay says something to you"



I wrote "No Checks" in my description (I only accept PayPal anyway,) and was told my listing could be removed. eBay has a filter set up to detect any occurrence of the word "check."

[Archive]

Posted By: D. Bergin

"I would WRITE it in until ebay says something to you"

I wrote "No Checks" in my description (I only accept PayPal anyway,) and was told my listing could be removed. eBay has a filter set up to detect any occurrence of the word "check."

Incredible! Soon the description "Wire Photo - Dave Semenko checks Guy Lafleur into the boards" will cause a listing to be deleted by the Ebay computers.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jim VB

This discussion had a thread last week. Ebay's new policy requires a seller to accept at least one form of electronic payment (Paypal, credit or debit card, or Propay).

Although the rule has already been changed, they will not begin to enforce it until 01/15/09.

You may not mention that you accept or prefer other forms of payment, but I think they know there is no way to prevent it. If a buyer contacts you and wants to pay by check or money order, they can't stop it, but you will not be able to say that in your listing.


http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html

[Archive]

Posted By: Jason

Exactly one of the many reasons that I refuse to get back on eBay as a seller. I am currently working on my own site and am glad to see others frustrated in the new stupid policies. This is just the beginning of a very huge loss of business for ebay and I am loving it! I hope they go down like a rock. They should never had messed with the original business model which made them so successful. I will continue to "use" them only to buy items I want, but not to sell. They may not even be able to recover now even if they changed back to their original model.

Jason

[Archive]

Posted By: Anonymous

Edited. I was cranky last night.

[Archive]

Posted By: howard

If you want to get around Ebay's word filter try mispelling "check" as "chek".

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

...simply write that you happily accept Chex! It's a tastier, healthier alternative to low-fiber PayPal payments!

[Archive]

Posted By: Robert Klevens

Just write something like...If you have any questions in regards to payment, please feel free to contact me.

[Archive]

Posted By: jay wolt

No way can eBay filter the word "check" or "checks"
I use the search all the time for "signed check(s)"
& "personal check(s)" since I collect them.
And there's hundreds listed as i type this.

[Archive]

Posted By: Chris Counts

I will continue to buy on eBay because it's still the best place for good deals ... but I won't sell on it anymore, and I'm just waiting for someone to come up with a better system. The folks who own eBay have gotten too greedy and out of touch, and they will only have themselves to blame when their website becomes irrelevant ... by the way, I don't do PayPal because when I tried to sign up, it didn't work, and when I tried to call customer service, I discovered that no number exists that I can call. Now that's lousy customer service ...

[Archive]

Posted By: David Smith

I wish a smart business person would just buy eBay and split it into two companies. One for the sellers who want to maintai a "store" and another for people who just want to do auctions. Then maybe they would also go back and look at the rules and change soem of them back to the way they used to be.

David

[Archive]

Posted By: barrysloate

I sell on ebay every week, and get at least a couple of checks or money orders each time. I'm fine with it, the customers are fine with it, and ebay has never said anything. How can they stop a seller from accepting a check if he agrees to it?

[Archive]

Posted By: Rick McQuillan

Last week I had a customer win one of my auctions. He emailed me to ask if I would accept a Postal money order. I said "fine", and it wasn't a problem.

There should be a way to get around this without a lot of hassle.

Rick

[Archive]

Posted By: Steve

The way I understood it was that after Jan 20 only paypal or other
electronic payment would be allowed, however, if a buyer and seller
wanted to they could still use a paper payment method. If your
account had a certain pct. of such transactions you could be suspended.


Steve

[Archive]

Posted By: Bob Lamb

I believe that the customer picking up the item in person is still an option. Just say that all the transactions that were picked up were paid with check, money order, cash, ect. Even if the buyer was in Califorina and the seller in New York, I know they cannot police this to that extent.What are they going to ask to see plane tickets and gas reciepts to verify that an item was picked up.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

I realize that this is an exaggeration, but...

eBay is so concerned about financial security and squeezing every penny out of its members, yet doesn't appear to have an issue with two of its clients meeting in person? Besides making future non-eBay transactions between these two members nearly inevitable, isn't eBay concerned about the safety of its users?! It's a stretch, but robbery/assault or worse are certainly possibilities, and I'm sure this has happened more than once. Well, as long as eBay gets their fees, I guess it's honky-dory.

[Archive]

Posted By: martindl

As a seller of many types of things, Ebay is still the best game in town - and a big ole global town at that. I can effectively display my wares to the entire world and price wise I think its still reasonable.

In my listings I say "PayPal preferred, but if your choice is some other form of payment, which is your option, then I'll be glad to work with you".

[Archive]

Posted By: keyway

I advertise it in the writing of my description. Checks, paypal or money orders. haven't heard anything from ebay about it yet. Frank

[Archive]

Posted By: Paul

My listings specifically say that I will accept paypal only because ebay insists, and that I'd prefer a check or money order to avoid paypal's fees.

I.d. pstewart493r.

[Archive]

Posted By: Howie

Thanks for all your suggestions. To play it safe, I'll leave out any references to money order and checks from my listings but will still honor those type of payments. I do like the idea of using Chex instead of check.

As far as the comment by Anonymous, keep your nasty remarks to yourself.

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

I notice that a couple of folks have suggested that, in order to avoid having your listings pulled, to ambiguously hint that you will take other forms of payment. My advice would be to create a proper verbiage that can both CLEARLY convey your message to potential bidders, while at the same time duck around eBay's filters and censors. As collectors and dealers, we have all run into our share of buyers who simply don't understand ambiguity. That is why such things must be spelled out in plain English. Perhaps somebody can come up with a few appropriate suggestions.

[Archive]

Posted By: D. Bergin

Jodi,

I simply use "Other forms of payment accepted at the customers request" in my description. Seems to work so far as I've had several e-mails in the last week from customers requesting to send checks or M.O's.

[Archive]

Posted By: S Gross

I still use "check or money order accepted" line in selling. If ebay tells me not to (although agree with Jay, no way they call filter it), I will go to "contact for other payment methods."

When I send invoice, I also explain ebay is the one who only allows paypal, BUT other methods are acceptted upon request.

I think ebay realizes sellers will go this route, but is just making it more difficult to do so, i.e. fear of "getting caught," hassle of typing it out in listing, and invoice, re-emailing address info to those who request it, etc.

If you stay on top of the situation, I do not believe the new system should hurt you terribly: The grand majority of buyers use paypal. For those who perfer check/mo, I think the "extra" customer service will be appreciated.


I hope big brother isn't reading this

[Archive]

Posted By: Anonymous

when a seller says "Paypal Only".....the message is clear....when a seller doesn't say that, i'll always ask if they take u.s. postal money-orders....so far, at least 8 out of 10 take money-orders...and sometimes (if you have x-cellent feedback)...they'll take a money-order despite listing "paypal only"

[Archive]

Posted By: Jason Carota

To clear up any confusion from my original post about the filter, I should mention that the use of said filter was not my conclusion. A live eBay Help Tech told me about their existence. As Jay mentioned, the first thing that came to my mind was "what about signed checks?"

[Archive]

Posted By: judson hamlin

I've been equally as successful with sending an email (how to pay for the item) and asking the seller about money orders.

[Archive]

Posted By: Lee Behrens

I started a thread about this seller with his questionable reaction to a poor transaction and I got hammer by many. Now he comes on the board asking a question that he should be well aware of the answer if indeed he is really concerned about his business. Just more evidence as to why his business practices were put into question by me.

As far as the guy who brought but the "buyer beware" practice in the other thread about BUYTHATCARD, good luck on your continued buying.

Gladly blocked by them so I don't happen to accidentally bid on something of theirs.

Lee

[Archive]

Posted By: Rawn Hill

A few great buys from BUYTHATCARD, let the horse die a dignified death. Just the thoughts from a poorboy.

Rawn

[Archive]

Posted By: Howie

What in the world is your problem, Lee Behrens?

I came on this thread with a legitimate question and you come barking about nothing. You are nothing but a bitter person. I blocked you from bidding at my site and you just can't handle it. You cry about nonsense. You were offered a resolution in our issue but you wanted more.

Take a look at my 29,500 positive feedbacks and see what others have said about me. What positive things can people say about you? I have seen some of the other threads where you were suspended from this board.

Lee Behrens, Get a life!

I apologize to others on this board for having to hear this. I do appreciate the feedback that you have given me.

[Archive]

Posted By: Lee Behrens

Howie,

Why am I not the only one that has not left a positive? You handled my situation very poorly. This question you asked here can be answered by looking into ebay policies which I would like to think you would be on top of since that is where you bread is buttered.

I chose not to respond to your response in the previous thread, but with this question you gave me reason to post again, that you are not everything you seem to think you are. Because of you not knowing policy you are losing business, not very good in my book. But, than again you have ten of thousands of positives, what's losing 30 or 40.

Why would I be bitter to being blocked when I have no intentions of bidding on any of your auctions after our incident.

Informed people make up there own minds with the proper information.

Lee

[Archive]

Posted By: leon

I think you said a mouthful when you said "informed people with make there (sic) own minds up"......

I think we should just leave it at that.....

Also, if all you want to do is post negatively on this board I would prefer you not post at all. If you want to contribute in a positive, constructive way, then that would be great...thanks much

[Archive]

Posted By: boxingcardman

Evading filters and creating ambiguities; we lawyers were created for that...

"If you dislike the ebay mandated means of getting my money to me, please contact me for alternatives."

"If you think paypal sucks too, plesae let me know and we can work out alternative means for getting me the money."

"I only accept paypal because the morons in charge of Ebay make me. If you prefer an alternate method for closing your deal, pleae contact me."


Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Darn tootin', Adam! "If you think PayPal sucks too..."!!!

[Archive]

Posted By: JimCrandell

I have noticed recently that there was no mailing address given for a few transactions I have done. I attributed it to my lack of technical skills on the computer and write the seller each time asking for their address.

Everyone takes a check. They may or may not wait for it to clear but in my thousands of transactions on ebay I have never heard of someone not taking my personal check.

Jim

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff Prizner

Not everyone takes a check, I just bought a big dollar item and offered to pay by check and then split the paypal fee savings, the seller responded that he could only take paypal due to ebay's rules.

[Archive]

Posted By: D. Bergin

"Not everyone takes a check, I just bought a big dollar item and offered to pay by check and then split the paypal fee savings, the seller responded that he could only take paypal due to ebay's rules."


It might have to do with how you worded the offer. He might have taken a check but because you put somewhat of a catch in there he might have thought it wasn't worth the hassle.

[Archive]

Posted By: Dan Bretta

I've just started using the line "Paypal preferred" in my auctions which is ambiguous enough that while I prefer paypal (and I do) that I will accept other forms of payment (which I do)...I have noticed though that ebay must not be giving my address anymore because buyers are emailing me for my address now.