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Would You Do More Ebaying if Paypal were Optional ?

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frangi:
As we know, we're required to 'join' Paypal if we wish to sell on ebay, these days.

Can only speak for myself, but I don't like being pushed around.  People have told me that Paypal's not bad if you're fortunate enough not to have a bad experience.  Sort of like a Lucky Dip situation -- it's good until it turns bad, lol. 

I'll be honest, I used to enjoy Ebay most of the time, back before Paypal became mandatory.  I sold a few things but most of the time I was a buyer.  I had a few bad experiences, but most of the time it was good.  And that's what gave me the confidence to sell a few things.

Then, ebay demanded that anyone who wanted to sell anything must have a Paypal account and must be prepared to accept payment via Paypal.  Along with that emerged the horror stories of buyers making false claim-backs once they'd received the item.  In many reported instances, the poor seller lost the item and the payment!  Yet they still had to pay ebay fees !  So they made a loss, through no fault of their own.   

Well, that's unjust, isn't it ?  Imagine if it happened to you.  I didn't want it happening to me.  I think I'd pop a fuse if it did.  So I decided that if risking it was the price I had to pay to sell on ebay, then I'd just not bother trying to sell anything on ebay any more. 

At the same time, I also decided to stop buying on ebay too, until ebay stopped dictating payment methods and left those decisions to the sellers and buyers. 

So, I do far less ebaying (nothing at all these days in fact) since Paypal became an enforced payment method.

On the other hand, if Paypal were optional .. if ebay respected my right to make my own decisions for a change .. then I think I'd start ebaying again.

How about you ?

*Ubbie Max*:
Franji.
I was never a seller but, I used to buy a lot of gear, both for myself & for others.

Since the Ebay/Paypal debacle I have hardly bought a thing & if people ask me to get something for them I tell them that I no longer buy through Ebay.

Probably the main reason I no longer bid/buy is that the sellers of the gear I am interested in have gone, both here & overseas.
There is a lot of cheap chinese gear available but my mates & I look for better quality & are prepared to pay more for that quality.

In the USA a number of the good sellers now have their own online stores & I buy direct from them using a debit card set up for online money transfers. debit card.

frangi:
Good on you for finding a way around ebay's enforced Paypal, Ubbrd  :t2:   

You've given me some ideas there, thank you !

It was the same here.  I used to buy stuff for my Mum and other people who can't get out to the shops much.  I knew it was fun for her to get frequent little parcels .. brightened her day and gave her something different to wear.  These things count for a lot when people are elderly or house-bound. 

Since ebay enforced Paypal (it's the enforcing part I strongly object to, not to mention the risks allegedly inherent in Paypal) I've been buying things for her over on Oztion.  Works out a lot less expensive, too, incidentally. 

Of course, items I used to buy for myself are still mostly on ebay (antique jewellery, for one).  But, I've disciplined myself to conquer that little indulgence in my determination not to patronize a dictatorial ebay.

The other side though is, by stringently curtailing my ebay purchases, I'm of necessity hurting ebay sellers, which I wish were avoidable.

I read all the time now about sellers starting their own sites, or switching to other, established sites, such as Etsy or Amazon, etc.  And my daughter's started buying her weaving and spinning supplies direct from source in Victoria.  Little by little, people are learning to live independently of ebay.  It might be a lot harder than ebay imagine, to bring those people back when it's realised the 'innovative changes' aren't acceptable to so many, huh ?

Thanks for your post, Ubbrd .. I'm sure you've given more than a few people some ideas on how to circumvent enforced Paypal :-)

And ebay .. if you're listening ... please consider dropping the mandatory element of Paypal before it's too late.  Don't be known as the corporation which shut the barn gate after ALL the horses had bolted

Primaryaim:
I stopped selling when PayPal was forced on us. At first, within the guidelines I re-wrote my Terms of Sale and eBay invoices to encourage payment by other methods and with my very good feedback I expected a percentage of buyers would use an alternative payment method but when eBay scared buyers by advertising sellers were out to get them and they needed 'protection' then made it almost impossible to find the bank details, buyers gave up and paid using Paypal.

I just could not work around these obstacles and as I did not want to be perpetually anxious over non receipt claims, the pressure of DSRs, the changed attitude of new buyers, some who saw the slightest mistake as an opportunity to 'get even' with the world for their bad day by leaving me an undeserved negative, nor to give what was left of my profits to Paypal, I gave up selling. 

I would defnitely start selling again if Paypal were optional and they stopped telling buyers they need 'protection'.

*CountessA*:
I'm in a similar situation to ubbrd. I know many people who ask me to buy things on their behalf. They don't have a PayPal account and don't want one. They don't feel safe buying on eBay for a number of reasons, and some of them still seem to think they MUST have PayPal in order to buy...

I thus do buying on their behalf. I don't limit my buying to eBay by any means. When I first started buying on eBay, it was my first port of call for internet buying. Now, it comes last. I'd rather buy now from Amazon or international shops with their own websites or over the phone with companies. I remember one weird experience with a Germany company - the person who took my order wanted to chat about where my mother had grown up, as it was a Dorf known to her. I kept trying to explain I was in Australia and the phone call was COSTING!!!

I have found the range of stuff on eBay horribly diminished.

I will still buy on eBay, but as I've said... much, much less frequently. If I buy from Amazon or with a company, I can use my card for immediate payment, and I don't have to worry about needing PayPal. I have all the security of my card issuer if there should be any problem with those purchases.

But Frangi... it's not just PayPal that is affecting my buying on eBay. It's the range (so much smaller), the difficulty of finding things even if they are there (the search results are so flawed and slow-loading), and the general cosmetic changes made by eBay which result in a much, much slower site.

I think PayPal is largely responsible for the smaller range of items for sale, so indirectly that is a major reason for buyers finding less they want to buy.

A relative used to sell on eBay, but he stopped as soon as the mandatory PayPal thing came in. He offered mostly pickup items, and he just couldn't continue under the ridiculous conditions imposed by eBay - with Paypal having to be offered.

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