eBay Not Protecting Sellers on Paper Payments Ban?

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I am a daily ready of a blog by Ina Steiner called ‘The Auctionbytes Blog’. If you don’t already subscribe to this blog, you need to start now! This blog has the most up-to-the-minute information for online sellers available anywhere!

To join, click here AuctionBytes Blog.

Well, as usual, she reports the scandals as well as the news. Yesterday, a post brought out all the pent up frustration eBay sellers have been feeling for some time now. The post addressed a problem a seller had with accepting a paper payment from a buyer. Read the post here:

eBay Not Standing with Sellers on Paper-Payments Ban

By: Ina Steiner

Wed Feb 4 2009 10:19:44

A long-time AuctionBytes reader forwarded us an email from eBay that shows that, at least in one situation, eBay is not supporting sellers who comply with its paper-payments ban. The seller asked eBay for help in a transaction in which the buyer said he needed to pay by check because he didn’t have a PayPal account. Since eBay bans sellers from accepting checks and money orders as part of its Accepted Payments policy, the seller reported the request to eBay, explaining he did not accept checks and had long ago set his account to block any buyer who did not have a PayPal account. The seller ended the communication to eBay with the following: So we are surprised that in 2009 we received the following message from a buyer: I need to pay by check. I dont have a paypal account. thanks (name of buyer withheld) The eBay customer service representative apparently skimmed the letter and thought it was the buyer who had sent eBay the email. He replied to the seller, thinking his letter was going to the buyer in the transaction. Nowhere in the response to the “buyer” did the representative explain that it was eBay’s policy to ban sellers from accepting checks. Rather, the rep apologized to the buyer for the difficulty he was having with the transaction, and encouraged him to contact the seller. But the real punch line is this part of eBay’s letter to the supposed buyer: “If you’re still unable to reach the seller by email or by phone after a reasonable amount of time, we encourage you to leave appropriate Feedback. This will alert other bidders about your experience. Here’s how to leave Feedback,…” Is this a case of one eBay customer service rep who doesn’t understand eBay’s Accepted Payments policy? Or has eBay failed to communicate to its reps that sellers are banned from accepting checks? Or does eBay condone its reps telling buyers it’s okay to neg a seller if they don’t accept checks, even though eBay bans sellers for advertising that they accept them? Well, the comments started flying. Most of them to do with sellers having the same situation. It was really an eye opener to me to see how many sellers were still not clear on the policy! The new policy states, No listing can have a reference to a paper payment ie. check, Money Order, etc. However, if a buyer does not have a Paypal account, he can contact the Seller to see if the Seller will accept a paper payment. No problem. So the answer of course is, yes…Sellers can accept paper payments – they just can’t tell anyone they accept them! I think this is due to the fact that eBay cannot force customers to open a Paypal account to buy items on its site. That would lead to…ummm, a monopoly?! I’ve had my own ups and my downs with eBay. Do I still sell on eBay? Yes. I have several sites I sell on, but the fact remains…eBay is my money maker!

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