Online auction giant eBay has started banning sellers from using Google’s new Checkout payment service. EBay’s justification stems from its Accepted Payments policy which states that a payment service must have a proven, reliable and safe track record for dealing with finances. Realistically, this is likely eBay trying to protect its old buddy PayPal which has been an eBay must since the start. Is eBay really fostering a monopoly and shunning all PayPal competition?
Google attempted to refute eBay’s actions, declaring that Google has long dealt with payment services and claims that Checkout is a safe, reliable final product. It seems as though Google is talking to a brick wall. EBay doesn’t plan on changing its mind anytime soon, which is a shame as I would love to switch from PayPal to Checkout. Unfortunately, I can’t do that unless I’m ensured that Checkout will be eBay friendly.
Tweet This
Stumble This
{ 2 trackbacks }
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s actually a little bit comforting to know that eBay’s near-zero customer service policy extends to large companies as well. I have had auctions fall through because of scams that eBay lets continue and still had to pay listing fees.
A friend of mine, who has never used eBay, ended up with a credit on his card. He tried, unsuccessfully, to even get eBay to take back the money they accidentally gave him. They have such a huge marketplace that I think they’ve given up on customer service.
That said, it is a bit unfair to play the game closed like this.
(On a similar note, I don’t see a disclaimer on your site. As a Yahoo! intern talking about a partner and a competitor, this might be a good time to put one up.)
More from author
Haha, I don’t hold sides and am not a fanboy. I just use the better product, regardless of who makes it. Case in point – I use gmail but Yahoo! is my homepage.
More from author
You said “I would love to switch from PayPal to Checkout”. Could you expand on that? Why? Though I have some friends that disagree with me, I’ve always had pleasant and efficient paypal experiences.
thanks,
nate
More from author
Strange ebay’s politics. It seems it really wants to have paypal monopoly. But it is too obvious. And are their official report? I’m interested to hear it
More from author
@nate: I’ve heard that Checkout fees aren’t as harsh as Paypal’s fees. That’s the only thing luring me to it. I have yet to see if that is true though.
More from author
I see no problem with eBay protecting it’s interests (i.e PayPal is owned by eBay). If Google is upset, why not have them build up an auction site like eBay? Don’t get me wrong, I’m like Paul here. I use GMail and have my homepage on Yahoo!, but Google seems like it’s building software just for the hell of it to make more money. What they need to do is sit down and start thinking of new, original ideas.
In my opinion Google is a great company, but they are slowly going against their motto of not becoming evil. I guess greed does that to you.
More from author
I agree with what MarkMS said… if you can’t beat them, join them. If you can’t join them, well… start you own gig. I’m sure Google’s big enough to do it. I get scammed too many times selling my stuff on eBay and they sure suck at customer support. I bet if Google were to start their own auction service, many of us would switch!
More from author
I’ve never heard so much crap in my life. Nochex is a secure system and eBay have banned it as well. Nochex have been around for years. I accept Nochex and Moneybookers on my auctions and have never heard a thing from eBay about it. If I mention Google they might freeze my account. Well in that case they should have frozen my account ages ago because all my listings for years have always mentioned Nochex. I don’t accept Paypal because I’ve had a number of fraudulent problems with it but never with Nochex and Moneybookers. eBay are just running scared of Google just like Yahoo, thats why they have teamed up together.
Actually, now I’ve thought about it. I think that gAuction.com, GoogleAuctions.com or even gBay.com sound good to me Payment system google checkout or anything you want to use including crappy expensive PaynoPal. How about this then, free listing with a final value fee or even a listing fee with no final value fee. Come on Google, please do it
Has anyone come up against eBay’s reserve price trigger? If you place a bid ‘out in front’ of the current bid on an item, hoping to work towards that figure, and somehow by chance your maximum hits the hidden reserve of he seller, your bid will jump to that figure. I got caught. I wonder how many other new players have been caught out as well. It’s almost as if in a live auction the auctioneer looks around an auction room and instead of taking notice of the bids, starts reading the the minds of those present, calling out the maximum people could be prepared to pay right at the outset. Imagine the chaos.
When I tried to get some sense from the ebay.co.uk query staff on why maximum bids are triggered by reserves in this way (when you can find out to contact them) they gave me the polite stonewall ‘we are not going to answer this’ treatment. Is eBay another form of pyramid selling, a trap for the unwary?
Ebay has absoloutely bad customer service and they think they control the majority of the online traffic. I must admit there was a time when Ebay was really good. But now they absoloutely do not protect the sellers at all which actually pay for the listings fees and many buyers suffer indirectly also because of that. They will do anything to have the biggest share of the pie and will not let go of it easily. Say what you will. But Ebay’s bad reputation and totally unprofesional attitude going public with such a statement like that is going to ensure its days are numbered.