Re: eBay plans to suck more money out of us!

Phred <ppnerkDELETETHIS@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
> Sylvia Else <sylvia@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
>> Phred wrote

>>> What nonsense!  Half the businesses in the country have limits on
>>> acceptable payment methods -- just check out how many say Diners'
>>> Club and/or AMEX cards are not accepted.  Then there are all the
>>> small businesses that don't even have payment options other than
>>> cash! (Though some will also accept cheques if you're known to them.)

>> That's a quite different situation. If you want to do business
>> with X, you must pay them in a way that they'll accept.

>> The Ebay scenario is something else entirely. Essentially X wants to
>> buy from Y, and Ebay is saying that X must pay Y using PayPal, or
>> Ebay will not bring X and Y together so that they can do business.

> Fair enough.

Nope, she's just plain wrong, as always.

> I just assumed you paid the seller through eBay -- that is, the loot
> went to eBay and they passed it on after extracting their commission.

Nope, not even under the new arrangements, most
obviously when cash is used at the time of pickup.

> If the transaction is direct from buyer to seller, I can see why eBay
may be
> wanting to change things so they can be *sure* of getting their
commission.

They get that by charging up front for the listing etc.

> There's also the issue of a convenient audit trail for these
transactions
> so eBay can say "You *have* been paid" to a seller who tries to rort
> the system.  (Or *haven't* been if it's a shonky buyer.)

That isnt avoided by the changed system, most obviously when cash
is used at the time of pickup or you lie about having paid like that etc.

> Of course, all of this is just hypothetical blathering
> on the part of someone who has never used eBay,

Wota dinosaur. Its very handy for 'people' in your situation.

> and probably never will,

Yeah, some stay dinosaurs forever.

> so has no idea how the whole bloody system works, or is supposed to.
YMMV.

It does indeed.