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A few days ago the Ebay safe payments policy for new sellers came into effect.

What the policy says:
“eBay will require sellers who register after 17th January 2007 to accept at least one of the preferred safe payment forms of either PayPal or a merchant credit card facilities, in their listings.”

I’m not a new seller and the policy doesn’t apply to me. Yet… No doubt a few months down the track Ebay will claim that the policy was so successful in promoting Ebay values (read: increasing the Ebay share price) that they decided to extend its “benefit” to all sellers. But personal interest aside - I have trouble with hypocrisy, so I can’t help but comment.

Should Ebay be concerned about safe trading on their site? Absolutely! They could start by pulling the misleading items that seem to be growing exponentially. But to create a perception of looking after their customers while looking after their bottom line - that is commerce at its finest!

Ah, for the choices!
The new sellers have a “choice” - either have merchant credit card facilities (which would pretty much be limited to business users and which are costly) or offer Ebay-owned PayPal (which will allow Ebay to pocket the transaction fee on top of the listing and final value fees). With these two options, the choice is clear - which is exactly the point. Like any master manipulator Ebay is not telling sellers what to do, it is just taking the choice out of choosing between the options!

Ah, for the hypocrisy!
Now, I have to come clean - I use Paypal. I like it as a buyer and I accept it as a seller (from overseas only). What I don’t like is Ebay forcing sellers to accept Paypal and calling it “safe payment” policy. I can’t even say the policy name out loud without getting my tongue stuck in my cheek! Its a bit like the practice adopted by politicians for naming unpopular legislation (eg. the GST laws were named “A better tax system”)!

If Ebay want to ensure that sellers provide easy to use online payments, why not extend the policy to include Paymate? It’s easy, online, its customer support is much better than that of Paypal and it’s safer than Paypal because it tries to weed out fraudulent payments before its too late, rather than freezing everyone’s accounts afterwards and its policies are actually suitable for Australian users (compare with Paypal’s requirement for online tracking of posted items). Its certainly not less easy or safe than Ebay’s other alternative - merchant credit card facilities. But of course Paymate would be a choice that sellers could actually take - we couldn’t have that!

I should say that in four years on Ebay I never had a problem with a bank deposit, a cheque or a money order payment either, so they can’t be that unsafe!

Buyers are losers too
Aside from being bad for sellers, the policy doesn’t make Ebay better for buyers either. What they may gain in terms of ease of use, they will lose in price. Sellers don’t sell on Ebay just for the fun of it - we also like to make a few bucks once in a while. The more money we lose in fees (whether Ebay or Paypal), the more we are forced to push up our prices.
I sell on my own ecommerce website (http://www.jewellery-galore.com) and on Oztion and, since the Ebay fee increases, in both of those places my prices are lower than those on Ebay, simply because of the amount eaten up in fees.

And for the not so grand finale…
I wonder whether this policy is even legal - it sounds suspiciously like third-line forcing (basically forcing someone to use the services of another, usually related, company), which is a breach of the trade practices law. Perhaps the ACCC caved in and gave Ebay a special dispensation, consistently with the universal “golden rule” - those who have the gold, make the rules. Sorry about the cliche everyone.