eBay Bans Google Payments 591
whoever57 writes "eBay has added Google Checkout to the list of payment options banned on eBay. A recent update to the Accepted Payments Policy includes Google Checkout (click on 'Show' next to 'Some Examples' to reveal the list).
More comments on this action can be found at the eBay Strategies Blog."
Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
I want to be the first to predict Google sues eBay for monopolistic practices or some other restriction on open and fair trade! <8^) This is just begging those two extremely rich guys up Highway 101 to see who has the best lawyers and legs to stand on. Honestly, IANAL, but I don't see it as within the rights of eBay to dictate how people accomplish the financial transactions for Rearranging the World's Junk, as they are merely the facilitators.
I also predict Google will win, but eBay will try to make it as clunky as possible.
There's just something about the culture within eBay which is visible to outside world, that these people are real dorks when it comes to business, but like Microsoft, were in the right place at the right time, which seems to go a very long way in business and the public forgiving leaders for bad practices.
And that wouldn't have anything at all to do with PayPal being a property of eBay [wikipedia.org] and further lining their pockets. ;-)
What next, coining their own money and then claiming payments can only be made with their own eBucks? I think the US Federal Reserve would have a thing or two to say about that.
Then again, this could be a push to more people offering their stuff on Craig's List [craigslist.org]. I wonder if eBay's 25% interest in that would be leveraged to interfer.
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Ebay isn't an auction site.
and
2) Paypal isn't a bank.
This gets them around a lot of nasty local and national laws involving auctions and banks.
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:5, Insightful)
But, I wonder if they can get around the monopolistic laws? Fair practice laws?
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:3, Interesting)
As far as their culture - they bought N. Zenstrom. If that is not a classic case of "similar dissolves in similar" dunno what is.
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:4, Interesting)
Where's IBM's monopoly? It seems to have worked in that case.
Obviously it did exactly nothing in the Microsoft case, but I don't think you can use IBM as an example of the system failing.
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:5, Funny)
They won't take google's money but they will take Canadian Tire money
So, google just has to get Crappy^WCanadian Tire to print up more Canadian Tire currency ...
I can see it now ... Google buys a million bux of Canadian Tire money and uses it as their "float" for transferring money. Oh, and since you can get Canadian Tire bills for as low as $0.05, its great for micropayments since you can't send coins through the mail :-)
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:5, Funny)
Don't laugh - some Canadian Tire money is collectible - there re different variants from different "eras". I've got some of the old 3 cent ones kicking around (I keep it rather than spend it - I've got about $70 of the stuff)
On a side note, one guy I know is a retired trucker - one of his friends was making a run through New York, tolk the hooker that he had only Canadian money, and paid her with Canadian Tire money. $20 blow job was two 10 cent Canadian Tire bills (after all, they just looked for the denomination, not whether it was dollars or cents).
I guess that's why he said "Ain't America Great!"
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:4, Informative)
What's next, Tim Horton's stored value cards?
Considering that Tim Hortons is killing Krispy Kreme lard-butt ... and that its currently owned by Wendy's (they're spinning it off back into its own corporation later this year and taking a nice profit) ...
Some facts and figures: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Horton's [wikipedia.org]
The expansion into the US is going very well, btw.
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, its changed all right ... and its killed off the competition.
Kremeko (Krispy Kreme Canada) came to Canada with a big splash, lots of expansion plans, and went bankrupt ... (the donuts have the highest fat concentration, and it didn't help that a news show had the ingredients of both players analysed, and Krispy Kreme was found to be using the lower grade of chocolate, etc. KK is really crap in comparison).
Dunkin Donut is pretty much invisible here in Quebec, after a revolt and lawsuit by franchise
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah. In two words: "Ice Cap".
Never mind you can walk into any Starbucks and order "iced coffee, sweet" and dump their half-and-half into it and it's better and cheaper.
Be careful. Both are highly addictive. And caffeinated. Highly. Not That I'd drink them. No. No sirre. No way. I'm going to go clean the house now. Then rebuild my transmission. They're really good. Did I mention they're caffeinated? Highly.
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Ebay isn't an auction site.
and
2) Paypal isn't a bank.
Quite ironically, being a heavily-regulated bank gets you out of antitrust troubles. The theory is that there are specialized state and federal agencies taking care of the banks, so the antitrust laws should not have a big role regulating banks. The fact that eBay and PayPal can do whatever they want hurts them in the antitrust sphere. Furthermore, Ebay and PayPal are vertical: Ebay is a dominant auction site and they use PayPal for payment services. Thus, eBay is using its dominance of its field to exert market power into another field on a basis other than merit. That's pretty much an antitrust violation right there. It's doubtful eBay can come back with a reasonable, non-malicious explanation for not accepting GCheckout. Oops.
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:3, Insightful)
One Word:
BETA
Why would Google stop there? (Score:2, Interesting)
Do you really think that Google will settle with a lawsuit or court settlement? This may very well be one of the leading reasons to an upcoming auction service, perhaps an eBay killer, likely named gBay.
Re:Why would Google stop there? (Score:5, Funny)
Hmmm... that would be a terrible name. But still better than bGay, I suppose...
*** rimshot ***
Re:Why would Google stop there? (Score:5, Funny)
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Re:Why would Google stop there? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why would Google stop there? (Score:3, Funny)
Kinda got a different meaning in the given context.
Re:eBay is enough (Score:3, Funny)
FYI: eBay sounds close to russian word meaning "f*ck"
Not just monopolistic practices (Score:2)
are subject to fraud.
Re:Not just monopolistic practices (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not just monopolistic practices (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:4, Informative)
Sure you can [ustreas.gov].
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:3, Insightful)
If I hadn't been reading more astutely I would have thought you were talking about Ebay's website...ahem.
Re:But, but...Master Card/Visa (Score:5, Insightful)
It has a monopoly on auctions.
Except for some specific niche markets, eBay is The Place to go for online auctions. It's as dominant as Microsoft is in operating systems.
You don't get to use a monopoly in one area to manipulate the market in another.
Re:But, but...Master Card/Visa (Score:5, Informative)
But that's not the point: it's never been illegal to have a monopoly in the first place. When you leverage your monopoly in one market to compete unfairly in another, you've crossed the line. Google has already directly threatened to bring anti-trust cases, so I'd guess that's where this is all headed.
Re:But, but...Master Card/Visa (Score:4, Interesting)
I think 1 and 2 most likely, but doing all these as soon as possible would be a real kick in the balls for ebay.
Re:But, but...Master Card/Visa (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Oh! Can I Please Be the First?!? (Score:4, Interesting)
its not that you cant simply not deal with the monopoly, its that if you want to make those kinds of deals, the monopoly is becomming closer and closer to being your only choice.
A large amount of online transactions are processed through paypal and most of those are ebay (and most of ebay is paypal...etc). In terms of seperate companies, paypal and googlecheckout are both competing online payment vendors who use a third party to actually generate use of their service (in this case, ebay). In the 3 company world, ebay could only stand to benefit from another good payment service showing up, they wouldnt lose any transactions and they might gain a few from anti-paypal people. The problem lies in the fact that there are really only 2 companies here, ebay controls paypal and then stands to lose revenue if paypal loses transactions. If google enters the market, they will take more and more transactions away from paypal. They may also generate new transactions for ebay but not enough to eclipse the loss felt by paypal. What is the obvious self-interest first choice? Dont let people use things you dont own. Of course this ends up being bad for the consumer and potentially bad for ebay (things will stagnate or there will end up being a competitor who goes to court and wins) but at this point they arent thinking about that, they are just trying to keep their revenue stream (maybe they will switch to ebay-fee discounts or something to encourage paypal use which is probobly legal as long as its not huge).
This is akin to visa saying they will only let you pay down your credit card bill with a personal check, cashiers check/money order, or another visa card. No mastercard, no discover, and definately no american express. People are still going to have to pay that bill, so its not like people will dissapear but it will direct additional revenue into the pockets of visa while blocking out competitors. (ok so the example isnt perfect since most people dont pay with another credit card, the credit card industry is an oligopoly not a monopoly and people are a lot more comfortable paying with checks but. ..you get the point.
monopoly? (Score:2, Interesting)
eBay and PayPal...are..um..connected. (Score:2)
Re:monopoly? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:monopoly? (Score:2)
Sears owns Kmart (Score:2)
Will you be putting that on your Sears card?
Re:Sears owns Kmart (Score:4, Interesting)
I didn't even know... (Score:4, Funny)
I like ebay less and less. (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, there isn't a good alternative yet.
Re:I like ebay less and less. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:I like ebay less and less. (Score:2)
Re:I like ebay less and less. (Score:4, Interesting)
I think you meant "anymore". In the 90's there were quite a few "auction" sites on the internet. eBay's marketing and consolidation have driven most of them either offline or turned them into standard retailers. It's possible some new one could spring back up, but I think it's unlikely. More likely, I think, is eBay just fades into obscurity leaving only free sites like craigslist in its place as people get tired of the hassle and frustration of doing business through eBay.
Re:I like ebay less and less. (Score:5, Insightful)
eBay uses a one-size-fits-all approach to the UI. If a company were to come along and just knock one niche out of the park, then they can become *the* player (in jewelry, for example). eBay loses out on that market, then another, then another. It happens slowly, but I believe it will most definitely happen, especially if the top brass doesn't get booted out soon.
My point is that sellers will leave eBay when it stops being a decent market for them. It is quite cut-throat today, but clearly there is still a great power to listing on eBay. It isn't the end-all, but it is a useful tool to an online merchant.
Google could throw a much bigger blow to eBay by just putting more emphasis on Froogle. The potential is there, but they seem to be waiting on it, and I don't think it is intentional, but rather just the result of a ton of other projects and how management works there. eBay hasn't gotten local down, but Google already has a big piece to it figured out.
Re:I like ebay less and less. (Score:4, Informative)
They're also getting more restrictive about who works there.
see wsj.com:
PayPal President Jeff Jordan plans to leave eBay later this year, in the latest high-profile departure to plague the Internet auctioneer. 6:37 p.m.
Also, read items here [cbs13.com], here [informationweek.com].
Re:I like ebay less and less. (Score:5, Insightful)
More unfortunately, there isn't likely to be.
The benefits of the network effect are simply too great. Buyers stay on eBay because there's a big selection of stuff and they can find what they want. Sellers stay on eBay because more buyers bidding on things means higher prices for their goods. You'd think the higher prices would drive people away, and I'm sure some people check Yahoo! auctions because stuff sells for less, but most people learn they can rarely ever find what they're looking for there, and that it's a waste of time to do anything other than bid a little more at eBay. So buyers won't defect until sellers defect.
Sellers won't defect unless another site offers them some other savings sufficient to offset the lower prices their auctions will go for (at least until the site gets size competitive with eBay). That is, competitors need a value proposition such that
[ebay sale price] - [competitor's sale price] is less than [ebay's fees] - [competitors fees]
So, how much do they have to reduce fees by? I studied this a few years ago, comparing auctions for like goods across a wide range of categories, and found that a competitor needs to set negative fees to offer a value proposition to sellers. That is, they would have to pay the sellers a commission on each auction to attract them.
Good luck trying to get someone to back that position for long enough to get size-competitive with eBay.
Of course, there are also other ways one might attract buyers to try to increase auction sale prices to reduce the fee gap. I wrote up a lot of these ideas for a business plan for a company that wanted to compete with eBay. First and foremost of them was to create parametric search system to help people find things based on including and excluding features particular to that product line. Unfortunately, eBay already did this. Is might be done better, but it's basically there. Ebay's searching features have improved radically in recent years.
There are many other things that could be done. A dramatically different infrastructure could greatly reduce server and bandwidth costs, taking some of the sting out of the required fee difference. But all the tricks I had left in my bag added together probably couldn't allow a new competitor to succeed. Perhaps others have better ideas.
My advice to anyone who wants to enter the general online auction market is "good luck."
Re:Amazon (Score:5, Interesting)
Amazon is 3x more expensive than eBay for me. (Score:4, Informative)
For example, a customer selects expidited shipping, amazon charges them $7.83 for it. They then reimburse the seller $4.99 - AND charge a commission on that, so you ACTUALLY only get $4.24. Then they charge an additional 15% + $1. So when I sell a $20 item, the customer pays $27.83 to get it, and I get $19.82, BUT still have to pay for expidited shipping, so I pocket $15.77.
If I sold the same item on eBay w/Paypal for $20 and charged the same $7.83 for S&H (eBay lets you set it for whatever you want, within reason, and doesn't charge you a commission on it), by the time I paid eBay, PayPal, AND the USPS, I'd have $21.27 left.
Even ignoring shipping, with Amazon I get $19.82 of the $27.83 charged to the customer (Amazon got 29%) and with eBay I get $25.32 (eBay got 9%).
That's three times as much of the customer's money going lost to Amazon as is lost to eBay. It's worse when you factor in that paypal gives you free delivery confirmation too.
How Ironic (Score:5, Funny)
Say hello to my little antitrust lawsuit! (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:Say hello to my little antitrust lawsuit! (Score:5, Insightful)
The list of unapproved money exchanges includes a lot of services including Western Union, so the hue and cry about antitrust and "eBay only allows their own stuff" is nothing more than a bunch of smoke without a fire. eBay specifically states that any "new" service without a track record of privacy protection and customer service will be scrutinized and most likely prohibited until it has some history.
Everyone's quick to bitch and whine about eBay not going after fraud, not going after bad sellers, not backing them up on financial transactions and the like yet when eBay DOES try and show some spine and protection everyone piles on. It has less to do with the "paypal competition" than it does with "we have no idea how stable, how reliable and how safe this service is and we're saying no until such time as it does appear to be safe, private and protected"
Pick a direction to go, guys... do you want eBay to get the hell completely out of your way and act like nothing more than a broker and middleman or do you want them to try and put stuff in place to protect people because you can't have it both ways.
-- Gary F.
Mod parent + (Score:2)
Re:Say hello to my little antitrust lawsuit! (Score:5, Informative)
Paypal has some history [paypalsucks.com]
Re:Say hello to my little antitrust lawsuit! (Score:5, Insightful)
I had to check for myself after reading the above to verify that the inclusion of Canadian Tire Money in that list wasn't a joke. It really is there!
Few Canadians would accept CT$ as a form of payment. Many would consider an attempt to do so to be a goofy joke, or worse. Yet eBay won't accept GooglePay, or even more established providers like Neteller. Hmmm...
(Note for those who don't know: Canadian Tire is a chain of hardware-turned-department stores whose gimmick is that they provide currency-like coupons as cashback on purchases.)
yeah, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Say hello to my little antitrust lawsuit! (Score:3, Insightful)
Cant Beat Em? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Cant Beat Em? (Score:3, Insightful)
Canadian Tire Money? Sure. GoogleCash? Oh no. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Canadian Tire Money? Sure. GoogleCash? Oh no. (Score:2, Informative)
Strange, considering they won't accept Canadian cash.
Canadians without a credit card cannot make online payments with paypal.
They will claim that a credit card is not required to use paypal, but once you have provided them with all of your personal info and banking information, they will tell you, oh - Canadians are required to have a credit card to use paypal. I was suprised by this underhanded information collection and false advertising by a suppose
Re:Canadian Tire Money? Sure. GoogleCash? Oh no. (Score:2)
How can they do that? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:How can they do that? (Score:2)
And it's completely legal.
Re:How can they do that? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not like eBay is some natural resource that we all share. It's not a government service, it's a for-profit company that always tells you what the terms of using their service will be, and you agree to them if you want to use the service. Is it smart, from a marketing and PR point of view? Open for debate. Is it reasonable for them to want you to use their own service (PayPal is part of eBay) when making use of their other service? Sure. Is it legal to say that participating in an eBay auction means doing so according their rules? Of course - because there are all sorts of other auction sites, if you'd rather go elsewhere.
Re:How can they do that? (Score:2)
No, because they explicitly allow [ebay.com] a number of other payment options, including credit cards, personal checks, money orders, cash (but only for in-person transactions)... and even a number of other online payment systems. Bidpay comes to mind.
Additionally, all the wording doesn't actually say the transaction can't be completed that way -- just that the seller can't
Cash2india is far more relevant than Google... (Score:4, Informative)
Payment Services permitted on eBay: Allpay.net, Bidpay, Canadian Tire Money, cash2india, CertaPay, Checkfree.com, hyperwallet,com, Moneybookers.com, Ozpay.biz, Payko.com, Paymate.com.au, Propay.com, XOOM
Verboten:
Payment Services not permitted on eBay: AlertPay.com, anypay.com, AuctionChex.com, AuctionPix.com, BillPay.ie, ecount.com, cardserviceinternational.com, CCAvenue, ecount, e-gold, eHotPay.com, ePassporte.com, EuroGiro, FastCash.com, Google Checkout, gcash, GearPay, Goldmoney.com, graphcard.com, greenzap.com, ikobo.com, Liberty Dollars, Moneygram.com, neteller.com, Netpay.com, Nochex.com, paychest.com, payingfast.com, paypay, Postepay, Qchex.com, rupay.com, scripophily.com, sendmoneyorder.com, stamps, Stormpay, wmtransfer.com, xcoin.com
Re:Cash2india is far more relevant than Google... (Score:4, Insightful)
Now I'm starting to wish I had more of that stuff. Paying for an expensive ebay auction entirely in Canadian Tire Money would be a whole new kind of awesome.
Heh, auctions.google.com (Score:5, Interesting)
Auction sights need buyers & sellers (Score:2)
Re:Auction sights need buyers & sellers (Score:3, Insightful)
This is good. (Score:5, Insightful)
This shows that eBay fears Google's new service. Ebay is starting to show its age and lack of innovation. It needs competition from the likes of Google and anyone else that can challenge them. I stopped using eBay due to the high fees. Good luck Google and I hope you bring a good fight!
http://religiousfreaks.com/ [religiousfreaks.com]Coming Soon: (Score:3, Interesting)
eBay, just like PayPal, are in a position of almost total dominance. Google are one of few companies in a position to compete with them.
If you can't join them, beat them.
Re:Coming Soon: (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't you mean Google Auctions beta?
If it's concern for the customer. . . (Score:5, Insightful)
In other news (Score:2, Insightful)
hmmm.... (Score:3, Funny)
My guess about how this happened: (Score:5, Funny)
An eBay executive was sitting around thinking, how can I get $5,000,000 of bad, sink-the-company publicity for almost free?
YES, that's it!!!! Do something against Google, which is, today, the equivalent of doing something against cute kittens.
It's just an act (Score:3, Funny)
Those kittens are only acting cute and doing cute things to trick you into feeding them and letting them into your bed. Don't be another victim.
Google should ban Ebay listings from searches... (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps Google should consider removing all ebay auctions from their search results? I'm sure the same phony logic that prohibits Google payments from ebay auctions could be used to remove auctions from search results, such as:
"Ebay auctions are not categorically safe transactions, so as a safety precaution, we are eliminating ebay auctions from our search results. Please consider purchasing your new from the following vendors who have an established track record. And coincidentally, these vendors accept payments with Google Payments."
Let's see who needs who then, ebay...
Re:Google should ban Ebay listings from searches.. (Score:3, Funny)
Given the kind of ebay ads you (used to?) get on Google [vaughns-1-pagers.com], maybe that'd be a good thing.
Re:Google should ban Ebay listings from searches (Score:3, Informative)
Fast forward 10 years, and eBay is
Ridiculous, and spreading FUD too... (Score:5, Insightful)
I quote:
I wonder why eBay believes Google Checkout is unsafe, unreliable and/or inconvenient? Seriously, this isn't an obscure, complicated, foreign payment system. It's pretty obvious to me why they really did this, and with this, they're most likely lying about it.
As the link in the article summary also says, even calling Google Checkout something lame like being "too new" doesn't hold much water, given what Google Checkout is.
I have nothing against eBay doing this, but only if they up front told either exactly why, the harsh reality and competition, or didn't comment on it at all. Anything would be better than lying or spreading FUD about certain competitors like this. It's really bad style IMO.
Google Checkout Was Already Banned on eBay (Score:5, Insightful)
The interesting thing is to see how strictly eBay will enforce this rule - if they're really going to focus on forcing Google Checkout out of eBay, or if it'll be yet another rule that is only enforced from time to time.
The company I work for is an eBay PowerSeller, and we've noticed there's basically three types of policy violations in eBay's eyes:
1. those that eBay checks for when you list an item (try listing an item with 'pearl' in the title sometime to see what I'm talking about) and then either denies your listing or displays a warning message and flags your listing;
2. violations that eBay only acts on when reporting by another user (usually NOT a buyer, it's almost always a competitor);
3. violations that eBay is worried enough about that they write a program to automatically scan all open listings looking for violations.
Right now, it looks like Google Checkout falls into the second type - there's over 3,000 active listings that mention accepting Google Checkout (ref. http://search-desc.ebay.com/search/search.dll?sof
So eBay obviously hasn't stepped up enforcement of this rule. However, if the number of current listings that mention Google Checkout drops suddenly, then it will be obvious that eBay has started treating Google Checkout like an item in the third type, not the second. This would be a policy shift to explicitly combat Google Checkout, instead of just discouraging it.
I don't think PayPal would be around today, or would have the market share it does, if it wasn't for eBay buying them out and then cramming PayPal down everyone's throats. The stories I could tell about how PayPal really "protects" both the buyers and the sellers and how completely they've managed to brainwash so many buyers and sellers.... But as long as eBay is "not an auction" and PayPal is "not a bank" and "not a credit card", I don't see anything changing any time soon. eBay has already shown that it is all but unbeatable in the auction marketplace (look at Yahoo Auctions, and they're -free- now; Overstock.com auctions are another competitor that is all but defeated) - they've so completely tied PayPal into eBay and integrated it into so many of their requirements (there's certain buying and selling requirements that force you to establish a PayPal account, even if you never plan to accept or use PayPal) that I don't see anyone defeating PayPal, at least in the auction marketplace, any time soon.
Google's best remaining chance to take PayPal on, head-on, would be to setup Google Auctions, and even then, eBay really has captured a frightening amount of loyalty and dedication from hundreds of thousands of buyers and sellers...it would be an interesting fight.
Re:Google Checkout Was Already Banned on eBay (Score:4, Insightful)
The future-- (Score:5, Interesting)
Google isn't going to release auctions, auctions are so 2001. NOBODY WANTS TO BID. The stuff you bid on is used crap, and honestly even then it falls into the "Working crap" and "broke crap". eBay is transitioning to a fixed price marketplace, so is Google. (Don't believe me, check out eBay express)
It doesn't matter where you buy online -- the price battles online are over, they were over last year, price differentials are minimal. If anything eBay sellers are at a disadvantage due to all the fees they incurr and the higher overhead from the resulting support cost. The next frontier is mobile commerce, or perhaps more appropriately "local commerce" -- which is where Google is clearly headed. All the analysts seem to miss that Google has a really clear 3 year plan, and it's pretty freaking awesome - here's how it goes:
1. Online prices are too similar, they are irrelvant.
2. Who has a product closest to me, and is reliable, lets buy it from them.
3. Will Google allow a local retailer to match "best price", or perhaps even come close -- you betcha.
Within two years -- i'll be able to buy an 19" LCD monitor for $99 from GoogleBase, after it negotiates the best price for me, then tells me to go pick it up at the local circuit city or fry's, where I pay via Google Payments when I arrive to pick it up (probably via my phone). Yupe, it's right around the corner.
The store will try to upsell me on other items while i'm there.
Google will get a cut of the entire sale, in exchange they'll be more likely to send more buyers to that store. The stores that do the poorest job upselling, will see less buyers (think Adwords).
Re:The future-- (Score:3, Insightful)
LMAO (Score:3, Insightful)
fud (Score:4, Informative)
* Whether the payment service has a substantial historical track record of providing safe and reliable financial and/or banking related services (new services without such a track record generally cannot be promoted on eBay)
That's been eBay's policy since way before Google came up with this brand new system of theirs. And the fact remains that Google has absolutely no past track record in financial transactions. While google is a big name in other services, eBay has absolutely no way of verifying the security measures that Google Payments offer. It's probably a great service, but eBay doesn't want to stick their necks out to potential lawsuits if this brand new service turns out to have some major security hole and a bunch of eBay site users get robbed.
That's not to say you can't use such payment, you can use whatever the hell you want. You can mail the guy beads if you really want to. What eBay is saying is that you can't use their site to advertise that you accept these payments and thus imply that eBay is in some way endorsing those payments.
This was a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation for eBay. If they refuse to accept Google, which is in keeping with their stated policy, everyone sees it as some sort of monopolistic wrangling. If they accept Google, then all those other sites on the forbidden list which were excluded for the same damned reason can cry foul by saying that eBay is playing favorites and arbitrarily excluding some.
I think the prudent thing to do is leave the system in place, wait a few months (IANAL, the better legal period might be shorter or longer) to make sure google's system actually works as advertised, then start accepting it. For the sake of public relations it might be wise to make it public that this is what's going on, and say "assuming there are no major security holes, Google Payments will be added on 9/7" or whatever date they think is ample time to cover their own necks.
Re:fud (Score:5, Insightful)
Bzzz...Wrong!
Google Checkout has been around for years; it's what they use to transfer money around for AdSense/AdWords. What's new is that they're finally opening it up to be used for any and all services.
Here is an article [auctionbytes.com] with an interesting quote from Google, "Google Checkout is not a beta product. Google has a long history in billing and payments for AdWords and for premium services, such as Google Video."
I would wager my entire net worth that eBay knows that Google Checkout is well established. I'm guessing they crapped their pants and reacted with this changed policy. I also heard that they changed their payment policy name from "Safe Payment Policy" to "Accepted Payment Policy" with the addition of Google Checkout to their list of unacceptable payment policies.
As others have said, this is clearly a case where eBay is using their monopoly to control another market, and I sincerely hope that there is restitution. You can bet that I will be using Google Checkout for my auctions on eBay, and if eBay tries to suspend my account, they will be getting a letter from my lawyer (as I'm sure they've already received a few from Google's lawyers).
Re:fud (Score:4, Insightful)
This is simply not true. Ebay has all sorts of means to verify this. For example, I'm sure Google would be more than happy to answer any questions that ebay has regarding their security polices. I'm sure the financial institutions that Google works with to provide this service would also be just as helpful.
The FUD is the whole "lack of a track record" claim. It's completely subjective. This isn't some fly-by-night operation without established credit or capital reserves, it's freakin Google. There's no credible evidence that there's a security issue here, there is only fear, uncertainty and doubt being spread on the part of ebay. It's the very definition of FUD.
I suppose... (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting Differences (Score:3, Interesting)
The whole thing is a mess. (Score:5, Insightful)
I use several sites for buying goods, but EBay is a good example, so I'll use that:
As noted throughout this discussion, EBay only allows certain payment methods - foremost is Paypal. The others aren't anything like as useful because they are restricted to a geographic location (err.. why?) or just a way of processing credit card payments. Worse still, a lot of sellers seem to be locked into Paypal as well. So, OK, I use Paypal - I don't have any major reasons to worry about that except... Paypal won't allow me to use my (Italian) bank account for payments. Others, such as netteller will, but they in turn won't allow me to transfer funds to Paypal. In fact, even though I have several on-line account facilities, it is very nearly impossible to move funds from one to the other.
What gives? These days I can route data from anywhere to anywhere via the 'net using a plethora of methods; but not money. I wonder if this is deliberate.
IT'S A MESS!
Re:In Other News . . . . (Score:2)
Re:In Other News . . . . (Score:2)
eBay is an aution house, not a department store.
They're not refusing to accept a certain type of payment, they're BANNING sellers and buyers from using this payment method by listing it AS A SCAM.
Your analogy couldn't be more wrong IF YOU TRIED.
Re:In Other News . . . . (Score:2)
Re:In Other News . . . . (Score:2)
A more accurate analogy would be if Sears owned Visa and banned MasterCard and American Express purchases.
Re:In Other News . . . . (Score:3, Insightful)
That is not an apt analogy. eBay are not the sellers - they are just offering the service, and taking a fee. It should be up to sellers how they complete their transaction. It's not at all like department-store credit cards. They could ban payment of eBay fees by various methods, but why should they restrict their customer's private t
Nonsense. (Score:2)
When was the last time your average flea market had extensive TOS agreements to help combat fraud, because that flea market has millions of people walking through it? In a flea market, you're standing, face-to-face, with the person you're thinking about doing business with. In most cases, it's cash and carry. The service that eBay provides (and which you do not have to use!) includes a lot more layers
What corporations are allowed to do (Score:3, Insightful)
Uhm... no. There are laws and rules and regulations they have to follow, just like there are laws and regulations and rules *you* have to follow.
Re:It reminds me of hotels... (Score:5, Informative)
No hotel ever says no to cash. What they say is "if we let youe stay in our $$$$$ room we would need a valid ID and enough money as a garantee that we will not have to run after you." If you don't believe me try checking in with a card that does not have enough credit to cover your stay.
If you do not intend to pay with your card, provide it to them on check in and upon check out settle with cash. Just remind them to cancel the pre-auth on your card on C/O. They never say no to cash. Never.
Re:Another stupid YRO submission (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the reason Google is so popular among this crowd is that they tend to rise above this sort of thing. For instance if you search for an address they offer the yahoo maps option as well. If you have a gmail account, they do several things that allow you to avoid lock-in (allowing you to use a different email as the from address, forwarding mail for free, etc). Google