eBay Dumping All Third Party Checkout Options

from the you-buy-with-ebay,-you-pay-with-ebay dept

Wed, Sep 1st 2010 8:30pm — Mike Masnick

Reader Mike sent over a story from Investors.com claiming that eBay was now banning Google Checkout from eBay. That struck me as odd, because we had written about eBay banning Google Checkout more than four years ago, and weren't aware that anything had changed. And, in fact, that's the case. Ebay is pointing out that the new announcement has nothing to do with Google, which has always been banned. Instead, what it means is that other third party payment offerings, which had previously been allowed, will no longer be offered. That seems unfortunate, as eBay used to be quite open about letting others play nicely in its sandbox, but recently has become more and more controlling.

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Filed Under: payments, third parties
Companies: ebay

25 Comments

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interval (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 9:12pm

Too bad...
...because paypal sux.
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SUNWARD (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 9:13pm

typical
ebay just trying to make more money. Why the small user is not there anymore.

More "vibrancy"
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ScaredOfTheMan, 1 Sep 2010 @ 9:17pm

Ebay?
Really who uses it anymore? I have not bought or sold anything on eBay in maybe 4 years. Ever since they started getting ridiculous with their cut of your sale. Now I use Craigslist exclusively

This latest move on banning 3rd party payments is just another step towards eBay becoming the next Altavista.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2010 @ 9:18pm

Ebay can do what they want, so long as they don't try to abuse our legal system (ie: with IP) to try and get the govt to ban competitors.
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vbevan (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 9:32pm

Paypal is terrible
I'm guessing this is to force everyone to use PayPal? Which really sucks, because Paypal make it really hard to get refunds. I found out the hard way, the hoops you have to jump through to get Paypal refunds. Now I just dispute transactions via my CC provider instead of bothering with Paypal.
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Dazza (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 9:45pm

Paybal is a ripoff!
Ebay charge for every little option, and then paypal rip a fair chunk out of the final payment, THEN take days to actually transfer moneys to a real account so it can be used.
Secondly, ebay is getting to the point where its just a rip off in general. Too many shonky people, no real support, and no comeback, warranty or any backup for the buyer. I think the whole system needs a revamp from head to toe!
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2010 @ 10:12pm

its not like any actual people put things up anymore, it's all "stores" middlemanning crap from amazon.
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vbevan (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 10:35pm

Re:
Unfortunately, due to amazons policy of not shipping some of their stuff outside the US that's the only way alot of us can access their inventory.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2010 @ 11:04pm

PayPal Only
Didn't eBay go PayPal-only for a lot of territories a few years back? I avoid it because you can't join PayPal without giving them access to your bank account, which I find completely unacceptable (and unsafe, especially given the history of complaints against them).
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2010 @ 11:30pm

Illegal Tying
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Pjerky (profile), 1 Sep 2010 @ 11:33pm

Ebay is dying...
My father has been using eBay since they first started (around 1994 sometime I think) and much of his business has come from it. He sells antiques and toys and other things. But they have done everything they can to make their system horrible for everyone.

First they started putting in more and more restrictions on what you can and can't sell (even though none of these items are illegal). Then they removed the ability to leave negative feedback, so its much harder to spot fraudulent users/sellers. They continually jack up their prices and percentages. They restrict you from adding your website address to any of your listings.

Then as of I think last year they did this. They removed alternative payment options from their system. They did this because they own PayPal, so they are running a monopoly within their own system so that they can force people to give them more and more money.

Everything eBay and PayPal have done in the last decade has been very shady and gotten worse. As soon as my father's website starts bringing in sufficient money flow he is dumping eBay. He has hundreds of thousands of stars on their system so he is not a small fry by any standard. I truly hope to see this trashy company fail. It would serve them right for all sleazy crap they have been doing.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Sep 2010 @ 11:38pm

Illegal Tying
Try again.

Isn't this is a case of vendor lock in? Isn't this illegal tying, a violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Act? How can they be getting away with this? If it was Google doing this, there would be any number of politicians grandstanding over it.
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Big Al, 2 Sep 2010 @ 12:00am

Re: PayPal Only
If my memory serves me correctly (and at my age that's a big 'if') they tried this here in Australia a few years back and got slapped down hard by the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) for being anti-competitive in denying bank transfer, credit card etc.
The Pay-pal only thing lasted about a couple of months before EBay realised the extra revenue from Pay_Pal wouldn't even come close to the fines that would be levied.
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Epilectic Battery, 2 Sep 2010 @ 12:20am

Re: PayPal Only
"Paypal only" is the official rule on ebay, true, though some sellers will state way down in the fine print of their listings that they'll take snail mail payments. Ebay is just too huge to catch that kind of thing going on.

You don't have to join Paypal with your bank account to use it however; anyone can pay through Paypal with only a valid credit card.
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R. Miles (profile), 2 Sep 2010 @ 4:03am

Re: Illegal Tying
Ebay's not in any antitrust or violations. Their service. Their rules. It's like stores saying "No checks allowed" and they're within their legal right to do so.

What shocks me is how people allow this company to take over 30% of a seller's earnings. That's $0.30 for every dollar made and it's incredibly laughable ebay thinks it'll continue doing this.

The "home seller" market has dropped significantly leaving businesses running the site, who can afford the 30% because they make it up by over-inflating the shipping charge, something ebay promised it would crack down on but has absolutely refused to do.

Sadly, I see Amazon getting worse because the sellers went from ebay and are now applying their crappy business practices to one of my favorite online stores.
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noesbueno (profile), 2 Sep 2010 @ 4:44am

my lawn...
ebay used to be really great, both for selling and purchasing.
but sadly, it has gotten overly greedy it seems, and particularly annoying for small sellers.
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John, 2 Sep 2010 @ 4:45am

Ebay is dying
sorry, I have been on ebay since 97 and it worked great. But now when I go on ebay, most things I search for are from 'stores' in new condition at a fixed price. There is no bidding anymore. Very few individual sellers with auctions.

Also as a seller, I have gotten a few chargebacks and a few run in's with other buyers. Paypal and ebay did nothing to protect me or verify the claims of the buyer.
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Steve R. (profile), 2 Sep 2010 @ 5:12am

PayPal for California
If Meg Whitman is elected governor, all government transactions in California will probably have to be done through PayPal.
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John Doe, 2 Sep 2010 @ 5:33am

Re:
Not true, I sold almost $3,000 worth of stuff earlier this year and I am just an individual. Of course PayPal and eBay took a good chunk of that. I will definitely try Craigslist next time, but being in a smallish area I may not have as much luck.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2010 @ 7:55am

I've had mild success using ebid.net can't always find what I want, but the number of auctions seems to be growing.

oh and its free to list with minimal fees.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2010 @ 9:49am

Wow! I didn't realize Ebay still existed.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Sep 2010 @ 11:51am

Re: Re: PayPal Only
"You don't have to join Paypal with your bank account to use it however; anyone can pay through Paypal with only a valid credit card."

Last I checked PayPal required members to become "verified members" after the first few transactions. The way you become a verified member is to give them your bank account details.
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Tom Landry (profile), 2 Sep 2010 @ 2:42pm

I can no longer use ebay because I owe back money to PayPal. More worrying is that Paypal has become so ubiquitous as far as an online payment option that it goes well beyond ebay purchases and into many e-commerce sites.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 2:54am

I dumped ebay about a year ago. I realized the savings I was getting on goods just wasn't worth the time/hassle to deal with the occasional scam or sub-par used item. I also didn't like PayPal having a direct link into my checking account, although I never had issues with paypal directly.

I don't miss either service, at all.

I refuse to use google services other than search, and even then I don't store their cookies for more than a week.
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ReVeLaTeD (profile), 4 Sep 2010 @ 10:22pm

Re: Re: PayPal Only
Problem with that is some users don't activate the "credit card without membership" option. Not sure if PayPal charges for it or buries it or what. I know that if I run across a merchant who still has it set to where you have to enter your PayPal credentials (i.e. Verified Address), I won't do business with them.
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