Control and profits.

Under recent changes, sellers may only accept PayPal payments (PayPal being
part of eBay's company), with a few exceptions (or a couple of different
electronic transfers).

I only mention this here in RCM because eBay is the channel that many of us
acquire our cool stuff thru.

Some sellers are really ****y about payments, some say payment due within 2
days, many say confirmed addresses only (even though PayPal seller
protection has been extended to include buyers with unconfirmed addresses,
as I was notified Oct 31 '08).
My bank and utility statements go to a PO Box (not a shady, privately-owned
drop box), so my address isn't confirmed for FedEx or UPS.

The UPS system doesn't stop PO Box addresses from being entered into the
system (at least not thru thru the eBay/UPS portal for printing shipping
labels), so I've had to tell a couple of sellers that I informed them of my
street address in my correspondence (which they chose to ignore), so, to
have the package intercepted costs the seller an additional $10 (heheh), and
generates more revenue for UPS.

Some sellers insist on using UPS when USPS gives away new boxes/packaging
for Priority Mail, and USPS can pick up packages, too.
In my experience, UPS is slow and wreckless, damaging about 40% of my
packages.
But some sellers insist on using battered, used boxes that burst or destroy
the contents, by sending them UPS.
So what?

A UPS claim means the damaged product goes back to the seller, and the buyer
waits for a settlement (try to get a receipt for the merchandise from a
driver when you give it back to him/her), in which the end result may be
that UPS declares the package a "bad pack", no payment.
So you ask/squeeze/force the seller for a refund. Wasted effort over weeks
of waiting, but you get a refund made by the seller or PayPal.

I'm not apprehensive about using PayPal for payments, I've had a Personal/no
fees account almost as long as I've been eBaying, 1999 maybe.
I expect the no fees agreement to be charged fees before long. That will be
the last straw.

Ebay has made countless worthless/damaging changes to try to convince
everyone that there is no risk in doing business with a stranger online.
They want the control AOL imposes on it's members, only to try to insure
that fraud is non-existent.

Thieves are going to get in and make money on the eBay name, but they think
they'll be able to stop them.

Ebay, where they're working hard 24/7 to **** up a good business. Oh well,
maybe Microsoft will buy it.

In general, most eBayers are honest folks. Many others are just afraid of
what might happen if they **** off the watchdogs.

Both eBay and PayPal have settled claims for me, although I hate the
processing and persistence required to finalize a claim. Ebay or PayPal gave
me $100 last year out-of-the-blue because I had filed a claim.
That wasn't the settlement, just a kind-of apology from eBay or PayPal
(can't remember which, doesn't matter, since they are one), which was
followed up with an apologetic phone call (which also included several
questions about my overall satisfaction with doing business on eBay and if I
trusted PayPal).

I'd bet some tightwads are fuming or drooling over that, but I had
consistently been spending some serious moola at the time.

--
WB
..........
metalworking projects
www.kwagmire.com/metal_proj.html