Maybe this is old news, but it appears ebay is now "enforcing" the paypal only rule.

I just had a listing removed by ebay because I had the following in the narrative of my listing.

"Money orders and checks also accepted"

-Alan

So glad eBay is spending the man hours to monitor the important things.

My Trade/Sale Page

This sounds like a potential class action suit.

ebay is forcing everyone to use a payment method in which they profit for every transaction. Something just doesn't seem right about that. I suppose people could say that "if you don't like it, then don't use it." But....

"ebay is forcing everyone to use a payment method in which they profit for every transaction."

No. They're not. But they are forcing all sellers to use some sort of electronic payment. Conveniently, theirs is Paypal and that one interfaces best with Ebay.

Ebay has been doing this since Jan 20th.

Sellers are only allowed to state that they accept
electronic payment. Does not have to be paypal only.

They have bots searching listings and other sellers
or ebayers rat out other sellers. That may have happened in the above case.

In my invoice I state:

If you prefer:

Then I sate my address and name.

I get maybe 2 checks/MO/cash for every 10 sales.

Paypal and ebay fees are just the cost of doing business.

Anyone here ever have a storefront?

Steve

I'm not a big fan of ebay's new policies towards electronic payments only, but I have to admit it was nice being paid for every single item I listed last week in less than 24 hours.

I regularly get questions from bidders who ask if I accept checks and money orders, and I say yes.

Am I going to end up in internet prison?

I've stopped selling on eBay altogether.
I use the B/S/T for almost everything now.
I would encourage visitors here that sell on eBay to try it.
This Board gets a very wide audience of willing buyers.
RayB

Barry, no prison could hold you (see other thread).

Excellent advice and I would also advise them to use scans and list prices.

'tw'd truly be cruel and unusual punishment, to subject cybercriminals in cyberprison to having Barry as a fellow inmate.

Can't have that. No judge would send Barry there...


I'm still fascinated about the idea of waiting while a bar was built around him!

Good one Jeff!

And thank you Frank.

Barry

They won't send you to internet prison, but ebay will inject typos in your listings and not allow you to correct them, which would be more of an internet hell for you

Take care and best regards

Craig- sometimes I find typos during the week a lot is running and I want to shut the whole thing down. It's very compulsive!

i pay by money-orders only....in my ebay experience, about 7 or 8 out of 10 sellers still take money-orders......if a dealer says Paypal only, i wont bother to ask....but if they say Paypal preferred, i'll usually ask and with positive results....hasn't been a problem at all....so far

I use the following language in my listings and to date have not had any issues.

"Payment :
Paypal is accepted. Please note as per Ebay policies, we can no longer advertise the fact that we accept alternate forms of payment."

"Paypal is preferred. As per Ebay's policy we can no longer advertise the fact that we accept money orders, checks, or credit cards directly."

Jeff - very clever - I may have to borrow that

My Trade/Sale Page

I checked out a few Ebay auctions yesterday. Found this wording...We accept Paypal and other forms of payment".

A little verbal tap dancing around the Paypal only policy which is fine by me.

Jantz

I think as long as you don't use the words "check" "checks" "money order" or "money orders" you should be ok. They do have bots checking item descriptions. And if you have an item in your store that didn't sell but used those words, you won't be able to relist it until you edit the words out.

I just put "Feel free to email me if you have questions about payment" and people do. I'm still doing a fair number of sales via personal check, which I'm fine with (although I do prefer USPS money orders.)

I've been lurking for a while but I decided to add something here. Ebay's new paypal only policy will be challenged in court at some point (and they'll most likely lose) but that could take years.

I don't like the policy at all. I'd estimate that about 10-20% of my customers still use money orders and I don't like ebay trying to force them to use paypal. I seriously doubt their new policy will get all those people to open paypal accounts. Some people just don't feel comfortable using online payments, and to be honest I don't really blame them.

Something I've noticed is that in the last week or so I've had several bidders email me asking for my mailing address. The reason this is so strange is that I ALWAYS include my mailing address with my invoices. Like this "If you'd like to pay with a check or money order please send to ...". I don't know if it's just a rash of bidders that don't read their invoices (there have been 6 bidders who asked for my address) or if ebay is intercepting the invoices because I mention the words "money order". I fear it's the latter.

Scott F

Scott F.
I don't think Ebay is intercepting any invoices, I just think buyers take a quick look at the invoice, focus on the area that used to contain the address, see it isn't there any more and then request it. They don't bother reading the comments, which just prints out as a line tucked away on the bottom.

Again, Ebay is not saying you must take paypal only.

They are saying you must accept a form of electronic

payment.


Even if you state in the invoice that you take MO and checks you can

be suspended if they catch you. To get past that I simply just say:

If you prefer:

Then I include my address.


If a buyer solicits you and asks if you accept checks or MO

you can say yes without fear of ebay retribution.

Steve

I normally would say that ebay isn't intercepting invoices but having 6 out of 17 bidders ask me for a mailing address after I already sent it raised my suspicions. I've been doing ebay for 10+ years so I'm used to bidders not paying attention to instructions, this just seems a little more out of the ordinary. I'm hoping it's just a fluke and I just wanted to mention it to see if anyone else was experiencing a similar problem.

Scott F

Use M-O instead of money orders, they have a phisching program hammering these listings, dan.

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