Comments on: Putting the “Pay” in PayPal: eBay is Sneakier Than You Think

By: Tom Caswell

Tom Caswell — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:34:26 +0000

@ Fhqwhgads You have missed the point. I am not against paying for services, but I like choices. The folks at eBay have made it nearly impossible to list an item without using PayPal as the payment method. All I’m saying is that things were better for the consumer when the two companies were separate. If PayPal is such a good service, why not let it be selected on its own merits rather than twisting the consumer’s arm.

By: Fhqwhgads

Fhqwhgads — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:27:53 +0000

They’re a credit card processor; they NEED to charge these fees, because they pay fees to the credit card companies every time they accept a payment. They can’t simply keep the fees all on eBay, because PayPal is used for other things, too. They charge eBay fees for the convenience of eBay, and PayPal fees for the convenience of PayPal. It’s that simple. Never before has a credit card processor become so trustworthy in the eyes of buyers, and eBay has every right to charge every dime for what they worked hard to create and build, through programming, research, and marketing. There are alternatives for sellers, alternate credit card merchants. They’re not as easy to use, sure. EBay spent money integrating well with PayPal, so if you want the convenience, pay for it.

By: Dr OM

Dr OM — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:33:00 +0000

After looking through some of the rules by the Federal Trade Commission. This reeks of bait and switch. But unfortunately since they are a major corporation they are exempt.

By: Sam

Sam — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 04:33:11 +0000

Thanks for your insightful comments Max. It’s real nice that you don’t use Paypal for Ebay buying/selling, but for the other 99.999% of the population that’s pretty much all it’s used for.

You are correct about being free to use other companies, but that seems a bit redundant as it was pointed out maybe 30 times already.

By: Max

Max — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:19:56 +0000

You all realize of course that you can use PayPal for more than just Ebay?

I have the premier account and accept credit cards for many other things.
I can even email someone a link so they can pay me online with a credit card,
which has nothing to do with Ebay … in fact, I rarely sell or buy on Ebay.

If you don’t like PayPal, don’t use Ebay. There are other auction sites to use.
If you have your own online store, you can choose to use Authorize.net,
PayPal, or any of the other 20 Credit Card Merchants. They all charge fees,
and some way more than others. Most have a monthly fee whether you
use them or not. That’s why PayPal is nice … only fees for each transaction.

I do see your point about not being “up front” with the service upgrades.
That is something that should be clear to even the non-tech people, and
they should address that issue.

It’s a lot like Microsoft … if you don’t like them, use something else.
Nobody is forcing you to patronize their services or companies.

By: Charley

Charley — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:49:18 +0000

Tax. Deduction.

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 01:17:26 +0000

I was scammed by paypal this way as well. I think we should call it what it is, a FRAUDULENT business practice.

Paypal sells itself like a checking account, and then for the convenience of accepting one credit card transaction, is charging its customers for every financial transaction as if it was a credit card transaction. This is Unethical and should be illegal.

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