Mon June 4 2012 13:18:32 |
Would You Accept eBay Germany's New Payment Collection Model?
By: Julia Wilkinson
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On June 12, eBay in Germany (ebay.de) will switch to a new payment processing model in which it collects payments on behalf of the buyer and only pays the seller after the seller marks the item shipped. [Note: this has been updated from the earlier version of this blog, which stated the seller was paid when the buyer receives the item]. The new model is explained on the eBay Germany site in a diagram. Ina Steiner also wrote about the change in a March 2012 blog post, eBay Moves toward Amazon Model of Payment Processing.
Coming with the change, eBay had said the new administration cost of the payment processing would need “significant extra investment," according to an eBay spokesperson, and that would be financed in part by raising by 2% the sales commission payable by professional sellers (not private sellers) to eBay on transactions, according to a report by the AIM Group.
The impending change has led to much seller fretting and speculation on the German community boards. Comments in a thread there, New eBay payment system is not acceptable!, include:
- "eBay was once beautiful. But that was before the changes. Now it is in my opinion... worth nothing. As someone has probably sniffed too much money and now has to change the payment terms that the customer can be even more ripped off and eBay has less work."
- "I will sell nothing in any case, if I can not determine the method of payment...Above all, I do not want ever to [wait for] my money. This time through interest-free loans to be granted by a simple modification [of the] Conditions."
Another seller worried about how unscrupulous buyers might take advantage of the new system:
- "As a seller you can hardly [fight] against unwanted buyers...The locking functions are still here on eBay to describe at best as rudimentary, and [all] an unscrupulous buyer needs is ultimately only a new account to register and can then shop to your heart's content here..."
[Note: some adjustments have been made in brackets and excerpts edited to facilitate a smoother German-to-English translation].
One Swiss seller theorized eBay was making the change in order to get a cut of the payments which they've been missing out on in Europe.
The way eBay.de payments are done currently is very different from eBay US and does not involve eBay getting its usual PayPal cut, explained the seller. "In Europe ...the most common payment method in the daily life is to pay with bank wire, which does not cost anything (nor on payer, nor on receiver side), beside some usually smaller fees to run that bank account. This is used also for eBay transactions." There is also a "SEPA" payment method. The seller theorized eBay.de could not force "PayPal only" payments as in the US, because of law/trade rules or potential complaints by the European banking system.
What would you think of this new payment collection system if it came to eBay in the U.S.? Could there be any positive benefit to it, or do you think it would just expose you to more problem buyers and higher fees? Or something else? Post a comment here! |
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