PayPal CEO Dan Schulman was surprisingly critical of eBay's managed payments launch during today's third-quarter earnings call with Wall Street analysts, but he said managed payments had nothing to do with the softness in PayPal's eBay business. 

PayPal's eBay Marketplaces volume grew only 3% on an FX-neutral basis - that's compared to PayPal's Merchant Services volume growth of 28%. Given that PayPal is the most popular payment method on eBay, that is not a good sign. eBay will report its third-quarter earnings on October 30. 

For now, eBay managed payments excludes PayPal; it launched to a small number of sellers one week before ... Read More

eBay filed a lawsuit against Amazon today, accusing it of using its member-to-member messaging system to recruit sellers to sell on Amazon. eBay alleges Amazon employees targeted sellers including those in the fashion category.

The Wall Street Journal had written earlier this month about eBay allegations outlined in a cease and desist letter that claimed 50 Amazon sales reps sent over 1,000 messages to sellers on its platform.

Here is what EcommerceBytes readers had to say in reaction to the Journal's report.

CNN reported that a seller notified eBay representatives of the alleged seller "poaching" a few weeks ago and included a link to the ... Read More

An eBay moderator provided advice today on how to avoid fees for "phantom" sales - those cases where a seller has provided a buyer with contact information, or other instances where eBay suspects a seller may have made an off-site transaction:

"If a buyer contacts you to request that a transaction be taken off of eBay, we recommend that you respond with something along the lines of the following: "Thank you for your interest in my item. Taking a transaction off of eBay is a violation of site policy so the purchase will need to be made through ... Read More

An eBay employee couldn't resist snarking at sellers this morning, though he did so without identifying himself as such. "A seller with over 100 listings shouldn't be using the mobile app anyways. Noobs," he posted in a comment on the EcommerceBytes Blog.

The comment came in a post where sellers discussed an unpopular change eBay had made to its mobile app, in which it is forcing sellers into Good Til Cancelled (GTC) listings when listing through the app.

The eBay employee's comment that only new sellers would use eBay's app was not only ... Read More

eBay turned to the US Postal Service as part of its efforts to recruit sellers to opt in to its managed payments (MP) program, which launched 3 weeks ago. The direct mail campaign consisted of a "shiny pink 5" x 5" invite card," as one seller described it.

Another seller who also received the mailer told us eBay had been emailing him frequently inviting him to join the managed program plan. He said he was staying clear of MP because it doesn't allow buyers to use PayPal to pay for their purchases. "What bothers me is the ... Read More