See important update below with eBay's response.
eBay is ramping up its efforts to push sellers into managed payments (MP) by forcing new accounts to use it (this is not the case, see update below) and by running a seller promotion offering discounted fees for existing sellers who voluntarily enroll. eBay will also bar existing sellers from offering their own merchant credit card accounts beginning March 1, 2019.
A reader discovered she could not opt out of MP and could not offer PayPal on a newly opened selling account. We sent an email to eBay asking for confirmation and details.
It's not surprising eBay would want to push new sellers into MP, but what is troubling is that eBay gives no warning to new account holders, according to the reader:
"There is no warning when setting up a new seller account that PayPal will not be accepted," she said. "The only way a new seller would be aware is if they paid attention to the "Payment from Buyers" settings." She explained that in the payment preferences of her new account, the settings for accepting PayPal are auto-populated with no way to edit to add PayPal.
(Update: The seller confirmed later she was able to link her PayPal account to her new eBay account, we wonder if that's what had initially prevented her from setting her preferences to accept PayPal in listings.)
(Update 11/15/18: The reader got back to us - she said her account preferences would not let her change the PayPal settings, but after hearing back from us, she created a listing to test it, and the listing did accept PayPal. She pointed to a user on
Reddit who reported having the same problem of not being able to set PayPal preferences in settings as she had.)
In the screenshot she sent us showing the settings, we discovered eBay is also prohibiting new sellers from using their merchant credit card accounts, which many larger merchants and enterprise sellers do. The notice states: "New sellers can no longer set up Integrated Merchant Credit Card (IMCC) as a way to process payments."
The notice goes on to state, "Current sellers can continue to use IMCC until Mar 1, 2019. Although you need to remove this payment option from your listings by then, buyers will still be able to use a credit or debit card when they buy your items."
eBay is also trying to entice existing sellers to enroll in its payments program through a promotion that provides them with a 20% discount on commission fees for the month of December if they sign up by November 27 - by invitation only. (We wonder how early adopters of eBay payments feel about that.)
And as we previously noted, eBay is now
requiring merchants to enter their credit card or debit card information when redeeming coupons they're entitled to as part of their eBay Stores subscriptions because the sole supplier enrolled in MP.
Update 11/14/18: An eBay spokesperson responded to our inquiry and said eBay was not forcing new accounts in managed payments, stating that was "not consistent with the experience we are providing in managed payments. Right now, this is an invitation-only program for carefully selected existing sellers."
She went on to say:
"Sellers are central to creating this new experience, and we've been partnering closely with them to share our vision for the end state of managed payments. We're taking extra efforts to listen to sellers' feedback, concerns and ideas.
"As part of this, we are working with sellers one-on-one to understand whether managed payments is a fit for them. If managed payments doesn't work for a seller, we want to work with them to see if we can help them be successful with the changes, ensure we understand and document what isn't working, and if needed revert their account to the prior state. That said, the process to revert accounts to their prior payment settings can be complex as orders and listings can be in different states, and this process is managed individually with each seller."
eBay Ramps up Managed Payments Push in November
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