
Despite the stress sellers are facing due to the coronavirus pandemic, eBay informed its sellers today that it will enroll them in its new Managed Payments program this year, and announced another phase in the rollout.
eBay sent an email giving sellers the "opportunity" to pre-register: "Once you pre-register, nothing will change in your selling routine. Starting Late July, your account will be activated for managed payments, and we will notify you as your activation date approaches."
A seller who forwarded EcommerceBytes the email she received wrote, "Please tell me this is a joke." The email began by addressing the timing of the announcement:
"We recognize COVID-19 and associated current events are creating unprecedented challenges for eBayโs sellers across the country, and your health and that of your business is our top priority. Weโre monitoring the situation closely for our eBay community - our buyers, sellers and employees.
"In these extraordinary times, we want to support your business planning. As you may be aware, eBay continues to progressively enable sellers on managed payments in 2020, and has processed over $2B in payments already. Starting next month, we will be offering you an opportunity to pre-register your business for managed payments. Pre-registration allows you extra time to prepare your business, and for us to secure your enablement date as early as possible. Once you pre-register, nothing will change in your selling routine. Starting Late July, your account will be activated for managed payments, and we will notify you as your activation date approaches."
In a FAQs section of the email announcement under, "What will my rates be," eBay wrote the following:
"Information on fees and how they are calculated will be made available as part of the pre-registration process. Most sellers can expect to see savings compared to their current payments processing fees."
That's a lot of uncertainty to unload on sellers right now at a time when eBay isn't even able to offer phone support.
Let us know if you received the email (see more in today's
Newsflash) and what struck you about the missive.