eBay BANS Google Checkout

eBay has updated it's "Safe Payments Policy" to specifically NOT allow Google Checkout.  I suspect sellers (especially multichannel) will be pretty upset about this.

It will be interesting to see what lame excuse eBay uses to justify this.  For example, they will probably say it's new so prone to fraud.  Well, in reality it's a credit card gateway (and the same one eBay spends millions with as the top google adwords user) and credit cards are specifically allowed along with gateways (verisign/cybersource/authorize.net, etc.)

Here's the relevent excerpt:

Payment Services not permitted on eBay: AlertPay.com, anypay.com, AuctionChex.com, AuctionPix.com, BillPay.ie, ecount.com, cardserviceinternational.com, CCAvenue, ecount, e-gold, eHotPay.com, ePassporte.com, EuroGiro, FastCash.com, Google Checkout, gcash, GearPay, Goldmoney.com, graphcard.com, greenzap.com, ikobo.com, Liberty Dollars, Moneygram.com, neteller.com, Netpay.com, Nochex.com, paychest.com, payingfast.com, paypay, Postepay, Qchex.com, rupay.com, scripophily.com, sendmoneyorder.com, stamps, Stormpay, wmtransfer.com, xcoin.com

The other relevent excerpt is that credit cards are allowed:

Permitted on eBay.com: Sellers may offer to accept PayPal, credit cards including MasterCard/Visa /Amex/Discover, debit cards and bank electronic payments online for eBay purchases. Sellers may also offer to accept bank-to-bank transfers, often known as bank wire transfers or bank cash transfers. Sellers may accept COD (cash on delivery) or cash for in person transactions. Sellers may offer to accept personal checks, money orders, cashier’s checks, certified checks and other negotiable instruments. Please see the “Some Examples” section of this policy for those evaluated payment services permitted in the eBay marketplace.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html                

This is eBay flexing their trust and safety muscles to control the way sellers take credit cards (and as a side-effect, limit their leverage with Google Adwords) if they feel it starts to infringe on the PayPal asset.

It's ironic they would do this here, and in the same breath go to Congress and fight the Net Neutrality battle.

You can't fight for an open internet one day and then implement policies that close the walled garden the next.

Coffee - eBay please wake up and smell it.  Trust and Safety is running (and ruining) your company.

Comments

[ruafairybuttercuptigi]

paypal is a CON !!

[Nightmare with eBay]

One quick fact: Ebay only suspends those who sell fake CD and brandname handbags, etc. But the profit share Ebay got from these sellers, they always keep it, eBay just don't give it back to anyone! That is why eBay does not come out to look for these sellers, as they say "we rely on reports" in their policies. Oh, what a good way to make illegal profit!!!!!

Someone needs to forward this to the attorney general or Congress.

[L8 2 The Party]

I don't understand the comments suggesting that this is an issue of eBay choosing, as a private company, who they'll do business with. Why is eBay sticking their fingers into a seller's transaction with a buyer? If the market -- the market between buyers and sellers -- wants to use a new payment option, why is it any of eBay's business? What can't sellers offer whatever terms they choose, and buyers can then accept or reject these terms with their bids?

[paypalh8er]

heh i use google checkout on ebay every day hell im makeing loads of cash cause google is doing free processing till new years and u think just becuse ebay put it in the payments not premited section that thats relly going to stop us from useing it? its like posting a no tresspassing sign up in the middle of the boondoxs just cause theres a sign up dosent mean i wont go past it.

just like the ps3 sales gaybay rules for listing a ps3 u must use paypal only Oo !!! and guess what all these people who sold ps3s u know what happen they went to w/d there money and guess what (Notification Of Account Limation)So all there suckers had to ship there ps3s off and then only to find out that fucking shitpal has there money held hostage and now there waiting weeks to get it back and playing paypals run around game while in the mean time paypals useing this money for there credit severice and makeing shit loads off the intrest of there poor saps who sold ps3s and i dont know about u but if im going to buy a ps3 and pays 1000's of $$'s theres no way in hell i will pay your suck a pethice Co. as paypal and only way i would pay is by credit card were i could file a charge back if i was scammed and if i sold a ps3 theres no way in fuck i would send it off unless the cash was in my hands.

so all you paypal lover boys out there who has a problem with how it talk about shitpal and jewbay ya can suck my dick.

Fuck ebay and Fuck paypal and hope the next 9-11 happens to your ass's

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[paypalh8er]

and ebays is relly going to be fucked when google launchs its free auction severice :) they need a new severive to knock this monkeys off the high horse cause they think sence there #1 they can do what every the fuck they want well shitbay u got another thing comeing and your days are numberd and stocks are still falling :)

and for the faggot theslimone you can quite pretending why ebay has banned googles payment system cause we all know why its cause of paypal loseing its customres and fuck i trust ebay with my info any day over fuckpal which can goto into your bank and take money out with out even getting your ok paypal is fucked up and i will never trust such a shity severice with the keys to my finances

btw you should read www.paypalsucks.com and maybe learn a thing or to about your so called trusted paypal.

[paypalh8er]

Notice on payments accepted Paypal is the first listed sounds like to me EGay is affried of compation and knows if people signs up and uses google that shitpal would be doomed cause

A. google checkout is easier to pay with then paypal
B. google checkout has hella lot cheaper fees
C. google checkout dose not collect inrest off peoples money that the frezze cause they dont limt accounts

them are just a few reason and google in my book is 1000x better then ebays pethice Co. paypal

and for the nerdy ebay workers here reading this u can smd and i use google to accept money on all my auctions and im letting as many people as i can know about google ;)

[ruafairybuttercuptigi]

I have been an ebay member and give good honest business as a buyer and a seller,no shill bids,no fake feedback etc,( i sold one item mainly bought items,clothes etc),and anyway im a disillusioned ebayer.Recently i have encountered a fraudulent seller from the UK she sold me a karen millen jumper,i paid within the given timeframe,and have still not recieved the item,in the meantime the seller about 2 weeks later has relisted(without consulting me the winning bidder of that exact item)she got feedback from a buyer on the 10th of august showing the jumper i paid for!!!In the meantime i emailed(and reported this seller)every shread of evidence i could get on this person to ebay customer support team,her address,name,past emails,etc..It took three days for ebay to respond and when they did i got a reply saying UNKNOWN SITE..They are extremely evasive,and as an auction site refuse to acknowledge responsibility for fraudulent shennanigans..even though they are happy to charge the fee..where is the customer service in that??Ebay is a sham there is absolutely no protection for customers eventhough the y are the very reason sellers on ebay exist!!!

[Da Man]

eBay has not updated ebay.co.uk cus Google checkout is only available in the USA for the moment.

"um did anyone happen to notice that google does not accept paypal as a payment method on their google checkout? why is the focus all on ebay? hmmm?"

You idiot, It up to Google how they get paid. Just like it should be up to us how we get pad. Not unless the service is well known for fraud like western union money grams. Another thing you idiot, Google has said many times that if there were any fraud issues they will cop the bill personally which means they are insured for it. Basically Google are saying how they want to get paid on their own site. Unlike eBay who are telling you who to use or else. eBay say that Moneybookers is ok to use which I agree with but then they say the Nochex another UK company is not. Well my site accpts both Moneybookers and Nochex. I've never had a problem with them unlike paypal with their stolen credit card peoblems. Nochex is a bigger UK company than Moneybookers with more users, thats why Nochex are bannes on eBay. Moneybookers have got 1'975'386 million user to date and €1'489'458'014 processed transactions. Nochex has got more with a lower fraud rate. Basically I'm trying to say that the bigger the competition the better the chance of being banned on shitbay.

[JiveBay]

I couldnt believe they would do this, well then again I can :(

[Patrick]

so what if ebay banned google. i'd do the same thing if that was my company. Why should they open the doors to google and provide them with business. Google has there Froogle crap to use if they want to compete with ebay. If Google Checkout can't compete with Paypal without being on Ebay well then they should give the whole service second thoughts. As for Google suing HA!... look at the list of BANNED processors. it's not just google, they're not special. there is a list of other banned processors that everyone seems to over look and only see google checkout. Ebay owns Paypal they have the right to say only uses this processor. If you don't like it then don't use ebay.

[Tricia]

Just one more time, lol, to give a more precise quotation, it's actually about imposng higher fees for thse who sell adult products:

[quote]Just FYI: PayPal policy is actually a reaction to restrictions imposed by VISA. PayPal has gone overboard, yes, to cover their butts, but they didn't start this. They're just playing (VERY) safe.

VISA have generally made it VERY difficult for anyone who wants to sell "adult" products by imposing very high annual fees and setting incredibly low charge-back ratios, among other things.

As for eBay, you will notice that "mature" items can't be purchased with PayPal (IIRC).[/quote]

Sorry to take up so much space, I didn't want to mistakenly spread any more misunderstanding...

[Tricia]

*Correction of the above, sorry, it is a Visa thing, but only affects you if you wish to retain a "family-friendly" rating, which I would assume eBay would wish to do. I had to look up some of the info again on another board. ;)

[Tricia]

While I would love to skewer eBay over this, and rightly so, I'm still inclined to point out that Google Checkout will still limit what you can and cannot pay for with their services, just like Paypal does. While eBay has an adult section that allows their users to sell adult items, you cannot use Paypal to pay for them! It is much the same way with Google Checkout, as the Prohibited Items list is virtually the same, and even more ambiguous! Check out http://checkout.google.com/seller/content_policies.html and then try and figure out which literature might be considered sexuall suggestive (banned as Adult Goods and Services). It's the same for security books, which could be banned under Hacking and Cracking Materials.

So, great! eBay has created a PayPal killer that'll cost me less, but has policies that are even more draconian than paypal's and completely ambiguous. Why am I supposd to get excited about that?

Just wanted to point out that the prohibition of selling sexually-related and/or -explicit things is actually a restriction of Visa, so anyone who accepts credit card payments must abide by those terms or risk having that priveledge revoked.

As far as eBay, well, they do have a right to do what they like with their business, and maybe before jumping the gun, we should wait and see if they change their policy if and when Google Checkout proves itself before painting them as an evil monopolistic entity. Of course, I for one welcome our new auction overlords (lol).

[captainfepa]

One of my biggest concerns about the eBay payments policy and coordinated PayPal procedures is the option - and in many cases, the requirement - to login to PayPal via a link or redirected screen supplied by some 'approved' checkout service. Reasonable security practices suggest that one log in to financial services only after personally typing the expected URL into a newly-opened browser screen. PayPal, however, provides interfaces to merchants such that the PayPal account knows of the billing when the user logs in through a link or redirected screen provided by the merchant or various checkout services. This makes it impossible for the average user to be certain that the screen into which the PayPal passwords are entered is actually that of PayPal and that these data are not collected by the service. Beyond being outrageous in itself, this opens one more step (several more steps, actually) to potential hacking, and trains users to ignore best security practices, increasing vulnerability to spoofing.

Moreover, PayPal/eBay promotes these practices aggressively. CircuitCity, for example, selling its excess on eBay as TradingCircuit, requires checkout through a third-party service called 'kyozou' which requires login to PayPal only through a form which it generates. After days of correspondence with TradingCircuit I was (at least by implication) finally offered the option of paying in the normal PayPal manner, using their email address as payee. However, PayPal intercepted the SEND MONEY button refusing the transaction with a message that THIS VENDOR REQUIRES USE OF THEIR OWN PAYMENT PROCEDURES! I believe that these 'safe payment' policies go beyond incautious to the point of unconscionable.

[dimes]

eBay using the excuse that google checkout is "too new" is simply specious.

If that was the real reason it's delaying approval of checkout, eBay would not have been so quick to restore bidpay to the "appropriate" payment list. WU shut down the Bidpay service at the end of last year, and later sold it to Cybersource.

The "new" bidpay has been completely retooled - it no longer issues money orders and restricts payments to direct deposits into seller bank accounts.

It was launched less than a month ago.

I agree with an earlier poster - a lot of the antagonism being directed at eBay is because it's so obviously lying about its reasoning, and people naturally resent companies that lie to them.

[Kinglink]

So we should expect Ebay, the largest online only auction house, to accept any and all new payment systems in the world, when they already have Paypal?

I mean we all know Google Checkout's track record of a year with.. wait no. We know that Google is secure, wait too new for that too.

The fact is Google Checkout has yet to EARN the approval that we are assuming Ebay should just give it? Why don't we wait until google is properly tested before attacking Ebay. Not that Ebay should ban it with out a statement as to why, but perhaps they don't want everyone to use googlecheckout, a system they have no control over, and after they are screwed ebay would have to refund everyone's money if google checkout doesn't.

Btw in reference ebay can do anything they want, they can say they will not accept any credit cards any more and it all has to be a cash transaction, or they could say it's all going to be done in ebay bucks. It's up to them to choose. This isn't about "net neutrality" this is about a business supporting the practice it wants to.

Bloomingdale's has the right to refuse any card they want. That's why many of them don't take american express or Discover because of higher than average fees. Ebay doesn't accept credit cards, Ebay accepts payment reciepts from Paypal that says the money was transfered. Yes they own paypal but it's a different business.

And Btw, Google doesn't accept paypal because why would they? Paypal isn't a payment form. It's a payment clearing house to use when using bank accounts and credit cards. You give your info to paypal it takes the money hides your personal info and hands the money to the next person. Google does the same thing. There's no reason for paypal or google to even accept each other because they don't accept money from outside sources, they work with banks and credit cards. They arn't a credit card, nor a bank.

[The Slim One]

All of you saying boo ebay are just on the Googl bandwagon. I love the big G and all of its software and tools (Gmail, Froogle, GChat, etc). GCheckout is dead in the water to me right now for two reasons;

1. Nobody uses it yet (nobody means non bleeding edge geek sites, that want all the web 2.0 hype they can get), so why bash ebay over it, its Ebays choice.

2. Unlike some other comment here, I lve the fact that PP links to my bank, that way I pay for it now, not later. Why pay interest in such on a $50 purchase off ebay if you got the money in the bank account

One more note, just like any other Google tool/software, how long till someone finds a way to google search it/hack it. Do you want your CC info Google'ed??? I know I dont.

Blast me all you want, sticks and stones people, sticks and stones.

[Just someone]

Interesting Jonathan Rosen thinks this is unfair. He runs his own payment service, perhaps not the most ummm objective commenter?

There's no monopoly power for PP on eBay when dozens of other payment services are accepted.

General truism about eBay and PP; the people who whine the loudest are usually the people caught for selling things they shouldn't: kiddie porn, guns, alcohol, etc. Or they got scammed once in a hundred auctions by buying a fake Fendi for $20 and now think eBay is the devil. Or they're about to go out of business and blame eBay for their bad decision making.

So long as people are so angry and upset by all the furor, eBay will survive. The only thing that will kill it, is indifference, and I don't see much of that around here.

[widmerpool]

"Really, as sad as it is to see ebay do this, let us not forget that they are a private company and they can freely chose who they wish to do business with."

sure, that's how it works. we have an anarcho-capitalist society.

it's not like Bloomingdale's is refusing to accept a Nordstrom credit card. eBay is supposed to be independent of PayPal. PayPal could legitimately not accept Google checkout.

it will not be long before we see Google Checkout on eBay.

all eBay did was create bad PR in the interim.

[Cotillion]

There are no "anti-trust" or monopolistic practices going on. Paypal should not be forced to allow specific types of payment. It's their company, welcome to capitalism. Offering Google Checkout might be convienient for some but it is still beta. If something goes wrong with Google Checkout and someone doesn't get money, they will blame eBay. People (myself included) don't generally think well when upset. eBay made the right decision to not allow beta services.

To Voice of reason:
The "Wild West" was not like a wild west movie. There were not gunfights at noon every other day. Guns don't cause violence, people do. People intent on violence will pursue that violence by whatever means (upset people don't think well). If you remove all guns (legal and illegal) then they will use a bow, sword, or knife. If you remove those, they will use a club. If you remove clubs, they will use a pipe or stick. And on and on. Sudan, Iraq, and Congo are in states of war. The armies and militia have guns but it is tough for the average citizen to get one. It is not easy to get a gun in the USA. And I believe that "civilized" France has had more violent riots in the past couple of years than the USA--even though the USA has many more people.

And have you ever tried to take a gun from someone pointing it at you? It isn't that easy without getting shot. Most attackers who see a gun run. Please provide references if you have proof that most guns get turned on their owners by attackers.

[Voice of reason]

LOL at firearms comment. A gun will not help a woman defend herself against a sexual predator; he's more likely to turn it on her. And the "civilized" parts of the world are the ones that have taken more steps to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals and children. The places where guns are easy to buy are rough, violent, uncivilized places like Sudan, Iraq, Congo, and the United States of America.

eBay has my eternal gratitude for their very sane policies on buying and selling dangerous items with few, if any, legitimate uses.

[Marcus]

Has anyone here signed up for Google Checkout?

I did. I noticed they don't offer PayPal as a payment option in their Checkout. Only credit cards and not all of them either. Maybe that's why eBay doesn't allow them on the site. What is the point of Google taking a credit card and not PayPal if they are not building their own proprietary cart or payment system?

[william]

Mr. Wizard,

The reason you can't sell firearms on eBay is due to U.S. federal laws enacted in 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson(1) signed the Gun Control Act, thereby prohibiting sales of firearms by dealers or individuals in one state to individuals from other states. It has nothing to do with eBay. eBay does however allow the selling of firearm parts and components.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZherbsgunshopQQhtZ-1

In the future you should do some research instead of blindly pointing fingers or making stuff up next time. Just a thought...

[Jason Cliford]

So if Google decide to reprioritise ebay ads so they do not appear prominently or just block ebay ads altogether can we all assume that ebay will be happy with the move as it's much the equivilent to Ebays move.

How about if to match it properly Google set up a competing service and push that for all auctions.