posted on October 20, 2001 07:32:26 PM new
This would be an easy way to eliminate a huge amount of deadbeats on eBay:
Start requiring credit cards on all eBay accounts, both buyer and seller.
No matter what your email address, no matter whether you only buy or only sell, require a credit card. That way, they can match up the user info given to the credit card, and find out if it is legit.
Don't have a credit card? Then you have to wait for eBay to confirm your address, via a letter sent to the address you registered with.
Will it cost eBay money? Sure. But think of all the FVF credits they will eliminate, as well as the excellent PR that a move like this would generate.
They claim they are "only a venue", but that doesn't mean they can't make their "venue" safe and secure for legitimate users.
posted on October 20, 2001 08:54:10 PM new
I completely agree with you. Perhaps us fellow eBayers should contact eBay about this matter and get it approved. I don't see why eBay woudln't want to do a "background" check on bidders as well by requiring a credit card.
posted on October 20, 2001 08:55:51 PM new
Lets kick Meg out and make you CEO of E-Bay! I think that deadbeat bidders should be responsible for sellers fees at least, if they do not purchase the item that they won and bid on. E-Bay would never do that though.
[ edited by daleeric on Oct 20, 2001 08:56 PM ]
posted on October 21, 2001 11:10:00 AM newHow will taking this action increase ebay's revenue?
By eliminating Final Value Fee Credits. If eBay changes their user policy to state that all FVF credits will be charged to the bidder, they would dry up lickety split. I would estimate that at least 5% of all sales on eBay result in some sort of fee credit. By eliminating these, eBay makes more money.
Will taking this action actually decrease ebay's revenue?
In the long run, no. Why would someone not want to have their identity confirmed? Simple. Because they have something to hide. The chances of that person being a deadbeat are FAR greater than someone who has a credit card on file that eBay can draw from.
Plain and simple: By making the "venue" safer and more secure, you make people want to buy and sell there. You reduce the cases of fraud, and virtually eliminate deadbeats.
I never said it was a new idea. What I said is "Why eBay doesn't do this, I'll never know...."
posted on October 21, 2001 12:17:19 PM new
revvassago, it's a well known fact that in the ebay accountng system any fee credits are NOT subtracted from the revenue column. Rather, they are expensed. Same way they pad their numbers during the free listing days. Fees are booked as revenue, credits are booked as expense. Fairly simple accounting trick. Thus, if I charged you one thousand dollars for something, but gave you a nine hundred dollar rebate, my revenue was one thousand dollars, even though you only really paid a hundred.
Getting rid of deadbeats does NOT increase revenue, rather it decreases it. Deadbeats are also good for profits, since ebay NEVER will refund a listing fee because the auction winner was a deadbeat. Think of all the profits (not to mention revenue) they'd be giving up if there were no deadbeats!
posted on October 21, 2001 01:09:02 PM new
I agree with Pocono, I refuse to use my credit card as a form of ID.
You all assume that if you don't get your money that it is because the buyer is a deadbeat. There is also the possibility that the payment really did get lost in the mail. Also keep in mind that there are incompetent or fraudulent sellers that will say payment never came when it actually did (I have had personal experience with that one). So if ebay automatically takes money from buyers if the seller complains, ebay will have thousands of angry people crying "No, you didn't!" "Yes, I did!" to contend with.
They will NEVER do it, and I will quit buying if they do.
posted on October 21, 2001 01:20:14 PM new
When yahoo began requiring a CC from all buyers, many buyers left yahoo. Many sellers were severely hurt by the move. It only made matters worse, and it did nothing at all to decrease deadbeats on yahoo.
posted on October 21, 2001 01:42:35 PM new
I agree w/not having to give a cc card number. However, to stop people from having multiple ID's for non-legitimate reasons, I'd have no objection if eBay did something like an address verify.
Thank you for joining. You may bid for 10 days in which time you will receive your permanent password from eBay at your mailing address. You'll be prompted for that on the 11th day.
Then when complaints started coming in about a buyer (shill bids, bad checks, etc.), the starting point for any investigation would be the address. It wouldn't totally solve anything, but it might be a start.
Actually, I don't really care enough about deadbeats to want eBay to waste resources on this. I'd rather just get my listing fee back (along w/my FVF of course). Which ain't EVER going to happen.
posted on October 21, 2001 02:03:52 PM new
Pocono & Blondesense are correct.
I recall when the Adult listings on eBay required a CC for verification, the deadbeat numbers remained, while the buyer numbers & PRICES realized dropped drastically. I discussed this with an Adult seller who listed several hundred items per month, and in his opinion the CC verification hurt his biz bigtime.
I also have some high roller buyers of atiques & collectibles that have told me they will NEVER trust an online site with their CC number, and if forced to supply one would leave eBay. These people drop thousands of $$$ each & every month on eBay & I sure would hate to see them be forced to leave.
IMHO eBay will never implement such a rule for the various reasons stated above.
