posted on October 24, 2005 11:09:37 AM new
From the Powerseller board (the replies are reason enough to accept PS status if you are eligible! LOL). The post, unfortunately, is meant to be SERIOUS!:
Hi everyone,
The folks at PayPal are looking for your input. Here's a message from the PayPal team:
On behalf of the PayPal team, we would like to gather your input on a potential product enhancement for sellers. We are interested in gathering feedback from sellers who process a large number of checks and money orders. To set appropriate expectations, we are still in the concept stage, so we haven’t even decided whether we will build this product yet. That’s why we’re reaching out to you! Here are the details at this stage:
Concept Overview:
Some sellers, who process large quantities of checks and money orders, have told us about the burdensome amount of time and energy it takes to process those transactions. Therefore, we are considering a service that would enable sellers to process money orders and checks through PayPal, allowing sellers to focus more effort on selling and less effort on managing paper-based payments.
How this service would work:
* PayPal would provide sellers with a unique physical mailing address (e.g. PO Box) via a lockbox service through a partner bank
* Sellers would include the PayPal-provided physical mailing address in their eBay listings
* Buyers would send checks and money orders to the address provided by the seller. eBay and sellers would encourage buyers to include a printed copy of the invoice with their payment
* PayPal would receive the payment and notify the seller immediately that a paper payment has been received and is being processed
* PayPal would make available to the seller an image of the money order/check and any correspondence (e.g. invoice, notes, etc) from the buyer*
* PayPal would send a “payment cleared” notification (via email and/or IPN) once the check or money order clears
* PayPal would post funds to the seller’s account
* Sellers would ship item(s) to buyers at their discretion (either before or after receiving the “payment cleared” notification) as they do today
* Note: Even if buyers did not include any information with their payment, sellers would be able to use the image of the check or money order to match the payment to the correct buyer.
Benefits to Sellers
1) Speed up time to receive & process checks (via lockbox processing)
2) Reduce hassle of handling paper-based payments
3) Track and report all paper-based transactions via PayPal
How much would it cost?
Sellers who choose to use this service would be charged standard PayPal fees.
Help us by answering a few questions:
1) How many checks and money orders do you process per month approximately?
2) Would you be interested in using this service? Why or why not?
3) If not, how could we make this service meet your needs?
4) Any additional feedback you would like to share?
Please post your replies to this board by Friday, Oct 21 when we will close the thread. We greatly appreciate your time and effort in helping PayPal explore a potential product to meets your needs as a seller on eBay.
I also want to add if you're uncomfortable sharing any information on this thread, feel free to send me an email and I'll forward it to the PayPal team. Thank you in advance for your help!
posted on October 24, 2005 11:16:57 AM new
Yeah it is a laff alright!! PayPal isn't sticking their hands in my pocket any more than they are doing now. I wouldn't touch this service with a barge pole.
posted on October 24, 2005 11:28:26 AM new
And, what of bidders who don't send enough money? I've had that happen. No thank you. I don't intend to lose all control over payments.
posted on October 24, 2005 12:38:29 PM new
I don't think PayPal is interested in the business from the sellers who have just a couple of checks to process. It would not be worth the set up of an operation like that.
I just hope this isn't part of the new Payment Policy!! Can you imagine the NIGHTMARE of trying to determine if a payment has/hasn't been received?? And if the buyers are always right as they are in PP dispute HOLY MOLY what a mess! I think checks are a PIA but I am not about to let PayPal screw those up too and charge me for it!
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posted on October 24, 2005 01:52:27 PM new
Well, that ought to go over like a lead balloon!
Once in a while I get a check from a newbie that's made out to eBay instead of me, wonder if that'll happen with paypal?
~Not RockinArt on eBay~
posted on October 24, 2005 02:21:40 PM new
Looks like PayPal wants to act like a bank, yet not become a bank (with all the attendant financial safeguards for customers). Curious...
Several of our banks already provide this service to us in several major international markets so no need for PayPal and the attendant financial risks associated with that payment service.
