posted on February 2, 2006 03:14:52 PM new
It seems that eBay has BANNED Auctionchex. It denied my listing that has Auctionchex as a form of payment. They just shot themselves in the foot as far as I'm concerned. Now, I will remove PayPal as a form of payment for International customers. Money orders or nothing. What right does eBay have to tell me how to run my business?
Cheryl
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
posted on February 2, 2006 03:55:19 PM new
I was thinking the same thing. They use the excuse that they're just a venue when someone tried to sue them, however they aren't "just a venue" enough when it comes to telling you what you can and cannot accept as payment. I'm game if anyone else is. I have over 200 auctions to revise.
Cheryl
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr.
posted on February 2, 2006 04:04:54 PM new
I think I will jump on this ship as well. From now on all my listing's will be money order only for international bidders and in my vendio EOA email and preferences I will also add Western Union money transfer and cash. Ebay's really starting to piss me off telling me what kind of payments "I" can take.
They say your memory's the second thing to go, I just can't remember what the first thing is.
posted on February 8, 2006 04:13:02 PM new
Cheryl,
Instead of listing AuctionChex as a form of payment and invoking the wrath of our eBay overloads, why not say you accept payment via online bureau d'change (which includes AuctionChex) at prevailing exchange rate...
As we all know eBay is simply trying to strong arm everyone into paying them twice - once for auction fees and again for payments through their subsidiary PayPal. With no viable alternative (in the US market) eBay/PayPal have largely succeeded domestically. (US banks never grasped the importance of P2P and P2B transfers, plus didn't want to cannibalize their credit card revenue.)
eBay are now attempting to do the same in other market, but PayPal will find the going tough when competiting against free, same-day domestic bank transfers in many countries, and even free international transfers across much of Europe. Why ask a European to transfer money from their bank account to their PayPal account, to transfer to your PayPal account then to your bank account (which may take 7 to 10+ business day) - when you can do a direct international bank-to-bank transfer (often free of charge) in 1 to 3 business days?
posted on February 10, 2006 11:37:16 AM new
Thanks for the support guys'n'gals
"why not say you accept payment via online bureau d'change (which includes AuctionChex) at prevailing exchange rate..."
Could also be :
Non Paypal payments are processed via an online Bureaux de Change ..... etc
And to get you upto date, finally eBay called me, the first contact since all this came about. I was given chance to explain what we do and why, and methinks there may be a very slight policy change, fingers crossed, at least they say they will 'revue their decision'?
posted on February 10, 2006 06:59:34 PM newAuctionChex,
Eddie, you could really boost AuctionChex by promoting it to UK customers as providing cheap online BIC+IBAN payments in Euros, to the EU/EEA. As we all know the vast majority of UK banks don't offer online EUR transfers to the EU under directive 2560/2001, let alone for the same cost as corresponding domestic transfers (which are of course in GBP). Most high street banks charge a usurious amount in the region of £10 to £25 for SWIFT/BIC transfers, not always done via STP, which may incur intermediary fees.
You could generate good business providing an online BIC+IBAN payments service to UK customers. Quite easy to implement and your main EU bank would probably handle the volume without problem. Probably easiest to process if you batch transactions and process daily to start with until you ramp up the volume. Most of the tools for backend processing and validation are available under open source and GNU General Public License for free (or a few bottles of 'real' beer).
If you need help in finding financial backers I can point you in the right (non-EU) direction. Or maybe you could make a pitch in Dragon's Den? Anyway best of British luck!
p.s. as to wording - how about 'Non Paypal payments are processed via an online Bureaux de Change (at wholesale cross rates). EU licenced so your financial privacy is assured. Better security at lower cost. No chargeback or reversal risk to sellers with SNAD, INR, since we only transfer money and don't get involved in anything else, etc... <insert long list of advantages over unregulated trans-Atlantic rivals>
posted on February 11, 2006 01:06:06 AM new
agitprop
Yep, I suppose I could promote further our existing IBAN/BIC functions (I will add some additional text on the payments information page) but as with any other web based business, its all about getting traffic to the site.
I have never contacted (spammed) sellers who state 'Paypal only for International sales' etc, but do answer relevant eBay forum posts with my Auctionchex ID, so the 'message' does get across, but slowly.
As to Dragons Den, the one person who may take an interest would be Doug Richard, and its not all about getting additional funding, with somebody like him 'on board' so many doors would open for chex, hence my contact with Lighthouse just before Xmas, who are 'getting back to me' once they have finished a major project they are working on (mid Feb I have been told).
It could be an interesting Spring 2006 if that happened and eBay changed their policy a little
