posted on December 18, 2000 02:50:41 PM new
Let's get some conversation going here... which payment methods are the best and why? Each person is allowed to pick more than one (i.e. PayPal and BidPay), if they fit together...
posted on December 18, 2000 07:07:56 PM new
My choices:
If you're going to pay fees to accept credit cards, Billpoint is the one to use. Customer support is reasonable, and the tight integration with eBay is very convenient.
Best fee-free service is WU MoneyZap, although it is not at all clear how long it will remain free. Most significant problem is that MoneyZap's market penetration isn't the greatest, so few buyers know about it.
For international payments, I prefer either Billpoint and BidPay.
I currently do NOT accept Paypal on my auctions, and I seriously considering phasing out ExchangePath.
- Dan
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posted on December 18, 2000 08:47:23 PM new
You're forgetting PayPal.com. You get what you pay for. Obviously none of these other 100% free services will remain free. Out of all of them, PayPal offers by far the best service. Just my 1 cent.
posted on December 18, 2000 10:02:56 PM new
PayPal has been around for awhile and is very versatile. One item I track had 35 matches on eBay 3 days ago, PayPal was accepted on 29 of those listings. That's 82%!
Acceptance by sellers and a willingness to be used by buyers is a BIG factor in making a payment method successful.
Achex gets my vote for the most "shilled" payment method. While it is forever being mentioned on AW's message board you won't find more than 10 sellers on all of eBay that accept it.
posted on December 19, 2000 01:46:23 AM newCould you all post the links/address for these pymnt methods?
Here's a tip on selecting a pay service for use on eBay. Look. Go to the type of item you are selling and look what other sellers are doing. MoneyZap has been recommended, but don't expect a flood of buyers to sign up for it just to buy your item. Do a search for MoneyZap and check out just how much acceptance it has on eBay. It is a tiny fraction of a single percent.
I'll only recommend PayPal for the reasons I gave in my previous post, but here's just a partial list of companies you can investigate. As you can see there are a lot of players in the game, but most of them are just warming the bench.
On a numorous note it should be pointed out, that Payme.com has been down since October for maintenance. Payme.com was never a widely accepted pay service yet even being down 3 almost 3 months it is accepted on more auctions on eBay than MoneyZap and Achex combined.
posted on December 19, 2000 06:18:53 AM new
>>Here's a tip on selecting a pay service for use on eBay. Look. Go to the type of item you are selling and look what other sellers are doing. MoneyZap has been recommended, but don't expect a flood of buyers to sign up for it just to buy your item. Do a search for MoneyZap and check out just how much acceptance it has on eBay. It is a tiny fraction of a single percent. <<
Here's a better tip on selecting a pay service: choose one that gives good service and is backed by a reliable company and not one run by crooks and liars that pay you $5 to shill it to your customers. Yes, it's a lot easier to convince someone to sign up for a service when you get $5 for doing so, but that doesnt make it a good service. Paymentalt promised $10 referral fee. The 14,000 suckers who signed up now have to worry about who has their credit card info.
There may be more folks on ebay accepting Paypal and exchangepath than Moneyzap, but I guarantee that there are lots of folks on ebay who used it and now say "No paypal" and "no exchangepath" and I have yet to see one that says "no moneyzap." I also have to hear a single person who had their moneyzap account frozen or their bank account accessed without permission or a single reversed payment due to a stolen CC. By Paypal's own admission "only 4%" or about 200,000 folks are unhappy with the service. They brag about this like it's good news. If 4% of my customers were unhappy and I acted like it was good news, I wouldnt be in business.
posted on December 19, 2000 07:01:04 AM newThere may be more folks on ebay accepting Paypal and exchangepath than Moneyzap, but I guarantee that there are lots of folks on ebay who used it and now say "No paypal" and "no exchangepath" and I have yet to see one that says "no moneyzap."
You know, I've got to admit you are right, I haven't seen anyone saying they didn't accept MoneyZap. Remember there's a dozen or so sellers advertising they accept MoneyZap, and PayPal has a customer base of over 5 million.
I'll point out even a stranger event in the online payment services. There is a web site whose sole purpose is to warn people to not use PayPal, offering links to unvalidated complaints and accusations (some warnings are ridiculous, that an informed person sees right through). http://www.ygoodman.com/paypal.html the part that really reeks of hypocrisy is on another page http://www.ygoodman.com/ccs.html you find one of the first thing the person does is gleefully announcing they accept PayPal. LOL!!!
posted on December 19, 2000 07:16:53 AM new
>>You know, I've got to admit you are right, I haven't seen anyone saying they didn't accept MoneyZap. Remember there's a dozen or so sellers advertising they accept MoneyZap, and PayPal has a customer base of over 5 million. <<
A customer base? Or 5 million folks who signed up for the free $5 and havent used it since? And how many frozen accounts? And how many accounts from crooks with stolen credit cards? Remember George from Romania opened up more than 45 PP accounts all by himself.
>>I'll point out even a stranger event in the online payment services. There is a web site whose sole purpose is to warn people to not use PayPal, offering links to unvalidated complaints and accusations (some warnings are ridiculous, that an informed person sees right through). <<
Tell me which ones you saw right through and why and I'll remove them. There are also quite a few where the person is a well know ebay seller with many positives, few to no negatives and the contact info is right there if you want to respond. But of course it's easier to make drive-by, empty attacks. Did paypal really buy your soul for $5?
>>the part that really reeks of hypocrisy is on another page http://www.ygoodman.com/ccs.html you find one of the first thing the person does is gleefully announcing they accept PayPal. <<
gleefully announce? How does the word paypal in a line of text sound like a gleeful announcement? In any case, I dont know how that old page went back up. It also mentioned Exchangepath and others which I no longer accept. Thanks for pointing it out. I reloaded the correct page.
As for using Paypal, there is no problem if you do it wisely. As a buyer, treat a payment as if you were sending cash. Don't expect any help if you get ripped off. As a seller, I state in my auction terms, I accept PP from previous customers or from non credit card sources. I dont recommend it. I point folks to my page. But if they insist, they can still use it. My only real problem now is that PP refuses to give a way to reject a payment so if some crook sends me one from a stolen CC, my account will get frozen. Fortunately I only get about one PP payment every few weeks and withdraw it immediately, so it wont be much of a loss.
My main point is we should stop selling our souls for $5 and start recommend the best service - not the one that pays you, not the one that makes promises they dont keep, not the one that the most ebay users have chosen, but the one that is best. Right now that is Moneyzap.
posted on December 19, 2000 07:33:05 AM new
Just because a service is not listed in an auction does not mean a seller does not accept it.
I don't list Money Zap in my auctions, but I'm signed up with it and gladly accept (and have accepted) Money Zap payments.
I'll also accept Achex without listing it. And if somebody really, really insists, I still have a PayPal account, even though I no longer list it in my auctions.
