This went out regarding a specific feature, but I wanted to make sure you were all aware of it (in the event you did not receive it).
Dear PayPal Seller,
PayPal is pleased to announce the launch of Winning
Bidder Notification, a new and completely free tool for
our auction sellers. Every time an eBay (TM) auction
closes, you can have PayPal automatically send an email
notification to your winning bidder within minutes that
allows him or her to pay you with PayPal. This email
will contain all of the information about the closed
auction, as well as a link to an online form that will
make payment extremely easy for your buyer.
Since you've used our automated auction tools (such as
AutoLink and Instant Purchase) in the past, we have
enabled the Winning Bidder Notification tool for your
auctions. We realize some sellers already use similar
notification tools from third party vendors, and we
wanted to make you aware of this new feature in case
you wish to ensure that your buyers only receive one
payment notice per auction.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NOTIFICATION EMAIL CONTENT
The notification email sent to your winning bidder
will congratulate them for winning your eBay auction,
and it will include the auction's title, ID number,
closing price, and your contact email. You can also
include optional customized text, such as your shipping
and return policies.
The email also contains a special link that your buyer
can click on in order to go to a PRE-POPULATED PAYMENT
FORM that contains the information mentioned above, as
well as a field for your buyer to enter in the shipping
and handling amount per your instructions.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
BENEFITS OF WINNING BIDDER NOTIFICATION
PayPal's Winning Bidder Notification tool is designed to
make selling through online auctions easier for you. In
addition to making it simple for bidders to pay you,
Winning Bidder Notification helps you in the following
ways:
* Your winning bidders are contacted quickly (less than
an hour after the auction's close), which can reduce
the chance of them not paying.
* Encourages buyers to pay you with PayPal, which means
you can be protected from CHARGEBACKS through our
Seller Protection Policy. Chargebacks typically cost
online sellers over 1% of all their sales -- that's
like paying an extra 1% fee per transaction.
(Billpoint, for example, does not have a chargeback
protection policy, and they can also charge sellers a
$10 investigation fee for chargebacks.)
* Simplifies your record-keeping since the auction's
title and ID number are always captured in your
Transaction History, which you can download to use
with major accounting software packages.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
WINNING BIDDER NOTIFICATION PREFERENCES
If you wish to customize the text in your Winning Bidder
Notification emails, simply login to your PayPal account,
click on the "Profile" subtab, and then choose the "Bidder
Notification" link. Here you will be able to set all of
your preferences for this feature.
This is also the page where you can also turn off
notification emails; simply deselect the checkbox on the
bottom of the page to have PayPal not send automatic
emails to your winning bidders. Winning Bidder
Notification -- like all of PayPal's automated auction
tools -- can be turned off or back on at any time you
choose.
Please note that as a security measure for our buyers,
PayPal requires that recipients of Winning Bidder
Notification payments be PayPal-Verified. (Winning Bidder
Notification can still be used by non-Verified sellers to
send email notices to bidders, but sellers can only receive
a payment from Winning Bidder Notification's pre-populated
payment forms if they are Verified.)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
We hope you'll give PayPal's new Winning Bidder
Notification tool a try and see what it does for your
auctions -- and your bottom line. PayPal is committed to
offering you the very best online payment tools available
today, and that's the reason why sellers feature PayPal as
their online payment option in 3 million (or 60%) of
eBay's auction listings.
Thank you for using PayPal for your auctions, and thanks
for having helped make PayPal the world's #1 online
payment service.
posted on March 29, 2001 08:17:59 AM new
Damon, I am very dissapointed in this. I don't mind the extra feature but just applying it and sending them out auctomaticaly is a bit intrusive and presumtious on paypals behalf. I understand it is easy to turn off and I already have done that but it should have been the other way around and if it was I may very well have used it. You provide a good service but not the only one of it's kind and further intrusions into your users business may result in losing more accounts.
posted on March 29, 2001 09:45:53 AM new
I posted about this on the EO as well. Damon, this is a really dumb mistake on PayPal's part. I think there's got to be something funny in your water out there.
This type of thing ALWAYS needs to be opt in! Always. You are assured of ticking people off. I gave you my password so you could insert your logos automatically, not for any other use. So now I have to go in and change that (and I assure you, I will not be adding them by hand) and remove my password so that I can make sure you guys don't do any other squirrely crap with it.
posted on March 29, 2001 09:45:58 AM new
I can not believe that Paypal would do this! I send all of my emails out immediately at close of auction. I have lots of repeat buyers and combine shipping frequently and sometimes hold an item from one week to the next if they are bidding on something else. Well, I have spent the entire morning responding to confused buyers. Buyers who can't understand why I told them one thing, and then sent them another email telling them something different!!!!! Not only does this make me look stupid, but it's been an incredible waste of my time! The buyers had no reason to think that this email was automatically generated by Paypal, since you signed it with MY NAME. Isn't it against the law to sign someone's name to something they didn't write. I have stuck with Paypal through fee increases, I've never had a problem, but this is it, I will be closing my account.
posted on March 29, 2001 11:28:37 AM new
If this is where we are supposed to offically post our comments, rather than the EO, then here goes...
How DARE you email my bidders? And with "my" name at the bottom? It is one thing if we were able to choose to do this, but to send me the announcement email AFTER I have recieved emails from confused buyers? Thanks alot!
Ebay is trying to REDUCE spam, and here you are sending out more, but with ~my~ name on it, I guess that makes it OK. I too have spent all morning emailing confused customers, who I also normally combine shipments. So now, if they have two purchases, I guess paypal would like them to send in two payments? (I see the big wigs at paypal rubbibg there greedy hands together in glee!) How convienient!
Also, what a great way to address the shipping, "See the auction for shipping/insurance details". THANKS!
I guess that makes me look like I want the bidder to do my bookwork for me - that I can't even take the time to add $8.00 and $1.50, or whatever.
International? Priority? Multiple purchases? Auctions ending in a day or two? Insurance? Book rate? Zip code calculation? How does the buyer address these all on their own? I will tell you how - they send an amount with a note saying, "LMK if you need more shipping money", and then I am supposed to have them send me .50 cents or whatever they are short - OH YEAH, then paypal can take ANOTHER .30 plus from me! Or I can eat the money that they didn't send. And, yes paypal, this already happened to me this morning, BEFORE I even recieved the email from paypal, telling me what the heck was going on!
I have vented, thanks for listening...
(It goes without saying that I have turned off your "service", and I would like to say that I am glad I am getting more Billpoint payments than paypal by far.) What goes around, comes around...
posted on March 29, 2001 02:18:18 PM new
I agree, I have had angry buyers who have ALL READY paid, want to know why I want the money again. One person paid twice, and of course Paypal took their cut from both payments. I have to return one and apologize. I think Paypal should send EVERY SINGLE person that they send a notification to an apology and let them know that we, the sellers, DID NOT send out that notice. If they can find 'em to send 'em out they sure can find them again to apologize. I will not be putting logos in my auctions any more because of this.
(In general, I don't resort to a cut-and-paste approach, but I do need to in this instance. I do thank you all for your comments and suggestions, as they allow us to become a stronger service, while also giving us the ability to tackle your issues quickly.)
The issue surrounding Winning Bidder Notification has generated a great deal of concern on the boards.
Some earlier threads (before Wednesday) mentioned PayPal's email announcing this feature. Apparently, due to a technical error, this announcement email did not reach the impacted user base as early as intended and this has led to a fair amount of surprise and some complaints.
Winning bidder notification is currently not live and there is a change being made to make sure the messaging is as strong as possible. Modifications are being made to make the feature opt-in (instead of the current opt-out) to make up for the deficiency in the messaging not received by our users.
PayPal is dedicated to making features that are useful to you, so that you can do your transactions as quickly and efficiently as possible, and we do apologize for any inconvenience that the release of this feature has had. We hope you find Winning Bidder Notification a useful addition to the suite of PayPal auction tools!
As it relates to how the service works, please read the following:
PayPal's free, new feature, Winning Bidder Notification, just like PayPal's other automated auction tools (in fact, like all third-party vendor auction tool services, including AuctionWatch, Andale, Honesty, etc.) require the willing participation of the auction seller to allow us to access their auctions and perform certain tasks on their behalf -- such as updating logos, providing automated payment requests, and now, alerting winning bidders that the seller prefers to be paid through PayPal.
While we suspect most sellers will appreciate this new time-saving tool that will help increase their sales conversions and increase the use of their preferred payment service -- the only service that provides sellers protection from costly chargebacks and 1.5% cash back on debit card use -- there is no requirement that sellers take advantage of it.
posted on March 29, 2001 08:17:12 PM new
May I ask a question? If Damon says it's not live yet, why did the folks here say their bidders received the notices?
I would like to vote as a long standing founding member of PayPal.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Thank you.
edited for UBB!
[ edited by mtnmama on Mar 29, 2001 08:17 PM ]
posted on March 29, 2001 11:08:36 PM new
Hi everyone,
We have read several of your questions and complaints regarding Paypal's decision to automatically email end of auction notices to buyers. I wanted to take a minute to let you know that as a partner of AuctionWatch, PayPal already appears in your AuctionWatch Winning Bidder Notifications (WBNs) if you have selected them as an online payment provider. Our experience and the surveys we conduct consistently indicate that sellers and buyers appreciate the opportunity to transact using a variety of payment choices. For this reason, our WBNs cover a wide variety of payment options for sellers to offer their buyers, including money orders, checks, and of course online payments such as PayPal and BillPoint. Our WBN has been offered for several months as part of our Post Sale Management process that includes not only payments, but also shipping options, streamlined feedback posting, and the ability to print packing slips and mailing labels.
To avoid any confusion for your buyers that may result from receiving multiple sales notifications, you may want to consider only sending the AuctionWatch WBN that offers a variety of payment and shipping options. You can verify that your AuctionWatch WBN is turned on here https://secure.auctionwatch.com/my/acct/psm.html. You can adjust your PayPal settings by logging into Paypal, then entering this link https://secure.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_profile-autolink&wbn=1 . Should you have questions for PayPal, you may contact their customer service by e-mail [email protected] or phone (888) 221-1161.
If you are already using our WBNs, we appreciate the opportunity to make your lives a little easier. If you would like more information or would like to start using this service, please see the following link http://wsacp.auctionwatch.com/my/acp/pse_upsell.html.
Regards,
Chris Barker
VP - Customer Service
AuctionWatch
[ edited by cbarker on Mar 29, 2001 11:09 PM ]
posted on March 29, 2001 11:33:25 PM new
I just recieved my email from paypal telling me that is is #1 NOT LIVE (huh?) and #2 we can request it to activate it, it will not be automatic.
EXCUSE ME...to which email address shall I send the copy I have? That is, the copy of the paypal generated I recieved back from my numerous bidders who just hit reply and I can see the email *I* sent them!
Just fess up and say you made a mistake and you are sorry (what a concept).
posted on March 30, 2001 03:39:52 AM new
How can you sit there and tell us, it's not live! I too received the email this morning telling me not to worry that it's not live! So, I guess I imagined all those emails that my buyers received yesterday. And I imagined having to email all those confused buyers back. What a ridiculuos response!! There is no accepting responsibility these days...all Paypal had to say was "we're sorry, we made a mistake", but to turn around and say it never happened...that's what my children do! I expect that from children, not from a company. And just let me add, that I think the feature is a great idea. The idea of doing it without my permission, is not.
posted on March 30, 2001 09:27:54 AM new
I posted this message in a new topic, but it deserves attention here as well. Sorry for the duplicate:
---------------------------
I received an email from an eBay bidder saying "You've got cash". The auction ended without the reserve being met. So, there was no winning bidder.
The bidder said that he received email from me requesting payment. Now he wants all his money back, and I'll be out .60 for Paypal fees.
I've contacted Paypal, and they just went through a bunch of mumbo-jumbo about their auto-winningbidder notification, which isn't even yet live.
The problem here is that Paypal initiated a payment request for an auction that ended unsuccessfully. The Internet headers in the email proves they sent the email.
I want $.60 placed in my account so I can fully refund this guy's payment, with no loss to either of us. Paypal should be responsible for this. Futhermore, Paypal should stop spoofing email addresses (sending out email with someone else's address besides theirs.)
posted on April 1, 2001 07:29:43 PM new
Thanks to Paypal for the quick fix to this problem. They credited my account an amount to cover the fees, plus a tad extra.
posted on April 2, 2001 12:44:58 AM new
Hi scrappycat,
Sorry for the delay in responding to this, but you may not have seen my posts.
I do apologize for the confusion that the release of the feature had (there was a technical glitch that prevented all users from being properly notified, which is why you see some mention of it on the boards prior to the date it actually went live.
The featue was live for 8 hours (Thursday early morning to around 8am) and then it came down due to the messaging issues and there was a techincal problem with one aspect of the feature.
I truly apologize for any confusion you may have had over this release. The feature is now active and a user is greeted with a clickthrough page inviting them to use the service (the user mush take the check off to not enroll for the service).
