Here are actual member questions and staff responses related to our paperless payments and secure checkout change, with some slight cleanup to make them easier to read. More topics will be posted in the next few days.
Q: Some buyers do not trust PayPal or merchant accounts. Is eBay just willing to say goodbye to a valuable resource for the common seller?
A: Today, most buyers are comfortable with online payments, but we know there are still a few who don't trust electronic payment methods. We're actually working hard to educate this group, and our PayPal folks will be reaching out with safety information -- especially details about our improved UNLIMITED buyer protection coming in October -- and coupon incentives. First, some buyers may demand to use checks or money orders. We understand sellers may decide to accept paper payment rather than lose the business, particularly from a long-time buyer. This is OK for a limited number of transactions. We will monitor for seller abuse, and will take action against sellers who discourage their buyers from using the accepted electronic payment methods.
I also want to be clear why we are making this change. We feel this will deliver more sales to our sellers. Online buyers expect to checkout and payment to be safe, reliable and fast. That’s what our largest competitors offer. We need to provide the same or better experience to keep our buyers and get them to purchase more on eBay. Currently, buyers must leave the eBay site to pay for about 1 out of 5 transactions. We’ve clearly heard from buyers that they are concerned about fraud when they pay off the site. And it is often a cumbersome experience. We’re requiring electronic payment methods and integrating those methods into eBay checkout in order to enable buyers to pay without leaving the eBay site.
There are options for buyers who don’t have a credit card or don’t want to share it online. For example, they can purchase pre-paid debit cards at most supermarkets and banks, and use these in eBay checkout. I'd like to emphasize that there will be other electronic options besides PayPal after October and we are making these options more visible, accessible and convenient to use.
As part of the changes, we are integrating seller Internet merchant accounts into eBay checkout. In other words, if a seller offers credit card as a payment option, a buyer will be able to enter their credit card number directly into eBay checkout. A significant percentage of listings on eBay.com already offer credit card as an option, and with this change, paying with credit cards will be more secure and much more convenient for buyers.
We are also fully integrating ProPay into listing tools and eBay checkout. These changes will make this PayPal alternative much more visible and convenient to use for both sellers and buyers.
We are also working to add more electronic payment providers by early next year. These will also be fully integrated into listing tools and checkout.
Q: Is it "legal" on ebay for a buyer to even ask to pay with a money order after these changes take effect? Yes, a buyer can ask a seller if they can pay with a Money Order or Check.
A: You may only solicit approved payment methods in your listings or communications with buyers. This means you must be explicit about the payment methods you accept, and they must be approved.
Should a buyer initiate a conversation about alternate payment methods, it is your choice to accomomdate this request.
Here are the rules as of the October release date:
A seller may not solicit or advertise that the accept paper payments, either in their listing description or in their emails sent to their buyers.
A seller may not "hint" that other than approved payment methods are accepted, for example, an email to a buyer or a line in the description that says anything along the lines of "EMail me about other payment methods." OR "Email me if you have questions about these payment methods."
Anything, and I mean anything in a seller's listing that hints or alludes to unapproved payment methods will result in the listing's removal.
Attempts to circumvent this policy will be viewed and handled as such.
If a buyer asks a seller if they will accept a paper payment, the seller may accept or decline that request.
Q: I have revised 1300+ items to show that I take Paypal only on the payment details area. I use Auctiva and in my listings (item descriptions) mention that I take paypal, check and money orders. Since I have it clearly marked in the payment details that paypal is what I take, do I have to revise/edit 1300 items (one by one) to take the check, money order reference out of the item descriptions?
A: Check and money order acceptance in your item description should be removed by January 15, 2009.
Q: If you want safer payments, why not just offer Credit Card payments, like 99% of all online retailers.
Why use a middle man like Paypal or Propay?
A: Sellers can sign up for a merchant account and use that if they don't want to use PayPal or ProPay.
Q: Could eBay please clarify if sellers are still expected to remove email addresses from our listings in September?
Back in June it was announce you'd release an anonymized email system in September and sellers would be required to remove email addresses from our listings: http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200806201307272.html
If we have to remove Money Orders, Personal Checks, etc from our listings, it would be smart to make the email address removal at the same time (if required).
I'm asking because this announcement from John McDonald (http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200807311320532.html) restored the original Links Policy that has a section that explicitly allows mailto style email links in our listings.
A: Email addresses will not need to be removed until January, but it's great to start taking them out now if you are revising already for other things, as you mention.
You bring up a good point that we need to extend the timeline further out. We'll work on that.
Q: Safer payments for whom? The buyer is what I get out of the context. From my perspective it is the seller who is taking the risk due to bad checks, fake money orders etc.
A: Yes, electronic payments are safer for both the buyer and the seller. Buyers who pay with paper payments are more likely to file an Item Not Received complaint and leave negatives, so they are better for sellers in this respect (and that's without considering time delay).
Q: I can't help but wonder how Canadians will feel regarding payment methods allowed. Will Canadian Merchant accounts be integrated in eBay checkout on .CA and on .COM?
Will eBay have a tete-a-tete with ProPpay for that company to accept Canadian sellers (it does NOT at this time, I know I called them).
A: Canadian merchant accounts will be integrated by January on a case-by-case basis, and we'll provide more details as we get closer. My understanding is that ProPay is investigating the possibility of supporting Canadian sellers on eBay.com. We're also working with other 3rd-party payment methods.
Q: I have a concern about the banning of checks and money orders and going to all electronic checkout. I have a whole bunch of repeat customers who run tabs, sometimes for a few days or a week, but I have one foreign customer who runs a tab for a couple of months. They buy and buy and buy, then request their total, I send them their summary along with shipping costs and then they pay. I sincerely hope you are not going to require "immediate payment" after each purchase, as this will effectively eliminate combined shipping, whether it's on a BIN or auction. If sellers cannot combine shipping, that is going to hurt sales.
A: We currently do not have any plans to require immediate payment so you can continue to offer combined shipping as you've been doing.
Q: How will people pay for items in the Mature Audiences category if they can’t use money orders?
A: The predominant way to pay in Mature Audiences is through paper payments because effectively it's the only way to pay today. Many credit card processors, and online payment services, will not process payments for adult goods.
PayPal has not been allowed in the Mature Audiences category because the credit card processor we use in the US does not process credit card payments for digital adult items. We have a contract with them - they have asked and we have agreed not to do it.
However, with the new digital items policy on eBay, there shouldn't be digital items in the Mature Audiences category anymore. So, we are actively working with our eBay colleagues, now, and are looking at adding PayPal to that category. If we do add PayPal to the category, it would be in 2009. It takes time to make the decision and to make the updates to the site, and at that point, it very well may be the holiday season, so we would wait until 2009.
FYI Motors, Business & Industrial, Mature Audiences and Real Estate will be excluded from the new payment requirements. Specifically, the following categories will be excluded:
> Motors > Cars & Trucks > Motors > Motorcycles > Motors > Powersports > Motors > Boats > Motors > Other Vehicles & Trailers > Business & Industrial > Agriculture & Forestry > Tractors & Farm Machinery > Business & Industrial > Construction > Heavy Equipment, Trailers > Business & Industrial > Food Service & Retail > Concession Trailers & Carts > Business & Industrial > Healthcare, Lab & Life Science > Imaging & Aesthetics Equipment > Business & Industrial > Industrial Supply, MRO > Fork Lifts & Other Lifts > Business & Industrial > Manufacturing & Metalworking > Manufacturing Equipment > Business & Industrial > Manufacturing & Metalworking > Metalworking Equipment > Business & Industrial > Office, Printing & Shipping > Commercial Printing Presses > Real Estate > Everything Else > Mature Audiences
Q: So we'll be able to use our merchant accounts on eBay. Will eBay take anything other than the listing fee and FVF, and leave the processing fee to the card processor?
A: Yes, you will still be able to use merchant account on eBay. There would be the eBay insertion and FVF, and the processing fees changed by your processor. Similarly if you accepted PayPal or ProPay there would be a processing fee.
Q: We accept credit cards, but do not currently have an internet gateway. The buyer has to phone us with the credit card info. With the payment changes, will we have to have an internet gateway to continue to accept credit cards on eBay with our current merchant account?
A: In checkout, buyers' credit card information will be sent securely to the seller's merchant credit card processor via the Payflow Payment Gateway. To take advantage of this option, sellers will need to have several things in place:
- An existing Internet merchant account with their bank or credit card processing company.
- Your processor account information from your Internet merchant service provider.
- An account with Payflow Payment Gateway. This is a FREE service for eBay sellers, and can be established through a link displayed in your seller preferences page in My eBay starting late this year.
All the FAQs for the electronic payments changes are there (including more on this topic). To get to the answers on internet merchant accounts, you have to scroll down close to the bottom of this FAQ section.
Q: Can my non-online merchant account be accessed through the PayPal gateway? How do I make it so?
A: Contact your merchant account provider to see if they can make it an internet merchant account. It varies by provider.
Q: My buyers often call me so I can process their credit card payments over the phone. Will this still be allowed?
A: This will be the case until January 2009, at which point direct credit card payments will be integrated into eBay checkout. At that point, it will not be a violation of the policy to take credit card payments from customers who call in their information.
That said, encouraging buyers to do that is not what we want sellers to do either. It is safer, and more convenient, for a buyer to complete the transaction on the site because we will then have a record of the payment, which we need from the buyer in the event of a dispute.
However, if a buyer does not trust putting their credit card information online and asks you to be allowed to call it in, that's OK.
I would also encourage you to contact your merchant account provider to talk to them about enabling your merchant account for online payments, if it isn't already. That way, you can also receive payments to your merchant account online and not just over the phone.
Of course, I would also encourage you to contact PayPal. We can handle your processing needs for online payments, including direct credit card processing
Q: What is going to be done to communicate to and educate the buyer about these new changes?
A: We agree we need to do a lot of education with some buyers who have been reluctant to move to electronic payment methods, and we'll be doing a lot of outreach.
Yes, they will have a phone number so that they can talk to somebody about the changes. But we will call them first to let them know about the changes. Once we get them on the phone, we'll have a better chance to educate, but for those who almost exclusively use paper payments, we'll also be offering them coupons with PayPal to incent them to try it.
Something else that we will be doing for buyers who are concerned about security is encouraging them to use our Security Key. If you haven't heard about this security tool, I encourage you to check it out. I have heard lots of positive reviews from people who are using it. It's a portable token that generates a 6-digit security code every 30 seconds, and to log in to a PayPal account you must use your password and the code. You can find out more about it, and other great tools like Iconix (which tells you which emails are truly from PayPal and which are spoof), here: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/securitycenter/general/FreeTools-outside we are also improving PayPal Buyer Protection - removing the coverage cap starting in late October. Hopefully that will help convince these buyers to use PayPal as well.
Q: There are PayPal-only sellers who are currently being asked/told to accept a check or MO, and many cave because they don't want a negative/bad stars/UPI hassle.
How on earth are you going to keep that from happening when the new rule goes into effect?
A: If you're concerned about negative feedback from buyers who insist on paying with checks or money orders, you should know that "I tried to pay with a check or money order", or anything to that effect, will not be considered a valid response to a UPI dispute. A buyer will lose that UPI dispute and not be allowed to leave negative feedback.
Q: Why are you eliminating checks/money orders in October but not integrating checkout until January? It makes sense to do both at the same time. If you cannot have the checkout ready until January, then you should be allowing checks & money orders until then. Frankly, it is silly to say you have to pay by PayPal or Credit Card but, oops, we don't have the Credit Card component up yet. And it creates more work for us.
A: How you accept credit card payments to your internet merchant account will not change in late October. We encourage you to continue offering this payment option to your buyers, and you can continue to accept credit cards by phone, email, your website, 3rd party checkout or other means.
We plan to make this process more convenient and secure for buyers in January by enabling sellers to integrate their internet merchant account in eBay checkout. Buyers will be able to directly enter their credit card number into eBay checkout and the payment will be routed to your merchant account. We are waiting to January to make sure this feature rolls out smoothly for our sellers and buyers.
Q: I have over 1500 items available, all of which have been on "Automatic Relist" (for my auction listings) or "Good until Canceled" (for my store inventory), for the better part of 5 years now, and each of these reflects my "acceptance" of Cashier's Checks and/or Money Orders.
It will be quite an undertaking to make the necessary changes (not just for me, but for EVERYONE) if there will be restrictions to the verbiage used in item descriptions regarding accepted payment methods.
A: Yes, you should remove references to money orders and checks in your item descriptions. We know this takes time and as a result, items that are listed as "Good until Canceled" and reference the acceptance of money orders and checks in the item description will not be immediately removed when this change happens in October. That said, we strongly recommend you begin the process of revising these item descriptions as we will begin enforcing this in the item descriptions area come mid-January.
Q: In regards to SIF listings, once an item has been purchased from a listing, the ability to change the verbiage no longer exists.
Therefore, in order to make these verbiage changes (regardless of how long until the requirement goes into effect), sellers have to cancel the existing listing, and relist a new one!
I have over a thousand SIF listings with purchases, meaning I'll have to cancel and relist each and every one!
A: Yes, the SIF listings will need to be revised and relisted.
Q: Forcing buyers and sellers to PayPal was overruled in Australia.
Since buyers and sellers did not want in Australia and the courts decided EBAY could not do it, why try it in the US.
Why undermine buyers and sellers and go against a court that has already ruled against you?
A: eBay.com is NOT requiring PayPal as AU originally announced and later decided to change. We're changing to paperless payments, and sellers are free to use their own merchant accounts or ProPay.
Q: I've never heard of Propay…does eBay own it?
A: ProPay is a 3rd-party payment company. We hope to add additional 3rd-party methods in the future.
Q: I do not have set "rules" on combined shipping because I sell items of varied weight, and charging, say $1 per additional item isn't feasible. My combined ship rates are based on total package weight + destination zip.
Is this new electronic checkout going to prevent this? Will I still be able to send an invoice with combined shipping charges, and then they can pay?
A: You will still be able to send an invoice should you need to adjust shipping or other charges before your buyers pay.
Q: If my buyer asks to pay with a check or money order: A) will they be in violation of eBay policy B) if I as the seller respond yes they can will I be in violation of eBay policy.
A: If a buyer asks to pay with a check or money order even after the change in policy in late October, you may want to explain the appropriate payment methods now accepted on eBay. Please know we will not allow abuse of the new payment policy.
We also want to point out buyers who insist on using checks and money orders in a UPI (Unpaid Item) complaint will lose the claim and not be allowed to leave negative feedback.
Q: Current Ebay policies allow payment by wire transfer (bank-to-bank) in their list of accepted payment methods. The announcement of the new methods doesn’t mention it as a payment method, but does no state either that wire transfers are not allowed (like they say checks & MO's are not allowed).
A: Under the new policy wire transfers (bank-to-bank) will not be an acceptable payment method.
Q: This is completely unfair. There are a TON of people who don't want or can't use PayPal for a reason. Mine is I just got out of debt and have NO credit cards......now I can't even buy something online I want because of a new policy going into effect because Ebay is going to electronic payments ONLY.
A: Do you have a debit card or bank account? You will be able to pay with debit cards and you can use your bank account as a funding source with PayPal.
One of the nice things about PayPal is that you can set up an account without a credit card. You would need to submit information about a bank account to sign-up and to transfer funds. This account could be the same one that you write checks with. With a PayPal account you could buy and sell online without using a credit card. You can also purchase a prepaid debit card available at many supermarkets and banks.
Q: So how do you accept Merchant credit cards after January?
A: Merchant credit card payments will be directly integrated into eBay checkout in January. You will need to sign up for a Payflow Payment Gateway account (free) after which the buyers credit card information will be directly sent to your merchant credit card processor from eBay checkout.
Q: After the ebay checkout is active, we're still be able to re-direct our buyers to Prostore checkout and not the ebay checkout? Correct?
A: This is correct, and as mentioned in our announcements, we are working to integrate 3rd party checkout flows like ProStores checkout into eBay checkout.
Q: As an eBay seller can I open a ProPay account today? If so can I mention I accept ProPay on my listings? If not when can I start to promote it on my listings and will it be fully integrated into eBay at the first of the year?
A: You can go ahead an open a ProPay account today and start to accept ProPay. We expect to have ProPay integrated fully into eBay sometime in October.
Q: Many of us sellers will never use Paypal or Merchants accounts. So eBay will be losing a lot of their best sellers who will be forced out of eBay. I have been selling on eBay for almost 10 years and have never had a problem with money orders period...not one time. Also a lot of buyers feel secure in sending money orders because they have been around so long and people are comfortable with them. Can eBay really afford to lose so many loyal buyers and sellers and still survive?
I don't want to leave eBay but if money orders are no longer allowed as a payment method then I will be forced out.
A: We certainly don't want to lose the business of a seller with 100% feedback and high DSR ratings like yourself. You've obviously provided buyers with a good experience by just accepting money orders. Expectations for shopping and paying online have evolved dramatically since eBay was founded. In the beginning it was all checks and money orders. But now on eBay.com, over 90% of transactions are paid with online payments and paper methods have declined by over 40% over the last couple of years. While you've provided a good experience with paper payments, on the whole, buyers have struggled with these methods and its had a significant effect on all sellers.
Q: Please explain to me how a sellers choice to accept checks or money orders does anything to affect all sellers on eBay?
What I read into this policy change is that PayPal doesn't want to miss out on a single dime of potential revenue by forcing sellers to accept only online payments that eBay chooses.
A: The rub for sellers who do everything right is the secondary effect of bad buyer experiences caused by others sellers. We know that buyers who pay with paper payments are 80% more likely to file an Item Not Received dispute, and 50% are more likely to leave a negative feedback than buyers who pay with PayPal or a credit card. If a buyer has a bad experience with another seller and they decide to stay away from eBay altogether, then that's one less potential buyer who can buy from you. I think it's a matter of lost potential that affects everyone equally. In the long run we believe that buyers will have a consistent and more secure payment experience every time they shop on eBay, and there will be more people looking at your listings.
Q: In this transition period, I'd like to be able to put a notice in my item description along the lines of "Due to the changes in eBay policy, I can no longer accept checks and money orders. I'm sorry for any inconvenience this causes."
My question is, will having the words "checks" or "money orders" in my item description cause red flags? I don't want to get caught in the net by a "word bot" that's trying to detect sellers who haven't yet removed their "I accept checks/mo's" verbiage. Does that make sense?
A: Yup, you should be fine since you're not soliciting the use of money orders or checks.
Q: We process a lot more than $3k per month with direct credit cards. What other integrations will be you offering besides ProPay? We would like eBay Checkout integration with existing payment gateways such as Authorize.Net. I don't understand why ProPay was selected since they are a small player and only allow a small monthly.
A: Sellers may use an internet merchant account to accept payments. We are also working with other electronic payment providers currently included in our Accepted Payments Policy to integrate their services into eBay checkout in 2009.
Q: What about Google Checkout & Amazon Payment, they are certainly reputable services and the Amazon one is used by millions of people!
A: The electronic payment methods available on eBay already provide security and protections and are already used by the vast majority of our buyers and sellers. eBay will offer several other electronic payment options in addition to PayPal, namely ProPay to start, with more electronic payment providers to be added in coming months. Google's and Amazon's products and services compete with eBay on a number of levels, so we are not going to allow them on eBay.
Q: We may not be able to get to all 2400+ store listings under our selling ID before January, having just spent weeks updating them to comply with shipping requirements and other "best practices" (including spelling out all forms of acceptable payment in each description). There are other demands on our time besides keeping up with the ever-morphing requirements of eBay. What will happen in January to GTC store listings with descriptions that still mention checks and MO's as acceptable forms of payment?
A: If you currently accept checks, money orders or other soon to be prohibited payment method, you'll need to comply with at least one of the following:
1. Add PayPal as a payment method to listings. 2. Sign up with ProPay as a payment option. 3. Accept credit cards or debit cards through your Internet merchant account.
If you aren't able to comply with at least one of the action items above you won't be able to list new items or relist using the same templates. Current listings will remain on eBay.com until they end. Please note you must remove references to any prohibited payment method from templates and item descriptions. This will not be completed automatically.
We encourage all sellers to remove all references to check and money orders to listing and templates by October 2008 but understand this is an extremely busy time of year. Because of this, we will wait to January 15, 2009 before we insist on the removal of these payment methods.
Q: Can we list CASH only on pickup items? I have some items too big or heavy for shipping. Paypal says we need an online DC under seller protection... so how can we accept Paypal for pickup only?
A: Buyers may choose whatever payment method seller and buyer agree to when they pay on pickup, including checks, money orders and cash. We encourage sellers to specify in their listing description what payment methods are acceptable if a buyer pays on pickup. Also note that sellers may not select "pay on pickup" as a sole payment option in their listing. At least one of the approved electronic payment methods must always be an option for buyers.
Q: Please give details around your expanded PayPal seller protection, which will go into effect in October.
A: We feel this is valuable protection, available to all sellers on eBay.com with a US PayPal account at no additional cost to the seller.
For more information, please go to several FAQs that are part of the eBay Live announcement of this feature:
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