(When you read the title of this post, please include a loud and incredulous "Hah!" at the end.)
Is anyone here an eBay Power Seller? Or perhaps an eBay Power Buyer? It's OK, I won't judge you, not since the Buying Frenzy of 2003, when I bought enough cosmetic samples from Hong Kong to power a small bordello.
I hadn't been on the auction site for several months, and then three weeks ago, due to a shortage of supportive garments, I logged into my eBay account to find that once again, eBay is treating their Australian clients like something rat-shaped they found stuck to the bottom of their shoe.
From June 17th, eBay will use Australia as a trial base for a tightening on payment methods1, by removing the options for paying by direct deposit (my preferred method), money order or personal cheque. Sellers will only be able to offer Paypal or cash-on-delivery.
eBay buyers will be forced to join Paypal and link their debit or credit accounts to it in order to make purchases. eBay sellers will have to pay Paypal's extra (and chunky) fees, on top of their eBay seller's fees.
Plus, here's a surprising newsflash: Paypal is owned by eBay.
Buyers and sellers are both outraged, but as eBay demonstrated at a meeting with sellers in Victoria2 earlier this month, they really don't give a damn, Scarlett.
In fact, eBay Australia's vice president Simon Smith added insult to injury when he said, "We're not allowing people to offer unsafe choices, just like in this democracy you can't go out and buy heroin on the streets." How big of them.
As Angus Kidman (by the way, congratulations on your new post as editor at Lifehacker AU, Angus!) says in the APC article about the meeting,
Telling customers who care enough about your company to attend a public meeting about its future that their rejection of a payment system makes them the moral equivalent of drug addicts is not likely to endear you to them, we'd have thought, but then we are but lowly journalists -- not masters of the online auctioneering universe.
This is not the first time eBay has treated Australia like some kind of inconsequential lab rat.
In mid-2004, eBay Australia took away reserve prices for auctions3, with the exception of auctions for cars, boats and other vehicles. Does anyone remember that? Their flimsy excuse was that reserve prices put off buyers. Funnily enough, eBay US sellers were still allowed to use reserve prices in their auctions.
And now, US sellers have been assured that they will not be forced to move to Paypal-only payment methods4.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I think it's time for the lab rats to revolt.
UPDATE (11 July 2008): According to Lifehacker, eBay has finally backed down ... kind of. Sellers will still have to offer Paypal, but they can continue to offer bank deposit and other existing payment methods as well. Huzzah! It will be a while before eBay buyers and sellers trust or respect the auction giant again.
1 Paypal mandatory, says eBay Australia, by Fran Foo, The Australian, April 10, 2008.
2 eBay boss: "not offering Paypal is like buying heroin", by Angus Kidman, APC magazine, May 6, 2008.
3eBay Australia goes it alone by dumping reserve, builderau.com.au, July 5, 2004.
4EBay denies Paypal-only plan for US, by Matt Nauman, San Jose Mecury News, May 10, 2008.