Why Ebay Ban on Money Orders and Checks Is Really An Advantage To Buyers
eBay has recently declared that money orders and checks will no longer be accepted means of transactions.
Many customers have welcomed this change since these two methods have been known to cause a lot of trouble for many people. Below are some of the usual problems that people have experienced with these methods.
Really long waiting period for check and money order transactions
If you’ve previously used a money order or check to pay for an item you’ve bought, you might have experienced a very long wait before the item arrived on your doorstep.
This is because the person selling the item would have had to wait as well for your check to arrive to him.
This period gets even more extended when it comes to international transactions.
And after this period, the seller would have then had to wait for your check to get cleared by the bank. Only after the check gets cleared would the person be able to send you the items that you’ve bought.
Even if you don’t receive your item, you won’t be able to file a dispute
Because of the nature of money order transactions, there isn’t any paper trail involved. This means that it would be nearly impossible to prove that the money order you sent really did or did not arrive to its intended recipient. Filing a complaint and retrieving your money could be impossible as well.
Most of the scams or cases of items not received involved transactions using these payment methods. Currently, eBay allows filing of disputes for PayPal transactions as it is much easier to check if you have sent the payments and if the other party has received the payments.
Checks and money order transactions offer you no protection for bought items
eBay has a standard purchase protection program which entitles you to about two hundred dollars worth of protection.
However, to be eligible for this, you must have used PayPal to pay for your item. PayPal makes payments much more simple and PayPal also records whether or not you’ve paid for your item and whether or not the payment was received by the seller.
After you’ve opened a dispute with eBay, eBay can check the records to see if you’ve paid for it. eBay can then investigate on the dispute and check to see if you’re eligible for protection.
Money order and check payments are inconvenient for everyone involved.
Because you need to go to the post office to send these payments out, there is much inconvenience involved. However, electronic transactions like PayPal only need you to be in front of your computer to make quick and easy payments.
The status of your international payments can be very difficult to check
The lack of a credible paper trail means that you won’t know if your payment really is still on its way or if it has arrived already and the seller just isn’t sending you the item.
This could leave you confused about whether or not you should cancel the check you’ve signed.
You could also be unsure as to which steps should be taken in case a seller refuses to send you your bought item and you then wish to file a dispute.
Ebay did this for two reasons: 1) to streamline electronic checkout. They will eventually collect the money and dole it out to the seller - just as Amazon does. 2) They want every single fee they can get thru Paypal. This is yet another manipulation of sellers’ businesses. I’ve been selling on ebay for over 10 years now and some of my older or less fortunate buyers use moneyorders. They will be hurt by this but ebay will gorge themselves even more and that’s all that counts to them. In my over 10 years I’ve had only 1 personal check bounce…on the other hand, paypal waited until an item was paid for and mailed and then tapped me for 81.00 on a payment they said the buyer was “unauthorized to make”. Nothing like being out your money AND your item! I’ll take moneyorders over that any day
the real reason is that ebay wants you to use paypal.
To use a middleman and then to deny his charges to which one agrees to, to start with, is not quite right. On the other hand, when the middleman changes policies, nothing stops the user from changing the middleman. I think that from a buyers’ point of view, this is sound policy change.
eBay is trying to streamline their business and obviously get as many people to use Paypal as possible. I believe they have changed this policy to help support the new buyer/seller protection policies. Since they will have complete knowledge of how/when a seller was paid, they will be able to cut down on false claims on fraud.
I agree that they are probably moving towards Amazons model, but if they begin forcing sellers to use eBay’s shipping prices many people will be going elsewhere.
Jeff
http://www.topsellercoaching.com
You’ve got to be kidding me?! There is absolutely nothing wrong with money orders. They say in this article:
“Money order and check payments are inconvenient for everyone involved.
Because you need to go to the post office to send these payments out, there is much inconvenience involved. However, electronic transactions like PayPal only need you to be in front of your computer to make quick and easy payments.”
First, it is not an inconvenience to me… why would I have to go to the Post Office? That’s what mail boxes are for. Second, if that’s what I am comfortable with, then that is up to me to decide, not big business. Who paid these people off to say this? eBay? If you really want to know what eBay sellers and buyers think, go onto the eBay Forums and get the real opinions.