Being forced to use PayPal to pay upgrade fee

[narrator]

Hi, I'm having a problem upgrading from Buyer to Seller+. When I click on the offer button, I'm taken to a page where the only choices are to pay through a PayPal account directly, or through PayPal with a credit/debit card, if you don't have a PayPal account. Either way, you're paying through PayPal.

At the bottom of the page, it says:
In order to process your payment, PayPal collects certain personal information from you which it holds in accordance with its Privacy Policy. For more information on this process, Click PayPal Account Optional.

I only discovered eBid because I am escaping eBay and the tyranny of PayPal - don't want to bore anyone with the details, I just refuse to use PayPal ever again. I refuse to pay anyone who is going to give my personal information, such as my credit card, my address, my name, etc. to PayPal, because they're using PayPal as a payment processor.

Does eBid have any other payment processors? Can I pay this fee without going through PayPal? Because if it's PayPal only, I'm wasting my time here.

[JanetB]

Contact support@ebid.net and ask them what other options are available.

Although quite a few of us don't like Paypal, we do offer it as an option for buyers who prefer to pay that way. About 80% of my customers prefer Paypal, 20% Google Checkout.

[narrator]

Thanks, I have emailed that address, but who knows when or if a response will come.

I can't do business with PayPal. It's not a matter of liking or not liking them, although I do loathe the company. It's just impossible based upon their abuse of sellers.

[narrator]

I've just learned that once I logout, or after a pre-determined period of either 3 hours or 24 hours, not sure which, I'll be automatically logged out and will have to email my passport, or drivers licence, and a utility bill to eBid before logging back in. I don't know what the world is coming to. There are so many things wrong with this...

So, I may not be back. If the only choice is to pay through PayPal to register as a seller, then I won't be emailing eBid my hydro bill, or passport, or anything else. I'm one of the people whose PayPal account has been frozen. That's the only reason I'm even here. I thought there were alternatives to eBay and PayPal.

I just wanted to say a few things.

If eBid is using PayPal as its sole payments processor, then it's not an independent company. It's being absorbed into the eBay/PayPal world. As you know, eBay owns PayPal. Sooner or later, these things are bound to happen:

eBay will purchase eBid.
eBid will name PayPal as its only accepted method of payment for auctions.

Then, fees will go up to match eBay's. All you small businesspeople and small traders will be shut out, just like you are being shut out of eBay by fees designed to squeeze you.

All the work you've done, all the effort you've put into your stores will all have been for nothing. You'll receive no thanks for the effort you've put into attracting attention to eBid.

It's really sad.. I spent a few days reading these forums and could tell how excited people were to be here; to have found a place to start over.

But eBid will sell out, whether it wants to or not, once PayPal has it dependent and under control.

Then, everyone here will rush to find yet another alternative marketplace. Rinse, repeat.

PayPal is the problem, not the solution. Avoiding it, refusing to feed it, is the only way to defeat it. But seeing what's happening here, seeing desperate people continuing to feed a monster even when they know about the horror stories - and may even have been victimized by this monster themselves; it looks like it will surely become a monopoly similar to Standard Oil and Bell Telephone.

[narrator]

Hi ,

Thanks for your email.

Unfortunately, if you wish to upgrade to a SELLER+LIFETIME account,the only payment method available is PayPal.



Best Wishes
eBid Support Team

That's all I needed to hear. Good luck to all of you.

[baconsdozen]

To be honest mate,I dont't think you've missed much.

[cheaver]

Re Paypal, eBid verification etc.
Not long after I joined I listed some expensive items and my eBid account was immediately shut down until I sent verification. I sent more than was asked for - ie Passport, Driving Licence, Utility Bill + Bank Statement.
Very quickly I was up and running again without any problems.
Paypal is a Bank! eBid is an Online Auction Site (one of several obviously) - Banks, I believe, are REQUIRED BY LAW to fulfill their obligations (including verification etc) and so the Auction Sites will be also.
Personally, I prefer Paypal payments. I have nothing to hide and I am a firm believer in transparency & openness - legislative rules and regulations are in place to safeguard us all.
I just wanted to reply to the rather strong opinions originally expressed in this thread.





Cheaver has got some collectables - Tax Discs and Money.

[iwiw60]

Paypal is a Bank

Nope....

[bluebedouin]

...
Paypal is a Bank!...

I wish it was,it'd be a darn sight more answerable to it's customers.

[cheaver]

Thank you for your enlightenment - I thought Paypal is a Bank. (Standing in corner now).
As a business then there must be legislative controls,mechanisms,safeguards in place?