A sudden change in eBay’s payment policy has many wondering if this is a preemptive move in preparation of the rumored Google Purchase, which could offer some serious competition to PayPal. Conspiracy theories and lots of between the line eyeballing are rampant, even if eBay insists the changes are to enhance protection for buyers.
The second sentence of eBay’s Safe Payments Policy reads, “As described in our safe buying guide, eBay strongly encourages sellers to offer payments through PayPal.” The online auction company says PayPal is the best solution to protect users against fraud, chargebacks and theft of financial data.
But some interesting wording appears within the next few paragraphs.
“From time to time, as new payment services arise, eBay will evaluate them to determine whether they may present trust and safety concerns and are appropriate for the marketplace.”
One of the factors involved in determining the trustworthiness and safety of a newly arisen payment service is:
“Whether the payment service has a substantial historical track record of providing safe and reliable financial and/or banking related services (new services without such a track record generally cannot be promoted on eBay)”
Had this change in policy occurred a year ago, or even in the absence of recent Google Purchase rumors, no one may have noticed. But the timing hurls eBay’s wording into an entirely different light.
Last week, we reported about Google Purchase screenshots, probably the smoking gun evidence to Google’s near future intentions. This week, eBay changes its payment policy.
The Google Purchase service would automatically fall into a category of “new services without a track record” which would not be promoted on eBay.
This lively eBay community forum swings from defense of eBay’s change to full-scale conspiracy theories predicting that eBay will one day allow PayPal as the only acceptable form of payment.
One forum member, who says greed has “severed eBay’s synapses,” muses on a slippery slope of future eBay moves.
“eBay/PayPal does not care about fraud, eBay/PayPal ONLY cares about MONEY — THEIR MONEY — not the buyers’ and sellers’ money. ‘Coming Soon to eBay’ — Every seller MUST agree to sell Internationally. To be followed by — Sellers can only list items acquired from eBay’s Wholesale Partners.
“Then — A monthly subscription fee (MSF ?) just to be an eBay member and be able to list. As other posters mentioned, eBay will dictate which shipper to use — and it will be more expensive and probably more risky than what good sellers use now. And so it will keep going,” predicts an angry Talkname.
eBay, however, claims to have no knowledge of a Google Purchase program and that the policy is what it states it is.
“This policy is designed to promote safe online shopping, and to encourage online payment methods that are safe, easy to use, reliable, and offer high levels of protection for users,” eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy told murdok.
“As far as we know, Google does not currently have a payments product, and we can’t comment on something that is mere speculation.”
