Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 29 July 2008 10:09
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 7
“Don’t be fooled”, say the eBay rebels, “the PayPal Buyer Protection is entirely illusory”. They’ve made this claim for some time now but feel the failure of one of the largest sellers on eBay only bolsters their claim that eBay’s push to mandate PayPal is going in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, one of Australia’s big banks has responded to the group’s query over the safety of the decades old “Direct Deposit” system.
The nightmare for eBay continues as the eBay rebellion shows no signs of ending anytime soon.
This ongoing action has just been joined by the news of major seller on
eBay failing, with its owners reportedly leaving the country.
It’s something that has left many wondering if they’ll ever get the
products they ordered or their money back, despite the head of PayPal
reported as saying those who paid by PayPal will be get their money
through a “new fund” created to deal with this incident.
The “new fund” has been criticised by the eBay rebels, as seen in the information below.
iTWire has received another letter from the rebels. It’s being
reprinted in full, with permission, and in italics. The letter will be
followed by another with an earlier response from one of Australia’s
major banks to a previous query by said rebels on the safety of Direct
Debits.
“Dear XXXXX
“Reference the following two articles by Asher Moses in The Age and the SMH today.
“Our group has collated additional information which you should
consider using if you intend to publish this story for your readership.
“The group of which I am part and which has been writing to The
Treasurer, Ministers, Senators, ASIC, ACCC, Banking Ombudsman, Office
of Fair Trading, RBA, APCA, APRA, ABA etc. in the past weeks (much of
the content has already been provided to you) has raised many concerns
about eBay and PayPal which go the heart of this EBS incident. PayPal
is not the safe product eBay claims it to be.
“When publishing articles on this EBS incident you should consider
drawing salient comments from our letters and posing the question why
our regulators have failed to act, and continue to fail to act.
“We assume you have retained copies of our letters, but if not we will
be happy to resend. The claims that PayPal is "safe" has induced, and
continues to induce buyers to take risks that they would not otherwise
take.
“It is irrelevant that eBay are supposedly setting up a special fund to
refund buyers who used PayPal to purchase items through EBS. You would
know as well as we do that this is nothing more than a PR stunt by eBay
to limit reputational damage (EBS is eBay's seventh largest seller in
Australia) and every day there are hundreds of buyers making other
purchases on eBay via PayPal and they are losing their money.
“Individually these buyers are not being heard, so eBay and PayPal
simply ignore them. They are no less entitled to the protection of our
consumer laws than are the unfortunate customers of EBS - same eBay,
same PayPal, same terms and conditions, and also victims of the same
misleading advertising. eBay and PayPal will ignore them until our
regulators step in.
“Do not be fooled : the establishment of a special fund to refund those
who used PayPal on this occasion is a public admission by eBay and
PayPal that PayPal Buyer Protection is entirely illusory.”
Continued on page 2.
