Ebay forcing sellers to use PayPal.

[Waldo]

ACCC now officially investigating this matter.

Hope they have better luck than they had with petrol pricing

Hope they go in with blazing and not like their normal practice.

[Big Shed]

ACCC now asking for submissions from the public, see here.

[Ivan in Oz]

This might also be of interest to some

internal petition....how long will it last before it is taken off?

http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayau/petition.html

[Ivan in Oz]

Some more [other] reads

http://forums.ebay.com.au/forum.jspa?forumID=500000001

[Brickie]

internal petition....

http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayau/petition.html

How is it connected with ebay? its a separate site altogether.

[Ivan in Oz]

How is it connected with ebay? its a separate site altogether.

Not sure,
but there seem to me a LOT of disgruntled Ppl,

I was Number 8thousand something.

Didn't give any (extra) information to them.
other than what they already have.

[Big Shed]

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/...-15306,00.html

[Dusty Dave]

It's all happened before, sadly.

eBay regularly move the goalposts to entrap those who have been foolish enough to make it a critical part of their business.

There was a massive backlash a year or so ago when eBay suddenly changed the cost structure (in the upward direction) for 'store inventory' items. Petitions, boycotts, submissions to the ACCC all happened but achieved nothing. Sellers that relied heavily on the economical store inventory format to stock a large range of low-individual-demand items (think about, say, rollerblades that come in a variety of colours and sizes, or spare parts for machinery in niche industries) went broke virtually overnight because the cost of listing some items multiplied by several times.

As far as the ACCC is concerned, eBay is where people BUY things, not sell them. To make the ACCC interested in how eBay treats sellers, you first need to educate them that sellers are in fact buyers of services. Then you need to educate them that eBay is more than a single, free-market supplier of services, but in fact an aggressive monopoly that maintains a stranglehold on the single most important new-millennium sales channel by buying and closing its opposition. Then try and convince them that its their job to police a company that runs its affairs from Swiss bank accounts and employs less than 20 people in Australia (most of them lawyers).

It's all too much for the weights-and-measures mob at the ACCC to deal with. Sooner or later the various govt depts around the world will catch up with eBay, but for now they can run rampant, claim whatever jurisdiction they like and make up their own rules as they go along.

[endgrain]

- of particular relevance in this day and age of corporate moles and capitalist peeps


"Gaveling Down the Rabble: How 'Free Trade' is
Stealing Our Democracy."
by Jane Anne Morris, Apex Press, 2008, 200 pages
More information: www.gavelingdowntherabble.org
<http://www.gavelingdowntherabble.org>lifted from the poclad mailing list

http://www.poclad.org

[Big Shed]

Sounds like this is getting attention at the very top of the banking system

http://business.theage.com.au/rba-ma...0423-27x3.html

[Waldo]

Hopefully with the Reserve Bank stepping in with their clout will give extra strength against the eBay move, time will tell.

[DavidG]

In the mean time the number of sellers and buyers on OZtion is increasing.

My policy is to check OZtion first and buy there if possible.

That will hurt EPay.

[Ivan in Oz]

I am in the middle of an On-Going email correspondence with eBAY.

They don't seem to be able to tell me what their Site Policy was;
which caused then to Suspend a Seller
from whom I was wanting to purchase

[Dusty Dave]

I am in the middle of an On-Going email correspondence with eBAY.

They don't seem to be able to tell me what their Site Policy was;
which caused then to Suspend a Seller
from whom I was wanting to purchase

I'd be very surprised if they tell you anything at all Ivan. eBay suspends sellers all the time, it could be for ripping off buyers but it is just as likely to be for non-payment of bills, listing items in the wrong category, having an error in their contact details, some kind of petty 'violation' in their listings or even posting undesirable comments on their forums. That's bad enough, but imagine if they then went and told anyone who asked why they did it? Their legal department would bounce off the walls. My bet is that if you're lucky you'll get a cut-and paste response from Sanjit that it is not eBay policy to discuss decisions with anyone other than the member involved.

Heck, they rarely even discuss it with the member involved...

[echnidna]

Now that the ACCC is investigating ebay the enquiry should be broadened to take in other things such as

• Is it appropriate that a merchant (ebay) own a financial institution (paypal)
• Ebay fees are usurious and need investigating
• Ebay fees are inconsistent from country to country yet ebays own costs will remain virtually uniform
• A complaints system that can freeze all of a parties funds beyond any sum that is part of a dispute is inequitable
• A complaints system that appears to favour a complainant is inequitable

If you agree, take your complaints to the ACCC