in the run up to the ACCC ruling and the site migrating to PayPal only for payments.
Every purchase made on eBay.com.au gets the buyer automatic entry into a draw for 4 x $10,000 and 10 x $1,000 credited to the winners PayPal account.
The competition runs from today until the 21st June 2008, and also encourages buyers to open a PayPal account if they don’t already have one. Not a bad move on eBay’s part to make it attractive for buyers to use PayPal, and the publication of the winners in July should go further to making PayPal appear attractive. I’m not so sure some sellers already averse to offering PayPal will see it in quite the same light though.
8 Responses
Hmmm,
I thought the email to my buying account was a phishing email. The message source said:
Received: from e3uspmta154.emarsys.net …..
Not Ebay or PayPal. Plenty of links to Ebay auctions in the email (now that I have opened it).
I can forward it to you if you would like, Chris.
Kind Regards, Kevin
Quite amusing that emarsys.net seems to be a Austrian marketing company, I bet ebay hired them thinking Austria == Australia.
Ohh please Kevin – chris at tamebay dot com
Forwarded right now, Chris.
Title is “How Would you Spend $10,000”.
Kind Regards, Kevin
Cheers Kevin, if anyone else wants to see the marketing email it’s here
Speaking of the upcoming ACCC ruling on Paypal only on Aussie Ebay, have you read any of the threads on the Aussie PS board about sellers being offered financial incentives to make sure all their listings are Paypal compliant by 17th June?
I smell a rat.
I have no problems with sellers accepting PayPal.
I do have a HUGE problem with forcing sellers to accept PayPal as the ONLY payment option.
Suppose I rented a lot at a mall, and suppose they required the only payment option to be the mall’s credit card. What kind of uproar would this bring about? But, would a mall ever be so stupid as to even try this?
So, why is ebay even allowed to try this? They should have been laughed out of the offices of the ACCC, and told to either shut up and comply with the law, or move the hell out of Australia.
Tim
https://forums.delphiforums.com/boycottebay
https://myspace.com/boycottebay
I am waiting for the ACCC decision with bated breath because I think it is an interesting test case.
Yes, the legal framework elsewhere in the world is different (UK competition legislation used to be similar to the Australian legislation but is now much more based on the EU model) and, whatever the outcome, both sides are going to claim victory like on an old fashioned by-election special. However, it is the first authoritative analysis we get to see.
eBay’s esteemed Head of Trust & Safety asserted recently that he was confident that compulsory PayPal (which, in substance if not necessarily form, it is) was “entirely legal”.
I am not so rash as to assert complete confidence that it is illegal, but I do think there is more of a case to answer than eBay are willing to admit.
Sweetening PayPal with a prize draw in Australia and cashback in the USA may be part of the strategy but they could also be seen as cracks in the façade.