Paypal extend buyer protection

by Sue Bailey

This post was written in May 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

eBay have announced that as of next month, extended Paypal buyer protection will replace the old Standard Purchase Protection. Buyers who pay with Paypal will automatically receive £150 (or €200) worth of coverage against non-receipt or misdescribed items. Those buying from eligible sellers will be covered up to £500 or €1000.

This was rolled out in north America last January, and appears to be being implemented across all European sites from June. As I’ve said before, this is great news for most buyers, but takes yet more control out of the hands of sellers.

Sellers do not currently have the ability to block buyers without confirmed addresses or verified accounts, which means that they cannot insist on being made eligible for Paypal’s seller protection. Without this facility, sellers are left once more totally at the mercy of unscrupulous chargebacking buyers.

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Author: Sue Bailey
Posted at: Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Filed Under Uncategorized
 

Comments

4 Responses to “Paypal extend buyer protection”

  1. Richard on May 9th, 2007 10:02 am

    Just thought it worth pointing out that you don’t have to accept a Paypal from anyone you don’t want to. Sellers should read section 4.2 of the UK Paypal user agreement.

    https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/ua-outside

    “When you make a payment to a third party through our Service, the recipient is not required to accept the payment, even if the recipient is already registered with us. The recipient may return the payment or, in some cases, use the Service to deny payments that you make.”

  2. Sue on May 9th, 2007 1:56 pm

    It’s a good point, Richard, but it really needs to be formalised into the eBay system. How many times do you see someone on the eBay boards agonising about whether to accept an unconfirmed payment, vs. getting reported as a non-performing seller and negged? I know the money is more important :-D but if eBay would at least allow sellers the option to insist on verification, they might hold on to some of those big-ticket sellers a bit longer too.

  3. James on May 10th, 2007 5:02 am

    It’s also replacing eBay’s Standard Purchase Protection in Australia.

    http://www2.ebay.com/aw/au/200705090852542.html

    PayPal is very unpopular with Australian sellers as domestic bank transfers are free and around 9 days faster in being credited to their bank account compared with PayPal. Also there is no Seller Protection Policy or verified addresses (with PayPal) available there so Australian sellers have no protection (except making a Police complaint) against reversals or chargebacks. Several sellers have already commented that effectively forcing them to offer PayPal on their eBay listings may amount to anti-competitive tactics (known as ‘third-party forcing’ in Australian business law).

  4. eBay reassure online shoppers with buyer protection : TameBay on September 17th, 2007 9:02 am

    [...] It’s not surprising to allay shoppers fears that eBay are publicising PayPal buyer protection in the run up to the Christmas shopping season. In June this year buyer protection was extended to cover all transactions paid with payPal. A media release goes out today emphasising that buyers are protected up to £150 if they pay via PayPal, and up to £500 from qualified sellers (sellers with 98% positive feedback and a rating of at least 50). [...]

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