A small rant about EBay’s PayPal and Cash on Collection policies

[philh39]

I’ve been occasionally but regularly  buying and selling via EBay for over 20 years, almost exclusively music gear- guitars, amps, effects pedals etc. Often for both buyer and seller a cash on collection transaction is preferred. I now find that this is not allowable. And then for smaller items, whatever platform I use to buy and sell, I prefer PayPal. My music gear trading is exactly that, I change out gear, upgrade, just want a change etc. it’s not to raise money for any other reason than to buy/ upgrade and I therefore do not want proceeds going into my regular bank account.

Therefore these two aspects have resulted in EBay largely becoming useless for me, certainly as a seller. I get the security aspect, but of course the driving reason is to create more fee generating for EBay.

A shame.

[jckl1957]

Private sellers don't pay final value fees for their sales on Ebay any more, so cancalling the 'cash on collection' option will certainly not generate any income for Ebay as it has been mainly used by private sellers.

It does mean that buyers will be protected by the Money Back Guarantee.  Cash on collection meant no buyer protection.

Paying money into your bank is no longer automatic.  You can allow the money to accumulate and spend it on the site or withdraw it.  Again, this does not geneate money for Ebay.

[tressygirl · Accepted solution]

Yes,  there have been some very big changes on eBay No Cash on Collection and payouts now are not sent directly to your bank,  they haven't been sent to your PayPal account for many years now, but are sent to an 'eBay Balance'.

It truly take a couple of clicks to receive that payout from the Balance, it goes into your bank account and then you can transfer it , if you wish,  to your PayPal account. 

As said it's been a very long time since payouts were sent to your PayPal account, eBay's Managed Payments saw them sent directly to your bank account,  now it requires you to manually do this.

Yes, it's a little long winded, but doesn't take too much time to process.

The stopping of cash on collection is another matter, one that truly doesn't benefit a seller at all. Or indeed a buyer , who may wish to pay cash on collection after inspection of the item.

@philh39 

[philh39]

Thanks both for the quick replies and I have certainly learned something. I did not realise that selling truly was free now for most private sellers (optional extras apart). The ‘EBay account’ is interesting, though obviously restricts me (for my purposes) from using those funds elsewhere without transferring funds, but it is not insurmountable. The cash on collection restriction is still a serious drawback in some cases, but at least I can still use EBay for other sales.

Thanks again.

[*vyolla*]

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@philh39 wrote:

 I change out gear, upgrade, just want a change etc. it’s not to raise money for any other reason than to buy/ upgrade and I therefore do not want proceeds going into my regular bank account.

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You can leave your payments in your eBay balance and then use that to pay for items at eBay checkout.

However, if you don’t use or withdraw your balance, eBay will automatically send your available funds to your bank account on the first Tuesday of every January, April, July, and October.

[eastern-lights]

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@tressygirl wrote:

The stopping of cash on collection is another matter, one that truly doesn't benefit a seller at all. Or indeed a buyer , who may wish to pay cash on collection after inspection of the item.

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Not doing cash on collection benefits the buyer big time as they can do a "Not As Described" up to thirty days later leaving the seller responsible for getting the item back. Since a lot of "buyer collects" deals are done because the goods are not suitable for courier handling, this can be onerous or even impossible for the seller.

[philh39]

Yep. I simply would not sell a guitar or amplifier without an inspection/ cash on collection arrangement. They are too personal to the player and a sale needs to final for both parties. 

[johnwash1]

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@jckl1957 wrote:

Private sellers don't pay final value fees for their sales on Ebay any more, so cancalling the 'cash on collection' option will certainly not generate any income for Ebay as it has been mainly used by private sellers.

@jckl1957  On the contrary, it certainly will.  As long as interest rates are above zero ebay will be making money because many buyers will be too lazy/time-pressed to go through manually transferring.

@philh39don't use your regular bank account.  I opened a separate one, specifically for ebay selling/buying.  No way ebay are getting their fingers into my regular one.  And it helps me keep track of whether I can afford indulgences for my hobbies or donations to charity.

[eastern-lights]

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@johnwash1 wrote:

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don't use your regular bank account.  I opened a separate one, specifically for ebay selling/buying.  No way ebay are getting their fingers into my regular one.  And it helps me keep track of whether I can afford indulgences for my hobbies or donations to charity.

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Agree. I decided it was a good opportunity to try out one of the new "challenger banks". I went for Starling and haven't regretted it, there are also Monzo and Revolut (not sure if Ebay recognise Revolut though?). With Starling I get a small amount of interest as well.