EventHorizon1984 Log

From eBay Welcome to the 8/20 Announcements Discussion Forum - Clarification on using your own merchant account in eBay checkout

"The processor for your internet merchant account may require you to notify them of the addition of the Payflow gateway."  [email protected]

Verification that eBay intends to force ALL Merchant Account processing through eBay's PayPal owned Payflow gateway. 

All an eBay seller needs to do to use PayPal Payflow, is to hand over to eBay the seller's Merchant Account number and password.  And trust them with it.

Free for now, but based on past actions expect eBay/PayPal/Payflow to charge 2% to 3% per transaction later.

"Yesterday and today, our technical team contacted the top credit card processors (who account for over 80% of card volume in the US)"  [email protected]

Translation: PayPal's technical team contacted PayPal (24% 2007), ProPay, and a few credit card processors.

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http://workshops.ebay.com/thread.jspa?threadID=13000000408&tstart=40&mod=1219440389051

Clarification on using your own merchant account in eBay checkout

[email protected] View     Aug-21-08 15:09 PDT
Hi everybody,

This is Monroe Labouisse, Director of North America Marketplaces at PayPal. I'm writing on behalf of John McDonald, Senior Director of Trust & Safety at eBay, as well.

There are several threads on this board with lots of good questions about using merchant accounts in eBay checkout, the Payflow gateway, etc. Thank you for all of your input, concerns, questions. They're very helpful to us.

Let me start by reiterating eBay's goal: to enable direct credit and debit card payments to a seller's internet merchant account through eBay checkout. The end-goal is simple: buyers do not have to go off the eBay site to pay directly with their credit or debit card.

The plan that we announced yesterday is that sellers with internet merchant accounts can in January 2009 connect that account to eBay checkout via the Payflow Payment Gateway. Note two things: 1) an internet merchant account may be different than the merchant account that you use to process payments in a physical store (check with your merchant account provider), and 2) the Payflow Payment Gateway connection to eBay checkout will be a FREE service for eBay seller for their eBay transactions.

You've asked lots of good questions about the details of this plan, and it's difficult for us to provide all the answers to you through this forum. It's also the case that we don't have all the answers to your questions right now.

But please remember this improvement to eBay checkout is still nearly 5 months away, and until then, you can continue to process direct credit and debit card payments as you do now. We will be providing you with a lot more information (on the site, through online workshops, with the help of customer support, etc.) in the future when we get closer to the time you can integrate your internet merchant account directly into eBay checkout. We would appreciate any and all suggestions you have on how to provide you more information through other channels.

In the meantime, thank you for your patience. Bear with us while we answer your questions as best we can, and keep an eye out for more from us this fall on our plans to integrate direct credit and debit card payments into eBay checkout.

Regards,
Monroe

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[email protected]         Aug-22-08 12:24 PDT       18 of 20
lisasopinion,

I'm not ignoring you. I just didn't have any new information for you, and I have been posting to other boards as well. I do now have good news for you, however.

Yesterday and today, our technical team contacted the top credit card processors (who account for over 80% of card volume in the US) and verified that it is possible to have one internet merchant account (IMA) connect with more than one gateway. So, you should be able to use two gateways (for example, Authorize.net & Payflow) with one IMA.

The processor for your internet merchant account may require you to notify them of the addition of the Payflow gateway. We recommend that you check with your IMA provider (in most cases, this is your bank) to verify if additional steps are needed.

This is from our technical team: "In most cases, the bank will provide the merchant with an alternate account identifier. This should be free."

Finally, to repeat what I said above ... this improvement to eBay checkout is still nearly 5 months away, and until then, you can continue to process direct credit and debit card payments as you do now. We will be providing you with a lot more information (on the site, through online workshops, with the help of customer support, etc.) in the future when we get closer to the time you can integrate your internet merchant account directly into eBay checkout.

Hope this helps

Monroe

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From eBay Welcome to the 8/20 Announcements Discussion Forum - Merchant Account question - not online

The PayFlow Payment Gateway (https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_payflow-gateway-overview-outside) is a payment through PayPal and NOT through a seller's Merchant Account gateway.

Please note that PayPal (through PayFlow) will be handling Merchant Accounts, and a PayPal Employee ([email protected]) and not an eBay Employee is answering questions about non-PayPal Merchant Accounts.  A rather severe conflict of interest.

This combination of payment through PayPal, PayFlow (PayPal), and ProPay (eBay is reported to own a piece) is best known as a (United States) Sherman Anti-Trust violation.

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http://workshops.ebay.com/thread.jspa?threadID=13000000295&tstart=0&mod=1219360247072
Merchant Account question - not online

popp***  (99 )      Aug-21-08 09:16 PDT
Our Selling Account has been on Ebay since 1996 when it was Auctionweb, 10,500+ FB w/only 1 neg.

We have a small business and do have a merchant account for Mastercard & Visa which we process manually over the telephone for each and every transaction.

Will this method be acceptable? We technically qualify since we accept Mastercard & Visa. I am wondering if one of the requirements is that ebay has to process the transaction for us ..... which in our case is not possible.

Our bank is small and does not offer Internet processing.

11 replies     Date posted     Reply #

popp***  (99 )      Aug-21-08 09:40 PDT     1 of 11
An answer would be appreciated:

1. Will manual credit card processing be allowed?

A lot of older folks prefer calling in their information knowing that it is processed personally.

Not all small businesses ... or older folks .. trust putting all this information on the Internet

[email protected]      Aug-21-08 10:16 PDT     2 of 11
poppad,

It will not be a violation of the policy to take credit card payments from customers who call in their information.

That said, encouraging buyers to do that is not what we want sellers to do either. It is safer, and more convenient, for a buyer to complete the transaction on the site because we will then have a record of the payment, which we need from the buyer in the event of a dispute.

However, if a buyer does not trust putting their credit card information online and asks you to be allowed to call it in, that's OK.

By the way, it is also possible to take PayPal payments over the phone through a PayPal product called Virtual Terminal. You can find out more about it here: https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_vt_hub-outside

Regards,
Monroe

[email protected]      Aug-21-08 10:19 PDT     3 of 11
Sorry, meant to add: I would also encourage you to contact your merchant account provider to talk to them about enabling your merchant account for online payments, if it isn't already. That way, you can also receive payments to your merchant account online and not just over the phone.

Of course, I would also encourage you to contact PayPal. We can handle your processing needs for online payments, including direct credit card processing :)

Monroe

tekg***  (23926 )      Aug-21-08 10:37 PDT     4 of 11
What kind of integration will eBay provide (besides ProPay) for sellers that have merchant accounts already? I want integration with Authorize.Net payment gateway as part of the eBay Checkout flow.
_______
Mr Sun @ TekGems: via vt6421a

popp***  (99 )      Aug-21-08 10:45 PDT     5 of 11
Thank you for the response.

However, I do not understand why we must incur additional costs to take Mastercard & Visa through these gateways when we already have taken them for 10 years w/o a chargeback or problem?

Our rates w/our bank are very low .. they haven't changed in 10 years ..

It seems to me that to go the Paypal route would cost a great deal more.

pers***  (7050 ) View Listings | Report     Aug-21-08 10:47 PDT     6 of 11
Will PP VT now be tied in automatically with this new checkout system?

I sell to some countries where PP is not an option, and my buyers call me with their CC info. Will they now be able to input this into the new checkout and have it processed through PP's VT?

Roxane

Please read my Guide!

[email protected]      Aug-21-08 11:33 PDT     7 of 11
tekgems and poppad,

eBay plans to integrate sellers’ internet merchant accounts into eBay checkout through the Payflow Payment Gateway. This will be a FREE service for eBay sellers. Normal fees to set up a Payflow Payment Gateway account will be waived.

It is NOT our intent for you to switch from your current gateway provider in order to use this free service on eBay. It is our understanding that your credit card processor would enable you to connect your internet merchant account to the Payflow Gateway for eBay sales, and to your current gateway for your website sales.

If it is your understanding that your internet merchant account cannot be set up to connect to two gateways, then please let me know. Please contact your merchant account provider to clarify first. It may be that your account specifications need to be adjusted. We have technical support available at Payflow to help as well.

Thanks
Monroe

[email protected]      Aug-21-08 11:39 PDT     8 of 11
personal*touch,

Buyers who don't have a PayPal account can, today and in the future, enter their credit card details into eBay checkout directly and the payment can come to you through your PayPal account. There is no setting change you need to make. You don't need to use VT. Just accept PayPal.

Here is an answer I put on the eBay Ink blog:

PayPal is available to buyers in 190 countries around the world, so it should accomodate virtually all of your international sales. You can find the list of countries here:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_display-approved-signup-countries-outside

If you encounter a buyer from a country other than those 190, and the buyer does not have a PayPal account, then I would suggest you ask them to pay directly with a credit card. They can do that through your internet merchant account if you have one, or they can do it if you offer PayPal. Buyers without PayPal accounts can pay you via PayPal simply by entering their credit card details into eBay checkout.

Regards,
Monroe

tekg***  (23926 )      Aug-21-08 11:47 PDT     9 of 11
> Buyers who don't have a PayPal account can, today and in
> the future, enter their credit card details into eBay
> checkout directly

Checkout is biased towards Paypal. Its never been agnostic about which payment method eBay prefers. This makes the buying experience very confusing. Just letting you know what I read via e-mail every day.
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urba***  (407 )      Aug-21-08 11:55 PDT     10 of 11
can you accept both when this new checkout system exceeds?

what I mean by that is, will the buyer be able to choose, while in checkout, if they want to use paypal or my merchant account?

and, if they use paypal, does that mean their paying with paypal fund only and if they choose my merchant account, it'll be credit card.

what I'm trying to figure out is, right now a buyer can choose paypal for credit card payment or from paypal funds.

how will this work with a merchant account and paypal being offered in the lsiting during checkout?

thanks

tekg***  (23926 ) ***     Aug-21-08 16:10 PDT     11 of 11
Clarification needed...

Is the Payment Gateway:
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_payflow-gateway-overview-outside

Payflow Pro

or

Payflow Link

???
_______
Mr Sun @ TekGems: via vt6421a

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From eBay Welcome to the 8/20 Announcements Discussion Forum - Hey *PINKS*!!! What about small volume sellers???

http://workshops.ebay.com/thread.jspa?threadID=13000000289&tstart=0&mod=1219360825664
Hey *PINKS*!!! What about small volume sellers???

gras***  (355 )     Aug-21-08 09:06 PDT
This 4.3 DSR business can wipe out a small volume seller from being able to sell VERY EASILY. Small volume sellers are extremely vulnerable under this policy.

12 replies     Date posted     Reply #

[email protected]     Aug-21-08 09:11 PDT     1 of 12
Hi grasshopper,

Can you please provide a scenario that would lead you to be concerned about this?

Thanks much,
Lynda Talgo
eBay Trust and Safety

gras***  (355 )     Aug-21-08 09:12 PDT     2 of 12
I sell on Half.Com occassionally and rather small volume relatively speaking. How will the 4.3 DSR limit across all 4 categories affect Half.Com sellers (who are graded on 3 of the DSRs)? I also sell on eBay extremely rarely - last sold on eBay back in December 2007.

It seems that someone like me could get tossed out of selling very easily. Just one or two '4' star in the shipping charges(the one category that doesn't apply to Half.Com) could get me tossed out of selling due to rather low volume of eBay sales.

This really bites! Just look at my feedback - I'd say it's as highly exemplary as it gets. 100% positive going back 9 1/2 years, and I communicate effectively, and ship out items if not the same day I receive payment then very next day. What more could I do?

eBay policies look to me like they are designed to rid eBay of small time sellers. Also, don't forget that eBay sellers ALSO tend to be eBay buyers(as I am, for example).

gras***  (355 )     Aug-21-08 09:17 PDT     3 of 12
For example...

I can check my DSRs via m.ebay.com.

Detailed Seller Ratings:
Item as described:
(6) 5-stars
Communication:
(6) 5-stars
Shipping Time:
(6) 5-stars
Shipping Charges:
(1) 4-stars

Let's say I sell nothing on eBay for a while, only on Half.Com. My shipping charges dsr will remain '4 star'. That'll get me tossed out of selling.

dree***  (410 )     Aug-21-08 09:17 PDT     4 of 12
This 4.3 DSR business can wipe out a small volume seller from being able to sell VERY EASILY

Exactly:
All it will take is 1 or 2 buyers that don't like the transaction so a small seller that has less FB would drop very quickly.

[email protected]     Aug-21-08 09:22 PDT     5 of 12
Hi grasshopper,

Thanks for the additional information. Here's how the 4.3 limit will work for Half.com sellers: We will compare the DSRs the seller receives on any DSRs against the 4.3 requirement. If the seller does not receive a rating for a DSR (either because they are selling on Half, or on Motors, or because a buyer simply didn't rate all of the DSRs), then there is nothing for us to evaluate -- and the seller would continue to sell.

To be specific, if you have DSRs of 4.5, 4.4, 4.4, nothing; then you would continue selling. If you have DSRs of 4.5, 4.2, 4.2, nothing; then you would not be allowed to sell.

To address you specific scenario - if you have 2 transactions in the last 30 days and the scores are all 4, you would be able to continue selling.

I agree your feedback is exemplary, and we definitely want you to keep selling on eBay!

Best regards,
Lynda Talgo
eBay Trust and Safety

elec***  (608 )     Aug-21-08 09:26 PDT     6 of 12
We will compare the DSRs the seller receives on any DSRs against the 4.3 requirement.

Lynda, is this "We" you speak of an actual person or is this software making these decisions?

 

gras***  (355 )     Aug-21-08 09:34 PDT     7 of 12
Lynda - you're still not getting my point. I'll try again...

I have one DSR rating in the 'shipping charges' category, presumably from the last eBay sale I made. This rating is a '4'. Having that one DSR rating of 4 will knock me out of being able to sell on eBay.

stev***  (160 )     Aug-21-08 10:11 PDT     8 of 12
You are exactly right. I saw an interview with the new head of ebay a couple of weeks ago. Said he didn't want ebay to be a flea market anymore.

gott***  (206 )     Aug-21-08 10:41 PDT     9 of 12
I'd like a straight answer as to why eBay tells buyers a 4 is a good rating but then penalizes the seller, and now threatens to kick them out.

Highly Unethical.

See if you can spin That one to everyone's satisfaction.

A Straight Answer as to Why, please!!!

[email protected]     Aug-21-08 11:59 PDT     10 of 12
Hi grasshopper,

One DSR rating of 4 will not place you under the 4.3 DSR requirement. You would need 10 DSR ratings before we will evaluate your DSRs. So, if you have 10 scores for Item as Described, Communication, and Shipping time, and they are all at least 4.3, and 1 score for Shipping cost (or even 9 scores for Shipping cost...), we would not evaluate that one score for Shipping cost. We would ignore it.

Hope this helps,
Lynda
eBay Trust and Safety

clem***  (1876 )     Aug-21-08 12:02 PDT     11 of 12
Lynda, please don't avoid or ignore important questions like this one...

I'd like a straight answer as to why eBay tells buyers a 4 is a good rating but then penalizes the seller, and now threatens to kick them out.

Or, have you not figured out a good way to spin it?

rr21***  (36 )     Aug-21-08 16:20 PDT     12 of 12
I posted some real numbers on my thread where it comes out to 4.0 with 10 feedback for a powerseller that took a month off .. 4-5's 4-4's 1-3 & 1-1 for a lost package to italy comes out 4.0 even though the seller (me) has a 10 run of great history & no dissasified customers ????

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From eBay Stores Forums - eBay Employee Posts 12-13 August 2008

A list of posts made by eBay employees, who rarely appear. And a response by an eBay user.

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The eBay Pink (employee) is doing what previous eBay employees have done in the past.  Solicit email responses and do absolutely nothing.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000617621&tstart=0&mod=1218648803533
Ebay Glitch Watch , Find all the glitches

[email protected]  View Listings | Report		Aug-12-08 17:15 PDT	14 of 33
Hello everyone, Believe it or not I'm glad this thread was started. Feel free to gather any and all 'glitches' you'd like for the brown bag. One thing you will need to add when you do report them, though, is examples. I need to be able to recreate these problems on my own account, or at the very least find them easily on your accounts. Also, you don't have to wait for a brown bag to send these to me. I'm glad to help 'diagnose' anytime. Thanks again! Terry

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[email protected] View Listings | Report		Aug-13-08 10:06 PDT	31 of 33
Good Morning! I say we start with the first post in this thread that actually talks about a glitch. That was from caroline*k and the issue was Item Specifics being added, then removed. I believe I saw a few posts about it. Can those of you who are experiencing this issue please email me some item numbers that are currently being affected (again if I can't see it I can't really get it fixed). I will likely need to update those items myself in order to see them disappear again so please include the information you are changing just in case. Thanks again! Terry

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clact  )		Aug-13-08 10:25 PDT	32 of 33
- Items not able to be sent from Store to fixed price or auction due to ...(choose one or all) A- item specifics changed, even if you just listed this 7 year old audiobook a month ago somehow some specific has changed that is worth noting apparently. B-In some cases the items specifics were changed to random ones Ebay generated. The error was corrected but couldnt be reversed in the store items affected, so you might be sending to core with Sterling Silver listing as an item specific for a kids goofy necklace. C- Due to the recent category update , many items were affected and will not send to core. During the last few sales these listing errors prevented me from sending approx 50% or more of the listings I wanted to list to CORE and took way too much time for the ones I did manage to get through. 2- Related to #1 above, sellers have no idea which listing are in need of "item specific updating" or have other problems. These listings should be notated with a red asterisk and we should be able to checkbox them all and send to an editor. This would cover lots of generic problems that also surface like when shipping changes come or policy changes come etc. 3- SM PRO view periodically defaults to Myebay view all on its own. 4- Search - You can change to add "more buying options" choose "store inventory" time after time and it never sticks as a preference. 5- Ebay's search "expansions" evaporate into thin air when a customer, excited about seeing a lot of results tries to weed them out... I reported an example of a search of playing card decks the return has 1700 plus matches . Wanting to exclude NEW decks I search for playing card decks -new Unfortunately it turns off search expansion and drops my search down to 60 items when only 339 of the 1700 have new in the title. The search thus has vaporized matches. If the buy did not see the expansion they might have tried to expand the search using less words but now thinks this is all that is left. This problem occurs with ALL exclusion words in a search epansion in every category on eBay. HUGE PROBLEM. 6- Searching by radius/zip code the old "MAPIT" has a fatal flaw in that it just tosses around listings by zip code without regard to whether or not those people might be interested in a local pickup. I saw a test screen for advanced search where that option to check x for local pickup might show up and it cant come soon enough. 7-Ebay Local - Announced at Ebay Live Boston in 2007, then in the announcements section in Oct/Nov of 2007 was just buried with no update. 8- Paypal sign in page has been hanging for weeks now requiring you to click on the "click here" button. 9- General Flaws with Best Match "thinking" a- Old system presented buyer with a bunch of items to bid or buy on that were ending soon. New system scatters ending time making psychological factor of needing to make a quick decision less powerful. b- Best Match algorithm as described in the patent application seeks to look at supply /demand , popularity of keywords etc. While this works great for some items, it has the latent affect of making more popular items sell more and the long tail wide selection of Ebay (what its known for) gradually sink to the bottom. It stops the serendipity of search results matching the buyer with a general interest. Example - While 95% of the people putting Harry Potter in search might want to buy a book, people , presented with Harry Potter Valentines or Harry Potter Coffee Mugs while less popular would have seen them more often in the past than with a system that assumes it knows what people want. What about when they dont know what they want but just see something? 10- Level/Fair Playing Field Needs a Bulldozer! Recently I had a book pulled for being against Ebay's violence policy. Its done by a detective and recommended reading in criminology classes. It has an ISBN number and was done in the last 7-8 years. That same book is listed in quantity by the sites largest bookseller and others and I think the unfair application of rules is something that really hurts the site. You can report such items forever and they never get taken down. I dont care so much about my book. I do feel if the policy is to NOT have such materials on the site then it shouldnt be sold by others in quantity. This is easily done by setting up listing blocks by ISBN numbers. 11- The "Seven Up of Unglitches" . Basically while it doesnt qualify as a glitch its something that we endure which we shouldnt. Whenever the site has a listing sale various means of listing items generate incorrect fee results but then people have to "check their invoices" for the correct fees. This includes.. a- sending items from your store to core. This prevents many new sellers from doing more of this as they are unsure. Heck people still come here and ask. b- It allows for mistakes when sales are in fact over. There is another way these incorrect fees show up as well , just cannot recall it right now. 12 - "Markdown Manager Taffy" - This feature gets stuck quite often, its like melted candy. I use the store vacation mode to unstick it but it really has been a pain to work with at times. I do like the feature and think if it didnt stick as much there would be more utilization , lower prices and more selling. 13- "Ill take your nickle but give up $1.00" -Bad Fee change... I think one of the fee changes that seemed small but was problematic for a few reasons is the inability to reduce the price of an item and get a fee credit for doing so to encourage sales. Looking back on our selling we did this quite a bit over the years with some success as sometimes people bought at higher prices than expected but we can then reduce the price to get attention if needed. I truly believe that less sellers lowering prices to grab the nickles and quarters is costing Ebay FVFs. On average since supposedly 40% of items sell on Ebay core this has to be costing more in final value fees than it is saving in nickles. More soon, its nice out and its time to get some sun for a bit, I actually have a rare part day off LOL Marty

 

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The eBay Pink (employee) is advertising an eBay service.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000614837&tstart=0&mod=1218649288297
Had a Webstore customer CALL ME..... and it was FINE! (good actually)

[email protected] View Listings | Report		Aug-13-08 10:30 PDT	34 of 35
Hi all - Here's an article http://ecommerce.prostores.com/e_article001125420.cfm?x=b11,0,w that may be of interest to you. RingCentral is another option to research for those looking into providers of this kind of service. Hope this is helpful. Regards, Lourdes

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sandrarn83  (3441 )		Aug-13-08 10:41 PDT	35 of 35
Lourdes is RingCentral an approved third party provider for Ebay?

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The eBay Pink (employee) is wrong.

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=2000618213&tstart=0&mod=1218646442719
Can a store item be in two ebay categories?

christianscouture )		Aug-13-08 09:39 PDT	1 of 4
Hello, Yes, you can list in two EBay categories. It is considered a listing upgrade and is an additional fee. See the link: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/l2c.html

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[email protected]  View Listings | Report		Aug-13-08 09:54 PDT	3 of 4
Hello trinketsandtreasures, It is actually not possible to put a store inventory item in two eBay categories. You can however, put it in two of your custom store categories as was suggested. Thanks for your post. Terry

 

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