All eBay sellers should know from eBays messaging system that check and money orders are no longer an accepted form of payment. This policy came into effect in October 2008.
The only accepted forms of payment are now via Paypal and ProPay. Which means your buyers can still use a e-check via Paypal but you are now protected via Paypal and on the downside forced to pay Paypal for processing fees.
What you may not know is that this policy will not be enforced until Jan 09th 2009. Meaning you can openly accept checks and money orders and state such in your listings until that date. Of course many will continue to list acceptance of these payment plans and will only be affected if there listing is reported.
Even after 01-09-09, a seller may continue to accept checks and money orders at the buyers request, but the buyer will not be protected under any of eBays protection policies and will not be eligible to file a dispute or leave negative feedback.
Straight from eBay:
What should I do if I have long-standing, repeat customers who insist on paying with checks or money orders, even after I explain the benefits of electronic payments and offer suggestions?
We know this may happen occasionally. A seller can accept check and money order payment from a buyer if (and only if) the buyer requests it. We will not take action against a seller who is trying to accommodate their buyer, complete a sale and be in compliance with the policy. Once these changes go into effect October 20, 2008, a seller cannot in any way solicit check or money order payment from a buyer. This is considered “abuse of the payments policy”. We will take action against such abuse. Remember also, you can refuse to accept these payment methods. If the buyer doesn’t pay, you can file an unpaid item (UPI) complaint. Buyers who insist on paying with these prohibited payment methods in a UPI claim will lose the claim and will not be allowed to leave negative feedback.
You may have noticed that I have not mentioned ProPay at all, at this time ProPay is a flimsy alternative payment option, probably allowed only to hide eBAys obvious monopoly over the entire auction system.
Without PowerSeller status (a very high transaction rate), one is not eligible for a ProPay merchant account. Supposedly other payment options will be announced in the coming months.
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