Alternatives To Ebay & Paypal + News: money

Every Paypal 'customer' should have received a email stating that they have changed their user agreement, but more worrying is the fact that they will NO LONGER BE REGULATED BY THE FSA (Finacial Services Authority)

This is very worrying to say the least the FSA regulates all the banks in the UK and most other e-money companies. The fact that they have moved to a Luxembourg based company is a little worrying as they are clearly trying to side-step certain regulations...

Here is a copy of the email:

"Dear XXXXX XXXXXXX,

We would like to announce important developments affecting all PayPal accounts in the European Union (the "EU").
No action is required on your part, and you will be able to continue using PayPal with no changes.

Currently, PayPal (Europe) Ltd. is the service provider for PayPal in the EU. PayPal (Europe) Ltd. is a UK company regulated and authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK as an electronic money institution. This authorisation enables PayPal to provide its service throughout the EU.
From 2 July 2007, a new PayPal company, PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A.

(PayPal Luxembourg), will become the service provider for PayPal in the EU. This is a Luxembourg entity regulated as a bank by the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF), the Luxembourg equivalent of the FSA. PayPal Luxembourg will provide the PayPal service throughout the EU.
Your customer relationship with PayPalOn 2 July 2007, your customer relationship will be automatically transferred from PayPal (Europe) Ltd. to PayPal Luxembourg. This includes your customer relationship as governed by the terms of the PayPal User Agreement and, for applicable UK merchants, the PayPal Website Payments Pro Agreement (collectively, the "Agreements").

To summarise, from 2nd July 2007, PayPal (Europe) Ltd. will assign to PayPal Luxembourg all of its right, title, interest, and benefit in and to the Agreements.
New User Agreement and Privacy PolicyWe are also pleased to announce that from 2 July 2007, PayPal Luxembourg will issue a new form of the PayPal User Agreement and Privacy Policy. This new version of the User Agreement will be presented in a much more user-friendly manner, and many of the policies currently accessed by hyperlinks, will now form part of the main text of the User Agreement.

Also, the Privacy Policy will reflect that PayPal Luxembourg will be the data controller of your personal information from 2 July 2007 and set out further details of the third parties to whom PayPal Luxembourg will disclose your personal and account information.
For more information about the transition to PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. & Cie, S.C.A. click here.

If you do not wish to continue your relationship with PayPal, you may close your account at any time by logging in to your account, clicking Profile, and following the instructions from the "Close Account" link. You should make sure you first withdraw the outstanding PayPal balance to your bank account.
Yours sincerely,
PayPal (Europe) Ltd."

Yet more reasons not to accept Paypal!!

Fed Up With Paypal? Sign Up For Alertpay here:

I have become very frustrated over the three years or so I have been with Ebay & Paypal.

I have had enough of paying ridiculous fees & getting hardly anywhere with regards to my profit margins! They have also increased the fees for Ebay Shop Sellers which led to a strike of at least 500+ shop sellers last year. This is just the tip of the iceberg...

If you have a Paypal account, be worried... They can freeze funds for no reason whatsoever & even after providing faxed documentation, passport, utility bills, suppliers information, they still have your money which will build up some interest for them during the 180 days for sure.

I have since discovered a few UK based auction sites, the first I cam accross is named: CQout (seek-you-out) which is a good alternative to Ebay. More people should start selling on sites such as these as a alternative to Ebay, or if your happy with Ebay, as I addition to your sales on the bay of E.(vil?)

Please don't be put off by the banner ads further down the blog, all have been chosen so they are of use to you should you decide to click on them, they all feature either other online auction sites or online payment alternatives. I also use at least three other sites regualry one's called Ebid

The other is called QXL.com!

The third of my favourite auction sites is called Preloved With Preloved you can turn your clutter into cash for free. All free ads include a photo & remain online until sold! Preloved
is packed with nearly new & really old bargains in 500 different catagories.

QXL.com!
Have been around since 1997 and are the UK's original auction site. They DO NOT CHARGE for winning any item, You get chrged for listings but the rates are extremely competitive & much much less than Ebay.

Another new way of earning some cash without selling anything is at agloco.com this is a great new site where you can download a viewbar onto your PC & you start earning for surfing! - Not only that but if you refer people & they then refer people you are rewarded with a share in the companys profits. Take a look at agloco.com it is well worth signing up even if you don't want to refer, as you can make money just by using the viewbar.

If you have stoppped selling on ebay, & are worried that you will not get the same amount of hits, then You can generate more traffic to your blog or ebay sales page. You can generate the same amount of hits/traffic by joining a few traffic exchanges.

Amazon.co.uk is a huge resource for many people in the UK & I buy all my books from here as their prices are practically unbeatable. I also buy all my Comp Games here as there is a choice of pre-owned or new. I have a PSP, DS & have a Wii on the way! (can't wait!) Amazon is great for games for every console on the market & is also another great avenue for sales.

If you use Ebay (or anywhere) & accept payment by Paypal, your money is never safe.
I have read so many horror stories about people losing their cash just check here:

I have lost approx £400 from Paypal, I have had enough of these legal crooks acting God & doing as they please, and making up their own rules... Don't even get me started on the "Buyer Protection Policy" there claim is so hollow it echoes!

I opened at least 5 disputes in the three years against sellers who never sent my goods.

NOT ONCE DID I EVER GET ANY MONEY BACK!!

(Despite being a Business Seller & being verified to the hilt!)
CQout is the 2nd biggest Auction site in the UK and growing. They claim to have over 260,000 items listed & their listing prices are extremely competitive & in-house payment system 'Easypay' is a joy & a breath of fresh air to use.

STOP GETTING RIPPED-OFF BY EBAY A.K.A 'FEEPAY'

I have started this blog for three reasons:

1) To tell people if they are having problems with Ebay/Paypal there are solutions to selling your goods, you just might need to promote your listings a bit more than you would on Ebay.

2) To welcome feedback from Ebay members/ex Ebay members, tips, hints, advice etc

3) To allow other people to link their items from here (must be non-ebay items & not company website etc)

Any feedback or stories of other peoples dealings with Paypal & Ebay is most welcomed & feel free to email me about anything in this blog. As long as the content is anti-paypal &
ebay! If you know of any alternatives also please let me know...

I have listed some alternative sites below, that I have found very useful:

PAYPAL & EBAY ALTERNATIVES....

Please have a look at the advertisers below (& the one above!)

all have been selected so they are relevant to this blog

and should be useful to you if you need to accept online payments and/or need somewhere other than Ebay to sell your stock!

http://www.pppay.com/
http://www.auctioncheckout.com/

http://www.ioffer.com/

http://www.995merchantaccounts.com/

UPDATE 24TH FEBUARY 2007

After faxing by suppliers details, Paypal emailed me the next day to say they had received my documents. Approximately 35 mins later I receive another email from Paypal, imagine my complete & utter surprise when the email told me "Your account access has now been restored" - I really was expecting the worse, but they were very quick to review my documents & reinstate my account. All that said I still prefer payments by PPPay, Moneybookers or online banking. PPPay are owned by Ebid & https://www.moneybookers.com/app/?rid=1247221 is a British based e-money company (with very low rates) If you receive money from into https://www.moneybookers.com/app/?rid=1247221 you are only charged something like 34p (70 cents) I strongly advise setting up other accounts (also know as 'Parachute' accounts) if you already have Paypal. This is so you can still accept cash online if Paypal suddenly close down your account for whatever reason. the easy bit is opening these accounts. The hard part is persuading people to use a alternative other than Paypal! But with some carefully chosen words... i.e you can get customers to pay this way by offering 'Positive feedback if you pay by PPPay' or 49p discount if paying with https://www.moneybookers.com/app/?rid=1247221... Give your customers some incentive to use an alternative payment method, maybe offer 50% discount on P&P.

UPDATE 27TH FEBRUARY:

Paypal have teamed up with 'Verisign' and realeased a additional security feature to the Paypal login sytstem. As well as the traditional login with email & password users now can have the choice of 'Security Key Fob' These are made by Verisign the people who process Paypal's transactions & encrypt them for added security. The fobs are free to business sellers but cost $5 to non-business members (£2.70) Mr Pescatore an Analyst at Gartner said:

"If Paypal wants to increase security for its users, why are they charging $5?

"All authentication with a token proves is that you have the token in your possession.

"I am concerned that business think that tokens are a solution to security problems. Consumers never know as much about security as they should"

If Paypal really wanted to get to the root of the phising/spoof email problem then they should at least start by offering these new fobs TO EVERY MEMBER regardless of account stature/status. They make BILLIONS in profit every year, I'm sure these fobs cost much less than they are charging & I wouldn't be at all surprised if they are making a profit on them!

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