The blogosphere is in a rage over "eBay Bans Sellers from Using Google Checkout". Scott Wingo wonders what lame excuse eBay will use to justify this decision, then goes on to point out that eBay doesn't support LOTS of alternative payments methods due to concerns about fraud, scalability, and other issues.
Does Google allow advertisers to use PayPal to pay for their ads? I don't know, but my guess is that they don't. Why not? In fact, I think I read somewhere that Google only accepts GooglePay to pay for ads. Again, I don't know for sure. But the point is this, any company can set any rules and policies they want as to how to accept payments and how to issue refunds or credits...or not. Google and eBay have every right to set any rules they deem appropriate for their business. Customers also have a choice in who they give their business to. Competition always brings out the best.
Hmmm...there is this pesky problem of refund requests for click fraud and invalid clicks that just won't go away. Donna Bogatin from ZDnet has several insightful articles.
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FYI, Google allows only credit card payment for ads. Notwithstanding your point, given that Google Checkout has only been out a week, you're probably smart enough to figure out that it could not have been the "only" accepted as payment for Google ads, even if we're to believe you "read" that somewhere.
Posted by: PressPlay76 | July 06, 2006 at 10:46 PM
Not Google Checkout...GooglePay. I believe that is the name given to Google's internal payment system used in the Google ad network.
I read that Google has been using this system for years to process billions of dollars in payments from Google to web sites who run ads from the Google ad network. I believe I read this about 6 months ago when rumors were spreading about a potential Google equivalent of PayPal.
My main point remains that eBay and Google are free to set any payment policies they wish. And, Google doesn't accept PayPal, so why should eBay be expected to accept Google Checkout?
Posted by: Don Dodge | July 06, 2006 at 11:19 PM
I agree with Don. When Ebay decides not to use Google Checkout, than that's an outrage, but it's apparently no problem at all for Google not to use PayPal. It's indeed their choice as a business to accept the payments systems they want.
Posted by: Kris Hoet | July 07, 2006 at 05:04 AM
There is a significant difference here, with Google Ads you're paying Google, with eBay the buyer is paying the seller, eBay is not part of that transaction and eBay bill the seller separately for their fees. No one is saying I should be able to pay my eBay fees with Google Checkout.
Say I'm a business, I have a website where I use Google Checkout, I also want to use eBay as a marketplace, why can't I dictate what payments methods I accept? Why does eBay dictate what forms of payment I can accept? Surely I should be able to opt out of their protection plan and choose a payment provider outside of their recommended ones?
Posted by: Miles Barr | July 08, 2006 at 07:39 PM