Question
I just went back and revised ten auctions because a frigging item specific didn't take. While doing so I noticed that "Registered as a private seller" is now under my ID.
I realise that listing and selling on Ebay should be second place to actually keeping up to date with every change of rules and policy on the site, and that there is no such thing as "simply" running a small business on Ebay any more (as if we had any right to expect such a thing in the first place), but given that there are now "business accounts" on Ebay (even though the 21st December announcement on the announcement board says that this was put on hold for a few weeks), what the hell are the implications of running a small business (and accepting credit card payment) when I am now officially registered as a "private seller" ?????
Has anyone kept up with all of this crap???? Am I supposed to have changed my frigging registration????
I am really feeling at this moment like going through and cancelling all of my auctions and just walking away from Ebay entirely (but I am aware that I am in a particularly bad mood tonight due to the depressing realisation that I had been cornered into registering with PayPal against all of my moral indignation).
Oh Yeah, and Merry Christmas, Kevin
Answer
I honestly don't think anyone knows yet, Kevin.
It's my belief that there are *hidden* motives behind this, however. Only time will tell what this is all about.
And Merry Christmas to you, as well!
Cheers
Answer
I agree with fiberguy, it's too new to know the implications yet and i am also waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm doing nothing but ignoring it at the moment until I am given a reason to do otherwise.
Answer
after all these years of being suspicious of people with "private feedback" that private seller title looks ominous under there and I don't like it....
how come everything has to have a title?
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Maybe it has something to do with the completely cynical attitude I am developing when it comes to anything eBay, but.......
.......this latest 'enhancement' has all the smell of "a survey of a couple dozen NON-buyers showed they weren't comfortable not knowing what kind of seller they were dealing with" and eBay decided to help them out by adding MORE crap to the pages.
And I won't even begin to go into all the nefarious possibilities for these new designations.
Answer
The Translation:
Business Listing: You owe taxes and better be paying them
Private Listing: You owe taxes and Big Brother wants to know why you aren't.
Divides us nicely into 2 little groups. Either way, you're going to get it. Unless, possibly, you want to turn your listings into private buyers and keep your feedback private, too.
Answer
After a buyer complained 3 weeks ago that my payment options were unsatisfactory, and I pointed out that they were exactly as listed in the auctions that she bid on (and sent her my bank details so she could make a direct deposit), her response was:
At the time of writing to you last night, I had been trying to pay a number of other sellers. Unbelievably, 6 sellers all with different payment
instructions. How is it possible? ((:
I looked at yours and thought credit card (unusual for private sale) or
'cheque/money order' how archaic?
Interestingly, it costs nothing to have online banking. If security is a
concern, then only check balances and don't do any transactions.
Cheers
***** (signature deleted)
(A) The bolding is mine as it is pertinent to this subject. The fact that I have "Registered as a private seller" on my listing will only increase this concern.
(B) How long until this attitude prevails, and all sellers will be required to have consistant payment instructions?
Kevin
Side subject:
======
My response to the question of internet banking was:
Thanks ********,
I will have these into the mail to you this afternoon. Hopefully you will
have them by about Tuesday.
My concerns with internet banking are with security. My rather ignorant view
is that the internet was not designed with bank security in mind. If I put
my bank details onto Ebay, the sole qualification to access them is to be
the successful bidder on an auction, which puts *anybody* a bid and a
password away from accessing a bank account that is actually hooked up to
the internet. I hope that my security is good enough to stop a key-log
trojan, but that is all it takes to get the password, even if I only check
my balances (I am assuming that I would have to log in to do so). My other
bank, Westpac, has also been trying to convince me to use internet banking,
and insists that it is absolutely safe, because if I get ripped off, they
will refund the loss. The conspiracy theorist in me believes that this is
not the well known generosity of our banks, but a belief that they have a
liability. I am aware that the chances of any individual getting ripped off
through this method are extremely low, however I have seen hundreds of cases of Ebay accounts being hijacked (including two local friends, and three
buyers in the week or so that I was dealing with them), and I see similar
vulnerabilities thus far in Internet banking.
I am sorry that this is such a naive view, and causes inconvenience. I
prefer the added step of screening who I am dealing with, and generally
supply my account details immediately on request - but I do not include
Direct Deposit in my auction terms so that I am not misleading my buyers. I
did knock back a French buyer's request for my account details today,
but that was based on the fact that the last direct deposit from Europe
(Germany to be precise) took 3 weeks to show up in my account and the buyer was convinced that I had ripped him off, as I did not ship until the payment showed up.
Kind Regards, Kevin (sadly archaic at a mere 42 )