Quote:
Originally Posted by ADC
Exactly, there is just no way you can do so much business elsewhere. It needs a big rival like google to claim some of their market share.
If it was any other industry the government would step in.
Imagine if one company owned all the major market halls and stalls in the UK and charged the stall holders 12.6% of their daily takings.
Thats the equivelant of what ebay are doing on the internet. If I sell an item at £15.99 it costs me 85p to list it, 59p final value fee (with my 30% powerseller discount) then another 58p in paypal fees.
That is absolutely extortionate in anybodys book. How can any company justify taking 12.6% of someones turnover. That's not 12.6% of their profit, it's 12.6% of their turnover. So if i turnover 20K a month, ebay takes home £2400. Ebay gets paid more than I pay myself.
But they can charge what they like, because there is nowhere else for business's to turn and they know that.
It's also forcing prices up artificailly, if i was paying 3-4% on every sale instead of 12.6% I could pass most of that saving on to my customers.
I feel like writing to Gordon Brown. He can't do much about the lack of competition, but he should make them either sell paypal or insist that a different payment provider is also offered on their listings. He should also offer some extremely favourable tax breaks to big companies like google or microsoft to try and entice them into setting up a rival auction site in the UK.
As more & more money is spent on the internet & less in shops, it needs some kind of regulation by the monopolies and mergers comission to stop the rich getting richer and to force some healthy competition which will drive prices down.
Sorry if that's a bit of a rant, but at least I've got it off my chest. 
Chris |
I can understand your frustration but I think you are wrong in your assertion that Paypal fees are too high. They are only slightly above what you would pay for a Merchant Account (Depending on volume). Credit/Debit Card processing fees are expensive across the board, even Tesco have complainted about them recently, so Paypal's fees, and the added services they provide are, in my opinion, fair.
I don't personally agree with eBay's 'Paypal Only' move, but I can understand it.
RE offering Tax Breaks to others to set up a rival business - Why would they do that? The government aren't about to take up arms against eBay. Would the government offer incentives for software companies to develop a rival to Google? no, they wouldn't.
eBay offer a service, if people aren't happy with it, then they should look at other selling venues.
Businesses need to be nimble and ready to react to changes - If eBay is changing, then so do the sellers.
Simple really!