: I'm not sure it's as unbalanced as all that in practice.

: The whole premise of eBay is based on good faith; anyone with any
: degree of cynicism will not be surprised that over time they
: have brought in checks and measures to bolster that good faith.

: In large part, it will be a business decision on eBay's part to
: push PayPal of course - they then own the payment method as well
: as the transaction and increase their own margins. That does
: indeed provide better protection for buyers. It doesn't,
: however, provide them carte blanche to renege on every payment
: they make, as PayPal have to offer a seller compensation scheme.
: Now, I can guarantee you that that compensation scheme is
: underwritten; I am also sure that the underwriters will be more
: cautious than eBay, who stand to benefit more from selling fees
: than just for listing fees, granted. I don't know if eBay
: publish figures on how many transactions are subject to these
: credit card chargebacks, but it has to be fairly marginal or the
: underwriters wouldn't go for it. The number where the seller is
: not subsequently compensated smaller still; those where eBay or
: PayPal can't recover the funds from the buyer the smallest.
: That's the bottom line for PayPal and their underwriters.

: Let's look at the other payment methods.

: Bank transfers, or wires, put the risk on the buyer rather than the
: seller. In fact, there may well be more risk for a buyer using a
: bank transfer than a seller receiving PayPal payment, as many
: banks will not allow the transfer to be caveated as in payment
: for specific goods - you are simply committing to transfer that
: amount of cash to a second party. If that party doesn't come up
: with the goods, the bank will not be party to the contract and
: the transfer won't be reversible as far as they are concerned.
: Good luck with pursuing a small claims case, especially if the
: buyer and seller are in different countries. It can also be
: expensive. I am surprised that Germany hasn't had PayPal pushed
: on it more heavily before now - it actually costs me a lot more
: than PayPal fees and currency conversion margins if the seller
: wants the money to be transferred to their bank. IBAN numbers or
: not, not all the European banks are linked - while I can
: transfer to a UK bank for free at home, I incur fees for a
: transfer anywhere in Europe and I have to go and visit a bank
: branch.

: Cheques do provide some more protection for the buyer, in that they
: can be cancelled, but many banks will restrict how far in
: retrospect after the cheque has been cashed that you can cancel
: it. In that case, the dubious seller just needs to wait out that
: period, just as a dodgy buyer might time his chargeback on
: PayPal. Cheques also hit the internationality of some of the
: transactions as lots of banks will not accept cheques that are
: not drawn on a bank of the same nationality, or even in a
: different currency.

: Cash on collection/delivery? Can work if vendor and buyer are
: close, provided both parties are happy carrying around the
: requisite amount of course.

: Escrow can work if the sums involved are particularly large.

: So, there's no one right or wrong answer or method. Each has risks
: to different parties in different degrees; some are better in
: some situations than others. I have no connection to any of the
: companies involved, I just think it's a bit easy and lazy to
: demonise PayPal all the time, without acknowledging there can be
: issues with the other payment methods too.

: Just my 2 cents / €0.0146892 / £0.0131039 worth :)