New ebay Buyer Protection replaces Paypal Protection but only seems to delay the process. Now ebay wants its buyers to contact ebay Buyer Protection before contacting Paypal for a dispute or claim. Ebay Buyer Protection seems to represent an entire new step for buyers, one that otherwise wouldn't be needed.
Ebay claims this new department allows non-Paypal buyers to get things remedied, but really, how many ebayers no longer use paypal after all these years? Ebay made it possible for Paypal to be allowed as the only online service to accept credit cards or debit cards on ebay purchases transactions. How many ebayers really use cash or check or wire transfer anymore, to complete a purchase? Of course not enough users to get ebay to change its entire system, even setting up new phone lines and direct communication with buyers-oh, yeah-something is awry. There's some motivation for the new ebay Buyer Protection department.
Ebay's got some fraudulent or unethical sellers on its site, which of course causes claim after claim to be filed through either paypal or the buyer's credit card directly-like imagewarehouse1, an ebay seller whose recieved about 250 negative feedbacks in six months. And those negatives provide a pretty clear picture, mostly stating that the seller is unresponsive and had to file a paypal claim to get their money back.
So, what does ebay gain with all of this-opening up a new department that's functioning in tandem with paypal, but somehow seems to list a nearly identical rundown of things it performs. The answer seems pretty clear-ebay gets to DELAY the filing of paypal claims by starting the process on a lower level; in playing what seems proposed as the role of a mediator, ebay gets to delay the inevitability in most cases of the forthcoming paypal dispute. But they get to put it off. One more step for the buyer, also meaning that, if the buyer forgets about following up to eventually file a paypal dispute in a timely fashion, a paypal dispute might not get filed at all. Buyers only have 45 days with ebay to file a paypal claim; if the buyer forgets, the buyer's automatically out of luck. Add a step to the process, and it's easier to forget that you need to file that claim in time. Great strategy, ebay.