Well, the meeting was Monday (US Sunday) and now everyone has until tomorrow to make their final submissions.
It was very interesting and everybody behaved very well, so everyone who wanted was able to speak. Some people were very nervous, and it obviously took them a great deal of courage to make a public statement, so it showed how strongly they felt on the issue.
About 60 people attended, including some who had flown interstate to be there. There were no representatives of the big banks or other government departments, who are either relying on their previous submissions or are preparing new written ones. There was a representative from Paymate, a local business offering a directly comparable service.
The meeting was requested by a representative of an eBay seller's group; eBay was represented, but refused to answer questions or enter into the discussion beyond making their official response. (This provoked laughter after the first "We will answer any relevant questions in our written submission".)
In order for eBay to be permitted to insist that Paypal be the only payment method allowed other than personal delivery, they have to prove that the public benefit outweighs the public disadvantage. The only argument they presented was the exact same one that has already been rejected - that Paypal is "safer" than other available payment methods, which was very strongly contested by speaker after speaker.
The other dominant issue was "choices". Even those people who use Paypal and find it convenient felt that they, and their customers, should be allowed to choose their preferred method of payment.
While refusing to give any official responses themselves, the eBay/Paypal group had brought along a Gold Powerseller who is very enthusiastic about Paypal. (She was so enthusiastic she was asked if she was paid to be there. She said no.) But even she admitted that she prefers to be able to give her customers a choice of payment methods.
So far, so interesting.
I thought the "PayPal only" requirement was something that they were forcing on sellers with less than 100 feedbacks. I have NEVER gotten this before. Did they just change policies and not tell us?
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Kathy
