eBay UK tries a new way to get sellers to go down PayPal-only route

PayPal UK is reported to have launched a competition offering six lucky eBay sellers the chance to have all their eBay and PayPal fees paid for a year – if they accept PayPal as their only payment method for any items sold on eBay.co.uk after registering

PayPal UK is reported to have launched a competition offering six lucky eBay sellers the chance to have all their eBay and PayPal fees paid for a year – if they accept PayPal as their only payment method for any items sold on eBay.co.uk after registering for the promotion.

The competition was reported on UK blog BuildASkill, which is run by an eBay seller known as “Ed”. He claims to have received a marketing email from PayPal advertising the competition on 7 July, and included excerpts in his blog post.

The author is scathing of the competition. “So the meat of it is that entrants must offer ONLY PayPal in their eBay listings for the rest of the year, and then they MIGHT be lucky enough to win the promotion and get all their fees back. Ummm… thanks, but no thanks.”

Ed refers to eBay Australia’s ill-fated attempt to force Australian customers to use PayPal exclusively and says eBay UK may have learnt from that PR disaster. “They are effectively using the same intent with this promotion, but offering it in a voluntary-acceptance manner, in order to avoid the backlashes that have so severely damaged their operations downunder.”

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