IMPROVED BUYER AND SELLER PROTECTION

Hi, this is Monroe Labouisse, Director of PayPals business on eBay in North America. Scott Thompson announced in his blog post from eBay Live that improved protection for eBay buyers and sellers would be coming this fall. Im happy to announce that it is now live ? just in time for the holiday season. Were very excited to be offering these benefits, and we hope that they will improve your buying and selling experiences on eBay!

For buyers:
PayPal Buyer Protection (see example listing image below) now covers the full purchase price and original shipping costs of your eBay.com purchases with no coverage limit. This is an increase and a simplification from the previous coverage limits of $2000 and $200, which varied depending on the feedback of the seller. So, buyers are now even more protected when items are not received or are received but are significantly different than described in the eBay listing. There are some common-sense exceptions (for example, vehicles are not covered), but generally speaking, buyers can shop on eBay with confidence when paying with PayPal. Buyers also continue to be 100% protected against unauthorized use of their PayPal accounts.

For sellers:
Starting today, PayPal Seller Protection protects all U.S. sellers (not just PowerSellers as was previously announced as Expanded Seller Protection earlier in the year). Seller Protection covers eligible transactions from buyers in any of the 190 markets where PayPal is accepted?also with no annual coverage limit and for no additional cost. Sellers are covered when they ship eBay items to the address listed on the Transaction Details page ? confirmed or unconfirmed. So, sellers are now even more protected against unauthorized use and item not received claims, chargebacks and reversals. There are also some common-sense exceptions to the improved protection for sellers (for example, if a payment is pending review by PayPal and the Transaction Details page tells a seller not to ship, but the seller does ? then the seller wont be covered), but again, generally speaking, if sellers get paid with PayPal, they can sell on eBay with confidence.

I personally am very excited about these changes, having changed jobs from eBay to PayPal in early 2004 to manage our buyer and seller protection programs. At that time, PayPal Buyer Protection did not cover all transactions. And for the transactions it did cover, it offered only $500 of protection. At the time, this was groundbreaking for eBay and for e-commerce but it did not meet the brick-and-mortar retail- expectations that many buyers had when shopping online. I can now proudly say that we can meet those expectations, and that with this, we can keep eBay buyers happier and buying more frequently from eBay sellers. A win-win for all of us in the eBay family! More information can also be found at this eBay Announcement Board post from my colleague, John McDonald.

Wishing you a happy holiday shopping season, Monroe

Please note that the PayPal User Agreement states that these buyer and seller protections are not effective until 10/31/08, however, the actual date for transaction coverage started October 22, 2008. We apologize for any confusion.