An eBay merchant, recently took Reddit to convey his “sad” experience with the e-commerce company, stating that his product listings were removed because he accepted digital currency Bitcoin as one of the payment methods.
The said merchant further posted an excerpt from the mail he received from eBay. It clearly exhibited the company’s take on Bitcoin, for it mentioned the digital currency as something that defies their approach towards offering a secure and simplified e-commerce platform.
“Please understand that you mentioned you accept “Bitcoin” as a method of payment,” the alleged mail reads. “Some online payment companies are fairly new and inexperienced and they do not provide sufficient fraud protection to members. When we review payment methods to determine whether they are allowed on eBay, two key factors that we consider are “Security and Safety” and “Ease of use”. Please do not offer this payment method.”
If there is even an iota of authenticity in the aforesaid merchant’s claim, the eBay’a approach towards Bitcoin truly brings a shock to all of us. Earlier this year, the company had joined hands with PayPal to launch PayPal Holdings, a Bitcoin-enabled payment segment. At the time of launch, this new segment had announced to form partnership with Bitcoin payment service company Braintree.
But as we looked further into the eBay’s policies, it was found that the company’s restriction on using virtual currencies like Bitcoin for settlements is still intact. This might be among the reasons why the aforesaid merchant had his listings removed from the website. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin community trolled eBay in whichever way it deemed suitable. We would though conclude the piece with this one optimistic quote, posted by one among them:
“Some day, bitcoin may become a viable competitor to Paypal for online purchases. When that day comes, eBay will welcome bitcoin with wide open arms, claiming that eBay has always been an innovative company on the leading edge of creativity and as such wholeheartedly supports this novel technology.”
We surely hope so.
Source : http://www.newsbtc.com/2015/07/15/ebay-merchant-reportedly-delisted-for-accepting-bitcoin-payments/
