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No PayPal mandate at new Trading Post auction site

By Marcus Browne, ZDNet.com.au on May 27th, 2008

Sensis announced today that its classifieds publication, Trading Post, has launched an online auction service for Australian users. And, unlike eBay's PayPal mandate, the service will offer a number of payment methods.

Sensis — Telstra's advertising and publishing arm — unveiled the auction service today, with CEO Bruce Akhurst claiming that users are "up in arms" over the decision by eBay to employ PayPal exclusively for payments, and quoted a recent Newspoll which found that 95 per cent of respondents said it was important to have a choice of payment methods when buying online.

Akhurst told ZDNet.com.au a number of payment methods will be available to users of the auction site, including pay on delivery, cheque and money order payments, Paymate and PayPal.

"eBay is no longer prepared to endorse payment methods that result in a higher chance of a dispute," said Alistair MacGibbon, director of trust and safety for eBay.

"It will be interesting to see if Sensis will be offering any type of consumer protection, considering that security is a major concern for Australian internet shoppers," he said.

According to Sensis CEO Akhurst, the company will be using its standing relationship with Australia Post to create a "verified trader" initiative, requiring a standard 100 point ID check which will exclude those without an Australian residential or business premises address.

"In 2007, Australian eBay shoppers that used PayPal were almost four times less likely to enter into an online dispute than those paying by bank deposit," said eBay's MacGibbon. "So from 17 June sellers will only be able to offer PayPal on listings or pay on pick up."

The online auction giant attracted the attention of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) with the move towards allowing only one payment method on the Australian site, with the watchdog finalising industry and public submissions on the issue earlier this month.

In its response to the ACCC based on the submissions, eBay concluded that an exclusivity agreement with PayPal will not lead to any "substantial lessening" of competition in the Australian marketplace, and that in fact, any "lessening of competition" as a result of the deal "would be clearly outweighed by the significant public benefits that would be likely to result from it".

Talkback

Telstra again

I for one will not use a Telstra owned site. I have stopped using Ebay as well www.amazon.com has some real bargains now that Aussie Dollar is so strong.

IanIan May 28th, 2008
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Tall poppy syndrome again?

That makes no sense - sending our strong dollar to foreign-owned companies? Australian mums and dads, er, "working families" have invested in Telstra and would prefer if fellow Aussies put more thought into their spending decisions. Amazon might have some real bargains, but Trading Post has a lot of them. It is not an either/or decision.

AnonymousAnonymous May 28th, 2008
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Tall Poppy No? Poor value from Telstra Yes!

I avoid using Telstra services as much as I can because they dont deliver value for money. As for where I choose to spend my money thats my choice alone. For too long Australians have paid too much for goods in Australia. Its hard to understand why the same product is half the price in the US. My last Amazon buy was a bundle of books. In Australia they would have cost $240 from the US $121aud delivered. Not even Telstras trading post could offer that value.

All you frustrated Telstra customers should look at the great VOIP options now available. I have been using VOIP for a year now with $100's saved over what Telstra would want. I cant wait for the day naked DSL is available at my exchange because it will be good bye Telstra.

Its easy to pick Telstra share holders/Spin Doctors here they try to defend the undefendable.

IanIan May 28th, 2008
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Telstra Bashers

Good to see the Anti-Telstra brigade never miss a chance to Bash Telstra once again. Can someone show me where VOIP was mentioned in the article??

Go to Whingepool with the other whingers!!!

AnonymousAnonymous May 28th, 2008
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Telstra Bashing is fun

Your right there was no mention of VOIP but it is a big part of the failure of Telstra to deliver value to its customers. Anything Telstra does is more expensive and more difficult to get decent service levels on. Telstra is a fat and lazy monopoly that badly needs to wake up to its self.

Does Telstra pay Spin Doctors to troll these blogs and write supportive comments? Because I dont know any truely happy Telstra customers.

IanIan May 28th, 2008
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Telstra rippoff continues

Yeah, I swear I'll never give another cent to Telstra. Living in rural area we are daily ripped off by Telstra charging STD rates on all phone calls over 25km, yet I can surf the net internationally on exactly the same cables. Its not that Telstra had to pay for the infrastructure, that was all paid for by the taxpayer before Howard sold the public asset to the foreigners. What a country, basket case really !

Rick WillisRick Willis June 8th, 2008
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What's this got to do with telstra?

So Telstra own the site, that's all.

They must be getting their money from advertising space or something.

The fact is, if you go to the trading post, you are buying items from an individual or business, not Telstra.

Not using the trading post website because it's telstra owned is ridiculous. We are consumers, and this is a means to spend money, none of which directly goes to Telstra.

I personally don't think the Fox corporation is all that crash hot, but I'll still watch the simpsons.

I'm not saying I like Telstra either, but this empty, repetitive rhetoric about big bad Telstra is so boring now. If the article is about the price of VOIP, or Telstra's revenue's, then discuss, please. By why do people feel obliged to litter these forums with the same anti telstra lines everytime they are mentioned in the article?

SteveSteve May 28th, 2008
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Trading post/Ebay vs online in US

Well...Ian did bash Telstra (they prob deserve it as all my dealings with them have been poor and I avoid them where possible)....but he has a point...why are we paying so much for goods in Aus? I too shop overseas for as much as possible at prices (including airfreight) of half or less...If shipped in bulk then the Aus distributers must be making a motza cos we are seeing almost 100% markup or more

AnonymousAnonymous June 3rd, 2008
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www.smartbid.com.au

Telstra now as well? Great! another behemoth company shows up with an outdated business model. What's their point of difference? Just like Ebay only slightly less evil?

These guys opened today and this was their opening release (could you imagine Ebay or Telstra ever writing something along these lines?):

Pencil the first of July 2008 in on your calendar.
Why? Because this is the date Australians were finally provided with a community auction site, made by users for users.

Smartbid is a genuine alternative to EBay and the other various spin off auction sites whose not so lofty aspirations seem to be being regarded as the slightly lesser evil.

The difference? Smartbid is free! You can sell and buy items for no cost.

How can this work?

Community!

The Smartbid business model is so simple yet incomprehensible for other auction sites. We don't mind making it public because we know it's far too radical for the opposition to attempt so here it is:

Create a community of users and don't rip them off

Smartbid will charge a minimal charge for some additional extras, if required in order to function as a viable business.

Smartbid are not going to siphon money from their users so they can advertise on TV and radio. Our strength is our site and the services provided.

This is the information age and what better method of spreading the word then a base of satisfied Internet savvy users.

Smartbid are not going to ask how you found their site. They only care about why you found their site.

AnonymousAnonymous June 29th, 2008
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www.bidpal.com.au

i am all for ever alternative there is for ebay, i went to smartbid and they wanted to charge me $5 upfront.

one of my friends told me about www.bidpal.com.au those two site look very much the same in layout.

Bidpal is running a campaign were the first 1,000 members who sign up dont pay fees for life. no listing or final value fees.

im keen to give both website a go. anything to bring ebay down

JacksonJackson July 2nd, 2008
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sites

Try bang4bucks apparently they start TV commercials in 3 weeks, no listing fees as low as $2 for a store and you can verify by phone so you dont get charged.
No site without advertising will ever work, been proved over and over

AnonymousAnonymous July 4th, 2008
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ebay

Jackson, spread yourself around is all you can do to see which one gets the results.
I hear that the b4b one is launching a whole new look .

there is a guy on the RT fourms who must be involved and when asked about advertising he puts a question mark SERIOUS

AnonymousAnonymous July 4th, 2008
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www.auctions8.com is here. Nothing Like it

www.auctions8.com is brand new charity based international community auctions site launching. It is a Sellers Heaven. First 1000 to join get Free Stores, Free Listings, No selling Fees, Free pics FOREVER. After that only 20.00 per month for membership, regardless of what you sell. Great community already folks.
See you there.

JennyJenny July 27th, 2008
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bidpal.com.au

"one of my friends told me about www.bidpal.com.au those two site look very much the same in layout."

Nice one Jackson, considering it is your own website I'm sure you knew about it...

AnonymousAnonymous July 29th, 2008
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