Hi all!
This is a question I have seen posted all over the internet, but no one seems to have an answer for it. So I finally just went ahead and decided to wing-it on my own and see what happens.
When you register your Authorize.net API/Transaction Key on Ebay, the system will run the test transaction and tell you that everything is fine. Youll even be able to go through the entire listing process, marking your payment method as "Merchant Account Only", and things will appear fine. But when you try to submit the listing, you're going to be met with this error. It seems since at least Summer 2013 (from the posts Ive read at various forums), this happens every single time.
This is basically Ebay making you jump through additional hoops to avoid PayPal. The site will not allow you to just drop PayPal as your payment method. You need to call customer support and have them do something on their end. And it isnt an easy process.
My first call, the first agent simply said she needed to transfer me to the right department. So I sat on hold and ended-up at the Trust And Safety department...they are NOT the people you want to talk to! After a couple of minutes with this 2nd agent trying to fix a problem that I had already taken care of myself weeks ago, she seemed clueless and put me on hold for a 3rd agent. This third person was a complete nimrod...I must have explained the error code and what I was trying to do at least 4 times, and she just kept asking me "Did you Verify your PayPal account?". Which is irrelavent because setting up a Merchant acct has absolutely nothing to do with PayPal. She put me on hold, and then...beep beep....I was disconnected. Total Time for call #1: 55mins
Immediately I called back the main number, this time without that code they give you when you click the "Call Me" link on Ebay's help section. After an additional 10mins on-hold, I got Agent #4 and this time I explained my situation a little different. I made sure to tell her that 1)I was just disconnected while trying to resolve this and 2)This is NOT a Trust & Safety issue. She put me on-hold a couple of times while looking at my account, and FINALLY she came back and asked me to try listing while she was on the phone.
I already had my listing saved as a draft, so I just went in and tried to submit it and...POOF....it went right through! ERROR SOLVED!!! Her explanation was that, even though the site said I was authorized to accept credit cards, they needed to physically authorize it themselves for the error to go away.
So, for all of us trying to get away from PayPal, this is the process to do so in 2014. Call...be patient...be STERN when speaking with the agents when they try to ram PayPal down your throat...and if one agent can't fix it for you then just keep calling back until someone finally does.
I hope this helps all of you out there having this same issue. For those of us in the United States, getting away from PayPal is crucial due to tax purposes. But because Ebay owns PayPal, most of their staff isnt even trained to handle a different payment method. So they dont make it easy on us.
And as an FYI, this is on a stealth account. Google Voice is a wonderful thing for these types of situations!! Just make sure you have a few hours to kill because youre going to be on-hold a lot. In the end, though, its so worth it to give PayPal the middle finger!!
Cheers!!!