PayPal Launches Own Forum as It Moves toward Independence from eBay

[eBayNews]

PayPal launched a Community Help Forum as a resource for members to find answers to questions, share PayPal experiences and best practices, and troubleshooting tips. The company said its goal was to provide PayPal members with an avenue to communicate with one another.

The move comes as PayPal becomes increasingly important to eBay Inc., which continues to separate the functions of the two businesses. Previously PayPal users had only the discussion boards on eBay (located here). eBay has taken over its dispute resolution process from PayPal, and financial releases now put the payments business ahead of marketplaces.

In September, eBay Inc. CEO John Donahoe indicated he would consider a PayPal spin-off. He said that while there were still synergies between PayPal and eBay, "If and when I feel the businesses are better off separately, we'll do what we did with Skype."

Next week, PayPal will hold its first dedicated developer's conference which promises to be a major event for the company and was sold out early.

In addition to the newly launched help forum, found here, PayPal users can also continue to tweet questions to the @AskPayPal Twitter handle.

[Here We Go Again]

I looked at this last night.
TONS of posts about how bad Paypal is doing....
It is pretty funny.

[Jonas]

I'd be curious if PayPal will ban and delete posts or if they will be professional and mature and leave them.

Most forums on the internet are run people people who are immature and unprofessional and delete and ban complaints about it. I'm not talking about this forum; I'm talking about the majority of forums on the internet.

I've noticed that open community forums remove posts only when they are too inflammatory or when derrogatory personal comments are severe enough to become disruptive. Sometimes I've seen a mod who had too much ego and couldn't accept criticism, but rarely have I seen anything more significant than that.

I've notice that many 'professional' forums are quick to remove any posts that do not promote them in the very best light. To me, this qualifies as propaganda milling, not a good demonstration of professionalism.

The above statements are not true 100% of the time, but are in fact the general trend. I hope PP will at least maintain an open forum/community.

[Ghost]

If they're anything like the Paypal forum on eBay, they'll be making a several "disagreeable" posts mysteriously vanish every single day.

I also noticed how Sandy Purins is posting on the Paypal forum as well. Now she's having to pose as a satisfied Paypal user on TWO different forums! I hope her bosses at Liveworld are giving her a decent raise for all the extra hours she's working now.

Well, I've revisited their forum quite a few times. Seems they aren't removing derogatory posts or covering up complaints.

I expected it to be otherwise. Hm.

[OfficialGenius]

Hopefully they start considering those complaints and change things up for the better.

I have a suspicion that ebay WILL be divesting themselves from Paypal. I believe that could be the reason PP has their own community forum now. I think it reasonable to expect that PP would improve conditions once they are independent of ebay.

They weren't happy about being acquired by eBay way back when. The worst policy changes happened after eBay acquired PP.

PP will probably loosen up considerably if and when the ties to eBay are gone.

Consider that eBay implemented their own internal resolution system. Consider that PP started their forum. There's a few other clues that do suggest an upcoming divorce.

[OfficialGenius]

Not sure if my post got deleted but I remember me saying that the day paypal separates from eBay is when we will have freedom.

[Ghost]

Vic I hope to God that you're right..

So do I, friend. So do I.

If PP ever gets back to anything like it used to be several years ago, I'll be one party animal for at least a week.

[OfficialGenius]

You're def not alone Vic! :D

[20thmaude]

ebay can still and will continue to be able to reach their hands into your pp account and take money from you if they rule in a buyers favor after dispute. You must "opt out" for them to not be able to do this, and then they charge your credit card on file if a dispute rules against you.

[Thenewguy]

Originally Posted by Vicvelcro

I have a suspicion that ebay WILL be divesting themselves from Paypal. I believe that could be the reason PP has their own community forum now. I think it reasonable to expect that PP would improve conditions once they are independent of ebay.

They weren't happy about being acquired by eBay way back when. The worst policy changes happened after eBay acquired PP.

PP will probably loosen up considerably if and when the ties to eBay are gone.

Consider that eBay implemented their own internal resolution system. Consider that PP started their forum. There's a few other clues that do suggest an upcoming divorce.

Wont this be terrible for VERO item sellers tho?

Yes. That is why (I suspect) ebay has implemented a resolution system that they directly control.

[Thenewguy]

A resolution system Does this mean all is not lost for VERO sellers?

No. The exact opposite.

The eBay resolution system now gives eBay more direct control over buyer/seller issues. eBay can pre-empt the Paypal dispute process.

Explaining all the subtleties of this would be a bigger endeavor that I am willing to commit to.

Suffice it to say, things didn't get easier.

[Thenewguy]

Originally Posted by Vicvelcro

No. The exact opposite.

The eBay resolution system now gives eBay more direct control over buyer/seller issues. eBay can pre-empt the Paypal dispute process.

Explaining all the subtleties of this would be a bigger endeavor that I am willing to commit to.

Suffice it to say, things didn't get easier.

Man ebay really is a love hate relationship! I now no longer want them to die but stay alive!!! I have been seeing allot of info about how ebays stock is going down while Amazon is dominating! Is everyone just migrating over to Amazon? Stealth accounts on amazon are much harder arent they? Also whats the deal with VERO items on amazon?

Stealth is much harder on Amazon.

VeRO only exists on eBay. It's their own internal program. VeRO is eBay's brand name of anti-infringement. Every site has some policy regarding intellectual property and trademarks. eBay calls it VeRO. Nobody else calls it that, because that's eBay's own in-house program. If anyone did use the term VeRO on their site, eBay would find it actionable.

[Thenewguy]

Originally Posted by Vicvelcro

Stealth is much harder on Amazon.

VeRO only exists on eBay. It's their own internal program. VeRO is eBay's brand name of anti-infringement. Every site has some policy regarding intellectual property and trademarks. eBay calls it VeRO. Nobody else calls it that, because that's eBay's own in-house program. If anyone did use the term VeRO on their site, eBay would find it actionable.

What is harder about the stealth on amazon? You did tell me that Amazon uses computer processor tracking which would require a different PC for every account but what els is involved? Im pretty sure there would be a way to get around the computer processor ID tracking without having to use a dif compouter as well wouldent there?

[Thenewguy]

Also what is the copywrite infringment enforcement on Amazon like compared to ebay for high risk items? I really havent looked into Amazon but with all this hype about ebay dieing and paypal seperating from ebay i should defs start looking into it.

[EFIL4OREV]

Some one should answer the new guys question