Text 32250, 118 rader
Skriven 2009-05-08 13:52:41 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
  Kommentar till text 32227 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Ebay
============
07 May 09 07:27, Robert Bashe wrote to Roy Witt:

 RW>>>> What I was saying is that you (literally) can do business through
 RW>>>> PayPal in their Berlin office. i.e. you don't have to be afraid of
 RW>>>> doing business with an American entity from across the pond.

 RB>>> You confuse me here. First of all, I'm not at all sure PayPal _has_
 RB>>> a Berlin office.

 RW>> I am.

 RB> You're right. There is a PayPal Germany, but the European
 RB> headquarters is, as in the case of Ebay, in Luxembourg.

Close enough. Isn't Luxembourg a southwesterly neighbor on the border with
Germany? Part of the EU?

 RB>>> Ebay deals in Europe from Luxembourg, and I recently read that
 RB>>> PayPal had obtained a Luxembourg bank license.

 RW>> And in Berlin.

 RB> No, there's an office in Berlin, but PayPal only has a bank license
 RB> in Luxembourg. Presumably the German banking laws are too strict.

Certainly you must be free to use any bank in the EU...

 RB>>> And secondly, why and how would you deal with an American entity in
 RB>>> Germany?

 RW>> You deal with it through a German office/bank.

 RB> I meant why? On what occasion? Normally people - including me - make
 RB> purchases in their own country, unless what they want to buy is
 RB> unavailable there.

Why, if what you want could be obtained a few bucks cheaper in a
neighboring country? There's trade all the time across the Canadian and
American border.

 RB> Even I have only rarely bought outside the country, and a normal
 RB> consumer - particularly in the States - would normally stick to
 RB> domestic purchases.

I've bought from sellers in the UK and I've sold to customers in
Australia.

 RB> I might add that the shipping costs for practically anything except a
 RB> letter from Germany to the States and vice-versa are so astronomical
 RB> that international purchases are not very practical except for
 RB> high-value goods.

Some people aren't concerned with the cost of shipping. i.e. the only
NTSC DVD with Disney's 'Song of the South' on it is 'only' available
outside the US (thanks to the NAACP)...Shipping across the pond isn't that
costly if you really want something.

 RB>>> I think I may have mentioned that I'm buying a catalog from a guy
 RB>>> in Wisconsin (through Ebay) with a check (shipping only after it
 RB>>> clears), but first had to do some persuading. This is a small
 RB>>> purchase, however.

 RW>> That had to be before Ebay started the Paypal only bit. Reading the
 RW>> new policy, that isn't allowed anymore.

 RB> ;-)

 RB>>> I've just seen too many reports about how PayPal operates (not only
 RB>>> in the USA) to trust the organization and more than I trust Ebay,
 RB>>> which is not at all. No reputable business tries to insulate itself
 RB>>> from its customers as much as Ebay/PayPal.

 RW>> I don't have and never have had a problem with these entities since
 RW>> I joined Ebay in 2000. That's 180 transactions using my Paypal
 RW>> account or someone elses, depending on who's the buyer and who's the
 RW>> seller.

 RB> Somebody _has_ to be lucky. Congratulations.

I must be just a spec of dust among the lucky, as PayPal does very well
worldwide, in spite of the naysayers.

 RB>>> How recent is your experience? As I wrote, this appears to be a
 RB>>> fairly recent development.

 RW>> Yes it is...my experience is mostly in Ebay Motors, which is not
 RW>> affected by this policy.

 RB> As a matter of curiosity: I would have thought this particular
 RB> section would be pretty uninteresting, especially in the States,
 RB> because you would have to drive or fly such distances to even view a
 RB> vehicle. And at least in Germany, people wouldn't buy one sight
 RB> unseen, on the basis of photos alone.

 RB> Can you explain?

Sure. If you are interested in a vehicle that's too far away to drive
there and back in one afternoon to take a look at it, you can hire a
person in that area that does vehicle inpections for a living. I was able
to drive to Elgin, TX to inspect my 56, before I even put a bid on it.
Ebay provides a list of professional vehicle inspecters for that very
purpose. Many of the 'classic' vehicles sold on Ebay go to buyers in such
places as Japan and Europe, even to Australia.

OTH, I sold my 1970 Firebird on Ebay to a guy in Fresno, California, sight
unseen. Apparently he didn't care what shape it was in, as he sent his
father and little brother to pick it up on a trailer. I was flabbergasted
when they told me they towed that empty trailer all the way from Fresno.
They were surprised when I fired it up and drove it on the trailer for
them.

                R\%/itt




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