贝宝风波危及eBay复兴大计

    eBay在前行的路上备尝艰辛，而贝宝（PayPal）始终是个令之振奋的亮点。这个在线支付系统于2002年被eBay收购后，不仅给公司带来了持续增长的利润，有时还成为前者用于说服投资者的杀手锏。贝宝于2000年由彼得•西尔和埃伦•马斯克等IT明星一手创建，为零售商和消费者提供了一个迅捷的资金结算平台。令人赞叹的是，贝宝由一家仅仅提供在线划款服务的公司成长为数字货币巨人，不仅能与零售商达成交易，还能提供移动支付服务，完全靠的是自力更生，整个过程中，eBay完全袖手旁观，未曾出过一分力。

    现在，由于母公司的干预，贝宝的好名声也将不保，甚至还有可能使首席执行官约翰•唐诺霍为扭转eBay的颓势而付出的艰苦努力付诸东流。问题出在一个看似普通的决定：贝宝最近向卖家发出了通知，告知他们，通过贝宝收到的所有买家在eBay上购买物品的货款，从现在起将最长延迟21天拨至其账户。eBay声称出台这个政策的目的不仅在于保护买家免遭假冒卖家欺骗，而且是为了自保，防止公司因其保护买家计划而蒙受损失。

    这项政策最初于2009年12月出台，当时只针对少部分卖家，其中主要是那些曾经被投诉过的卖家。去年秋天，规则开始面向所有会员。消息一出，数千名卖家深感困惑，甚至是义愤填膺，特别是eBay资深卖家，他们多年来苦心经营，已经赢得了良好的口碑。“他们这么干简直是把我当作罪犯，”加利福尼亚州阿维拉海滩的居民玛德琳•卡拉博罗称。她从2003年开始就在eBay上买卖物品，获得了100%的好评。事实上，怒火中烧的卖家迄今已在贝宝网站论坛上发布了600多页的帖子，对eBay的上述策略表示抗议。甚至，letssuepaypal.com、paypalsucks.com、以及screw-paypal.com等一系列网站应运而生，以示对此举的强烈抗议。

    批评人士认为，新出台的延长付款日期的策略完全跟预防网络诈骗没关系，纯粹是为了追求收入最大化。他们指出，贝宝可以通过延迟付款，利用eBay卖家应收到的付款赚取利息。更糟的是，eBay甚至还能因此进行短期的小型市场投资，而风险几乎为零。21天的等候日期满时，一旦某个账户出现了亏损，还可以用下一个账户中的资金填上。很明显，贝宝出于担心，调整了其用户政策的措辞，强调指出“贝宝将作为代理人对延迟划拨的付款进行管理，并将之放入总合账户（Pooled Accounts）中，用户不会因此获得利息或者其他收入。”

    这点激起了众怒。“这太不公平了，我认为这纯属违法行为，”北卡罗莱纳州托马斯维尔市居民道格•布莱克表示。他自2008年1月开始在该网站上销售物品，收到eBay的策略变更通知时，他已经进行了600多笔交易，而且全部都获得了好评。之后不久，他又获准得到了eBay的借记卡。“如果我是凶险所在，我怎么可能拿到eBay的借记卡？”他愤怒地问道。布莱克已经停止了使用eBay网站，并且向美国商业促进会（Better Business Bureau）、北卡罗莱纳州总检察官（Attorney General of North Carolina）、北卡罗莱纳州银行业委员会（N.C. Banking Commission）、以及加里福尼亚州总检察官等提起了投诉。

    Through all eBay's struggles, PayPal has always been a bright spot. The online payment system, acquired in 2002, provided eBay with growing profits and, at times, a much-needed good story to tell investors. Founded in 2000 by tech stars, including Peter Thiel and Elon Musk, the company offered merchants and consumers an easy way to transfer money. To its credit, eBay generally left PayPal alone as it transformed itself from a company offering simple online money transfers into a digital currency powerhouse forging deals with retailers and pushing into mobile payments.

    Now, interference by its parent is threatening to tarnish PayPal's good name. It may even stymie CEO John Donohoe's effort to finally turn around eBay (EBAY). At issue is a mundane-sounding decision to send out notices to sellers informing them that all payments they receive through PayPal for items sold on eBay will now be put on hold for up to 21 days. The company says the policy is aimed at protecting buyers from bogus sellers and to stem potential losses it incurs from its buyer protection program.

    First introduced in December 2009, the policy only applied to a small number of sellers, mostly those with a history of complaints. Last Fall, eBay started applying the rule to virtually all of its members. That move has confused and outraged thousands of sellers -- especially ones that have used the site for years, building sterling profiles along the way. "They're treating me like a criminal," says Madeleine Calabro, an Avila Beach, California, resident who has been buying and selling on eBay since 2003, garnering 100% positive feedback. Indeed, the PayPal website forum has more than 600 pages of posts from angry sellers protesting the hold. Also a flurry of surly websites -- letssuepaypal.com, paypalsucks.com, and screw-paypal.com, among others -- have popped up in response.

    Critics contend the new hold policy has little to do with scammers and everything with fattening revenues. The delay, they claim, could allow PayPal to collect interest on eBay sellers' payments. Worse yet, eBay could potentially even make short-term, small-scale market investments with little risk. Any loss from one particular account, could be repaid with funds from the next account once the 21 day waiting period is up. PayPal -- seemingly lending credence to such fears -- adjusted the wording on its user policy to specifically state "you will not receive interest or other earnings on the funds that PayPal handles as your agent and places in Pooled Accounts."

    That has customers angry. "It is unfair and I considerate it illegal," says Doug Black, a Thomasville, N.C., resident who has been selling on eBay since January 2008 and had 100% positive feedback on more than 600 sales when he got notice of the changes. Shortly after, he was approved for an eBay debit card. "If I'm such a bad risk, how did I get an eBay debit card?" he asks. Black stopped using the site, filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau, the Attorney General of North Carolina, the N.C. Banking Commission, and the California Attorney General.