<p>Send a message to PayPal?? With apologies to Lily Tomlin: “We don’t care. We’re Pay Pal … we don’t have to.” Much easier (and satisfying) to open a new PayPal account under a different email.</p>
<p>As for the OP’s Theory question, I think online stores have eroded eBay’s market share for “I want new, but my local stores don’t have it” products. Like many others here, I find Amazon has better prices that eBay. The exception would be vehicle and appliance repair parts, where eBay is far superior (in part because different suppliers describe the same part their own way, making it more likely you’ll get a search “hit”).</p>
<p>PS, my D collects a particular line of china tea cups/saucers. eBay prices on those are usually higher than dealers’ online sites. YMMV.</p>
<p>Today, I bought one item on eBay and one on Amazon.com. The items were cheapest at the places I got them at. I have bids on two more eBay items that have lower prices for what I want than Amazon.com or any other vendor. I am not sure whether or not I will win the items and was pleasantly surprised that I ended up with winning one of the auctions.</p>
<p>Mostly I use eBay to buy ink for my printer, as no one sells it locally and Xerox (the manufacturer) charges significantly more than either eBay or Amazon.com. </p>
<p>Would prefer not to use PayPal, but some eBay buyers ONLY allow PayPal. Fortunately, the credit card we use LOVES us and is happy to take our side in any problems that may arise. Sometimes the discounted prices you can get on eBay and Amazon are so much lower than other places that it’s hard not to use them.</p>
<p>Even though PayPal may be listed as the only payment term, I’ve been e-mailing sellers before bidding, and only one seller of my last 12 transactions has insisted on PayPal. Sellers hate PayPal even more than buyers hate PayPal.</p>
<p>I HATE PayPal. I guess I should have asked about how to avoid PayPal as well. Just wasted 8 hours trying to pay for a purchase. PayPal insisted that it had flagged my credit card and I should try again in 3-4 hours. The credit card company said that they had no problems working with me and had approved of the transaction, but we agreed to let me try again in some hours. Hours later when I tried again to pay with the same credit card, it was denied by PayPal again. I called to speak with the credit card company who again said they didn’t know what the problem was because they authorized it, but agreed to conference me with PayPal. We were on hold for about 45-60 minutes before I FINALLY spoke with someone who had me AGAIN try to use my credit card. It again did NOT go through and I asked to speak with a supervisor. </p>
<p>Waited another 15-30 minutes and the supervisor finally admitted that you HAVE TO use PayPal, even though eBay pretends you could use another form of payment. IT IS A LIE! After a set number of transactions–I said, “Like one?” (which he grudgingly agreed MIGHT be true), you HAVE to use PayPal. I asked why the bogus message that we have to use a different credit or debit card if they are forcing us to use PayPal and he didn’t have any answer for that.</p>
<p>I told him he and eBay have lost us as customers and we will not use PayPal unless there is some dire emergency. I HATE PAYPAL, as does pretty much everyone I have heard from. PayPal pretends to protect buyers and sellers but it is only out for itself! ICK!</p>
<p>Toledo, how to you pay sellers without PayPal? Credit card? Check? Other forms? I really find PayPal extremely offensive.</p>