Has anyone noticed that, starting sometime in the last few months, when you choose to pay by Bank Deposit (I think it might now be labelled Money Transfer), you have to commit to paying by that method before you are shown the bank account details of the seller? Previously, the seller's account details could be viewed before being locked-in to that choice and you could go back if you changed your mind about which payment method to use.
The reason I mention this is that I prefer to pay by Bank Deposit if the seller and I are with the same bank (in this case, the Commonwealth). With this bank and, I would imagine, most others, the deposit will often show up very soon in the seller's account - it might not clear for a day, but it will usually show up very quickly if it doesn't need to be transferred between different banks. Now the only way to find out which bank the seller is with before committing to pay is if it is mentioned in the auction listing - not many sellers do that.
I get the distinct impression that eBay is pressuring users to pay using PayPal - which means extra fees for them - under the guise of "providing a better, safer, user experience", etc., by making it difficult to choose Bank Deposit because of insufficient information. If they were really serious about providing a better user experience, they would allow users the freedom to make their choices without feeling constrained to do things the way eBay prefers. I know that eBay does not offer buyer protection if I pay by Bank Deposit but I would still like to be able to choose that form of payment without difficulty. I did contact eBay about this a while ago but, of course, I received no response at all. In my opinion, the best way to alienate and lose customers is to ignore them and make them feel insignificant. So much of what we hear and read about eBay is complaints - few positive comments are made. But I suppose that as long as they are making their money, they don't care about the people who provide that money.
