Is this true?

I have an auction which I am interested in, however the seller is new.
His auction stated a requirement for payment by Paypal.
I asked if he would consider other forms of payment.
His response is below.


Dear identify7,

As a new seller, I am restricted by eBay. They will only allow new sellers to accept payment via PayPal. Sorry.

[color:095c=#000]- bloom4558

Gil, I maybe wrong but I believe I did hear somewhere that if a seller had less than 10 feedbacks they have to take paypal as payment.

If you as a buyer ask and the seller accepts, you can pay be money order or check, I'll paste the Ebay Workshop link below and the quote from the ebay rep who made the comment. If you read the thread, you'll find that as a seller, you can't paste the following into your auction:

http://workshops.ebay.com/thread.jspa?threadID=130000703&ssPageName=CMDV:WC0719

monicab@ebay.commonicab@ebay.com View Listings | Report		Aug-28-08 12:18 PDT	8 of 173
Buyers requesting check or money order A seller can accept check and money order payment from a buyer if (and only if) the buyer requests it. We will not take action against a seller who is trying to accommodate their buyer, complete a sale and be in compliance with the policy. A seller can also decide to refuse check or money order payment from a buyer. When these changes go into effect in late October, a seller cannot in any way solicit check or money order payment from a buyer. This will be considered a violation of the Accepted Payments Policy. Violations may result in: Listing cancellation Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings Limits on account privileges Loss of PowerSeller status Account suspension One way we will detect violations is through buyer reports. We will also monitor checkout completion rates for sellers, and this has generated a lot of questions from sellers. Here are some clarifications: eBay will not automatically take action against a seller with a low completion rate. We realize that there are many valid reasons for low completion rates. We will investigate sellers with low checkout completion rates on a case by case basis. Specifically, we will check to see if the seller is soliciting check or money order payment from their buyers. If we don’t find any evidence of this occurring, we won’t take action against the seller. You can refuse to accept checks and money orders. If the buyer refuses to pay using the payment methods specified in your listing, file an Unpaid Item dispute (UPI). If the buyer fails to respond to eBay's requests for more information through the UPI process, provides an inadequate response such as nonsense words, or insists upon paying with an unapproved payment method, any negative or neutral Feedback left by the buyer will be removed. If a buyer threatens negative Feedback to demand payment by a method not specified in your listing you should immediately report the buyer to eBay. If there is clear evidence of undue pressure, eBay will take action. If a buyer shows a pattern of malicious behavior, eBay will most likely suspend the buyer and any negative or neutral Feedback the buyer left for any sellers will be removed.

As always, it gets worse.

I chose to manually snipe this auction (I still get a rush sometimes, but this one was easy).
As the clock ticked down, I confirmed my bid.
And ebay rejected my bid:

		Buyer Requirements

This seller has set buyer requirements for this item and only sells to buyers who meet those requirements. You are unable to bid on or buy this item because: You either don't have a PayPal account or your PayPal account is not linked to your eBay account. We encourage you to register with PayPal - it is the fast, easy and safe way to pay. Register with PayPal | Already have a PayPal account?

Well, Im not going to say that ebay ticks me off; but the facts are that I do have a paypal account. I have had one for years, just never used it. Because of - you know why.

But it was not "linked" what is that?

Well I now have it linked, so does my bid register? No. Was it sufficient to win? Certainly.
Does ebay tick me off? Does ebay tick you off?

It sucks that ebay is almost a necessary evil for us and know they are going to make paypal necessary, that really sucks.

Lee

1. Log in to your PayPal account at www.paypal.com
2. Once you are logged in, on the main 'My Account' page, click the 'Profile' tab.
3.
Then, under 'Selling Preferences', click on the 'Auctions' link. This
page will show you any eBay accounts you currently have linked to this
PayPal account. If there are no User IDs on this page, you will need to
click the 'Add' button.
4. In the provided fields, enter your eBay ID and your eBay password, then click the 'Add' button.
5. Now in your 'Profile' page you will see your eBay ID added in and linked to your PayPal account.