SuzyM, ebay has been on the decline for a while now precisely because of the way they treat people. In the early days ebay was good, lots of fun, very successful. But ebay's greed and ego got in the way, and they got to a point where they felt they could play God and call all the shots and take advantage of all of us in every possible way. I've moved 90% of my business to other websites with much much much lower fees, costs and regulations.
If you are a seller you also know ebay stripped us of posting negative feedback on deadbeat bidders. Ebay is two-faced. Read their community values. Ebay promotes fraud and deceit by forcing us to remain silent on deadbeats, not to mention they probably violate my freedom of speech since buyers can neg me and I can't do the same.
The economy is indeed part of the problem, including ebay's ever escalating fees. Talk about bilking a seller, oh please. We pay extra if we want bold or highlighted text. Does that really cost ebay anymore money.
I would like to see EVERYONE boycott ebay for 30 days beginning March 1st. When ebay wakes up and smells the coffee and realizes they are NOTHING without sellers, only then will we get the respect, support and fair treatment we have deserved all along.
My ebay enterprise is limited now strictly to a few select items where I want national traffic, and as a way of advertisement for my other ventures.
Until ebay shows me they can LAWFULLY force the kind of payments I can accept, I will accept whatever payments I want. I have now made five requests of ebay to produce proof they have such control. Each response is completely evasive to the point of being laughable.
Remember, ebay is ONLY A VENUE!!!! But if they want to become my boss, well they can start paying their required portion of my federal, state and social security taxes.
Argue for your limitations and sure enough they are yours. Just because ebay says so, doesn't make it so. Virginia, there may be a Santa Clause, but not because ebay said so.