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.

    令卖家更加出离愤怒的是，事实上，还没等到21天期满，贝宝立刻就提走了3.25%的服务费，eBay也提走了9%的服务费。即使通常由买家支付的邮购费也被延迟转入卖家账户。不仅如此，电子港湾还进入卖家的个人银行账户，收取邮购成本，致使有些卖家在不知情的情况下就被银行收取了透支费用。“我收到最后一笔付款后马上关闭了我的贝宝账户，” 俄亥俄州迈阿密斯伯格市居民丽莎•霍尔曼表示。彼时，她在eBay上做生意已有四年之久。她接着说：“我再也不会在eBay上卖东西了。我发誓，也不会在这个网站上买任何东西。”

    eBay发言人阿曼达•米勒表示，此新策略面向的对象是那些“未来交易中出现问题的风险高于平均值”的卖家。但为何那些数年来从未被投诉过的卖家一夜之间便成了风险所在，她却拒绝解释对此做出解释。米勒证实：“所有贝宝收支差额均保存在一个付息银行账户中。”她拒绝透露eBay利用卖家应收付款到底赚了多少钱，只说“它对我们的业务无关紧要。”当有人问及上述款项是否被用于其他投资时，她同样拒绝做出回答。

    无数被激怒的卖家因此对eBay和贝宝展开了“狂轰滥炸”，纷纷威胁要关闭在这两个网站上的账户。如果问题如果被置之不理的话，eBay很有可能重蹈“Netflix”的覆辙。 去年，这家流媒体视频服务公司因为不识时务，擅自大幅提价，导致大量会员成批离开，公司股票价值因此下跌了60%以上。“我曾经希望，那会是eBay的Netflix时刻，”卡拉博罗表示。自打eBay对其账户实施延迟支付后，她就停止了一切销售活动。此外，她在其他网站购物时选择使用信用卡，而不是贝宝账户。她还强烈要求朋友们也向她学习。“他们没有想到，eBay的卖家同时也是它最忠诚的买家。我们作为卖家被其盘剥的同时，我们在eBay的购物欲望也被彻底粉碎了。”

    译者：大海

    Vexing sellers even more is the fact that PayPal takes its 3.25% fee and eBay takes its 9% fee right away instead of waiting 21 days. Even shipping fees, which are normally covered by the buyer, are put on hold, and eBay goes into the seller's personal bank account to cover the shipping costs – a move that has caused some surprised sellers to be slapped with bank overdraft fees. "I closed my PayPal account immediately after my last payment was released," says Lisa Holman, a Miamisburg, Ohio resident who had been selling for four years. "I will never sell on ebay again and I have vowed not to buy on eBay," she adds.

    Ebay spokesman Amanda Miller says the policy is being applied to sellers who "pose a higher than average risk of future transaction problems," but declined to explain why customers, who had been selling for years without complaint, were suddenly considered risks. Miller confirmed "all PayPal balances are stored in an interest-bearing bank account." She declined to say how much money eBay earned on sellers' money, except to say it was "not material to our business." She also did not respond to questions asking if any of the money was invested in other instruments.

    That leaves eBay -- and Paypal — under an avalanche of angry sellers who are threatening to close their accounts. Ignored, the problem could become a bruising "Netflix" (NFLX) moment — a reference to the tone-deaf miscalculation the video streaming company made last year when it introduced a price hike that caused subscribers to abandon the company in droves and the stock to lose more than 60% of its value. "I have hoped that this was eBay's Netflix moment," says Calabro, who has stopped selling until the hold is lifted from her account. She's also opting to use credit cards, rather than PayPal, when buying items from other online sites, and is urging friends to do the same. "They haven't taken into account that eBay's sellers were also eBay's most dedicated buyers. When they crush us as sellers, they crush our desire to buy there too."