Checkout is becoming more interesting for me. The email invoice is great. What I’m still missing is the checkout-account to checkout-account transfer.

I personally hate paypal and it’s high fees. I’d give anything a try that competes with them.

Does anyone know if GCO supports variable monthly recurring payments?

I am not too fond of paypal either and especially the HORROR stories (about paypal) that are everywhere on the web.

I wasn’t really aware about Google checkout and what it could do for me (Google has so many services, nowadays).

It was a good thing it was “TechCrunched” coz I really need something more reliable for my site…

thanks 4 the tip mike!

Let the PayPal hate begin….

We tried for six months to get money out of PayPal into our Japanese account (even though PayPal has an online form and relationships with Japanese banks specifically for such transfers). I know of many Japanese companies with the same problem. The support was totally useless, and refused to understand that it was their problem. We must have called them at least 100 times to get OUR money back. Eventually we got some of it via wire transfer to another account, but we stopped using Paypal for any transactions, because they still dont know how to get the money into our account.

If Google can give halfway decent support (and proper transfers) then they’ll get my business.

The problem with google checkout it that you can’t use it for web subscriptions (only physical goods) per their terms and conditions, so this excludes many merchants who need to process web subscriptions.

I take it back, I think they may now be allowing this. It wasn’t an option when they first launched the service.

Recently, I have had problems of Paypal handling subscriptions. I did what I had to do on the paypal site and still there were problems, one with a hosting company and a popular dvd rental site getting paid… I hope Paypal can get it together. Competition is good.

My issue with Google Checkout is that I don’t want the username and password I use for paying money to be at all related to the one I use for e-mailing everyone from random web cafes. That’s just asking to be robbed.

My experience re: Google Checkout has been great, and unlike Amazon, their responses actually address the issue. Google Checkout is less intrusive than selling through Amazon or EBay. EBay’s growth last quarter had been mainly in payments, so Google Checkout is very likely to eat Paypal’s lunch.

Google Checkout is good, but it will take years till it will be as popular as PayPal.

Anyone know when this service will be coming to Canada? We would love to see it here sooner then later

Paypal is very user friendly in Canada with its limits for payments for buyers. The jumping through hoops is annoying.

Is it really such a good idea to give Google direct access to your bank account?

They’ve already proven they can’t be trusted on a number of other issues.

And if they run Checkout anything like ran/run Adsense, all the “customer service” that people rave about now will disappear by the end of 2007.

Too bad it’s not available in the UK yet…..

You incorrectly state “that [Google] also refund[s] most of the fee when returns are processed, whereas PayPal charges their processing fee twice”

This is not true, Paypal in fact does NOT charge you to refund a payment and you can in fact get ALL of your original fee back (or a proportion of it in the case of partial refunds)! Having a merchant account myself, this is one of the single BEST things about PayPal (and perhaps the only )

i tried to integrate it; but it’s WAY too complex; given most credit card processing companies; and they don’t do digital media. I think google sees PayPal and basically made a convoluted java version.

@Mark Devlin

do you guys still run the tokyo classifieds? I lived in japan when you started.

You guys are way off in saying that Paypal charges for refunds. Not only do they not charge for refunds, they also refund a percentage of your original fees based on the percentage of refund.

Gonna try out Google Checkout though.

“My issue with Google Checkout is that I don’t want the username and password I use for paying money to be at all related to the one I use for e-mailing everyone from random web cafes. That’s just asking to be robbed.”

You know that you could just sign up for a completely different Google Account and use that… it’s not like you *have* to use one account.

Also, Mike - love the “message from Techcrunch” lol!

Chris T - We must be using two different paypals, because I get his with double fees on refunds.

Chris:
A Google Checkout for Canada is not far away — I discovered and blogged about the Canadian signup page for sellers… unfortunately, signing up for the service still doesn’t work.

Although I hadn’t considered Google support particularly bad or good previously, Checkout experience is changing that impression for me.

Paypal, which didn’t have the world’s best support before, naturally sunk to its parent’s level. Anything eBay related seems destined to offer pretty lame customer support.

Vera

The main question I ask myself with the launch of a new payment service is how serious these guys are about fraud and chargebacks. Sad but true - fraud and chargebacks shape the world of e-commerce, preventing merchants from entering many lucrative business categories, and severely crippling others. For example, most merchants do not accept international credit cards and do not ship abroad (estimated 20-40% of an e-tailer’s potential business), and the popular practice of shipping only to a verified address severely limits the online gifts business (quite a hit during the holiday season).

Take a look at Google Checkout - while boasting “Advanced risk modeling” and “Automatic fraud detection” (1), the service’s Payment Guarantee policy is limited to $10,000 per year or 1% of the merchant’s volume (2). In other words, Google leaves the problem of fraud and chargebacks in the hands of the merchants, which more and more merchants find unacceptable. Btw, PayPal’s terms are not better.

(1) http://checkout.google.com/sup.....topic=8666
(2) http://checkout.google.com/sup.....topic=8666

I see a whole new wave of phishing attempts in the near future.

@lemon

Yes, we’re still here in Tokyo, although the magazine is now called Metropolis.

That’s certainly a move to kill Paypal. With the fees waived, it could mean million of dollars for companies. I would think so, in that aspect, especially in the long run.

Good customer service can make or break any business. I am glad to hear that Google has good customer service, I wouldn’t have expected anything less from them. They lifted the bar for email services with their GMail, hopefully they can do the same for customer service, customer service is currently horrible across so many industries.

I have been using google checkout for a few months, I like it but it has a way to go before I can stop accepting paypal. The main issue I currently have is checkout buttons for webpages, there is no way to properly charge shipping and tax based on destination. There is also no shopping cart…

Mike: It does seem like we are using two different paypals. I am using Chris T’s version though.

Mike,

Nice peice we are now looking at this software. I just noticed on your image “pay us or we will break your legs” - classic

There seems to be considerable confusion on the part of most of you folks concerning PayPal’s practices. The only explanation I can think of is that it stems from experience under the “old” PayPal [before eBay acquired it].

[1] Re refunds: PayPal credits in full the original transaction fee, as long as the refund is processed within 60 days. I’ve done this many times, and the process couldn’t be simpler. (Just click the refund link for that transaction.)

[2] I’m amazed how some of you can denigrate PayPal’s customer service vis-a-vis Google Checkout’s, in view of the fact that Google has *no* phone support and PayPal has phone support not just during business hours but 7 days from 4 am to 10 pm, California time! Sure, the phone support’s not perfect (whose is?), but it’s a damn sight better than none at all. There’s even a dedicated line just for merchants: 888-215-5506 [USA].

On the paypal refund policy - perhaps this is only for stored value refunds? We definitely see double fees on refunds for credit card transactions on crunchboard.

Google’s email support is excellent. PayPal’s phone number is a real disaster…and yes I’ve called it recently.

to negate paypal is to negate ebay. Though I am willing to give google checkout a go, I seriously dont think that it will be able to compete with paypal in the next few years. unless froggle can beat ebay…

Is google checkout allowed on ebay checkout?

Thanks
dinah

Mike, PayPal absolutely credits back all of your fees when you issue a complete refund. You either aren’t doing a proper refund or you are mis-reading the tramsaction history.

Donna Bogatin of ZDNET seems to have a different opinion how Google Check out is doing, she wrote a whole series of “disater posts”

“Google Checkout desperate? Touts $25 new merchant bounty”

http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-m......php?p=455

“Google miscalculates with Google Checkout”

http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-m......php?p=362

“Merchants on Google Checkout: undermines our customer relationships”

http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=361

Google Checkout vs. eBay Pay Pal: Where is the competition?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=359

PayPal Pro accounts definitely refund all fees on refunded/cancelled orders. Their fraud detection algorithms can also be tweaked / turned off if you are a ‘qualified’ merchant (you have to call them) — no more failed order processes to deal with.

pwb - or I’m correct and they are double charging. This is either a Pro account feature or a stored value transaction feature, but when you refund a credit card charge on a normal account, fees are doubled.

I am so glad that TechCrunch fairly compare Paypal and Google Checkout. Check out digg.com to find out more dirt on Paypal. I’ve tried calling Paypal and it is intentionally helpless with their customer service so that you can’t get any where. Now Paypal is protected by Mother EBay so Paypal team didn’t have to improve much still getting payment business.

Good post, but it is not just limited to physical goods anymore: https://www.payloadz.com/google_checkout.asp

I like Google Checkout but still also offer paypal. checkout is still missing some much needed features like, calculating shipping and tax and having a ship function to print labels for UPS or USPS. I hope checkout is hard at work at making it a full featured offering…

Paypal has burned me a few times and I would switch if there was a alternative

love the momentum bloggers can create in the comments section. . .

check out Henry Blodgets’s post on Google Checkout . . . he thinks it only has a “few hundred” merchants . . . and thus the negative comments pile on Google . . . exactly the opposite effect as here . . . the blogosphere is a mob indeed. . .

http://www.internetoutsider.co.....check.html

hey buddies, we are here to serve the paypal customers in more efficient way so please come out the issues what ever tou have we’ll definately try to resolve the issues and come out in a better way up to our dearest customer

need help please! Is Google Checkout allowed on ebay? We are a non-profit on ebay as.. Outreach treasures. We were using donations to raise money for our kids for Christmas. OUR MONEY IS GONE! Pay pal paid our money to someone (hacker we presume) we don’t know. They refused to refund our money, and have been no help. We proved that they paid a kid with a web site that was selling hacking programs to other kids, but they say they are not responsible, and our “proof” is not conclusive. We need another checkout, and in a hurry. We have thousands of items to sell and can’t. Thanks suzie @ Womens’ Outreach in North Carolina

We currently use paypal as one of our payment options, and we welcome any new payment system that provides competition for paypal and also gives merchants more choices.

We are currently in Canada, and GoogleCheckout isn’t available for Canadian Merchants yet.

bougth cell acc. and payed throught google aand i did not get my $ 10.00 of my first order . 934223256656269 please instruct me on how to correct this delema ? thanks luis

please pay before we break your legs.. nice.

I came across SWREG. I currently use them and have been happy. They have new pricing for 0% (http://usd.swreg.org/zeropercentecommerce.htm). The features offered make it pretty interesting.

Mark