EBay and PayPal have been allowed to operate in Malaysia now by Bank Negara, This move by Bank Negara has not been well thought-out because both Malaysian buyers and sellers on EBay as well as on PayPal are treated unfairly in comparison to buyers and sellers from the US. Both these companies are sister companies

Buyers and sellers from the US are protected by buyer and seller protection but not so Malaysians who are left to the mercy of their customer service personnel who unfortunately are not well trained. When you lodge a complaint, they are unable even to identify whether the complainant is a buyer or seller. They either do not bother to read the complaint or are just inept.

Quite often they do not bother to respond at all. They also seem to have pre-written answers and just give you  a stock answer that is nearest to the issue raised. There is no attempt to look at each problem individually and answer accordingly.

To make matters worse, both EBay and PayPal do not have offices in Malaysia or even a representative’s office. Yet they operate in Malaysia. When users have problems, they conveniently tell you to call  them at a US number. Say, a person buys a product for US$12, making a call to the US will cost US$12 or more not to mention the problem of time difference. So much so most Malaysians just stomach unfair deals.

Unfair and dubious deals abound on Ebay. If you buy five products you can be sure three or four of them will not be genuine. This is more true of goods from China and Thailand. I once bought a semi-precious stone from China and it cost US$15. I found it to be just a piece of glass.

When I complained to PayPal as I paid by PayPal, they required me to send a gemologist’s certification which would have cost me very much more than the supposed precious stone. I offered to send it to them for verification but they said they did not have such facilities. In the end, I just gave up.

This particular seller is still happily selling fakes on EBay and is rated as a ‘top seller’. EBay turns a blind eye because it only focuses on profits. The jewelry section in Ebay is quite large and the company should have some verification process in place.

Another section where fraud is rampant is the computer section. Again mainly due to Chinese products, sold by both Chinese sellers and other sellers who buy from China.

I strongly urge the Malaysian authorities to review the recognition given to Ebay and PayPal and to ensure that Malaysian buyers and sellers are given the same protection as US customers. The current discrimination against non-US customers should be stopped

As more and more Malaysians engage in e-commerce, Bank Negara and the ministry of domestic trade as well as other relevant authorities should act speedily to protect the Malaysian consumers.

Malaysian authorities should insist on some form of insurance coverage for Malaysians. There should be proper channels for lodging complaints against not only the two above-mentioned companies but against all such cyber-commerce sites.