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Google Checkout FAQ (?)

post #1 of 25
9/4/07 at 2:44pm
Thread Starter 
I'm still dumbfounded by google checkout. What is it for? Does anyone here use it for person-to-person purchases? Here's what the wiki says:
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Google Checkout is an online payment processing service provided by Google aimed at simplifying the process of paying for online purchases. Users store their credit or debit card and shipping information in their Google Account, so that they can purchase at participating stores at the click of a button. Google Checkout also offers fraud protection, as well a unified page for tracking purchases and their status. Google Checkout is free for merchants until December 31, 2007[1]. After that date Google charges merchants 2.0% plus $0.20 per transaction.[2] Prior to launch there had been early speculation that Google was building a product to compete with PayPal. However, the scope of Google Checkout is very limited compared to the PayPal offering. Google Checkout processes payments without storing value, and cannot be used to make payments from person to person. eBay (which owns PayPal) raised some controversy when it added Google Checkout to its banned payment methods list, thus preventing eBay users from using Google Checkout.[3] Google Checkout service was first made available in the United States on June 28, 2006. The service later became available in the UK on April 13, 2007.[4]
Do you use it? I remember seeing a few listings here which say they accept google checkout. How have you personally used it? This article says in pretty plain terms "cannot be used to make payments from person to person"
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post #2 of 25
9/4/07 at 3:38pm
Google has really started to creep me out.
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post #3 of 25
9/4/07 at 3:46pm
I'm probably going to start using it soon for selling things here on the forum. When they write "person to person", they're referring to transferring money to someone else with no exchange of sale (Paypal offers this service).

Quote:
Google has really started to creep me out.
http://www.customizegoogle.com/
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post #4 of 25
9/4/07 at 3:46pm
There are two kinds of Google checkout accounts. The standard buying account, anyone can register for (easier, slightly, if you have a gmail account). Once you do that, you can also register as a seller and use that to send invoices to people directly (for stuff like selling on this forum) or create web stores. You don't actually need an account to purchase if you use an invoice, but that's a separate matter. The verification process for a seller account is similar to Paypal's, but more robust and less intrusive. I don't trust Google, as trusting a corporation is a pretty fucking silly idea, but their business practices and software are far and away better than anything else out there. Paypal is just fucking garbage bordering on theft.
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post #5 of 25
9/4/07 at 3:49pm
Thread Starter 
so do you think I can try sneaking this into ebay listings, saying something like "I also accept g**gle check-out and it is preferred"?
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post #6 of 25
9/4/07 at 3:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arethusa View Post
There are two kinds of Google checkout accounts. The standard buying account, anyone can register for (easier, slightly, if you have a gmail account). Once you do that, you can also register as a seller and use that to send invoices to people directly (for stuff like selling on this forum) or create web stores. You don't actually need an account to purchase if you use an invoice, but that's a separate matter. The verification process for a seller account is similar to Paypal's, but more robust and less intrusive. I don't trust Google, as trusting a corporation is a pretty fucking silly idea, but their business practices and software are far and away better than anything else out there. Paypal is just fucking garbage bordering on theft.
I used google checkout out for numerous things, including 1) collecting money from 12 people who i bought football tickets for. 2) collecting rent from my roommate. With no credit card fees until the end of the year, its a great way for someone to pay you using an Amex or Visa without getting hit with their high fees.
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post #7 of 25
9/4/07 at 3:50pm
I utilize Google's payment processing services to great success although the setup, to be fair, is a little more onerous than PayPal's low-end accounts. One feature I dislike is the "scheduled payouts." I'd like to withdraw my money instantaneously. Other than that, it's great; its current fee-less iteration is fantastic. This will come to an end next year, but it will still be cheaper than PayPal. Not to mention, PayPal is the devil.
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post #8 of 25
9/4/07 at 3:52pm
Thread Starter 
I agree with the anti-paypal sentiments. The whole impetus of this thread was to figure out how to get away from using paypal. Here's another question: Have any of you been able to successfully use it for an ebay listing? If your listing was deleted for violating ebay policy, how fast did this happen?
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post #9 of 25
9/4/07 at 3:55pm
F**k google.


I use paypal, fees suck but I have a debit/credit card on my account which comes in real handy (no fees), they have a decent money market rate of return for when you have fun money just sitting there, and it's just used by a ton more people and therefore easier to transact business around the world.
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post #10 of 25
9/4/07 at 3:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarmac View Post
so do you think I can try sneaking this into ebay listings, saying something like "I also accept g**gle check-out and it is preferred"?
I would not recommend it. eBay uses many types of regex expressions to catch that sort of stuff.
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post #11 of 25
9/4/07 at 4:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by robin View Post
I would not recommend it. eBay uses many types of regex expressions to catch that sort of stuff.

Have you tried it and got canceled?

For example, i have written something like "this is an auction but I would be happy to end it early for $x.xx, just contact me" and ebay has never canceled this.
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post #12 of 25
9/4/07 at 4:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tarmac View Post
so do you think I can try sneaking this into ebay listings, saying something like "I also accept g**gle check-out and it is preferred"?
No. eBay/Paypal is an extremely aggressive monopoly, and they'll ban you quite readily if they find you doing that. I haven't tried it myself, but I've seen other auctions go down for it. Something like GC is relatively trivial to check for. For now, there is still no way around the eBay/Paypal cut of 10-12%.
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Originally Posted by edmorel View Post
F**k google. I use paypal, fees suck but I have a debit/credit card on my account which comes in real handy (no fees), they have a decent money market rate of return for when you have fun money just sitting there, and it's just used by a ton more people and therefore easier to transact business around the world.
I use my debit card with GC. Anyone can use GC without an account. None of these criticisms are legitimate, and Paypal rapes children, so, really, epic fail.
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post #13 of 25
9/4/07 at 4:15pm
Maybe someone who knows more about the Interweb can answer this for me: After recently getting a taste of just how much Google knows about me, I've concluded that Google Checkout is a way for them to get my name, home address, credit card information, bank account and telephone number so they can link it to my IP address and correlate it with my every Google search. Right or wrong?
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post #14 of 25
9/4/07 at 4:18pm
Probable. You should anonymize your casual searching and separate it from handling email and business stuff, anyway. There are many, many other companies out there engaged in this sort of thing besides Google. [edit] Keep in mind, however, that not everyone who uses GC has a GC account, and very few people use the seller stuff (Google does not go out of its way to make it accessible to average users at all). I doubt they ignore the data, but it may not be a focus for them.
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post #15 of 25
9/4/07 at 4:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arethusa View Post
Highly probable. You should anonymize your casual searching and separate it from handling email and business stuff, anyway. There are many, many other companies out there engaged in this sort of thing besides Google.

True, but I use Google far more than I use anything else. And they've become omnipresent for most folks, I think. It's the monopoly they're developing that really gives me the willies. It's like Microsoft, only more invasive.
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