"For a long time, I found EBay a valuable service," a reader recently wrote. "I don't have a huge history, but I've done over a hundred transactions since 1998, buying more than selling. And I've been happy to use what became EBay's PayPal service in helping process my transactions. This is about to change for me. I posted four auctions recently, and within less than 24 hours, all had been removed. I was clueless as to why, until I received an e-mail from EBay."

The e-mail informed him that his auctions had been taken down because he stated in them that he accepted PayPal only for non-credit card payments. "Sellers who offer PayPal as a payment option in the listing process must accept all forms of PayPal payment, without restriction," the EBay e-mail told him. "Sellers must have a Premier or Business PayPal Account or be willing to upgrade from a Personal PayPal Account to a Premier or Business Account if sellers receive a credit card payment. Sellers may not communicate to buyers that they accept, or will not accept, specific forms of PayPal payment. Please be aware that you are not required to use PayPal as an accepted form of payment for your listings. However, we hope that you will realize the protection and convenience that PayPal offers."

The reader did not want to upgrade to a PayPal business account because he was aware that would mean he'd then have to pay PayPal's credit card transaction fee on every payment. "If I have to upgrade my PayPal account from a Personal one to a Premier account -- which I'd be forced to do by EBay if I took PayPal and someone paid me with a credit card -- PayPal will charge me transaction fees for accepting funds, regardless of whether they are paid with a credit card or not. And regardless of whether the payment is from an EBay auction or not."

The reader acknowledges the PayPal fee of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents is reasonable for a credit card transaction, but he sees no reason he should pay that cut on money paid directly from a seller's PayPal account balance. "My not accepting credit cards means that PayPal is charged no credit card transaction fees because of me," the reader wrote. "Why then, must EBay see fit to charge me more? In essence, they are forcing all EBay sellers who wish to use PayPal to become Premier members, even if they only sell half a dozen items each year. I am not a business, I can't make it up on volume, I'm just trying to sell a few spare computer parts here and there. Apparently it is no longer enough for Ebay to collect twice from my auction -- listing fees, plus a percentage of the final auction value -- they must now attempt to force me into being triple-dipped into paying more fees."

A spokesperson for EBay and PayPal told me that EBay first implemented this policy in August of last year. "The reason for the change is that EBay was getting a lot of complaints from buyers who would try paying with a credit card through PayPal only to have their payment rejected by the seller," the EBay spokesperson said. "Having their credit card payments blocked was creating a bad buyer experience. I understand the frustration your reader feels in this instance, but EBay has to look at how to offer the best experience for buyers."

The EBay spokesman says that the policy applies only on Ebay, so PayPal personal account users are free on other sites to state that they will not accept credit cards. The policy of charging business accounts the same rate for PayPal account payments as credit card payments - a policy I frequently hear gripes about from old PayPal customers -- dates to 2000, before PayPal was acquired by EBay.

For his part, the reader assumes the real reason for the policy is that EBay and PayPal lack serious competition. "It all kind of reminds me of what happened around where I live when banks started getting big," the reader wrote. "They stopped caring about smaller customers, and started charging nuisance fees on all sorts of transactions, instituted higher minimum balances, and at the same time lowered interest rates on basic accounts. I switched twice to smaller bank chains that got bought out by the big ones, starting the whole thing over again, until I finally found a bank customer well meant you had a customer for life. I really hope someone comes out with an alternative to PayPal - the market could certainly stand for it."