e-bay...Square Trade?????

[Sunbum]

I am trying to list a week for rent on ebay and it is telling me i have to join "Square Trade". It looks like a $10 charge, but also says it can charge investigation fees etc to your credit card. Has anyone used it? Is there additional charges? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Renting Timeshares Via eBay Requires Signing Up With Square Trade.

I am trying to list a week for rent on ebay and it is telling me i have to join "Square Trade". It looks like a $10 charge, but also says it can charge investigation fees etc to your credit card. Has anyone used it? Is there additional charges? Any help would be appreciated.

My main annoyance with Square Trade on eBay is paying for it month after month even if I'm not using it. I had big trouble trying to shut it down, but eventually I did manage to unsubscribe after paying for several months of unneeded Square Trade membership.

But I had to sign up with Square Trade all over again when I offered another timeshare week for rent via eBay. I had to fax in a copy of my timeshare deed so that the Square Trade folks could verify that it was on the up & up for me to offer the timeshare for rent.

There is a way to put Square Trade on hold after signing up, so that if it's not being used there's no charge.

Then, if the Square Trade member puts something else on eBay requiring Square Trade participation, Square Trade is supposed to reactivate automatically -- then it stays active till placed on hold again.

I don't have all that much timeshare rental success via eBay anyway, so the added Square Trade hoop to jump through is mainly just another annoyance.

So it goes.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[JudyS]

I am trying to list a week for rent on ebay and it is telling me i have to join "Square Trade". It looks like a $10 charge, but also says it can charge investigation fees etc to your credit card. Has anyone used it? Is there additional charges? Any help would be appreciated.

I don't remember what it cost to sign up, but I now pay $7.50 a month to keep Square Trade going. It's a pain, and makes eBay not worth it if you only have one or two timeshares to rent.

 

[AnnaO]

I don't remember what it cost to sign up, but I now pay $7.50 a month to keep Square Trade going. It's a pain, and makes eBay not worth it if you only have one or two timeshares to rent.

Judy - do you know what the difference is between Square Trade and Travel Square Trade?

I paid the $10 joining fee and the related website I got to following a link on eBay said I get the first month free and then will be charged $7.50. Then a charge of $9.95 appeared on my card 2 days later. Square Trade people say that that's because I had to signed up to Travel Square Trade where that one month free does not apply.

I agree that the whole eBay experience is not worth the hassle. I will not list there next year.

 

[Carolinian]

Strongarming people to use outfits like ''Square Trade'' (their own rip off practices make their name an oxymoron) and ''Paypal'' (these clowns are hardly your pal - see www.paypalsucks.com ) are big reasons to use venues other than eBay.

 

[JudyS]

Judy - do you know what the difference is between Square Trade and Travel Square Trade?...

Square Trade is an organization that supposedly gives buyers a higher level of protection, although I don't really see the value in it. Square Trade members get to display a seal on their eBay auctions.

Square Trade used to offer a dispute resolution service, which allowed buyers and sellers to retract negative feedback once a resolution had been reached, but eBay changed the feedback rules, which I believe forced Square Trade to discontinue at least the feedback retraction part of the service. (Not sure if they still offer a dispute resolution service without feedback retraction.)

Square Trade Travel Verification is an additional level after you become a member of Square Trade, and supposedly guarantees that you really own the unit you are renting. In reality, all you need to be Square Trade Travel Verified is any one timeshare deed, so there is nothing to stop seller from listing RCI trades or other non-owned units, whether they have permission to list them or not. Square Trade Travel Verification gives you a second seal, along with the regular Square Trade seal, displayed on your auctions. (Since I also have the ID verification seal and the Powerseller Seal, plus my feedback icon, I am now just two seals short of an Ingmar Bergman movie!)

There are some Square Trade members who do not handle travel products and therefore just have the regular Square Trade seal, not the Travel Verification one. I'm not sure why these sellers bother with Square Trade, as it isn't required for them. (On the other hand, they may not have a monthly fee, either, and may have decided to keep Square Trade because they had already paid for it to gain access to its feedback retraction service, back when that was offered.)

 

[JudyS]

Strongarming people to use outfits like ''Square Trade'' (their own rip off practices make their name an oxymoron) and ''Paypal'' (these clowns are hardly your pal - see www.paypalsucks.com ) are big reasons to use venues other than eBay.

I agree, although in this economy, I feel I need to list my rentals on every venue I can. For someone with just one or two timeshares a year to rent, I don't think eBay is worthwhile.

 

[AnnaO]

Ebay alternatives

Strongarming people to use outfits like ''Square Trade'' (their own rip off practices make their name an oxymoron) and ''Paypal'' (these clowns are hardly your pal - see www.paypalsucks.com ) are big reasons to use venues other than eBay.

Just thinking out loud...

Perhaps eBay time has passed? Perhaps TUG could talk Amazon into starting a timeshare section and jointly start a competing service with eqally strong exposure potential? I admire Amazon for growing big without loosing sight of its original mission.

eBay started out great, but over the years turned into a maga corporation, too big and too bureaucratic to serve the community. Then it gobbled up payPal and turned that great service into a commercialized disaster. Time to move on? I don't even like buying there anymore, and I will think twice before attempting to sell again. The only reason people use it for timeshares sales and rental is the wide exposure. But it's time someone gave eBay run for its money.

 

[JudyS]

Just thinking out loud...

Perhaps eBay time has passed? Perhaps TUG could talk Amazon into starting a timeshare section and jointly start a competing service with eqally strong exposure potential? I admire Amazon for growing big without loosing sight of its original mission.....

Sounds like a good idea to me! Amazon sells lots of travel books, so they could link the rental listings to relevant travel book listings. (I suspect Amazon would want a section for vacation rentals in general, though, rather than just timeshares.)

If Brian wants to propose something to Amazon, maybe TUG members could promise Amazon that they will provide some listings? If the price structure were reasonable, I could list at least a dozen desirable units for 2009.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

I think it would be great if we could get Craigslist to agree to allow a dedicated listing in each city for Timeshares for Sale, and Timeshares for Rent.

As it stands now, if you want to sell a Timeshare Week then you have to place it under "Real Estate for Sale". Timeshares deserve their own dedicated category.