eBay Leverages Caramel Acquisition For Secure Purchase Vehicle Buying & Selling Experience
eBay is introducing a new Secure Purchase vehicle buying experience to their platform, promising a simplified solution for managing payment, financing, registration, ownership transfer, and transport.
Here's how it works, according to a company press release put out today:
Vehicle transactions can be complicated, especially when they cross state lines. Notably, nearly 80% of purchases on eBay in 2024 involved buyers and sellers in different states.
Now, with Secure Purchase, both the seller and buyer are verified, paperwork is automated and funds are digital and traceable. Here's how it works:
- Start the checkout: Both the buyer and seller verify their identity and provide basic information about the vehicle being purchased.
- Opt into services: The buyer can select their financing, transportation, protection and insurance preferences in a few clicks.
- Submit key information: The seller uploads photos of the title, VIN and odometer reading, all of which are independently verified through national vehicle title databases to ensure accuracy.
- Payment and signature: The buyer and seller digitally sign the required documents, then transfer funds through the platform to initiate registration and title transfer.
These new capabilities are being unlocked thanks eBay's acquisition of Caramel earlier this year.
Liz Morton
But while behind the PR promises of a more streamlined and simplified experience, the actual policy pages for eBay Secure Purchase show there is still significant complexity that has yet to be solved with extensive FAQs covering everything from various state eligibility and availability, to coverage and liability limitations, and a less than straightforward fee and cost structure.
Bottom line: if your FAQ and policy page is over 6,000 words long and still might require users to consult a legal professional to understand what it means - you still have a ways to go before you can really claim groundbreaking simplification of the car buying and selling process.
It also might have been a good idea to have an intern ensure that all the legally required links to terms and conditions pages were actually inserted, rather than left as non-clickable text, to check all the compliance boxes.
Speaking of terms and conditions, eBay updated their sitewide User Agreement page today to add new language specific to Secure Purchase for vehicles - including that Caramel/eBay now holds a used car dealer license in Washington state as well as Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas.
Old Version:
Vehicle Purchases & Sales
As it relates to vehicle listings, eBay Secure Checkout is powered by and made possible by the services of Caramel Dealer Services, LLC. As such, when you use eBay Secure Checkout to purchase or sell a vehicle listed on eBay sites, you are contracting with Caramel Dealer Services, LLC d/b/a CDS Auto Sales (“Caramel”). Caramel is an eBay affiliate that holds state licenses as a used vehicle dealer in Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas.
Caramel’s Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and additional policies and terms posted on and in its sites, applications, tools, and services set forth the terms under which you may access and use Caramel Services. For additional information, you should review the Frequently Asked Questions page for eBay Secure Checkout.
New Version:
Vehicle Purchases & Sales
As it relates to vehicle listings, the online purchase and sale of vehicles is powered by and made possible by the services of Caramel Dealer Services, LLC. As such, when you purchase or sell a vehicle listed on eBay sites and the buyer elects title and registration services, you are contracting with Caramel Dealer Services, LLC d/b/a CDS Auto Sales ("Caramel").Caramel is an eBay affiliate that holds state licenses as a used vehicle dealer in Arizona, California, Florida, Texas, and Washington. Caramel's Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and additional policies and terms posted on and in its sites, applications, tools, and services set forth the terms under which you may access and use Caramel Services.
No other major changes were made to the eBay User Agreement at this time.
While Secure Purchase is only officially being announced today, it's actually been live on the site for several months as eBay has been working to integrate their new acquisition - and early user feedback in the eBay community forum has not been great.
Just a few examples:
Caramel not accepted in Florida
I was the highest bid winner on a camper auction. I entered all my information in caramel only to find out they are not yet in my state. Both myself and the seller are new to eBay and do not know how to complete the transaction.
The eBay site pay now button is an endless loop of being sent to caramel which doesn’t work in my state and then back to eBay. eBay chat bot and eBay live chat are not helpful. Anyone know how we should proceed?
Ebay Secure checkout/CARAMEL
I've been trying to pay for a vehicle via eBay Secure Checkout / Caramel for a few days now.
1st Attempt: My identity could not be confirmed. I contacted Caramel customer service, and they reset the process so I could try again and verify that all my information matched my driver's license.
2nd Attempt: I quadruple-checked that the information matched. The same result occurred: my identity could not be confirmed.
It's especially frustrating for me, but I would be furious if I were a seller. Any help is appreciated.
Checkout process error with eBay/Caramel
Is anyone else having issues with completing purchases of Vehicles? Every time I try I keep getting "There was a problem connecting to Caramel, please try again." and it's been persisting for two days now. Support isn't sure what to do about it.
Caramel
Just sold a car on eBay. Buyer chose to use Caramel. This is a frustrating, poorly handled, system. I had to provide an inordinate amount of personal information, payment was delayed (still not received), no customer support, etc. Totally unnecessary hoops to jump through. If future buyers choose Caramel I will cancel the sale and go elsewhere to advertise my cars.
Stuck in Caramel Hell
Buying a motorcycle that does not have or require a title. Seller is stuck trying to get paid because Caramel wants upload of title. Caramel was only way I had to pay at checkout. Help at eBay and Caramel is worthless. Any suggestions? Thanks
Have you used Caramel when buying or selling a vehicle through eBay? I'd love to hear about your experience! Leave a comment below or contact VAR.
