Pay Me Through G-cash

I buy stuff online through ebay.com and Amazon only. Last week, though, my friend informed me that a collector’s item cookbook was on sale on her friend’s ebay store, so I decided to check it out. It was indeed the cookbook I was looking for, and it was a steal at P299. I made a bid, and tried to keep outbidding someone else who seemed to be coveting the book as much as I was. Finally, I got it for P610, plus P120 shipping fee.

In my excitement, I forgot that I was making a transaction via ebay.ph, and the payment methods were different from that in ebay.com, where I pay through credit card. When I checked my payment options, there was no Visa or Mastercard icon; the seller only accepted G-cash. Oh, great. How does that work?

I asked a couple of persons regarding how it worked, and all were of little if no help. So I decided to call Globe Customer Service. The agent told me to visit any Globe business center and I could make my payment there. Great again. I chose to buy online primarily because of convenience. Now I still had to go out of the house to pay for it, at a time when Isang was ravaging Manila.

I checked other stores in ebay.ph, and I found no seller who accepted credit card payment. Most of them preferred bank deposits and G-cash or Smart Money payments. So much for buying stuff at just a few clicks; I still had to make a lot of steps.

Oh well, at least the problem of laziness and dwindling physical activity is still addressed by Philippine internet commerce. Haha.