Congrats to wepay. Great job on seizing a customer in trouble and meeting their needs. There are plenty of other frustrated pay pal customers, this could be a great starting point for wepay. Go get em wepay
Burning man defeats PayPal
41–50 of 102 posts
Re: Burning man defeats PayPal
#42My organization had this same problem. We formed a cooperative corporation, filed for tax exempt status, and then opened bank and PayPal accounts. Within 7 days of opening the PayPal account for our org, it was frozen on the grounds that extra documentation was needed. Before I could send those documents, PayPal then turned around and froze my personal account since the organization's account had my name as the "responsible party" contact.
The resolution? There hasn't been one. I tried to get PayPal to accept our tax-exempt documents, but they've refused because we're not a 501(c)3 charity (we are 501(c)12) and both the org and my personal accounts stay frozen.
Re: Burning man defeats PayPal
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is a better alternative? I understand Google Checkout also had similar issues in the past?
I've yet to use it myself, and I'm not sure if it's entirely been released yet, but Amazon has a payments system in the works: http://aws.amazon.com/fps/
I believe buyers need an Amazon account or Amazon FPS account to use Amazon FPS. How about an alternative to just accept CC# like Paypal's Website Payments Pro? (without needing a separate internet merchant account)
Re: Burning man defeats PayPal
#44I hear way too many stories about this. I was even paying a company through PayPal when they had their account frozen and their money taken. 3 times. The company continued to use them because so many of their customers demanded PayPal. They had continued to use PayPal because it was cheaper to lose their funds (they regularly withdrew) than the customers. After the third time losing everything in their account, they…
What is a better alternative? I understand Google Checkout also had similar issues in the past?
It's all fairly muddled: http://www.merchantequip.com/merchant-account-blog/1027/a-co....
I imagine PayPal gets the worst rep because of its larger user base - though I could be wrong. Google Checkout has some horror stories, too.
One of the last times this was discussed, a YC-funded start-up was mentioned: http://ycombinator.posterous.com/need-to-process-payments. I haven't seen nor heard anything about it, and it's US-only, but maybe pg can give us the inside scoop on the progress.
Re: Burning man defeats PayPal
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is a better alternative? I understand Google Checkout also had similar issues in the past?
I've yet to use it myself, and I'm not sure if it's entirely been released yet, but Amazon has a payments system in the works: http://aws.amazon.com/fps/
It seems to have been out for a while. Does anyone have any experience with FPS? I'm launching a new project soon and the one thing left is payment processing. I'm scared to be tied to just PayPal and am looking into Google Checkout and Amazon as well.
I know, I know, just get a merchant account. And I will. But this is not really a startup or company and much more of just a small idea I'd like to test out. Ideally, if it picks up steam, I'll switch over to a real merchant account.
Re: Burning man defeats PayPal
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your point is well taken, but I have never seen a comment, here or elsewhere, where someone lauded the great PayPal service or the quick conflict resolution. It's always about being blindsided. Folks, if you have GOOD stories, those are worth posting for balance.
Well the good story is pretty mundane. Here's mine: the payments have always gone through.
The false positives are one problem with PayPal; the customer support is another.
Customer support only gets a chance to prove itself once something goes south, and I get the impression that it's unequivocally bad.
If I am looking at buying a laptop, I don't care much about whether it's a matter of "if" or "when" it breaks, but how the customer service and repair shop handle it once it happens.
PayPal's "customer service" is the Damoclean sword that people fear moreso than the false positives. Because good customer service would be able to ameliorate most of their mess and admit errors on their end.
Re: Burning man defeats PayPal
#47
Re: Burning man defeats PayPal
#48My wife is organizing a conference using a non-profit and is going through the same PayPal headaches.
This is extremely bad customer service. All PayPal has to do is (1) refuse to do business with non-profits or (2) present non-profits with an accurate description of what could happen (account freezing, etc.) before they sign-up. (Burying this in the terms of service doesn't count, by the way.) Customer service is as much about expectations as it is about delivering.
Re: Burning man defeats PayPal
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your point is well taken, but I have never seen a comment, here or elsewhere, where someone lauded the great PayPal service or the quick conflict resolution. It's always about being blindsided. Folks, if you have GOOD stories, those are worth posting for balance.
Well the good story is pretty mundane. Here's mine: the payments have always gone through.
That's not a good story; that's what they're suppose to do on the most basic level. They don't deserve praise for that. They do, however, deserve a very bad reputation for stories like above. I have one myself and of others close to me but I'll leave it at that.
Re: Burning man defeats PayPal
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, that certainly sounds like half of a good story.
Your point is well taken, but I have never seen a comment, here or elsewhere, where someone lauded the great PayPal service or the quick conflict resolution. It's always about being blindsided. Folks, if you have GOOD stories, those are worth posting for balance.
The problem is, no amount of good stories can repair the damage done to those who trusted PayPal because "it works OK for most people". They may even have great customer support most of the time, but if they still do stuff like this, it reason enough to be very careful:
1) Never solely rely on PayPal for your income. 2) Never keep large amounts in your PayPal account - they can be come PayPals for 6m+ at a moments notice.