WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference • Hacker News Board

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#21

Post by jasonlotito » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 5:34 PM UTC

noodle wrote: post #13

jasonlotito wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Providing PayPal's IPN is technically easy. PayPal succeeds because it can do what it does and still operate. PayPal is protected in so many ways, it's not even funny. I have no idea how someone would disrupt their model.

provide the same basic functionality (perhaps make it easier to use), and improve customer service. i'd be willing to pay somewhat more for the same service if i have more of an assurance that my funds won't get frozen/confiscated/etc., and/or if the product were easier to work with. edit: hell, if wepay is partnering with a bank, if they can set things up so that i can get a debit card associated with that account a…

None of that would disrupt PayPal. You can't just provide the same basic functionality of PayPal. If you could, I'd have done it a long time ago. The problem is with the credit card companies.

As for debit cards, those are easy to get. Incredibly easy, and easy to integrate with as well. Again, it's nothing special. I've been there, I've done it. A complete system where you could transfer money into your account tied to a debit card, send money, receive money, automated API, etc.

It sounds great on paper, but really, none of this is disruptive.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#22

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 5:35 PM UTC

HNer wrote: post #14

jacquesm wrote: post #10

What a funny way to grab a ton of free press. They must have planned this for some time given the logistics involved and the time it takes to freeze quantity of water that size and get a nice and clear chunk. My own paypal saga isn't over yet, though there have been some surprising developments. I sincerely hope that someone will one of these days replace paypal with a better way of doing peer-to-peer payments, but o…

i moved away from paypal, went pci compliant, got a merchant account, was a pain stetting up but feel so much better on the other side.

Yes, that's a good way to get payments from customers to you, but it sucks as a way of paying for auction goods and freelance work, which is how I used to use paypal.

International wire transfers are a lot harder to do without actually visiting a branch of the bank I'm with and filling out a bunch of forms, and they take much longer to process too.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#23

Post by scythe » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 5:35 PM UTC

Whenever people whine about PayPal, I usually mention AlertPay, and get maybe one upvote and otherwise I'm ignored.

What's wrong with AlertPay? They seem like a pretty honest business and I've never had any trouble with them, though I've only ever bought things, not sold them.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#24

Post by evgen » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 5:35 PM UTC

hugh3 wrote: post #8

TallGuyShort wrote: post #4

There are hundreds of dollars below the ice, and they chased down the pallet-mover? Why didn't they just get some ice picks?

This is starting to sound like an adventure game puzzle. You are a security guard at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. There are hundreds of dollars inside a six hundred pound block of ice. You cannot leave your station. How do you get at it? Using an ice pick? Why would a security guard have an ice pick? Maybe if it were Chicago, but this is San Francisco. Use another tool to chip away at it? I dunno, that's a lo…

Use your handy comm system to call several beefy buddies and take the "trash" that someone has left on the building property down to a safe location in the building, and then tell everyone that dinner is being paid by some dumb startup after a bit of ice melts...

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#25

Post by seltzered » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 5:36 PM UTC

bobf wrote: post #16

The funny part, as TC mentions, is that PayPal pulled a similar guerrilla marketing stunt in its early days by paying people to wear PayPal t-shirts at an eBay conference. Could we say... revenge is a dish best served cold ?

> Could we say... revenge is a dish best served cold?

...and resolved by acquisitions?

Paypal is owned by eBay if I recall correctly,

and one of WePay's investors is Max Levchin, former CTO of PayPal

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#26

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 5:37 PM UTC

greatgoof wrote: post #20

jacquesm wrote: post #10

What a funny way to grab a ton of free press. They must have planned this for some time given the logistics involved and the time it takes to freeze quantity of water that size and get a nice and clear chunk. My own paypal saga isn't over yet, though there have been some surprising developments. I sincerely hope that someone will one of these days replace paypal with a better way of doing peer-to-peer payments, but o…

Hi Jacques, as someone who's had trouble with Paypal, what stops you from using, say, WePay in place of PayPal? I just wanted to understand your thought process regarding this?

Nothing, I just have not had the need to pay someone for anything in the last two weeks. Alternatives that I can use are international wire transfers and western union. Both have their own set of disadvantages, I'm most likely going to give some other service (possibly wepay) a shot when the next payment comes up. (and that's going to be fairly soon by the looks of it).

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#27

Post by swombat » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 5:38 PM UTC

scythe wrote: post #23

Whenever people whine about PayPal, I usually mention AlertPay, and get maybe one upvote and otherwise I'm ignored. What's wrong with AlertPay? They seem like a pretty honest business and I've never had any trouble with them, though I've only ever bought things, not sold them.

AlertPay is often used by MLM sites. I'm surprised they're still running, considering how much fraud those sites have, actually.

Other than that, it's a pretty solid service.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#28

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 5:38 PM UTC

mcav wrote: post #19

When companies pull pranks like this, what's the risk of legal ramifications? I'm all for ingenuity in harmless pranks like this, but I've not heard much on what they're risking legally by doing so. Trespassing?

I can imagine that suing them for trespassing after dumping a chunk of ice with a 'paypal freezes your accounts, join wepay' message embedded in it (as well as a few hundred bucks) would help wepay more than it would hurt them.

More free press! And a much longer running story.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#29

Post by csallen » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 5:39 PM UTC

paraschopra wrote: post #15

Is it just me or anyone else also thinks it is bit too naïve. Organizations who handle finances need to have a serious no-BS attitude because they are playing with money. Of course, it doesn't mean that a organization has to be excessively serious but such real world trolling tells a lot about company's (mischievous) culture. Personally, I wouldn't do business with an organization that doesn't respect its competitors…

>> Personally, I wouldn't do business with an organization that doesn't respect its competitors.

It seems every month someone is posting about their money being held hostage or outright stolen by PayPal. Most of these complaints are from well-known bloggers/engineers/HN members, so I can only imagine how many people without a voice online are getting screwed. When you're dealing with people's money, you have a strong obligation to handle issues like this with speed and clarity, because money affects people's lives in serious ways. Yet Paypal's customer service doesn't seem to care, and they often take months to reply.

Why should WePay have respect for a competitor that doesn't respect its own customers?

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#30

Post by jacquesm » Tue, Oct 26, 2010, 5:40 PM UTC

evgen wrote: post #24

hugh3 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is starting to sound like an adventure game puzzle. You are a security guard at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. There are hundreds of dollars inside a six hundred pound block of ice. You cannot leave your station. How do you get at it? Using an ice pick? Why would a security guard have an ice pick? Maybe if it were Chicago, but this is San Francisco. Use another tool to chip away at it? I dunno, that's a lo…

Use your handy comm system to call several beefy buddies and take the "trash" that someone has left on the building property down to a safe location in the building, and then tell everyone that dinner is being paid by some dumb startup after a bit of ice melts...

Melting a chunk of ice that size will take a long long time.