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More Paypal nonsense

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Re: More Paypal nonsense

#161

Post by URSpider94 »

At the end of the day, Paypal is a slave to the credit card associations. To that end, whenever they find something out-of-the-ordinary, they have no choice but to act. The sad reality is, they really don't have any latitude in cases like this, if they want to prove to their credit card overlords that they are tough on fraud.

For whatever reason, it seems that they'd rather be known for having terrible customer service than own up to the fact that they are hog-tied as to their policies on what kinds of transactions they can process.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#162

Post by bigiain »

masklinn wrote: post #100
danilocampos wrote: post #24

I've been sitting here for the last five minutes trying to make a point eloquently. I'm having a hard time with it. So I'll just put it like this: What else can we really expect from a product whose parent is eBay ? This company is a fucking fossil with all the hunger for customer satisfaction of a used tissue. Is it convenient for users? Yeah. Is it worth gambling your entire business on? Given the lack of accountab…

> Why trust a business to such a stagnant concern? Because there is no alternative and they fucking know it . Oh if you're in the US for the US you might be able (and want) to gamble on an other younger service, but in the wider world? It's a fucking wasteland , it's either Paypal or Big Bank Merchant Account, and those are no fun at all either. My card expired (and was renewed) recently, I decided to stop using payp…

>> Why trust a business to such a stagnant concern? >Because there is no alternative and they fucking know it.

That's a bit like saying "I had to get a pay day loan at 27% per week interest, I had no alternative and they fucking know it".

It probably means you're doing it wrong.

If the business you're trusting to Paypal can't get a Big Bank Merchant Account, maybe you need to work out why (and whether it's a very good reason... it might be that your great idea is exactly the sort of thing Paypal _needs_ to shut down quickly before lots of people lose their money.)

Etsy merchants (and eBay sellers) all happily use Paypal, because for the "put it in a box, ship it by FedEx" businesses have _way_ less "trouble" with Paypal than everybody else.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#163

Post by JonoW »

I'd love to know more about the legalities of a company (that isn't a bank) withholding funds for months. PayPal must be making a pretty profit on the interest accrueing on those accounts.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#164

Post by saurik »

dangrossman wrote: post #41
SCdF wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain how the OP's situation is high risk?

Any change in average processing volume and ticket size is a red flag at any payment processor. An individual/business suddenly getting a ton of "donations" is going to look suspicous. An individual/business that hasn't told their processor their plans, and gets a ton of "donations", is going to have to convince that processor the donations are really donations and are going to end up going towards what they said the…

The official policy is actually that the "fixed fee" ($0.30) is kept, and the "variable fee" (2.9%) is returned to you, but in practice in many situations the fees are fully refunded. The situation is somewhat different for micropayment transactions (which are 5% + $0.05), but this vendor was probably not using them for this account (in most situations, unfortunately, this is an "all or nothing" account flag).

(I actually spent a half hour talking to my PayPal account manager today about this very subject, presenting different charges and asking why fees were or were not kept in various situations; however, I do use micropayments, so my results are not going to be terribly relevant, and we are actually continuing the conversation tomorrow. ;P)

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#166

Post by DTanner »

masklinn wrote: post #100
danilocampos wrote: post #24

I've been sitting here for the last five minutes trying to make a point eloquently. I'm having a hard time with it. So I'll just put it like this: What else can we really expect from a product whose parent is eBay ? This company is a fucking fossil with all the hunger for customer satisfaction of a used tissue. Is it convenient for users? Yeah. Is it worth gambling your entire business on? Given the lack of accountab…

> Why trust a business to such a stagnant concern? Because there is no alternative and they fucking know it . Oh if you're in the US for the US you might be able (and want) to gamble on an other younger service, but in the wider world? It's a fucking wasteland , it's either Paypal or Big Bank Merchant Account, and those are no fun at all either. My card expired (and was renewed) recently, I decided to stop using payp…

> Because there is no alternative and they fucking know it.

Hopefully in a few years time when it's matured, Bitcoin will be that alternative.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#167

Post by ugh »

brianr wrote: post #3

These horror stories are so common that I have to ask: why does anyone still use PayPal? I ask this in the most constructive way possible... is there a set of use-cases that PayPal is still the best for? Is it a lack of awareness of alternatives? International availability? Something else?

Because – as a buyer – PayPal is quite awesome.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#168

Post by einhverfr »

saurik wrote: post #160
einhverfr wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of cases where the sales tax may not apply. For example, if I replace a warranty part, I do so without collecting or remitting sales tax because the transaction had no monetary value. Assuming shipping and handling is not taxable in the jurisdiction, and assuming that the company uses all the money gained for either shipping or purchasing the toys, then even assuming it's taxable it's already covered…

Just because they don't make a profit doesn't mean they don't have to collect sales tax. When Walmart sells AA batteries as a loss leader, they don't get to not collect sales tax for it just because they used "all the money gained [(and then some, out of their own pockets!)] for either shipping or purchasing the batteries". It gets really complex, in fact: the warranty replacement is only tax free if the warranty was…

If they are paying tax at the outset and only spending that money on product purchase and shipping, then they would have paid all the tax that they are required to.

Walmart doesn't pay sales tax to their suppliers.

As for wanting Paypal's blood. No. I was a victim of similar freezes and for really convoluted reasons according to Paypal. I don't want their blood. I just don't want there to be any more victims.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#169

Post by rlivsey »

After using PayPal on a number of projects over the years (both successfully and painfully unsuccessfully) I've come to the conclusion that PayPal is fine if what you're doing is completely standard.

Once you start doing something that could be interpreted as even slightly non-standard then it's more trouble than it's worth and the odds are that PayPal aren't going to play ball.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#170

Post by Pedrom »

gergles wrote: post #89
danilocampos wrote: post #24

I've been sitting here for the last five minutes trying to make a point eloquently. I'm having a hard time with it. So I'll just put it like this: What else can we really expect from a product whose parent is eBay ? This company is a fucking fossil with all the hunger for customer satisfaction of a used tissue. Is it convenient for users? Yeah. Is it worth gambling your entire business on? Given the lack of accountab…

Wow, that's histrionic. PayPal's customers are the people who use it. You, as a merchant, are not a customer of theirs, but a necessary evil to keep the customers coming. PayPal's customers love it. PayPal's merchants don't like it because PayPal has fraud prevention methods that are opaque and hamfistedly applied. That's a fine complaint, but this breathless "for the sake of the world don't ever use PayPal" garbage…

And I would add that their fraud methods don't work either. My account was emptied in several fraud transactions and for the number of transaction and the amount you could see very clear that they were guessing my paypal balance. For example they started with $100 transations until they got insufficient balance error and then tried with $20, at the end they made 7 transactions of $1.

For paypal those were legitimate payments, even when they were made from a different country, which they could check but were too lazy to try. At the end they accepted that there were a fraud, but do you know how much they refund? 5 of the 7 transactions of $1.

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