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I fought the PayPal and I won

jessesingal.substack.com

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Re: I fought the PayPal and I won

#31

Post by eesmith »

b800h wrote: post #23
Maursault wrote: post #22

> While PayPal is technically a private company that can work with basically whoever it wants for whatever reason, its centralized role as an online payment processor makes this a weirdly potent free speech fight. > He did share correspondence with me where prominent free speech attorneys told him, in an apparent contradiction to my claims, that he had no viable legal recourse to getting his account reinstated. Thoug…

Oh not this old canard again. The US constitutional guarantee of freedom from government interference in speech is just one aspect of the matter . If private companies own every method of articulating your views, and are preventing you from doing so, then you aren't free to speak.

> If private companies own every method of articulating your views,

They aren't. We're nowhere even close. To the point where I can't even envision how that could happen.

Perhaps in some sort of fantasy libertarian future where everything has been privatized, including the streets and sidewalks. But that's certainly not anything like now.

Re: I fought the PayPal and I won

#32

Post by TulliusCicero »

Maursault wrote: post #22

> While PayPal is technically a private company that can work with basically whoever it wants for whatever reason, its centralized role as an online payment processor makes this a weirdly potent free speech fight. > He did share correspondence with me where prominent free speech attorneys told him, in an apparent contradiction to my claims, that he had no viable legal recourse to getting his account reinstated. Thoug…

Yeah, it's not a free speech issue.

It is, however, a consumer rights issue. It's obviously the case that some larger tech companies -- PayPal, Google, Amazon, Meta, etc -- can have a large impact on one's life if they decide to suspend or ban your account, but legal remedies are...limited. As happened here, often they don't even tell you why, and greatly limit or block your ability to appeal. This is a problem, not a free speech problem, but a consumer rights problem.

Re: I fought the PayPal and I won

#34

Post by urbandw311er »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #33
vector_spaces wrote: post #29

Quoted post unavailable.

Sorry, what does this article have to do with social justice issues?

I also did a double take here, but I think the poster is referring to the link on the article’s page that could be seen as supportive of the activities of Colin Wright.

Re: I fought the PayPal and I won

#36

Post by tluyben2 »

PayPal is such a weird company. I was a loyal customer for 20 years until I wanted to convert my account from business to personal (I closed the business) and the site refused to do so. after months of calls with support, it became clear that no one was able to do this (something locked the flow and no one was able to see what; I guess my account was so ancient, it has some db flags no longer used but still checked by their backend?), so I asked just to terminate my account. That also was not possible. It took 6 months to figure out why; my company still existed they said; it most certainly did not. It took 2 months to find out why they thought that; apparently, somewhere in the past 20 years, they searched for my company in the NL company register and attached the wrong company number to my account. So I told them the real number and they said; now all is fine, we can even convert it to personal. 1 hour later I received an email from PayPal that I am permanently banned as I am trading with a business account of which the company no longer exists… Well done!

Re: I fought the PayPal and I won

#37

Post by urbandw311er »

DeathArrow wrote: post #2

I haven't been using PayPal since more than 5 years. For quick transfers I can use Revolut. For buying something I can use card. For easy payment integration with Web apps there are countless tools. So I am wondering what use cases PayPal still serves, use cases which aren't already better covered by better means. Why pay heavy commissions to PayPal?

My co published an App in Germany as recently as 2 years ago and PayPal support was almost unavoidable. It turns out that penetration of credit and debit cards in Germany is significantly behind other parts of the EU and many of them habitually use PayPal for e-commerce payments.

Re: I fought the PayPal and I won

#38

Post by rutierut »

tluyben2 wrote: post #36

PayPal is such a weird company. I was a loyal customer for 20 years until I wanted to convert my account from business to personal (I closed the business) and the site refused to do so. after months of calls with support, it became clear that no one was able to do this (something locked the flow and no one was able to see what; I guess my account was so ancient, it has some db flags no longer used but still checked b…

This is so quintessentially Paypal, were they upfront about their services, they'd put this testimonial on their home page.

Re: I fought the PayPal and I won

#39

Post by londons_explore »

tluyben2 wrote: post #36

PayPal is such a weird company. I was a loyal customer for 20 years until I wanted to convert my account from business to personal (I closed the business) and the site refused to do so. after months of calls with support, it became clear that no one was able to do this (something locked the flow and no one was able to see what; I guess my account was so ancient, it has some db flags no longer used but still checked b…

To be honest I'm surprised they even tried as hard as they did. Normally in my experience if you cost them more than about 30 minutes of staff time fixing any problem, they'll ban your account just on the basis that you're costing them more in customer service than the revenue you bring in.

Re: I fought the PayPal and I won

#40

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

DeathArrow wrote: post #2

I haven't been using PayPal since more than 5 years. For quick transfers I can use Revolut. For buying something I can use card. For easy payment integration with Web apps there are countless tools. So I am wondering what use cases PayPal still serves, use cases which aren't already better covered by better means. Why pay heavy commissions to PayPal?

Some companies like BandCamp mandate PayPal.

This is incredibly annoying and unhelpful, but there's no other option.

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