Anyone else wondering how it was legal for the security guys to steal the mans pallet mover? Sure dumping a big piece of ice on private property probably wasn't exactly legal, but that doesn't make chasing down the man in public for 2 and half blocks to take his pallet mover ok. Doesn't really matter that they gave it back either...
WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference
131–140 of 178 posts
Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you mean PayPal pulled a similar guerilla marketing stunt, unless the people wearing the t-shirts were trained monkeys. ;)
If you want to be nitpicky, gorillas aren't monkeys. edit: Really, people? You modded me up to 17 for making a nitpick about simian taxonomy?
"Really, people? You modded me up to 17 for making a nitpick about simian taxonomy?"
If it makes you feel better, I gave you a point just for that comment...
Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference
#133Earlier 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…
> Melt the ice somehow? Nice idea, but how? Wait.
Push the brick over, let it shatter. Faster melting and free access to (some of) the money. Finally, find all the nearby salt shakers and pour their contents on it.
Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have a link? I'd really like to read more about that.
It's more a vague recollection. Isn't there something about it in "Founders at Work"?
In "Founders at Work", one of the PayPal founders claimed that in the early days they were losing $10 million a month to fraud, and rising fast enough that it would soon eclipse profit, when they chose to develop an aggressive anti-fraud system.
Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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." That's my personal problem too. Sending money from US to Canada or Canada to the US is a pain. If only they had the same check clearance system, it would solve so much. Same as how having similar phone numbers makes it so much easier.
Heh. jacquesm lives somewhere that doesn't even have checks! When I needed to get paid by a Dutch company, the easiest solution turned out to be for me to open a new bank account.
> Heh. jacquesm lives somewhere that doesn't even have checks!
I pictured jacquesm needing to use a custom silver DeLorean to drive there and back. Flux capacitor and all.
Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference
#136I don't understand what's the deal with so many negative comments, from what is supposed to be a community of hackers.
These guys found a clever way of hacking the PR loop, while slamming their major competitor, and did a damn well good job of it.
Rather than being douchebags and saying "what was the purpose? They aren't direct competitors." We - the collective we, being the community of hackers - should relish at the thought that one of our kind has sent a direct message to Paypal that we are tired of their bullshit.
Plus they got a ton of free press over it. Stop whining because they came up with a brilliant stunt and you didn't.
If you play nice, when you launch your company/product and come up with a similarly ingenious PR ploy we will upvote your submission too.
Until then, give props where props are due.
Kudos Bill & the WePay team.
Edit: I am not a member of the YC network or anything like that, so don't even reply with any smart comments of that nature. Just sick and tired of the constant bitching from people who would benefit from the experiments done here, but chose to whine about them instead.
Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference
#137I think the only way WePay could have one-upped themselves on this stunt is if they also provided a handful of (say 5 - 10) battery powered handheld hair blow dryers.
THAT would have been even more Epic!
Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference
#138Whenever 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.
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Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Australia, businesses usually go through banks for online payment via credit cards. The banks are under similar constraints and chargeback fraud is a serious problem. Just because you delivered a product & have a signature doesn't mean the customer can't call the CC company, lie and get their money back. That doesn't even touch on stolen numbers and such. However, when you deal with your bank, you usually have a b…
It's not as hopeless with PayPal as it was in earlier years. Now you can get someone on the phone within a few minutes.
Glad to hear it, but I think that just shows us how low the bar is. If it's urgent and important, most businesses can get someone in their office within hours. Obviously it depends on how much business you do with them, but that's OK. With paypal businesses transacting $10k per year month get similar treatment to someone who sells a used ipod once a year.
Also, I've heard examples where this is not the case. Eg Couldn't get Paypal to pick up the phone even though paypal was holding $100ks of their money. (http://mixergy.com/dodocase-patrick-buckley-interview/)
Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference
#140I don't understand what's the deal with so many negative comments, from what is supposed to be a community of hackers. These guys found a clever way of hacking the PR loop, while slamming their major competitor, and did a damn well good job of it. Rather than being douchebags and saying "what was the purpose? They aren't direct competitors." We - the collective we, being the community of hackers - should relish at th…
Why so zealous? PayPal has been focused on competing for small business accounts with Chase, and WePay is attacking them with UX formerly focused on p2p payments, and moving into developer mindshare. PayPal is moving (slowly) to defend (but their UX is not there yet). My prediction is that WePay will convert enough people quickly enough to survive. With what I see from ebay/paypal product quality, I imagine there's a huge opportunity to creep into their markets one by one.