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PayPal penalised for 'deceptive' practices

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Re: PayPal penalised for 'deceptive' practices

#151

Post by Dylan16807 »

lucaspiller wrote: post #115
vezycash wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About TransferWise. I checked their site based on your recommendation. However, something bothers me. There's a form on the Top-right corner. "You send," "You Receive." I tried checking how much would be received in dollars if I sent $1000. However, the form wouldn't let me. It doesn't allow comparison between the same currency. It felt shady to me. I've sent this message to them already. But wow! They do support a l…

> It doesn't allow comparison between the same currency. Their use case is transferring funds between currencies, why would you want to do that?

The site says "transfer money abroad". If for some reason they only want the more difficult kind of transfer, it would help to make that clear.

I'm confused by you asking why when the answer is both obvious and explicitly stated in parent comments. Sending someone money in a different country, but they happen to use the same currency.

Re: PayPal penalised for 'deceptive' practices

#152

Post by thewhizkid »

My account was permanently frozen a few weeks ago with no (valid) explanation. I have $2k sitting in their that I cannot retrieve for 180 days.

I also bought an iPhone on Ebay using PayPal weeks before. It turned out to be stolen (i.e. it was killed) and returned it back to the seller immediately. The seller issued me a refund via PayPal using an e-check that not surprisingly bounced. Took me hours on the phone over a few weeks, being transferred back and forth between PayPal and eBay (both parties told me to take it up with the other), in order for PayPal to finally open a ticket to dispute the transaction and force a refund to me.

Never again.

Re: PayPal penalised for 'deceptive' practices

#153

Post by MertsA »

pjc50 wrote: post #145
colechristensen wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real core business competence of a payment processor isn't handling or distributing money, it's dispute arbitration.

Yes, absolutely; and this is one of the things that Bitcoin advocacy ignores. It goes in the other direction: all transfers are final, legitimate or otherwise.

The problem I have with just about every payment processor out there is something that Bitcoin does well with from a protocol perspective. Right now you can copy a credit card with a mag reader in seconds, compromising some website that accepts credit cards means no limits to how much you can spend with other merchants, even having your credit card number stored in an RFID tag that can be read from a few feet away inconspicuously!

The status quo might mean that money can be clawed back after it's sent but identity fraud (or using someone else's credentials) should not be a problem in 2015, we've had SIM cards that can provide a secure method for identifying a physical device since the 90s. Why can't any payment processor come up with a decent alternative to having a magic number that you have to give out all the time that can be used to authorize arbitrary transactions? Maybe eventually every citizen will get a smart card of some kind and we can just use that.

Re: PayPal penalised for 'deceptive' practices

#154

Post by dlubarov »

tokenadult wrote: post #118
Moru wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once ordered some things together with a few friends. The total sum ended up around $3500, much more than I usually buy for. The buy went through and the company got the message from Paypal that everything was ok and the money was on their account. Sadly they had a vacation day (small home-run company) and did not send the items directly. Two days later when they were back, Paypal had just pulled the money back fro…

You haven't said what jurisdiction you are in, but are you saying you were effectively charged for the item before it was put in shipment? For some forms of payment in some jurisdictions, that is strictly illegal.

It's just network policies that prohibit charging before shipment, so it wouldn't be problematic if this was an ACH payment.

If it was a credit card payment, most likely PayPal had just placed an authorization and was holding off on capturing. That would explain their aggressive timing -- if they let the auth hang for too long that would result in higher interchange fees, and eventually the auth would expire.

Re: PayPal penalised for 'deceptive' practices

#155

Post by abalone »

"Our focus is on ease of use, clarity..."

That's rich. PayPal's business has primarily been based on obfuscating the difference between card payments and bank drafts, and steering consumers to a choice that is not in their best interests.

Bank drafts (ACH) are almost all profit for PayPal but much worse for customers, as the consumer protections are weaker, reward programs are nonexistent and there is a risk of overdraft and associated bank penalties. But every time you sign into your PayPal account that you've linked to your bank account, it defaults to paying by bank draft. Every time. There is no preference.

They are just hoping that a percentage of their customer base won't notice or bother to switch to paying by card (which is not as easy as it could be).

Re: PayPal penalised for 'deceptive' practices

#157

Post by yc1010 »

atourgates wrote: post #64
fonnesbeck wrote: post #60

I closed my PP account 2 years ago and would never consider using the service again. Once upon a time it was a necessary evil, now it is no longer necessary (just evil).

Doesn't this significantly impact your ability to use eBay?

Amazon marketplace is significantly cheaper and cleaner. Here in Europe a lot of eBay sellers are 100% not paying any VAT either it is only a matter of time before they or ebay endup in serious trouble over that.

Re: PayPal penalised for 'deceptive' practices

#158

Post by mrweasel »

Chinjut wrote: post #40

Wow, nothing but complaints about PayPal here. Interesting to keep in mind next time the Elon Musk hagiography starts up again...

Elon Musk seems like a sympathetic guy, but when I'm reminded that he made his money from PayPal, I sort of hope he gets hurt, just a little, in an electric-propelled rocket accident.

Re: PayPal penalised for 'deceptive' practices

#159

Post by pjc50 »

MertsA wrote: post #153
pjc50 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, absolutely; and this is one of the things that Bitcoin advocacy ignores. It goes in the other direction: all transfers are final, legitimate or otherwise.

The problem I have with just about every payment processor out there is something that Bitcoin does well with from a protocol perspective. Right now you can copy a credit card with a mag reader in seconds, compromising some website that accepts credit cards means no limits to how much you can spend with other merchants, even having your credit card number stored in an RFID tag that can be read from a few feet away in…

ApplePay potentially meets that description. Also, chip-and-pin cards.

Re: PayPal penalised for 'deceptive' practices

#160

Post by colechristensen »

MertsA wrote: post #153
pjc50 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, absolutely; and this is one of the things that Bitcoin advocacy ignores. It goes in the other direction: all transfers are final, legitimate or otherwise.

The problem I have with just about every payment processor out there is something that Bitcoin does well with from a protocol perspective. Right now you can copy a credit card with a mag reader in seconds, compromising some website that accepts credit cards means no limits to how much you can spend with other merchants, even having your credit card number stored in an RFID tag that can be read from a few feet away in…

You maybe should have noticed already, but this already exists and the transition is in progress.

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/02/06/octob...

You should have already (or very soon be) getting new credit cards in the mail with a SIM chip in them.

After October 15, 2015 credit card companies (instead of merchants) will be liable for financial losses due to credit card fraud where the consumer is forced to use the mag stripe. (In the US of course)

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