Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

More Paypal nonsense

regretsy.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–257 of 257 posts

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#251

Post by jacques_chester »

luser001 wrote: post #221
jacques_chester wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't read closely. Inside the US there are lots of alternatives. Outside the US it is, as the fellow said, a wasteland. Take Amazon payments, for example: "Q: What countries and currencies are supported by Amazon FPS? Amazon FPS allows U.S. as well as international customers to use major credit cards to make payments on Amazon FPS-powered websites. ... All transactions are in U.S. dollars. " Emphasis mine, beca…

that renders Amazon worthless? That seems a little harsh. Can't you just list your prices in USD? I know people in India who order books from Amazon US and pay in USD using their India-issued credit card. I think it's just a matter of UX to show the price in USD to a foreign audience.

> I think it's just a matter of UX to show the price in USD to a foreign audience.

There are risk implications from having to predict currency movements. Or I could take futures contracts, which is difficult and in itself a warning flag to banks if I have low income. There may also be complicating tax implications from trying conduct all my business in USD and then converting the profits.

It would be easier for me, by far, to conduct my business in my local currency. This is not an unreasonable constraint.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#252

Post by einhverfr »

briandear wrote: post #187
DTanner wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Bitcoin? No way. We might as well use Facebook credits. Getting Aunt Martha to trust some sketchy form of 'money' to make an online payment is going to be exceptionally difficult. Imagine suing for damages in bitcoins -- it's not a legal currency anywhere. It's a digital version of trading goats.

I can buy and sell goats well enough....

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#253

Post by jsilence »

gnosis wrote: post #240
jsilence wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are below 50 Ebay-Points they force you to accept Paypal payments. They even have a semi decent parser that does not permit statements like "I don't accept Paypal payments" in the Ebay offer. Even if you manage to mangle a statement like that into your offer, chances are the buyer simply transfers the money via Paypal because he did not read the text. Happend two out of two times. Made me jump out of my skin e…

It's not an auction site, but Craigslist is a pretty good place to buy and sell used stuff. I've had pretty good luck both buying and selling things through it. Last I checked, the listings were free too (except for real estate).

Unfortunately we don't have Craigslist in Europe. AFAIK there is no viable alternative to Ebay right now.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#254

Post by Samuel_Michon »

jsilence wrote: post #253
gnosis wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not an auction site, but Craigslist is a pretty good place to buy and sell used stuff. I've had pretty good luck both buying and selling things through it. Last I checked, the listings were free too (except for real estate).

Unfortunately we don't have Craigslist in Europe. AFAIK there is no viable alternative to Ebay right now.

It may not be available where you live, but there are lively Craigslists for most of the major cities in Europe: Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Florence, London, Munich, Oslo, Paris, Prague, Rome, Stockholm, Venice, and others.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites#EU

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#255

Post by lawnchair_larry »

saurik wrote: post #62

"Donate" has a very specific meaning, at least in the US, and comes with numerous accounting connotations, including the ability to write off the expense. As many people don't realize that "charitable donations" do /not/ include "donations" to purchase toys for children, it is misleading to use the term "donation" in this circumstance. Meanwhile, often the person /accepting/ the donations doesn't understand this eith…

Actually, you are wrong about the "specific meaning of donate" according to numerous guidelines on the Paypal website.

https://thegreengeeks.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/why-paypal-is...

Not my blog, and I apologize for the embedded rant in there, but the case is thoroughly presented and debunks this whole "donate must be a charity" misconception, using Paypal's own documents.

Edit: direct link to paypal policy containing the following sentence:

https://www.paypal.com/helpcenter/main.jsp;?locale=en_US&#38...

"Donations that are not associated with a charity or nonprofit organization are not subject to these requirements, but all donation transactions are subject to review and must comply with all of PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policies"

https://merchant.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&...

"If you are not a 501(c)(3), you can still accept donations with our standard pricing."

I also disagree with your position that "donate" implies that it can be written off (or that it implies anything tax-related, for that matter). I don't think many people assume that. Anyone who has written off a donation knows that they can only do so with an associated donation receipt. This is why many charities often specifically note when a donation is tax deductible - saying, for example, donations in excess of $20 will be given a donation receipt.

If a layperson is not familiar with the difference, they aren't writing this off. Additionally, there are several types of organizations for which donations cannot be written off.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#256

Post by DiabloD3 »

nknight wrote: post #200
DiabloD3 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, its worth mentioning that Bitcoin cannot do charge backs, cannot freeze your account, and doesn't charge astronomical fees. I'm not sure why anyone would downvote Bitcoin.

Because it's not a useful option for normal people, and carries its own set of legal ambiguities that vary from place to place. All these "use bitcoin" responses are as useful as "let them eat cake".

Not at all, bitcoin wants the users to also have the cake while eating it.

Re: More Paypal nonsense

#257

Post by kbutler »

einhverfr wrote: post #252
briandear wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin? No way. We might as well use Facebook credits. Getting Aunt Martha to trust some sketchy form of 'money' to make an online payment is going to be exceptionally difficult. Imagine suing for damages in bitcoins -- it's not a legal currency anywhere. It's a digital version of trading goats.

I can buy and sell goats well enough....

We actually have a couple of goats we'd like to sell, but are having trouble finding a buyer.

Goats-as-currency have very poor liquidity, fungibility, and divisibility.

Bah. Baaaah.

Post reply on HN