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WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

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Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#41

Post by bobf »

jswinghammer wrote: post #31
bobf wrote: post #16

The funny part, as TC mentions, is that PayPal pulled a similar guerrilla marketing stunt in its early days by paying people to wear PayPal t-shirts at an eBay conference. Could we say... revenge is a dish best served cold ?

This wouldn't be revenge unless eBay did which of course wouldn't make any sense. This more of a "taste of your medicine" sort of situation.

That's very true, but "taste of your own medicine" and frozen/cold didn't have a funny punch line. However, it could be considered revenge by proxy -- WePay assisting with consumers' revenge against PayPal for freezing accounts.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#43

Post by greatgoof »

paraschopra wrote: post #15

Is it just me or anyone else also thinks it is bit too naïve. Organizations who handle finances need to have a serious no-BS attitude because they are playing with money. Of course, it doesn't mean that a organization has to be excessively serious but such real world trolling tells a lot about company's (mischievous) culture. Personally, I wouldn't do business with an organization that doesn't respect its competitors…

What WePay went ahead and did just proved to me that they aren't a bunch of stuck-up suits, which is unfortunately what PayPal seems to have become. Rather than seeing this as naive, I admire their creativity and their guts in pulling this off. They just earned my respect.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#44

Post by lhnn »

When I read about PayPal shutting down peoples' paypals asking for their IRS charity status, I couldn't believe it.

Fraud should not have to be Paypal's business. If someone says they're a charity and they're not, and you give them money, it's your fault. PayPal should not be involved in that kind of trickery; PayPal should only assist the law in settling those issues.

Just like Craigslist only advises people on wire fraud, but doesn't get too involved, so should Paypal. They're simply a middleman.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#45

Post by billclerico »

jacquesm wrote: post #30
evgen wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use your handy comm system to call several beefy buddies and take the "trash" that someone has left on the building property down to a safe location in the building, and then tell everyone that dinner is being paid by some dumb startup after a bit of ice melts...

Melting a chunk of ice that size will take a long long time.

according to our tests, about 3-4 days

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#46

Post by jacquesm »

scythe wrote: post #23

Whenever 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.

http://www.google.com/search?q=alertpay+fraud

Nothing wrong with alertpay per-se that I'm aware of but fraud is rampant there.

This is to be taken with a grain of salt, but a search for 'paypal fraud' turns up 2 million results, about twice as much as alertpay, and given the relative size of the companies that's worrisome.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#47

Post by AlexBlom »

johnrob wrote: post #37

Someone should start a PR firm that focuses only on stunts! If the press is willing to write articles about stunts, that legitimizes the method in my book. Think how much people pay to get press, and think about how cheap these gags are.

That's what the good PR firms do. They exist.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#48

Post by dpapathanasiou »

paraschopra wrote: post #15

Is it just me or anyone else also thinks it is bit too naïve. Organizations who handle finances need to have a serious no-BS attitude because they are playing with money. Of course, it doesn't mean that a organization has to be excessively serious but such real world trolling tells a lot about company's (mischievous) culture. Personally, I wouldn't do business with an organization that doesn't respect its competitors…

Personally, I wouldn't do business with an organization that doesn't respect its competitors.

I think their attitude vis-a-vis their competition is right -- they certainly do want to ridicule PayPal and flaunt their problems, etc.

The idea that they won't have to freeze their own accounts periodically (b/c of exposure to the same kinds of fraud PayPal sees), though, is reckless, naive, or just plain false advertising.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#49

Post by chrisbolt »

lhnn wrote: post #44

When I read about PayPal shutting down peoples' paypals asking for their IRS charity status, I couldn't believe it. Fraud should not have to be Paypal's business. If someone says they're a charity and they're not, and you give them money, it's your fault. PayPal should not be involved in that kind of trickery; PayPal should only assist the law in settling those issues. Just like Craigslist only advises people on wire…

If someone says they're a charity and they're not, and you give them money, it's your fault.

But you still go to your credit card company, dispute the charge, and get a chargeback. This chargeback hits PayPal with a $20+ fee, so of course they're going to be involved.

Re: WePay Drops 600lbs of ice in front of PayPal Conference

#50

Post by jacquesm »

billclerico wrote: post #45
jacquesm wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Melting a chunk of ice that size will take a long long time.

according to our tests, about 3-4 days

I figured as much, that's not going to be in time for dinner. Unless you like your dinner cold. (pun somewhat intended).

When will you guys do international payments ?

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