Paypal doesn't believe poor kids to be a worthy cuase., But sick cats are. Options

[Database]

Kinda surprised this isn't posted here yet:

http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/

They raised a lot of money for toys for poor children this Christmas and Paypal shut them down, twice. And completely froze their assets for six months.

PAYPAL: Only a nonprofit can use the Donate button.
ME: That’s false. It says right in the PDF of instructions for the Donate button that it can be used for “worthy causes.”
PAYPAL: I haven’t seen that PDF. And what you’re doing is not a worthy cause, it’s charity.
ME: What’s the difference?
PAYPAL: You can use the donate button to raise money for a sick cat, but not poor people.

Also a blog on just how wrong they are, using their own policies: http://thegreengeeks.wordpress.com/2011/12...r-own-policies/

This post has been edited by Database: Dec 6 2011, 11:21 AM

[Dissever]

They pulled similar stunts with Penny Arcade's Child's Play program, and Something Awful's donation drive for Katrina's victims. Once done with a pending transaction, I will be closing my account and looking at alternatives like Dwolla, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments.

[Dissever]

Of course, given the upper management's Randian ideals of no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons, I guess it's less surprising that they'd have such a hate-on for charity.

[DrSpengler]

How often does PayPal have to deal with fake donation drives being done via their accounts? Is it an epidemic that would force them to take such paranoid precautions?

At the very least, you'd think they'd put more effort into investigating the legitimacy of some of these charities they're shutting down before... shutting them down.


On a personal level, I've had my irritations with Paypal. I recently sold some items on eBay, but since my printer was out of ink, I opted to buy the shipping labels from the post office instead of through eBay. Shipped the items, e-mailed the buyer the tracking number, items got there on time, he left me positive feedback, end of story.

Paypal then put a hold on all incoming funds on my account due to "suspicious activity". I had to e-mail them to find out what that activity was. Turns out, not buying shipping labels from eBay counts as "suspicious activity". Even after I explained to them and showed them the positive feedback, I'm pretty sure I was speaking to an auto reply program and not an actual person.

After 30 days, the hold came off, but along with a note telling me that they could put a hold on my account again if they spotted any more "suspicious activity"; basically telling me to only buy my shipping labels from eBay or else.

Kinda pissed me off.

[D.M]

How often does PayPal have to deal with fake donation drives being done via their accounts? Is it an epidemic that would force them to take such paranoid precautions?

If that's the case, wouldn't they ban donations altogether? I mean, ANYONE can claim to own a sick cat.

[Nanite]

All better now: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/12/06/p...makes-donation/

Edit: (Not that I think Paypal actually cares, but it was shaping up to be a MAHOOOOSIVE PR disaster for them.)


This post has been edited by Nanite: Dec 6 2011, 02:06 PM

[ExVee]

Seems this is the first Regretsy has heard about it.

[Evil Zoe]

This sort of explains why they went through so much to hire me. They must really need people with strong customer service skills and management experience to deal with this sort of thing.

I've never had a company try so hard to make sure I was able to pass all their requirements. After I did the tests and had the interview, they called me every few weeks to let me know when they were stuck on something and needed something from me to get past it. Since I don't have all the standard documents, they allowed a lot of substitutions.

Seriously, I never felt so WANTED by a company.

[Dissever]

FINALLY closed my PayPal account now that eBay insanity is over. I included this in the comments section:

I am extremely unhappy with PayPal's treatment of the Regresy community's attempt to pool monetary resources for less forunate families this past holiday season. This is NOT an isolated incident; PayPal has a record of selectively denying charitable activities by other internet communities, including Something Awful's support of Hurricane Katrina's victims, and the Child's Play toy donation drive by Penny Arcade. Three strikes; you're out. I will be opening accounts with Google Checkout, Amazon Payments, and Dwolla for my online merchant needs.

[ExVee]

Being that a Paypal representative has told me in a phone conversation - VERBATIM - "well, maybe Paypal isn't for you", I'm afraid your comments will almost certainly fall on deaf ears. The company is so large and so monopolistic in this field that they don't have to care about individual user satisfaction or single accounts being closed. They're doing wrong and corporate evil and many people recognize this fact, but without a major-name alternative, there's not enough people willing to leave Paypal that anyone will take notice. Add that Ebay will never allow any online payment service other than Paypal, and a lot of people are solidly trapped, and Paypal knows it.

[Esser-Z]

We need Nathan Ford.

Seriously. This sounds perfect for a Leverage episode.

This post has been edited by Esser-Z: Dec 28 2011, 08:17 PM

[Blacknife]

Yeah, that whole "have a right to review" part of the agreement.

Pretty much legalese for "we can do whatever we want with the account when we want." And for the most part, that's inserted in there for fraud prevention purposes. And, sometimes, there are cases like this where it's obvious there's not fraud but the sirens are sounded anyway.

Despite that, the dbaggery on Paypal's part in handling issues is not excusable.

This post has been edited by Blacknife: Dec 28 2011, 10:22 PM

[CORVUS]

Ugh. They just keep getting worse and worse. Perhaps I should do as Dissever is doing, and just go elsewhere and leave Paypal and eBay behind.

[Automan2000]

Damn poor kids... why don't they just stop being poor already!!

[Evil Zoe]

I guess I shouldn't advertise that I'll be working for Paypal in the next couple of months? LOL

Hey, a job's a job, but don't hate me, okay?

[TM2-Megatron]

It would be silly to turn down a job the way things are right now. Principles are great, but you can't live in them or survive on them. I avoid patronising services and/or corporations that engage in practices I don't approve of when it's feasible, but there really is no good alternative to eBay and PayPal. I don't buy a ton on eBay, but I do buy enough (and things which aren't always easy to get around here) that I've always been glad to have access to it.

I did the money order in the mail thing back in the day; won't go back to it. While I acknowledge that there have definitely been some people and groups who've had rotten experiences with PayPal, I've been using it for just over 10 years and my own experience has always been positive. They even got my money back for me without any fuss, the one time a seller on eBay tried to scam me

[Pennpenn]

I think the line that would have caused me to reach through the phone and beat them half to death with thier own smug prickish condescension is-

PAYPAL: We know what you’re doing and we’re through playing games with you.

It's just... so perfectly horrible, so absolutely enraging.

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Do money orders no longer work on eBay? It's at the seller's discretion, isn't it?

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

[Fortress Ironhol...]

Do money orders no longer work on eBay? It's at the seller's discretion, isn't it?

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

Some sellers will still accept checks or money orders, and at least one guy I've seen will only take checks or money orders.

However, it's exceedingly slow by comparison (it can add a week or more to overall shipping time while the check / money order makes it through the mail system) and there's no protection if your payment gets lost.

As such, a lot of folks just do PayPal simply because it's easier for all parties involved.

[Scavgraphics]

Do money orders no longer work on eBay? It's at the seller's discretion, isn't it?

--LBD "Nytetrayn"

Some sellers will still accept checks or money orders, and at least one guy I've seen will only take checks or money orders.

You're experience may differ, but I started selling some stuff on ebay in October after years of not selling, and my boiler plate line I'd had in there about Money Orders had the system refusing to list it because they're no longer allowed.

Pretty much, you can only do things thru PayPal, eBay takes ever increasing and secret fees from your sales, their polices as ever favor the criminal and scammer over the victim and scammed, and it's more and more only there to be a place for chinese warehouse marketers over individuals.

And because it's the only real game in town, that's how it'll go.