I hate Paypal. And I'm venting.

[teardrop88]

Paypal is about as useful as used toilet paper. Since I do use their service, I do however NEVER use my bank account for purchases. Instead I use my credit card as payment. This came in handy with a ****ty auction of which the seller never shipped my item. It was clearly fraud, yet PayPal wanted to go through the month+ long process of "resolving the issue."

I said **** that, and called Amex, and had my money credited to my account in under 30 minutes. The following day I got an email from paypal noticing that Amex did a charge back on my card and they went ahead and closed my trouble ticket.

Problem solved.

Best solution if you are stuck with using PayPal is to pay by credit, and only by credit.
Otherwise, I'm aware that several credit cards offer free "virtual" credit card numbers that are one-time use numbers that hide your real credit card number when making online purchases. I say that's an excellent service to use in order protect your card from getting stolen.

 

[CrystalLakeDave]

Check out this insane PayPal error

Whoops: PayPal Charges $81,400,836,908 For $26 Tank Of Gas

 

[ZambucaLu]

Did anyone see that Central Trade just changed their site to "paypal not welcome"?

Scroll to bottom: Electronic Cigarette Portal Mini pipe rs-888

They were just talking about paypal fees on the pipe thread....and this just changed. Interesting!

Lu

 

[Momof3]

I feel your pain and frustration however despite some drawbacks, as a buyer, I'm sticking with Paypal.

It's been awhile since I set up my 1st Paypal account. I vaguely remember the bank verification transactions. I honestly think at the time I just left it unverified until I decided to sell some things and wanted to be able to get the money out. I set up a new account at the bank with next to nothing in it specifically for use with Paypal.

I sold 3-4 things and bought a few things. I never transferred any money out, but I don't think there was ever more than $50 in there. About 2 mnths after my 1st sale Paypal did a chargeback on the 1st thing I had sold. I was out my item and money and I never got it back. Haven't sold anything since.

I switched to a different bank somewhere over the years. I've never had a problem switching card info. My account now is unverified, used only for credit card transactions and at least for the time being I can live with the limits of an unverified account.

As a seller, Paypal sucks IMO, but as a buyer I prefer using Paypal for online purchases especially when dealing with small business or individuals. I have 1 credit card used exclusively with Paypal. I had 1 credit card I used solely for online purchasing outside of Paypal that I kept a close eye on. Twice now I have had to get new account numbers because of fraudulent charges on the online only card. In something like 10yrs I have never had that happen with Paypal.

I do try some of the new credit card online security items when they come out. So far I've tried the one where they send you a text or email with a different code to use for each transaction. A time wasting PITA. I have also tried the one where you have a separate non-changing password to enter. It was better, but at some point every other transaction would get held up until they spoke to me on the phone. So that also became a time wasting PITA. The current offering is a separate card # for online transactions only, for a small monthly fee of course and I can also get for the low sum of $19.99 an actual card with said online only # on it. Um, no thanks.

For the time being, I'm going to stick with the closely monitored 1 card and only process through Paypal.

 

[Cellmeister]

Did anyone see that Central Trade just changed their site to "paypal not welcome"?

Scroll to bottom: Electronic Cigarette Portal Mini pipe rs-888

They were just talking about paypal fees on the pipe thread....and this just changed. Interesting!

Lu

BUSTED!

They Will Bring Paypal Back, They Can't Afford Not Too! Not To Many People Wanna Wire Money...

 

[Sunshyn]

My business accepted PP for 3 years without a single problem or complaint. Then they decided to suddenly "limit" our account. Meaning, blocking our customers from purchasing from us and blocking us from our money there. It took them 3 or 4 days to tell us this, causing a great deal of disruption with our customers and lost us some sales. They held our money for 6 months. They never did explain why they froze our account in the first place, just a couple very vague, contradicting automated emails which they refused to clarify.

We told them to cancel the account after that, which they said they did. For the next 5 years, we continued to call them once or twice a year, spend a freaken hour on the phone to cancel our account and delete all our personal information. Every time we were assured that they were doing so. Every time we continued to get emails containing information they had supposedly deleted, proving they had not done so. A few months ago, I found out I could lodge a complaint with Truste. The Truste mention was included in the same email which informed me they had been giving our info out to third parties, and the only way I could change that was to log into the account we had so long ago canceled! The Truste complaint finally seemed to work, but only after I submitted a second email which informed me that the very same often canceled and supposedly deleted PayPal account had been magnanimously unfrozen due to policy changes.

Yes, we still have a separate, personal PP account in our household to use for purchases which can't be ordered otherwise, but I fully realize that they abuse the information they keep. I warn everyone I know to never keep money in their PayPal account because they do not need any reason at all to suddenly put a very long hold on such funds. Anyone who thinks they canceled a PP account, do NOT trust that as a done deal.

 

[Smokin]

Lovin Vapor Dude

 

[bea58]

Paypal has security issues.

After trying all week to make a PS purchase through Paypal, my account got verified (by giving them my banking onfo and verifying the deposits they made) and they STILL wouldn't let me pay by credit card.

So I clicked on echeck as payment method.

Just got off the phone with Paypal, since it was unclear to me whether I needed to transfer funds to my paypal account to cover the echeck or whether it would "just happen".

The nice representative said "Oh, Ms. J---, you should have waited a few days for the credit card block to clear, we've been having seurity issues with echecks".

Nice. Why is this place still in business??

On a happier note, Steve emailed me back to say that after the move they will be setting up an alternative payment system where we can pay them directly with credit of debit cards. (But he will retain Paypal for those who swear by them.)

It will be a happy day when I close my account. Even though from what I've seen, there's really no such thing, since they retain your info regardless.

 

[olddaddy]

Why is it that all the US sellers only take paypal and not cc's?

 

[Programmer]

Why is it that all the US sellers only take paypal and not cc's?

I have always wondered that, myself. It was really p*ssing me off too, almost enough to start a thread about it. I'm glad someone else did.

The answer is because anyone can start up a business in their basement literally overnight using PayPal as a processor. Whereas getting a merchant account requires effort, credit checks, a business checking account, etc. In other words a real business. I'm sure the majority of sellers are good folks, but I'm sorry, this PayPal-only thing just screams "fly by night".

 

[cucurucho]

Why is it that all the US sellers only take paypal and not cc's?

Because it's much easier and cheaper to set up a paypal payment system than it is to get a secure server set up for processing credit card transactions.

I just wish people would pay more attention to the other options that are out there.

 

[olddaddy]

I just wish people would pay more attention to the other options that are out there.

Options? To buy from? To pay with?

Because I haven't seen any other option to pay except paypal and maybe by check.

 

[Justin11]

Slightly OT, but PayPal related...

Is it normal on some websites to NOT have to log-in to PayPal when using it to check out? I have run into this twice now, where you just select PayPal as your payment option and that's it, you never have to log-in.

 

[2kool2]

Justin11 you allway's have to log in to paypal in order to pay someone. If not I would not trust that vendor.With Paypal do not put anything in the note's when paying if it is questionable...

 

[Programmer]

Since you do not even have to have a paypal account at all, obviously login is not required. Just enter your credit card number and go.

Now if you try to use a credit card that is already registered with paypal, or same email address, then maybe it might ask you to log in. The key is to just check out rather than going through the signup.

 

[2kool2]

No maybe about it... And they will freze your account if they find the order questionable.

 

[OutWest]

FWIW, person I know had over $10,000 frozen in paypal acct for over a year (and not sure if he ever got it resolved and got his money). The reason? A suspiciously large number of transactions. Um... It was Christmas selling season and he was selling the ultra-hot item that year. He couldnt even refund via paypal those few customers that returned items.

Never ever leave $ in your paypal acct.

 

[quendelyn]

I agree, I despise PP. They have frozen my transactions to e cig vendors so many times. Frozen money in my bank account. And since I disputed it, can't purchase from vendors that have PP checkout. Guess they associate my email with my old account, which I closed. I even tried a pre-paid visa and no luck. Unfortunately, many China suppliers use PP as their only online option, so no way I can take advantage of their money-saving deals. Hate them, Hate them, Hate!

 

[AngusATAT]

Some serious thread necromancy going on here...