Let me preface this with "I am absolutely disgusted by PayPal." So I apologize in advance for any strong language.
They decided to suspend my account, and didn't give me any other reason than "we were reviewing your account and needed more information." Uh, excuse me? Piss off -- why are you randomly reviewing my account in the first place, and secondly, why don't you use the damned contact information instead of simply suspending the account?
So I figure, ok, how hard is it to just give them the info they want? Well, the answer is "pretty frickin hard."
1) I had to let them charge my credit card so that I can enter a verification number once I get my next statement. Thankfully, I can view my statement online.
2) I have to FAX them (note: like most of the world, I don't have a fax machine) the following: a photo ID, a checking account statement, a credit card statement, and a utility bill. So they expect me to go out of my way to go to a kinkos or something and PAY to send them this information. Because, I love driving around trying to do this sort of crap.
3) I have to accept an automated phone call. Note that this won't work with anything but a land line without an extension. So... uh... when you only have a cell phone (such as Lis does), then how the hell do you do this? Why, via MAIL of course. That only takes TWO WEEKS for them to do. Uh huh, that makes me just pleased as punch.
4) Change my password and security questions.
Out of this entire litany of bullshit, the only one which is easy happens to make no sense (#4). If you're reviewing my account and need more information, why do you need me to change my password and security questions?
So yeah, after jumping through some of these hoops, and realizing that it will be at least two weeks until I can accept donations again, I think I am going to ditch PayPal entirely. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not going to do business with a company that treats me like a criminal at random. Basically: PayPal can go f**k themselves.
What's a good alternative solution? I'm looking for a service which allows me to accept donations easily -- I don't want to make it painful for someone to give me money. ;-) Does anyone have any suggetions, or am I stuck dealing with the evil empire?
Oh, and before you guys say "are you sure you were dealing with PayPal?" -- the answer is yes. I found this out by going to PayPal.com and logging in as usual, not via an email message. So I am certain I was dealing with paypal (the security certs all checked out as well).
It works entirely different, but you can use eSellerate. I have a "Seth's 'Buy a Mustang Fund'" "product" there ($5) which people by some quantity of to donate. I actually got a $25 donation the other day and I have no idea what for. I haven't updated my apps in ages!
And now some hacker across the world is going to run with your information...
This smells "phishy" ...
Well, it did when I read it, but I trust you already sniffed it out...
Yeah, that was my first thought, but I have verified with PayPal that it's legit. They really are assholes.
I've had crap from them as well for similar bullshit.
A client sent me money and 8 months later PayPal claimed the credit card company disputed the charge and so thy extracted the amount from my account + a "dispute fee" they claimed to have been charged by the credit card company.
I called my client, and he called the credit card company and no one involved could find any evidence that the charge had been disputed by anyone.
It took 6 week to resolve, PayPal finally refunded the moeny to me and kept the dispute fee.
And, cinec I'm overseas they screwed me on the exchange as well. They took the money out at a high rate of exchnage, and refunded it at a lower one so they even made the exchange on the whole affair.
Bastards and if my client did not insist on using them I'd never do business with them
Yeah, I've been unimpressed with PayPal since just before eBay bought them. Not that I scoured the Net looking, but I didn't find anything comparable except Google Checkout, which of course I can't use cuz I'm Canadian. At one point I came across a company that specialized in processing donations specifically. But the site made me feel they were on the shady side so I promptly forgot about them. I have seen Seth's method used by a few people. For that route there is also RegNow, Digital River and ShareIt. Not sure if they'd allow that exact idea, but I know they process payments for shareware.
I'd love to see what other recommendations others would have.
I like kagi.com, but not sure if you are allowed to accept donations there, plus they cost more than paypal, but less than esellerate.
Easy! Ditch the tip jar and make the Donation bar useful by linking to: http://www.redcross.org/donate/ (or your charity of choice)
If you feel your user base is feeling truly gifty, link to your Amazon wish list.
I'm pretty sure the redcross (et al) aren't going to help pay to host my site. ;-) The tip jar works nicely for me as it stands. I don't get tons of money from it, but I make enough to cover my costs and let me know my efforts are appreciated. The Amazon wish-list is an interesting idea though -- I could have a series of various items I'd like of ranging values. But sometimes, the cash is nice too.
Amazon also has a payment thingy called the Amazon Honor System. From the site: "It's time you got paid for your Web site. Your Web site's visitors return time and again for great information, entertainment, and community. The Amazon Honor System lets them show their appreciation--by giving you cash."
http://zme.amazon.com/exec/varzea/subst/fx/home.html/ref=gw_bt_hs/104-6306129-8131945?%5Fencoding=UTF8
I was gonna mention the Amazon service too - from what I've heard (though never tried it myself), it's pretty decent. I would run from PayPal, even if you do get "reinstated". Same type of thing happened to me a couple years ago, and it took 3 POSTAL mailings, a fax, and a phone call to get it back up...I didn't bother to use it again.
I'd suggest looking into the Amazon thing possibly.
I'll have to take a gander at that Amazon idea -- thanks for pointing it out to me!
There are many stories like yours at paypalsucks.com
I also had problems with PayPal asking me to send by fax some documentation to "comply with European Union Anti-Money
Laundering regulations to collect information from customers when they receive more than the set limit in total payments" - that was what they said it was for. It took more than 2 weeks to get my account in "Regular Standing" after faxing them the docs and only after emailing them twice asking why they were taking so long to solve the problem.
Amazon Honor System seems good, but reading their FAQs I saw this:
They say there are limits to receive money, but don't say what the limits are.
You can check also moneybookers.com but I never used them - Wikipedia also uses them to colect donations. From what I read it seems people need an account to send you money.
There are some people using ClickBank.com to accept donations - ClickBank accepts several credit cards and also PayPal. The problem using ClickBank to accept donations is their fees: $1.00 + 7.5% per transaction.
Google Checkout only allows donations for organizations that are "501c3 tax-exempt":
http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/answer.py?answer=30726
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PayPal is still the best and easy way to send and receive donations, but they have a very bad policy regarding suspending accounts and they make it difficult to get an account unsuspended.
I've been using PayPal for a while and I've never had a problem with them. I've heard other people with complaints similar to Aaron's, but so far so good for me.
I've been using PayPal for years. I've never had a problem with them (perhaps because I have an older business account?). I like them as they only take about 3% when compared to eSellerate which takes 10%.
Aaron, are you sure someone wasn't trying to use your account as you? And what are you using them for, to buy stuff off of eBay (or other places) or to sell stuff?
Nevermind the last question - I skimmed over that part. (easy for me to do when I need to get some ZZZ's...)
[...] Aaron Ballman is now having trouble with them…read his post and the comments here. Related Posts [...]
@Wayne -- I'm positive. And my guess at the reason they flagged my account was because I had attached it to a credit card which had my old address on it. I just made a 100$ transfer (which I could cover with funds in the account anyways). However, I can get no information (aside from a form response) out of PayPal as to whether my guess was right or not.
They also suspended the RBLibrary.com account (which is why we're down for maintenance) because I made a purchase from there (but I can't fathom why the account was suspended there -- all the information was up to date and correct already).
So who left the bomb outside PayPal's offices last night ?
http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_305004735.html