paypal's eye in the sky

[Eric]

I got this email today, any body else receive something similar?

Dear,

We recently changed our pricing so that all PayPal customers can receive
money from friends and family within the US for free. PayPal merchants
receiving money as payment for a purchase, continue to incur fees.

We’re not sure if you are aware of this, but we noticed that some of
your customers are sending you personal payments for purchases.
Unfortunately, this violates our rules, and we need your help correcting
this. Please don’t ask or allow your customers to use personal payments
to pay for their purchases.

If we continue to see such activity after <January 20th, 2011>, we may
have to disable your ability to receive personal payments, and then you
will pay fees for all money received through PayPal.

You can find more information about payment types and fees in sections
4.2 and 8 of our User Agreement – just click “Legal Agreements” at the
bottom of any PayPal page.

If you have any questions, concerns, or think we may have made a
mistake, please contact us at P2P@paypal.com. Thank you for helping us
resolve this matter.

Sincerely,

P2P Risk Team

PayPal

[ethirtydavid]

yeah, recently a guy made a payment to me for some e30 parts.
he submitted the money as "payment owed" rather than for goods etc- this saved me the 3%. I hadn't heard about it until just a couple weeks ago, guess it's been going on for some time for paypal to show concern..

[MikeDE]

Eric, it took 2 months to get mine reinstated. I suggest that you do not keep any amount of money in your PP acct that you don't feel like having on lockdown, and be ready to spend some time on the int'l hotline # to get it resolved if they do lock you up.

[nrubenstein]

Basically, it's dumb to do sales as gifts or transfers. It leaves you as the seller completely unprotected in cases of buyer fraud.

[ldsbeaker]

Suddenly, Kayak's approach to selling parts makes sense.

[blunttech]

I got the same letter. I hate Paypal . They threatened to shut my account down 2 months ago. Ive rec'd probably 10k in gifts since and they havent done it yet. I dont accept paypal for business any longer. Just certain circumstances and only as gifts

[Eric]

Eric, it took 2 months to get mine reinstated. I suggest that you do not keep any amount of money in your PP acct that you don't feel like having on lockdown, and be ready to spend some time on the int'l hotline # to get it resolved if they do lock you up.

Check. I usually withdraw the money nearly as soon as it arrives.

Basically, it's dumb to do sales as gifts or transfers. It leaves you as the seller completely unprotected in cases of buyer fraud.

How so? scenario?

Suddenly, Kayak's approach to selling parts makes sense.

Kayak, the plane/hotel price site?

I got the same letter. I hate Paypal . They threatened to shut my account down 2 months ago. Ive rec'd probably 10k in gifts since and they havent done it yet. I dont accept paypal for business any longer. Just certain circumstances and only as gifts

Same same, I refused paypal for the longest time, but so many people asked for it when selling stuff here and there that I caved. Well everything in my house is now boxed up ready for shipment, so I won't be needing paypal for a while.

[drumad]

How so? scenario?

You buy something from me and pay me with PP's Gift method. I don't send you [insert cool euro part here] but instead send you a bag of dicks.

You are obviously angered and want your money back.

You can't claim through PP that I sent you [insert cool euro part here] and get your money back through their buyer protection.

You are now out $$$ and have a bag of dicks with no return address anywhere to be found.

edit: BTW I'm pretty sure the guy meant that the buyer will be unprotected vs the seller being unprotected. Unless he did. Now there's a riddle.

[mamzak]

Oops...haha I thought i was always being nice when I payed for stuff as money owed.

[Massive Lee]

The 3% fee is like paying for insurance in the case the transaction goes bad. It pays for Paypal's administrative structure and losses If you deal wth a reputable seller, you are throwing money out the window. 3% also hurts the seller who has to raise their price by 3%... Which is paid by the customer. Back in the days, people could pay the regular price with their credit card, or get a 3-4% discount if paying cash. That was the rule.

How good is Google's alternative to Paypal? I am thinking opting out of Paypal. I know that Blunt uses Google'S system.

[nando]

I'm sorry but that email looks fake

[ldsbeaker]

Kayak/Strictlyvanagon(mye28) doesn't take Paypal.

[Ryan Stewart]

Eric, it took 2 months to get mine reinstated. I suggest that you do not keep any amount of money in your PP acct that you don't feel like having on lockdown, and be ready to spend some time on the int'l hotline # to get it resolved if they do lock you up.

Ive pretty much been avoiding Paypal as much as possible after they brought in their new "verified" rules of holding payments for users who dont do 400,000 transactions a month. Im 100% on both ebay and paypal and have been a customer for 7 years and they hold my payment for a month and a half. A couple of weeks for the guy to leave feedback and another month just for the fun of it.

There really needs to be some viable competitors so push paypal not to suck so hard.

The 3% fee is like paying for insurance in the case the transaction goes bad.

Id be cool with it if that was the case but its not insurance so if the transaction goes bad and paypal buys one side or the other you could be fucked out of your payment (and maybe even goods) by paypal, 3% or no.

[StereoInstaller1]

Just read all the stuff about Google checkout that I can find, looks pretty good. I think I will switch over to them soon. PayPal has never given me any grief at all, except when they took 4 days to "verify" a payment.

[Massive Lee]

A customer sent me $185 for some parts on Dec. 07. Parts are shipped. Then on Dec. 30th I receive a notification that a dispute is going on. I asked the buyer if anything was wrong with the part. Basically, I received $185 but Paypal took $851 out of the clients bank account... Therefore, the problem is strictly between Paypal and the bank, while $185 is frozen from my account. Not a big deal as I have a lot of money traffic, but I just don't think it's cool that I be involved in a situation where I have no responsibility. It's not the buyer's fault though.