Monday, June 21, 2004
I have always thought Paypal.com is a terribly, sneaky, underhanded company. But they provide a great service that no one else can match and I have no choice but to use them. With all the stuff I sell on ebay, Paypal is the best way to do it.
They use to be a completely free service, but then they started charging fees for credit card payments. It sucks but I agree this is fine since they are paying Visa 3%. The problem is the system becomes confusing because you aren't allowed (by law) to say "if you pay me with a credit card, please add 3%." As the "merchant" you must pay the fees
I had a bunch of trouble with Paypal a couple years ago when I was selling a bunch of stuff on ebay. Everything was fine: I was taking payments, shipping products. Then as soon as I transferred the Paypal money to my checking account, they locked my account for fraud. They wanted me to send them receipts for items and ups shipping labels. They wanted me to pay to get those documents to them before they would give me MY MONEY. I had to use my friends who work at Paypal so get out of that mess.
So this past week I sold my 17" PowerBook on ebay. I specifically said "no credit cards" because I know I can't take them with Paypal personal accounts. I got the payment from Paypal with a message that said I hit my $1000/month receiving limit and I would have to start paying 3% in fees.
I had no idea they changed this policy. I'm sure it went out in some email, buried in pages and pages of small text. I called Paypal and reasoned with them. I had no idea of this new restriction, and I was in a jam. I couldn't afford to pay 3% on this item because I sold it for a price assuming there were no paypal fees. And I couldn't back out of the auction because I would get negative feedback on ebay (which paypal should understand since ebay bought them)
The customer service rep seemed nice and understanding but eventually said he couldn't do anything. I asked to speak with the supervisor. Some guy named "Craig" came on the phone with the worst attitude you could ever imagine. It was like right off the bat he had made up his mind to not help me and to be a total jerk.
Not only did he completely refuse to do anything for me, but he brought up my past history. "I see you have received X dollars through Paypal in the past. You are making money from us, you should be a business account." I have never broken Paypal's rules and I have no intention of taking away their profits. If I'm able to work within their system and minimize the fees I pay, there's nothing wrong with that. They can't try to make me feel guilty like I owe them something.
In the end I had to bite the bullet and pay some fees for this transaction. After I received payment, I saw that the fees were $5, much less than 3% of the payment. I went to the Paypal fee schedule and at the bottom in small print it said "e-check payments have a max fee of $5." Why didn't they tell me this on the phone? I still wouldn't be totally happy since they changed the policy out from under me, but I have no problem paying them $5 here and there. Paypal does deserve to make money.
I'm really surprised by their $1k limit. It's quite low. Someone could sell 1 computer on ebay and be unable to use Paypal for the payment. And sometimes at Newcastle we would transfer more than $1k between us for rent stuff. Then I saw that the 1k limit only applies to "auction payments". So you can work around it by telling people to say the payment type is "Quasi cash" and not "auction".
Anyways, the real issue here is Paypal is getting greedy. They are making money from my through ebay, and then AGAIN through paypal for that same item. And they are raising their fees without making it totally clear so they put you in a situation where you have no choice but to pay them.
Sadly, this is the end of a great time for Paypal. I think from now on I will be back to accepting checks by mail only. Why can't all the major banks just get together and create a electronic transfer mechanism? It can't be that hard. Cut out the greedy middle man.
Paypal is getting a letter from me in the mail.
They use to be a completely free service, but then they started charging fees for credit card payments. It sucks but I agree this is fine since they are paying Visa 3%. The problem is the system becomes confusing because you aren't allowed (by law) to say "if you pay me with a credit card, please add 3%." As the "merchant" you must pay the fees
I had a bunch of trouble with Paypal a couple years ago when I was selling a bunch of stuff on ebay. Everything was fine: I was taking payments, shipping products. Then as soon as I transferred the Paypal money to my checking account, they locked my account for fraud. They wanted me to send them receipts for items and ups shipping labels. They wanted me to pay to get those documents to them before they would give me MY MONEY. I had to use my friends who work at Paypal so get out of that mess.
So this past week I sold my 17" PowerBook on ebay. I specifically said "no credit cards" because I know I can't take them with Paypal personal accounts. I got the payment from Paypal with a message that said I hit my $1000/month receiving limit and I would have to start paying 3% in fees.
I had no idea they changed this policy. I'm sure it went out in some email, buried in pages and pages of small text. I called Paypal and reasoned with them. I had no idea of this new restriction, and I was in a jam. I couldn't afford to pay 3% on this item because I sold it for a price assuming there were no paypal fees. And I couldn't back out of the auction because I would get negative feedback on ebay (which paypal should understand since ebay bought them)
The customer service rep seemed nice and understanding but eventually said he couldn't do anything. I asked to speak with the supervisor. Some guy named "Craig" came on the phone with the worst attitude you could ever imagine. It was like right off the bat he had made up his mind to not help me and to be a total jerk.
Not only did he completely refuse to do anything for me, but he brought up my past history. "I see you have received X dollars through Paypal in the past. You are making money from us, you should be a business account." I have never broken Paypal's rules and I have no intention of taking away their profits. If I'm able to work within their system and minimize the fees I pay, there's nothing wrong with that. They can't try to make me feel guilty like I owe them something.
In the end I had to bite the bullet and pay some fees for this transaction. After I received payment, I saw that the fees were $5, much less than 3% of the payment. I went to the Paypal fee schedule and at the bottom in small print it said "e-check payments have a max fee of $5." Why didn't they tell me this on the phone? I still wouldn't be totally happy since they changed the policy out from under me, but I have no problem paying them $5 here and there. Paypal does deserve to make money.
I'm really surprised by their $1k limit. It's quite low. Someone could sell 1 computer on ebay and be unable to use Paypal for the payment. And sometimes at Newcastle we would transfer more than $1k between us for rent stuff. Then I saw that the 1k limit only applies to "auction payments". So you can work around it by telling people to say the payment type is "Quasi cash" and not "auction".
Anyways, the real issue here is Paypal is getting greedy. They are making money from my through ebay, and then AGAIN through paypal for that same item. And they are raising their fees without making it totally clear so they put you in a situation where you have no choice but to pay them.
Sadly, this is the end of a great time for Paypal. I think from now on I will be back to accepting checks by mail only. Why can't all the major banks just get together and create a electronic transfer mechanism? It can't be that hard. Cut out the greedy middle man.
Paypal is getting a letter from me in the mail.