paypal

[hosterschill]

i hurd paypal can access your fund whenever they feel the need to? and there is also some in company scams. like people that work for them having there outside friends creating accounts then stealing money from credit cards and the inside people deleting all data that tracks that fraudulant scam? anyone got any input?

[Chicken]

Well, PayPal (and others like it) are tied to your bank account. Quite honestly this doesn't always sit easy with me, but it hasn't been an issue. It's worked in my favor as a buyer on ebay when people have refused to refund for a purchase (never received or not as described) and I've filed a claim. PayPal refunded me from their account... the hard way.

[Marck]

Well - paypal is known to Lock,Steal and harassment users of There services.
my self - i have used them personal for 2 years now - and have been "locked down" 5-10 times with NO reason or what so ever -
one time they even dared to lock my account because they did not like the "content " on my site - amazing Really lol

[Marck]

Well, PayPal (and others like it) are tied to your bank account. Quite honestly this doesn't always sit easy with me, but it hasn't been an issue. It's worked in my favor as a buyer on ebay when people have refused to refund for a purchase (never received or not as described) and I've filed a claim. PayPal refunded me from their account... the hard way.
Chicken.. Paypal always Let the "buyer" win :)

[kev888]

Hehehe,
It's not so happy when your the host. They will usually end up refunding the buyer. Just use a debt collection agency then :P.

[Marck]

Just use a debt collection agency then :P.
Do you know What you need to go tho to Join up with an collection angency?

[computerguy]

99.9% of my online transactions are through paypal and I've never had any issues with them. Maybe I'm just a lucky person but I doubt that.

[cpskins]

with paypal you just have to be good.. i have had 3 orders in the last week all over $850 and all fraud of course.. first was paypal unverified so knew that was fraud, the next was verified. What i do is check out all the information send the person an email or wait about 24hrs if i am worried about it and if it's real they will email me asking where it is.. if it's fraud they will never email me and i return the money. haven't had someone actually catch me with fraud for about 3 years. when i first started

[swizi]

I've had no problems with paypal at all, I only accept it, and will always have it there. If you don't like paypal there is moneybookers, and if you don't want it, xoom can send money to paypal accounts.

nearly every host I see offers paypal, paypal was voted the msot accepted and used last year on WHT.

You hear your good reviews and your bad reviews on practically everything.

[cyberhostuk]

I also have had no problems with PayPal. Apart from their high fees, it's great and definately our preferred payment method. Over 90 million people use PayPal, that's telling you something.

I guess I'm just one of the lucky ones, with PayPal it seems you either have no problems at all.. or plenty!

[PHMatt]

To the OP, though highly unlikely, any institution could have the same results of employees stealing data for illegal purposes. I think it was AOL not too long ago that an employee or ex-employee was found to have stolen the entire DB list to sell off to spammers. I've personally never had a single problem with paypal, a few larger transactions they called me to see if everything was ok, and other than that it's always been smooth sailing. If you're worried about payments linked to your bank account, you can always link it directly to a CC, and then just request a physical check to be sent to you.

At least in that case, then you've got your own buyers protection through your CC. Or, link it to a bank account solely for the purpose of Paypal, then once funds are in the account, withdraw them to your regular bank account.

Hosting should always be sold as a service, not a tangible good, which typically results in paypal taking the seller's side (in most cases). Using IPN also seems to result in much lower fraud rates vs. normal methods.

All in all, there's about the same risk in paypal as any other payment service, and as cash isn't really an option here in this biz, you have to accommodate to buyers as well.

Thanks,

[Serverextreme]

Hi I have had no trouble at all with paypal I have using there for years.
You can't always bank on everything you hear. There will always be scamers
so thats why you have to use caution.:)

I have an account for my hosting company, were I keep very little funds as my clients send there payments
i transfer it to yet another account. If I see any unwanted activity I will just shut that account down..

[thnetsupport]

the locked me out as well, i was locked because i filed a complaint because i didnt recieve something i bought on ebay???LOL

i wont ever go near them again
a real merchant account is the way to go

[volumedrive]

Well there is a lot of interesting points of view posted so far. As for my own experience I would say so far so good. I've taken a few orders through it, and worked out great.

[Acquisitions]

Hehehe,
It's not so happy when your the host. They will usually end up refunding the buyer. Just use a debt collection agency then :P.
This is not true, actually. In the hosting industry, hosts are selling intangible products, which buyers are not protected against.

If a dispute arises with a buyer, then all that is needed from the seller is to point out that the product is intangible and the complaint is always (atleast in our cases) ruled and closed in the favor of the seller.

As for Paypal in general, we have used them for over 3 years now and have never been closed, censured, stolen from, etc. But there have been so many horror stories, one wonders if more security measures need to be put in place to protect sellers on paypal. Seems to me they should be regulated by general banking standards.

[brianoz]

As for Paypal in general, we have used them for over 3 years now and have never been closed, censured, stolen from, etc. But there have been so many horror stories, one wonders if more security measures need to be put in place to protect sellers on paypal. Seems to me they should be regulated by general banking standards.I've heard lots of horror stories too, but I can't help wondering whether they're one-sided. I'd suggest the people with horror stories are far more likely to post than those who are happy! In most of the cases I've heard of, the people complaining were incoherent, didn't provide the right amount of detail (or ANY detail!), and/or got angry and abusive.

I think the bottom line is, if you're processing a lot of cash get your own merchant account. It's just common sense not to rely on an external provider who could get confused or get the wrong side of the story. Simple, don't put all your :dchick2: in the one basket! :D

[jacknoc]

Maybe switch to Google Checkout? :)
checkout.google.com

[JordanT]

i hurd paypal can access your fund whenever they feel the need to? and there is also some in company scams. like people that work for them having there outside friends creating accounts then stealing money from credit cards and the inside people deleting all data that tracks that fraudulant scam? anyone got any input?
Hmm, I've never heard of such things. Personally, I've never ran into issues with PayPal

[Serverextreme]

I am not sure were you get your Info from but I see you were only told the bad
side of paypal. I have been using them for almost four years and I have never had any trouble with them at all...

As fare as them accessing your account they will charge your account
what every you want them to nothing more. As as fare as fraud and scams
that happens with all big companys....You have to use your head and be smart
do not give your Info to anyone...Paypal will Never
email you asking you to update anything.Infact they have a 1800-number if you have any questions

[gab1982]

we have had loads of problems with paypal with webhosting and forum designs, it gets unbareable at times however our fraudulent users have taken a different approach and thats towards 2checkout, although we use that it does have a fraudulent checking service so we simply dont process the application, the problem does come with forum designs due to the fact anyone can pay for something download the skin and file a chargeback or ask for a refund, but we are undertaking a task which will help prevent this.

Yes paypal are a menace but we just contact anyone with large orders over x ammount and if the phone number is invalid then we cancel the account and refund the money. We have had our account locked once but have lost count on the number of fraudulent payment which has passed through it.

[smith]

Replying to the original poster, I dont think paypal such a reputed and professional company can indulge in those activities. You need to be careful when dealing people online especially when you process an order, you should apply simple common sense to judge whether it is fraud order or not, few payment processors using advanced fraud scanning system and providing smart fraud protection especially protection from targeted fraud.

[Serverextreme]

Replying to the original poster, I dont think paypal such a reputed and professional company can indulge in those activities. You need to be careful when dealing people online especially when you process an order, you should apply simple common sense to judge whether it is fraud order or not, few payment processors using advanced fraud scanning system and providing smart fraud protection especially protection from targeted fraud.

There you go you hit the nail right on the head. Smith, Common sense is the key word here
it's not paypal fault if the people your signing up are not valid accounts.
When ever we sign someone up I watch to see how the person
responds and if they say there going to pay for there account and don't well
thats telling me there word is not good......Be careful and things will be much
better...Just my two cents..

[graham barnes]

Replying to the original poster, I dont think paypal such a reputed and professional company can indulge in those activities. You need to be careful when dealing people online especially when you process an order, you should apply simple common sense to judge whether it is fraud order or not, few payment processors using advanced fraud scanning system and providing smart fraud protection especially protection from targeted fraud.

Although what Smith says is true I like to trust my clients, I am a person who likes to trust alot of people and oftern does get burned for it however I believe you should always trust a client or a person planning to become a client, I mean yeah there are fraudulent people who try and signup however I just dont understand why spend the best part of 5 minutes signing a form, thinking up and using a fake email address and street address, its just a waist of time, everytime i see a fraud signup I just think you stupid fool dont you have anything better to do.

The average human being would just give up after some time but lately our recent signups keep coming back and back day after day, and they dont get anywhere.

Although that was a bit off topic, paypal seem to be getting there act together but with that said we still get hit pretty hard too, by fraudsters, however the fraudster looses out in the end because even if they get through our safety net we just terminate the account without letting them know.

[`josh`]

As a ebay buyer as well paypal has always worked in my fav as well, when a seller refuses to refund my money due to there fault paypal gets it back for me as well, the hard way.. lol

[theonlyone]

I have many issues with paypal as well i cant say i would ever visit there site again, i have it blocked so i cant ;) there problem is there on a "power trip" even though they keep getting sued bacause of it they continue to break the law everyday

[vividkey]

i hurd paypal can access your fund whenever they feel the need to? and there is also some in company scams. like people that work for them having there outside friends creating accounts then stealing money from credit cards and the inside people deleting all data that tracks that fraudulant scam? anyone got any input?

Just to let most of you guys know the difference between PayPal and other online merchant systems (there are a few though that are just like PayPal), PayPal is backed by a bank, because it was initially just with a merchant account but now eBay and PayPal are backed by a bank. However, there are some other websites that are just with merchant accounts. And if you have a merchant account you can charge anyone's bank account just like any others. My uncle has a merchant account for his business in town, he has the ability to directly bill anyone and as long as it is within current business hours of the bank that person banks with then it will take it directly out of their account. This is why banks and credit card company's tell you to make sure that you watch your account and make sure that you watch your credit. I am an accountant and the reason I stress this is there are a lot of legal issues that come into affect that you could actually sue banks/credit card companies/others for if funds are withdrawn from your account without proper authorization.

[GetAForum.net]

Paypal is a scam. You always get that someone who disputes the charge for an item they recievied...and somehow always win.

[Mach5Host]

Paypal does seem to always be for the customer. That can be good and bad.

[felosi]

I have come to find out there is no protection what so ever for sellers of digital goods. Ive done work for people before like patches, web design, server work, and 2 of them paid and then the next day after they done received the work they said someone broke into their account and sent the money. I usually go through many steps to verify people, I only contact them through their paypal email and I verify their home phone.
Still doesn't matter though they will get their money back every time.

Each time I have provided them proof of identity verification, order forms, etc: and each time it has done no good. This has happened to me 3 times. Any more for big jobs I make them send western union and web hosting clients I have a bad feeling about I don't even take the money.

My account has also been frozen twice because of this. I wish there was a better alternative that is as widely used. I'm extremely sick of paypal.

I say most "unauthorized" claims are bs and what ever happened to responsibility? Unless there is some serious exploit discovered that shows accounts were hacked I dont think it should be this way. You give out your password or fall for some phishing scam that should be your fault. I am not saying people should have the right to receive stolen money but I seriously think paypal needs to reform this. It is extremely too easy to buy digital goods and services and charge them back.

[xtremeluger]

Hmm that's odd I always thought paypal was really reliable in terms of handling our cash. It's probably because it's the most widely used (i think?) and is associated with large sites such as e-bay.

[organic]

i wont allow pay pal to have my bank details my credit card is all they are getting and even then thats pushing it. at least with the credit card fraud can be reported quickly and easily and the transaction is removed from your account

[felosi]

ha, Well this is becoming a big problem with paypal. I think people should be responsible for their own accounts. If you give your password to some phishing site from a stupid email then it should be your loss, not the seller.
I also think that a great number of these so called "unauthorized" payments or "someone broke in my account to send a payment" bits are fraud from the buyer, not some unidentified theif.
I think all people should be responsible for their own account unless there is some site exploit on paypal. Chargebacks are becoming a huge problem, especially for hosters and people who do digital services. Why are you worried anyway? Paypal reverses it in favor of the customer no questions asked nearly all the time which is ridiculous. I had some guy get me to do some work, as soon as I was doen he played the "unauthorized:" funds bit and got his money back despite all the verification and proof I provided, I got to googling and this guy has done this at least 5 times before on ebay and digital goods.
Paypals no questions asked reversals needs to be stopped.
If you cant keep your online accounts secure you shouldnt even be doing business, I hope I dont run into any customer like that anymore.

[shopjpv]

I always thought paypal was thrusthworthy. Lets hope they don't turn like studiotraffic and the others!

*******

[adrianh]

Paypal is a big scam because it is located in asia which they are not citizens so if they scam us we cant recieve a refund. My freind recently got scammed by a lady in the philipines. He sold a laptop and she paid via paypal and it was on hold once the laptop came she refunded and he lost the laptop now he owes 400$. But i feel safe because i dont do anything of that sort just sell hosting/vent!

[erika6343]

Paypal also lolligags when your account is locked for security reasons. I had to fax them information about 30 times and waited for over 2 months to get my account verified. I can't stand them...

[XHIServices]

Dont get me started with PayPal im currently battling a chargeback for £XXX
Ive personally rang them and threatened Legal action against them unless they refund me the £155 they have taken from me because a client "wasn't happy" with his year of hosting he bought and decides to chargeback 3 months after purchase even though its direct abuse of the TOS we have

Anyway PayPal have been threatened with legal action being taken unless i get the amount back

[rtgasia]

Anyone read http://www.paypalsucks.com ???

[GordonH]

I wrote this in my blog in 2005.
It may be relevant.

Someone at Paypal posted their edits to the live part of the site rather than the test version:

"Should any suspicious activity occur, PayPal will either alert youeither by email or by a representative calling you. But PayPal doesn't stop there. We offer you [excellent] *[too strong I thinkgiven the limited ability to comply with SPP]*"

What this person means is that they want to have seller as well as buyer protection but because the chargeback procedures of the banks over ride anything they can offer they need to be careful about how they phrase it.

They COULD insure against losses but this is very risky in itself. I know that my merchant provider won't.We have under £2000 of chargebacks last year and our bank is holding £43,000 of our cash as security against this increasing.They wanted to increase that to £180,000 on deposit indefinitley with no interest.I tried to change bank but the new one wanted £250,000.

People using Paypal do not know how lucky they are in many ways:

1. Low fees if you have high volume.
2. Better ability to stop chargebacks (many transactions are from positive balances and they favour the seller if its non tangible goods not covered by the buyer protection policy).
3. Instant settlement if necessary (many merchant accounts are on 30 days deferred for online trading).
4. No security required.

I know that people bleat on about paypalsucks.com etc but at the end of the day even the worst cases I have heard of are NOTHING like as bad as the way real banks treat their credit card merchants.