Some useful Paypal info

[mackenzie999]

I did not write the following, merely copy & paste job from Lifehacker.com. Some useful customer service info I felt could come in handy to my boardie buddies:

 

PayPal

 

PayPal has a reputation for being the company that froze funds planned for toys for poor children at Christmas, forced someone to destroy a violin rather than return it for refund, and blocked fundraising for Alzheimer's research, among numerous other reasons. You all shared your own horror stories, whether it was unauthorized charges to your accounts, mishandled refunds and credits, absolutely inept customer service bordering on malicious, and other horror stories involving PayPal cleverly withholding your money only to eventually let you have it back...minus fees, of course. The general dislike for PayPal extends so far that entire sites have been set up to complain and to help you get to a human being that can actually help at PayPal. They really don't want you calling directly and prefer email or their "help center," but here, it's 1-888-221-1161. PaypalSucks.com is a huge community of people united by their collective hate for PayPal with some useful resources. You can also try @AskPayPal on Twitter for help, or @PayPalUK for UK customers. Good luck...you'll need it.

 

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[Buzzetta]

I thought the violin story turned out to be a hoax?

[Speedy-D]

I thought the violin story turned out to be a hoax?

Wow, is that right? It was a pretty powerful story.

[Ares]

I cant find any article describing it as a hoax

[Mr 9.8]

 

PayPal has a reputation for being the company that froze funds planned for toys for poor children at Christmas, forced someone to destroy a violin rather than return it for refund, and blocked fundraising for Alzheimer's research, among numerous other reasons.

HOLY KRAP! I never even heard of this before.

[seanfingh]

 

PayPal has a reputation for being the company that froze funds planned for toys for poor children at Christmas, forced someone to destroy a violin rather than return it for refund, and blocked fundraising for Alzheimer's research, among numerous other reasons.

HOLY KRAP! I never even heard of this before.

 

Exactly. And it's on the Internet, SO IT MUST BE TRUE!!!

[mschmidt]

What's interesting about that violin story is that Paypal allegedly (I recall hearing that it was a hoax somewhere too, but I can't find it now) made the buyer destroy the violin because it was a counterfeit.

 

Which is exactly what several boardies seem intent on having CGC do in this thread:

Legality of Buying/Selling "Counterfeit" Comic Books

[Buzzetta]

What's interesting about that violin story is that Paypal allegedly (I recall hearing that it was a hoax somewhere too, but I can't find it now) made the buyer destroy the violin because it was a counterfeit.

 

Which is exactly what several boardies seem intent on having CGC do in this thread:

Legality of Buying/Selling "Counterfeit" Comic Books

 

When it comes down to basic business sense it seems as if that would be a very bad business decision. For all we know the caller dialed the wrong number and got someone on the phone that took it as an opportune time to completely screw with people.

 

Hi, is this paypal?

 

Uhhh... sure.

 

Great, let me tell you about this violin and then tell me what I should do.

[comicwiz]

What's interesting about that violin story is that Paypal allegedly (I recall hearing that it was a hoax somewhere too, but I can't find it now) made the buyer destroy the violin because it was a counterfeit.

 

Which is exactly what several boardies seem intent on having CGC do in this thread:

Legality of Buying/Selling "Counterfeit" Comic Books

 

I'm the member that brought it up.

 

This wasn't a hoax. If there was anything unbelievable about this story, it had to do with the the buyer having the balls to swap the violin with a fake he already owned, and someone managed to figure out it wasn't the same violin they purchased from the grain pattern on the wood from a larger piece appearing in a photo of the destroyed violin.

 

In fact, PayPal responded to the situation in this Guardian article.

 

Paypal's terms of service includes a clause saying that in order to resolve a payment dispute, "PayPal may … require you to destroy the item and to provide evidence of its destruction".

 

A spokesperson for PayPal said: "While we cannot talk about this particular case due to PayPal's privacy policy, we carefully review each case, and in general we may ask a buyer to destroy counterfeit goods if they supply signed evidence from a knowledgeable third party that the goods are indeed counterfeit. The reason why we reserve the option to ask the buyer to destroy the goods is that in many countries, including the US, it is a criminal offence to mail counterfeit goods back to a seller."

 

And to put to rest that this is not real, here is the exact line from the TOS:

 

If you are a Seller and you lose a SNAD Claim because the item you sold is counterfeit, you will be required to provide a full refund to the buyer and you will not receive the item back (it will be destroyed).

 

I know of at least one incident since this occurred, where the seller was instructed by PayPal to destroy the reproduction.

[Designer Toast]

I'm digging on using Square right now. I can't stand using PayPal, but it is somewhat of a necessary evil at the moment.

[passion4comics]

Besides the normal scamming that goes on with buyers and sellers, PayPal locked down a buddy’s account with all of his funds trapped in it. They wanted every possible piece of information. SS# , copy of his driver’s license, etc etc. Then he had to provide ORIGINAL receipts to show he was the owner of what he was selling. After numerous calls to PayPal they could not grasp that comics bought 25-years ago probably don’t have their original receipts available. Who at age 14 is saving their receipts?

 

His money, account, EBay account, all in limbo for around 6-months. He will never use PP again. Not only did he have to worry about being scammed by buyers, he never thought PP would be his biggest problem.

 

[Tony S]

The Paypalsucks.com website has been around for a very long time. Nearly as long as Paypal. Paypal has managed to avoid a lot of regulation because they aren't exactly a bank nor exactly a credit card company. Relentless lawsuits and eBay's purchase has made them a bit better, but far from perfect.

 

The best idea is to transfer money out of your Paypal account anytime you have much money there. Then there isn't much to freeze. I've not had any real problems with Paypal, but I've paid attention and learned from other's problems.