Problems with Paypal

PayPal (owned by eBay)- A payment platform for thieves: Although there are many legitimate businesses who use PayPal as a payment processing company, it's also particularly ideal for unscrupulous merchants. You can easily set up an account, recieve payments in virtually every possible form, and when the scam goes down you are perfectly protected by PayPal's User Agreement. For these reasons I no longer deal with ANY company that uses PayPal.

Here's what happened to me. I purchased marketing software for $149.00 and never received it. The seller did not respond to phone messages or e-mails. I disputed the charge through PayPal and after a two week investigation they wrote, "Our investigation has determined that the seller is at fault, and as a result we have attempted to recover your funds. $13.42 has been credited to your account." Then they told me how much they appreciated my business and directed me through a link to "security tips" that would help me avoid losing $135.58 again in the future. Wasn't that nice of them?

When I responded to the great news that they were able to recover $13.42 of the $149.00 "Ruth" (don't you just love it when you get first names only!) at Executive Escalations wrote back giving me the link to report the Seller to the FBI (proving their internal policy is not to report any of their thieving merchants on their own). She also gave me a link to their User Agreement, https://www.paypal.com/bcp, and repeated the mantra, "However, please understand that, as outlined in our User Agreement, PayPal does not guarantee recovery of disputed funds."

I used Discover Card to make the PayPal purchase and their dispute department was quite at the ready to inform me that PayPal's User Agreement protects Discover Card and PayPal quite completely. I cancelled both accounts because this is exactly what gives internet merchandising a bad name. If the companies that facilitate business on the internet protect themselves first and the consumer last, then they are killing the goose that is laying the golden egg. Consumers, through time, will gravitate to those companies that protect the consumer first. That's why I use CCNow for payment processing in all 8 of my websites. Sometimes they are a hassle to deal with but the reasons for those hassles almost always have to do with security protecting the consumer. Our opinion, NEVER PATRONIZE ANY VENDOR USING PAYPAL!

There are many websites that deal with how PayPal is mucking up the online merchandising industry. Horror stories abound at: http://paypalsuit.com. Another informative site is: http://www.paypalsucks.com. Paypalwarning.com states, "WARNING: Your PayPal account can be frozen at any time, without advance notice leaving you without your money for weeks (if not forever), and there isn't much you can do about it. Paypal is currently being investigated by regulatory authorities in three states!" Caveat Emptor! Buyer Beware!