Post by thread:[OT] PayPal

Here's what I'd heard about Paypal from someone who probably has it right (a heavy EBay seller): Paypal was a cocky young company with a small group of owners that for a coupla years thought they owned the world. They were holding an entire $10000 account hostage for a $2 lost package. It was absurd, but they kept it up because they were making incredible extra money on interest by literally stealing account-holders' money. Suddenly the Feds began to see what was happening, and were very VERY close to indicting Paypal officials with FRAUD- and if they did, there is no question- it would stick. Out of the blue came EBay, awash with cash, sensing the impending catastrophe (a loss of Paypal would hurt them badly as well). Ebay made an immediate offer to buy Paypal and clean it up. And that's what happened. The bad guys lost power and a couple got fired, but no jail time, and no bad publicity. And the Feds are watching very closely...I doubt that the crazy heady days of yore will happen again at Paypal. That's my take. --Bob Gerhard Fiedler wrote: {Quote hidden}>James Newton, Host wrote: > > > >>The $2 are on their way to you via PayPal. Sorry about that. >> >> > >What experiences with or thoughts about PayPal do you guys have? There are >a couple of sites out there that tell kind of scary stories (just google >for "paypal" :). > >OTOH, it seems to be one of the more convenient ways to work around the >deficiencies of the US banking system. > >Gerhard > > -- Note: To protect our network, attachments must be sent to spam_OUTattachTakeThisOuTengineer.cotse.net . 1-866-263-5745 USA/Canada http://beam.to/azengineer

To add to what Bob wrote, if you look back at Paypal's *original* business model you'll discover they were originally just looking to make money "off the float"...in fact, making this promise to early customers.....then *bam* transaction fees and all the other silliness started. -marc Bob Axtell wrote: {Quote hidden}> Here's what I'd heard about Paypal from someone who probably has it > right (a heavy EBay seller): > > Paypal was a cocky young company with a small group of owners > that for a coupla years thought they owned the world. They were > holding an entire $10000 account hostage for a $2 lost package. > It was absurd, but they kept it up because they were making incredible > extra money on interest by literally stealing account-holders' money. > > Suddenly the Feds began to see what was happening, and were very > VERY close to indicting Paypal officials with FRAUD- and if they did, > there is no question- it would stick. > > Out of the blue came EBay, awash with cash, sensing the impending > catastrophe (a loss of Paypal would hurt them badly as well). Ebay > made an immediate offer to buy Paypal and clean it up. > > And that's what happened. The bad guys lost power and a couple got fired, > but no jail time, and no bad publicity. > > And the Feds are watching very closely...I doubt that the crazy heady > days > of yore will happen again at Paypal. > > That's my take. > > --Bob > > Gerhard Fiedler wrote: > >> James Newton, Host wrote: >> >> >> >>> The $2 are on their way to you via PayPal. Sorry about that. >>> >> >> >> What experiences with or thoughts about PayPal do you guys have? >> There are >> a couple of sites out there that tell kind of scary stories (just google >> for "paypal" :). >> OTOH, it seems to be one of the more convenient ways to work around the >> deficiencies of the US banking system. >> Gerhard >> >> > >

Good story. Not too long ago I went to http://www.paypalsucks.com and read some posts about some pretty bad practices that still go on there. I also listened to a recording of a phone call of a customer with a paypal customer service rep. It was quite disturbing. I thought Paypal had cleaned up its act when Ebay bought them and I'm sure they are much better (you can actually call them and talk to them now) but they still do things like hijaak your entire account for things that don't make sense for extended periods of time. That is why I strictly use them to send money. I just don't trust them yet. Regards, FJ From: Bob Axtell <.....engineerKILLspam@spam@cotse.net> Here's what I'd heard about Paypal from someone who probably has it right (a heavy EBay seller): Paypal was a cocky young company with a small group of owners that for a coupla years thought they owned the world. They were holding an entire $10000 account hostage for a $2 lost package. It was absurd, but they kept it up because they were making incredible extra money on interest by literally stealing account-holders' money. Suddenly the Feds began to see what was happening, and were very VERY close to indicting Paypal officials with FRAUD- and if they did, there is no question- it would stick. Out of the blue came EBay, awash with cash, sensing the impending catastrophe (a loss of Paypal would hurt them badly as well). Ebay made an immediate offer to buy Paypal and clean it up. And that's what happened. The bad guys lost power and a couple got fired, but no jail time, and no bad publicity. And the Feds are watching very closely...I doubt that the crazy heady days of yore will happen again at Paypal. That's my take. --Bob Gerhard Fiedler wrote: {Quote hidden}>James Newton, Host wrote: > > > >>The $2 are on their way to you via PayPal. Sorry about that. >> >> > >What experiences with or thoughts about PayPal do you guys have? There are >a couple of sites out there that tell kind of scary stories (just google >for "paypal" :). > >OTOH, it seems to be one of the more convenient ways to work around the >deficiencies of the US banking system. > >Gerhard > > -- Note: To protect our network, attachments must be sent to attachKILLspamengineer.cotse.net . 1-866-263-5745 USA/Canada http://beam.to/azengineer

I've had no problems at all. Two of my clients likes to pay my services by paypal, and I bleed it down with a Paypal Master Charge card. --Bob fred jones wrote: {Quote hidden}> Good story. Not too long ago I went to http://www.paypalsucks.com and read > some posts about some pretty bad practices that still go on there. I > also listened to a recording of a phone call of a customer with a > paypal customer service rep. It was quite disturbing. I thought > Paypal had cleaned up its act when Ebay bought them and I'm sure they > are much better (you can actually call them and talk to them now) but > they still do things like hijaak your entire account for things that > don't make sense for extended periods of time. That is why I strictly > use them to send money. I just don't trust them yet. > Regards, > FJ > > From: Bob Axtell <.....engineerKILLspam.....cotse.net> > > Here's what I'd heard about Paypal from someone who probably has it > right (a heavy EBay seller): > > Paypal was a cocky young company with a small group of owners > that for a coupla years thought they owned the world. They were > holding an entire $10000 account hostage for a $2 lost package. > It was absurd, but they kept it up because they were making incredible > extra money on interest by literally stealing account-holders' money. > > Suddenly the Feds began to see what was happening, and were very > VERY close to indicting Paypal officials with FRAUD- and if they did, > there is no question- it would stick. > > Out of the blue came EBay, awash with cash, sensing the impending > catastrophe (a loss of Paypal would hurt them badly as well). Ebay > made an immediate offer to buy Paypal and clean it up. > > And that's what happened. The bad guys lost power and a couple got fired, > but no jail time, and no bad publicity. > > And the Feds are watching very closely...I doubt that the crazy heady > days > of yore will happen again at Paypal. > > That's my take. > > --Bob > > Gerhard Fiedler wrote: > >> James Newton, Host wrote: >> >> >> >>> The $2 are on their way to you via PayPal. Sorry about that. >>> >>> >> >> What experiences with or thoughts about PayPal do you guys have? >> There are >> a couple of sites out there that tell kind of scary stories (just google >> for "paypal" :). >> >> OTOH, it seems to be one of the more convenient ways to work around the >> deficiencies of the US banking system. >> >> Gerhard >> >> > > > -- > Note: To protect our network, > attachments must be sent to > EraseMEattachspam_OUTTakeThisOuTengineer.cotse.net . > 1-866-263-5745 USA/Canada > http://beam.to/azengineer > > --

In message <4240504E.4020201spam_OUTcotse.net> Bob Axtell <@spam@engineerKILLspamcotse.net> wrote: > I've had no problems at all. Two of my clients likes to pay my services > by paypal, and I bleed it down with a Paypal Master Charge card. Same here - I sell stuff on ebay and have been hacking away at a simple software-sales system for my website. Never had any problems with paypal at all. I do refuse to sell to some of the "usual suspects" though - basically anyone in Nigeria, China, Korea, basically anywhere that has high fraud rates. Call it "damage limitation". I insist that anything I sell that ends up selling for over £100 gets paid by some form of irrevocable payment method - bank transfer, postal order, etc. I was told that (in the UK at least) you can walk into any branch of the recipient's bank and initiate a transfer into their account using cash. Can anyone confirm this? I have been stung a few times when buying on ebay though - mostly with computer software. Even Amazon (Zshops?) seems to suffer from people selling pirated software. Take a look at the item listing for Photoshop CS, then look at all the people selling "CD and key only" copies without the CoA. Later. -- Phil. | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB, KILLspamphilpemKILLspamphilpem.me.uk | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slice, http://www.philpem.me.uk/ | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI ... There's nothing quite so wonderful as money

Gerhard Fiedler wrote: >Philip Pemberton wrote: > > > >>I was told that (in the UK at least) you can walk into any branch of the >>recipient's bank and initiate a transfer into their account using cash. Can >>anyone confirm this? >> >> > >In the USA it works this way. > >In Germany, you can transfer from your own account (at any bank) to anybody >else's account (at any bank), mostly without leaving your home at all -- >and without paying a dime. > >Gerhard > > It works like that in Sweden to. The currency conversion can have a cost though. A solution is to have more then one account that is noted in different currencies. We have for instance an account for Swedish Kronas, Norwegian Kronas and Euro for this purpose. Probably will add pounds sterling and US Dollars as well. Many of our customers use SWIFT/IBAN transfer which have a low cost in EU (around one euro in all countries in the union) and is also pretty low cost elsewhere. /Ake -- --- Ake Hedman (YAP - Yet Another Programmer) eurosource, Brattbergavägen 17, 820 50 LOS, Sweden Phone: (46) 657 413430 Cellular: (46) 73 84 84 102 Company home: http://www.eurosource.se Kryddor/Te/Kaffe: http://www.brattberg.com Personal homepage: http://www.eurosource.se/akhe Automated home: http://www.vscp.org

> In Germany, you can transfer from your own account (at any > bank) to anybody > else's account (at any bank), mostly without leaving your > home at all -- > and without paying a dime. And according to EC regulations you can do that among all countries that use the Euro. Your bank might not exactly encourage this, but they are required to provide a way to do this. Wouter van Ooijen -- ------------------------------------------- Van Ooijen Technische Informatica: http://www.voti.nl consultancy, development, PICmicro products docent Hogeschool van Utrecht: http://www.voti.nl/hvu

Wouter van Ooijen wrote: >> In Germany, you can transfer from your own account (at any bank) to >> anybody else's account (at any bank), mostly without leaving your home >> at all -- and without paying a dime. > > And according to EC regulations you can do that among all countries that > use the Euro. Your bank might not exactly encourage this, but they are > required to provide a way to do this. I wouldn't imagine otherwise :) But it's been some time since I did a lot of banking in Europe, so I'm not aware of the recent developments. I'm just again and again amazed that for things that 20 or even 40 years ago were easy, simple and cheap things to do in Germany (and supposedly most "free" European countries), they are still struggling to this day to find a decent solution in the USA. Gerhard