PayPal Horror Stories
After last week I have even more empathy for Seth Godin after Paypal seized his account. I recently had my biggest client bounce a rather large check. Being paid on time and paying other people on time is one of the biggest challenges I face. That’s why as an affiliate a lot of us like Commission Junction – they pay monthly and they collect so you don’t have to. Plus no invoicing. Not only did this check cause my account to go in the red, but it emptied my business savings instantly. Needless to say last week was stressful. But I’m not the only one who has things like this happen.
I thought of going to Paypal only because at least it almost guarantees the money is there. But after reading this I’m not sure that’s the best solution either.
Seth wrote about his bad experience trying to get his account back. I wish he put more detail about other’s dealings with Paypal (this is definitely a time when I wish he accepted comments). I wonder how Google Checkout compares or how it will evolve.
What solutions have you found to this problem? Have you had bad experiences with Paypal?
—— Burning through your cell phone minutes? I use Skype… ——
4 Responses to “PayPal Horror Stories”
Leave a Reply
December 3rd, 2007 at 9:04 pm
I have used both Paypal and Google Checkout, Paypal charges high fees and lousy customer service. If you are a buyer they protect you, but if you are a seller they make you suffer. One time a buyer reported it was a fraudulent charge, even though he received it and left a feedback, I even had a tracking number. Still Paypal withheld my funds for more than 5 months.
With Google Checkout, I have been using it for more than a year, so far no problems, they clear the payments right on time and transfer the funds to the bank. Throughout the year 2007, they haven’t charged any seller fees, so I saved quite a bit of money. Even when they start charging it is only 2% of total sale + $0.20. If Ebay doesn’t monopolize Paypal, everyone would love to use Google Checkout.
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:00 pm
Sorry to hear about the bounced check. It is amazing that, in our information age, we still can’t trust that the money in our account is in our account. I pretend the money in my bank account doesn’t exist until its been there for a couple of weeks.
BTW, you are dead on about the improvement that occurred in affiliate marketing with the consolidated payments. Prior to consolidated payments, I was losing about 15% of my affiliate to companies going bankrupt. Even worse, I kept falling for bait and switch deals. In these schemes, my affiliate income would pop up to right below the payment threshold in the first couple hundred clicks, but would miraculously never cross the threshold in the thousands of clicks to follow.
The inability to trust people was really killing the industry. Consolidated payments with clearly defined cut off dates have dramatically improved the industry.
Without trust, our economy will fall apart.
December 4th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Phil Windley had some big ussues with PayPal last week: http://www.windley.com/archives/2007/11/paypal_really_makes_me_mad.shtml .
December 5th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
I’ve had bad experiences with paypal too! I use the UK version of the service, but it seems just as bad! I get my account limited around once a month! Amazingly it always seems to happen when i have over £400 in my account and try to withdraw it to my account. Paypal then decide in their wisdom that they should reverse the money! They are scary!
Anyway I switched to googlecheckout when James D Brausch recommended it and it became available in the UK! So much better and more reliable!