Paypal sucks!

Basic transaction fees are as advertised.

Signup/Account Establishment Fee:

There is a one-time set-up fee of $49.

Transaction Fees:

2CO applies a 5.5% commission on each transaction, plus a $0.45 charge per transaction.

Additional Penalties and Fees:

If you elect to pay the sign up fee via the check or PayPal method and we do not receive the funds, a manual adjustment can be made for the $49.00 plus a $25.00 manual processing fee from the current balance on the account.

Depending upon your funding selection, you can experience wire transfer costs. Additional fees can be applied for unsuccessful funding transfers, should the information provided to 2CO prove to be erroneous.

Should you elect to be paid by check, and fail to receive one via first-class mail, you can elect to pay applicable stop-payment fees in order to have the payment reissued in advance.

Chargeback (Bank Assisted Dispute) experience can also result in fees passed along to you. We strongly encourage all contracted suppliers to assist in combating credit card fraud in order to minimize or eliminate fees of this type. Fees can vary depending upon utilization experienced by various suppliers.

Ouch! $45 setup fee and 5.5% plus $0.45 on each transaction. Cha-ching!

That seems a little steep for me. I guess my alternatives are Clickbank and Amazon Honor System.

Clickbank fees are –

a one-time $49.95 activation charge that must be paid upon approval of your first product and I believe transaction charges similar to paypal’s but I’m not positive and am having trouble verifying that through Clickbank’s website.

Amazon Honor System fees are – $0.30 per transaction plus about 29% of total transaction price.

I could try to fire up Google Checkout but the last time I checked they had made that more and more complicated.

In view of the complete lack of assistance from Paypal in this regard and
the gravity of the problems, we have decided that we have no option but to
inform you, our members, about the facts of the situation. This will allow
you to make an informed decision about whether to use (or whether to
continue to use) Paypal.

Please note that these problems have been ongoing since 15 May and may
arise not only in relation to payments made to StatCounter but in relation
to ANY Paypal payments that you make. We hope that our communications will
equip you with the information necessary to make sure that YOU do not
become another victim of this ongoing Paypal saga.

The two major issues affecting StatCounter Paypal subscribers are:

- Delayed issuing of invoices
- Instances of double billing

At StatCounter we have tried phoning, emailing, posting on the Paypal
forums… Many of our contacts are ignored, but even when we do get an
answer all we are told is that “Upon review of your account, unfortunately
we do not have a time frame for a resolution to your issue we are currently
actively investigating your issue with subscriptions.”

Folks – we sincerely regret any problems you are experiencing and assure
you that we are doing our best to get all of these issues resolved for you.
We strive to offer a high level of customer service and pride ourselves on
being responsive to the needs and suggestions of our members. To have our
hands “tied” in this way as a result of Paypals inaction is frustrating to
say the least.

We would be very grateful for your patience at this time as we wait for
Paypal to resolve these issues.

We would also ask you to be patient with any of our fellow internet
merchants experiencing difficulties with Paypal at this time.

For further information or to post a question or a comment, please visit
our blog.

http://blog.statcounter.com/?p=88

She is asking for $1.00 from everyone who watches her video. She is accepting payment through paypal.com. Problem is – in addition to the lawyers, paypal is likely to be the big winner.

Here are paypal’s fees for transactions ranging from $0 to $3000 USD – 2.9% + $0.30 USD.

So if you donate a buck to Trisha Walsh-Smith – $0.33 goes to paypal.com

Thank you for contacting PayPal, Hello my name is Ferdie, I am sorry to
hear about the situation regarding $30 fee and understand your
frustration and concern over this issue. I will be happy to assist you
with your questions.

If you don’t want to be charge for a $30.00 fee every month you can
cancel that billing agreement to virtual terminal and you don’t need to
downgrade to a personal account. If you are considering canceling your
Website Payments Pro or Virtual Terminal account, the following features
will be canceled:

· Direct Payment Application Programming Interface (API) for your
website.

· Risk Controls

If you still want to cancel your PayPal Payments Pro or Virtual Terminal
account, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your account at https://www.paypal.com/.

2. Click “Profile” at the top of the page.

3. Click “PayPal Monthly Billing” or “Pay List” in the Financial
Information column.

4. Click to select the agreement you want to cancel, and then click
“Cancel Agreement.”

5. To confirm the cancellation, click “Cancel Agreement” again.

I would like to let you know that you are valuable to us, and it is
important for me to help you resolve your concern. If in case you feel
that this information / instructions are inadequate, please don’t
hesitate to contact our Community Support Agents at 1-402-935-2050/
1-888-221-1161 and we would be delighted to further assist you
regarding your immediate concern.

We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this matter, and
wish you continued success on PayPal. Rest assured that we are
committed to making your experiences at PayPal pleasant and rewarding.

On March 31, 2008, someone purchased an online legal form (lease) from me for $3.99. Today, I receive the following:

An unauthorized account activity claim was recently filed against the following transaction:

Buyer’s Name: Jennifer H
Buyer’s Email: jrh—@h——.com
Buyer’s Transaction ID: 3YS937020Y699183S

Transaction Date: Mar 31, 2008
Transaction Amount: -$3.99 USD
Your Transaction ID: 3YS937020Y699183S
Case Number: PP-449-264-543

Seller’s Transaction ID: 1RB15459AR320452B

To complete our investigation, you must provide additional information
within the next seven days. Please log in to your PayPal account at
https://www.paypal.com and go to the Resolution Center to view the details
of this case. You will have the opportunity to enter any details or
information regarding this case which will help PayPal investigate the
matter fully.

Thanks for your cooperation through this process. We are continuing to work
to ensure that PayPal is secure for all users.

Sincerely,

PayPal
Account Review Department

So here are my options from Paypal:

Issue the buyer a full refund. (If you have not yet shipped the item to the buyer, selecting this option will settle the claim.)

I can provide tracking information. (Because it can prove that the item was shipped to the account holder’s address, this information can determine the validity of the claim.)

The buyer has already been refunded and I can provide proof of the previous refund.

PayPal will review the information and determine whether the claim can be closed.

Thank you for your cooperation.

So the buyer didn’t leave an address so I can’t print off the electronic file and send it to her and thus provide tracking info. So I’m just left with refunding the money as my only option. How do I know that the buyer isn’t being honest?

He tried the same to me but I had Payloadz’s price checking feature turned on so that product delivery to him did not occur. I told him that I thought it would be funny to buy his product for a penny; send him a bunch of emails complaining about the product; and then request a refund for the full price.

photo credit: gutter

I did some searching to see if I could force an echeck on him but it doesn’t appear that that is controlled in the Buy Now button code. I was able to change some of the code and deactivate his product delivery system (at least for my order alone). Anyhow, it was a good lesson in being aware of what’s out there so you don’t lose a few sales to thieves.

There are still several problems with the hack. If the hacker pays with his paypal account or credit card, he has divulged his identity. Who’s going to ship a product if they only receive payment of a penny? It appears the hacker would have to steal someone’s credit card to pull it off and remain anonymous but what’s the point? He’d only be doing a favor to the cardholder by charging a penny per product. I wouldn’t even dignify this little trick by calling it a hack. It’s pretty brainless. In the end, it’s a good argument for encrypting your Buy Now buttons.

I hope you got that. If not, back up and read it again. An echeck usually takes THREE TO FOUR BUSINESS DAYS to clear. What are business days? They are days other than weekends and holidays. So your paypal echeck could take 7 days to clear if you add in a three day weekend.

I received another related question. When should I ship the product if I receive an echeck?

When the echeck clears – is the right answer.

Here’s another related question. How does this affect the buyer?

The buyer will be very unhappy to wait because they think that an echeck is an instantaneous transfer of money. If you get such a buyer, refer him/her to my ALLCAPS bold statement above.

Thankyou and have a nice day

photo credit: brykmantra

The point is – does your website’s survival hang on the whims of Google and Paypal? Do they control the sources of income to your website? What if Google or Paypal just cuts you off? It can happen. It’s already happened to many others. Google and Paypal are dictatorships. If they drop you, you really have no appeal. If you violate their nebulous terms of service, you’re out of luck. Bye bye! Have a nice life!

You need to establish alternate sources of income. Do not rely strictly upon adsense or solely upon paypal payment processing. Have a backup plan for paypal and a means of other income besides adsense. Institute these plans now so you’re not caught in a lurch and losing a few days of sales because paypal gave you the boot.

I use Clickbank for payment processing on this website. I’ve also set up alternate sources of income besides adsense by selling my own ebook and joining affiliate programs through ejunkie.com. There are plenty of income sources for bloggers out there. Do yourself a favor and diversify early.

photo credit: hunterseakerhk

How do paypal echecks work? THEY ARE NOT INSTANTANEOUS TRANSFERS OF MONEY! That’s how they don’t work! An echeck is a transfer of money that takes 3-4 BUSINESS days to clear. Pretty much like a real check except even slower. And guess what? I’ve had a few echecks that have gone bad. How? The only thing I can figure is there wasn’t any money in the account when the echeck tried to clear. I believe that you have to initially have the money in the account at time of purchase but nothing stops you from draining your account before the clearance occurs.

I’ve been burned by this a few times. Usually, it’s such a small amount that it’s not worth pursuing. So I just eat the loss.

You can control whether you accept echecks on paypal as well. Log in to paypal>my account>profile>payment receiving preferences>block the following payments – Pay with eCheck for website and Smart Logo payments, or German bank transfer for all website payments except eBay.

Or you can accept them by not checking the box.

I’ll have to do some digging but I have been able to allow automatic and instantaneous delivery of products paid with echeck through payloadz or paypal. Okay, correction here. I don’t think that I’ve ever been able to allow automatic and instantaneous delivery of digital products paid with echeck. I believe that I simply emailed them the download link after receiving notification of the pending echeck. Call me an idiot. I believe the default is that payloadz will not send the product until payment clears.

Of course this pisses off a lot of people who want the product now hence the echeck nightmare. The echeck nightmare is the backlash I get from the idiots who paid with an echeck and don’t understand that it takes 3-4 BUSINESS days to clear and, or course, they want their product yesterday. “I need it now.” “Paypal is instantaneous.” “You’re ripping me off.” I got tired of dealing with the few pissed off people who can’t pay with a credit card so I just blocked all future echeck payments.

You can refund an echeck payment that hasn’t cleared by simply going to the details of the transaction and scrolling to the bottom of the page and hitting refund. Do you risk the double burn of refunding the payment and the echeck not clearing? That’s a question to which I don’t know the answer.

Buyers cannot stop payment on an echeck but they can drain their account as described above.

My advice – don’t put yourself through the headache for a few extra sales. Block echeck payments from the start.

Update: further research reveals that you might be able to cancel an echeck afterall:

1. Click theMy Account tab.
2. Click the History subtab.
3. Click Cancel in the Action column of the transaction in question.
4. Click Cancel Payment.
5. You have successfully canceled the payment.