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Hi:
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For the last couple of days I've been looking around for reviews af paypal.com. I've found some and they are almost all bad? They all say they freeze your account for no reason and that they have poor customer service! Is this just BS or is there some truth to this? I you or anyone else that reads this have had a problem with paypal, either they've "stolen" your money or frozen your account I would be happy to hear about it before I start using them to take payments!
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I have never personally had any trouble with Paypal.
What you are seeing boils down to human nature. When someone is happily making money, they don't start a site called PaypalRocks.com. But if they are unhappy, they will start "paypal sucks" in a heartbeat.
You will find the same kind of complaints about almost every big company. For example, here's a page filled with nightmare stories about 2checkout.
http://www.webhostingtoolbox.com/details/67/119/
When you think about it logically, no payment company "wants" to freeze anyone's account and lose a customer. Keeping customers is what keeps them in business. Sometimes, though, it can not be avoided. Here is two examples.
Whose fault?
There is a fellow that sells tangible products that he ships to buyers. Just before he was leaving for a few days vacation, he got a good sized sale. He transferred the money to his bank account and went away. The buyer then emailed him a question. Of course, he was not at his computer, he was away. So he did not reply. The buyer emailed again. And again. For several days the buyer tried to contact him, but of course he was away. So the buyer freaked out thinking he'd sent money to someone that "disappeared" after taking his money. The buyer complained to ebay. Ebay went to do a refund and found the money had been all withdrawn. So, they froze the account. Then other buyers trying to buy got messages that "this account is frozen."
When the seller got back from being away, he returned to find that he had complaints from people that got the "account frozen" message. And his account was frozen. And his last buyer wanted a refund so he had a negative balance at paypal. He then started one of the "paypal hate sites" out there.
What about this one?
Joe Blow buys an ebook or membership at with Paypal. The site owner gets the money and Joe gets access to what he bought. Later, Paypal finds out that Joe Blow used a stolen credit card that was not reported as stolen until AFTER he used it. What does paypal have to do? They have to freeze the site owners account to make sure he can't take that money out until they straighten it out.
Did you know that the number one way credit card fraud happens is JUST like that? People steal credit cards offline and hurry to use them online before the "card stolen" reports get circulated. Many banks use systems that update at midnight, so they usually have at least a day (if not more) to use a stolen card.
Many times, if you read people's complaints and see past the anger, you can see that there was a problem that needed to be sorted out. Sometimes the site owner was part of the problem - and sometimes not.
The point is, there is risk everywhere. The only way to have no risk is to do nothing. When it comes to accepting payment, I still lean towards paypal simply because they are owned by ebay and are more likely to 'stick around' and cope with any problems that come along.
But, no matter WHO you use - it is important to read all their policies so you know you aren't violating any of them.
Hope that helps.
: )
Linda
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