[Jukebox-list] Bad seller on ebaY

[etreble7]

Ray,
I also keep a seperate account for Paypal, I think that's most important, 
thanks for bringing that up!
Jackie


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ray Finch" <babylon at swcp.com>
To: "Jukebox mailing list" <jukebox-list at lists.netlojix.com>
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 3:03 AM
Subject: Re: [Jukebox-list] Bad seller on ebaY


>I have used Paypal for years - mostly to pay ebay sellers but also to
> receive money as well.  I have never had any problems with Paypal.
>
> The site does make some legitimate accusations about Paypal, namely that 
> it is not a bank and does not _legally_ have to follow federal banking 
> rules.  Thomas correctly points out that this site is trying to sell 
> credit card merchant accounts and so they likely are not completely 
> objective in their views about Paypal.
>
> Over the years the feds have tried to classify Paypal as a bank.  Each 
> time Paypal managed to avoid being forced to become a bank.  Paypal well 
> knows that with how big they have gotten, if they screw over a bunch of 
> people the feds may very well step in and "fix" things.  They really want 
> to avoid that.
>
> What this really comes from is a few years ago, before ebay bought them, 
> Paypal did screw over a bunch of people.  Nothing big or really sue-able 
> but it got a lot of people upset enough to swear off Paypal forever.  It 
> seems that Paypal was having some financial difficulties.  So, as I recall 
> what they did was to take $2.00 or $3.00 out of about 1,000,000 random 
> bank accounts.  This gave them a nice chunk of cash that costs them 
> nothing but their reputation.  Illegal, yes, but it's not like you can 
> really do much if a company steals $3.00 from you.
>
> Some basic facts:
>
>    Although Paypal does a number of banking-like functions, Paypal is not 
> bank and so is not regulated by the feds.
>
>    Paypal can deposit and remove any amount of money from the bank account 
> that you have registered with them at any time.  This is really not a bad 
> thing, in order for Paypal to function they have to have this capability.
>
>    When ebay bought them there were a number of changes made and Paypal 
> haven't been doing anything shady since.  If they did this would directly 
> affect ebay.
>
>    Paypal cannot tell how much money you have in your bank account.
>
>    The feds regulate the bank but not the third party.  If the third party
> does steal from you, short of closing the affected bank account there is
> not a lot you can do unless your bank has policies in place to protect 
> your account.
>
>    One of the ways that Paypal makes money is by charging a 3% fee for any
> transaction that evolves a credit card, but a good portion of the fee goes
> to the credit card company and not Paypal.
>
>    Unless you need to physically process credit cards (like in a retail 
> store environment) many businesses can have their customers process credit 
> card payments through Paypal and so really don't need an actual merchant 
> account.
>
>    Although it is rare that an account will get unauthorized access, when 
> you give out your bank account number (Paypal, pay by check, etc.) you 
> basically give free and complete access to that account to a third party.
>
>    With any financial transaction, at one point or another, there has to 
> be a certain amount of trust.  Dealing with Paypal is no exception.
>
> Although, like I said, I have never had any problems with Paypal I do have 
> a separate bank account just for on-line transactions.  At any one time 
> there is only enough money in that account to cover the on-line payment I 
> am making.  That way if someone did try to empty out the account they 
> would get very little or nothing.
>
> Ray
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, 9 Dec 2007, kegmaster wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 09:50:06 -0500 Roy Dean <roywdean at cox.net> wrote:
>>> Hi Gang: Just alittle issue about "EBAY" and "PAYPAL" Take a look at 
>>> this
>>> site in the link and read the horror stories and all the info about 
>>> "PAYPAL"
>>> and I think it is getting worse.
>>>
>>> http://www.paypalwarning.com/
>>
>>
>> Roy, I looked at the link, and I also know that there are legitimate 
>> complaints against Paypal, but this link looks little more to me than a 
>> blatent advertisement for a certain credit card service than anything 
>> else. Too many "name witheld" stories to give the stories any 
>> credibility. Give me a break- If a company screws me  out of my money, I 
>> will proudly give out my name as well as all other contact info 
>> (including phone #) for others to reach me so I can tell my story. This 
>> website kinda smells like misleading at best...
>>
>> Thomas
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