Paypal Blackmailing Customers

LowCarbTNPer

TCLynx wrote:

I wish there was a way to have paypal block where I sell things. It turns out if I don't ship and haven't set up any shipping rules to certain countries, paypal still lets people from there buy things but doesn't charge them shipping and then I have to get the customer to talk to me about shipping and if they are willing to pay it (if it is even something I can ship to them) and then I have to charge them for the shipping and get paid for it before I can ship and some customers never open their e-mail so this can sometimes be a real pain.

You should get a shopping cart / checkout system, it will do the calculations for you instead of using PayPal buttons. That'll let you integrate other payment systems too like Google Checkout (which I think they renamed Google Wallet).

For credit cards, there are companies that offer web-based virtual terminals that use a fixed percentage like PayPal (higher percentage for international cards). For online stores that is very viable, but you have to copy/paste the customers info manually into the web form instead of total integration where it's automatic. It saves you a lot because there no extra hidden fees and garbage.

Stuart Chignell

Joel I've been thinking about your situation with Paypal.

The perosn buying stuff of your website is your customer while you are Paypal's customer. Since in your transactions with Paypal you are the customer it may be worth talking to the Consumer Affairs http://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/ . Alternatively you could enquire with the financial regulator ASIC .

SuperVeg

Journeyman wrote:

Um... does anyone actually believe we have a majority rules society? Serious question. We elect a bunch of folks based on who gets most votes, but the level of manipulation involved makes it unlikely the majority actually have any understanding of what they are electing.

Then once they get in they operate according ONLY to what their party says. And those who get in but aren't in the majority party promptly drop all their promises and policies and instead act as a handbrake on anything the majority party tries to do - even when it is exactly what they were pushing in the first place.

Not only does the majority not have any say in how things are run, the parties are not being run according to anything the people want anyway, except where it incidentally provides an avenue for the Corporations and lobby groups behind the Govt to make profits or get the things they lobby for.

An example - FOI. Freedom of Information. Supposed to be a bill to let us all be able to see what goes on and is kept in files. Except what it REALLY was had more to do with passing into law the right for govts to withhold information from The People at the discretion of the govt. Prior to that the govt had no such right - they were servants of the People and if a member of the People demanded to see something there was no legal right for ANY bureaucrat or govt rep to refuse them.

Now there is.

And even when you manage to get documents from them, they are so redacted as to be mostly useless.

Govt by the majority? Not bloody likely.

And Democracy is flawed - just like a jury, there is no justification for the idea that many people might be more right than one person. The War on Terror should be enough of an example that a Democracy can be fooled and misled into committing terror acts against other nations.

You make a good point Journeyman, and to some degree you are correct.
You could say we are actually ruled by a privileged minority. A minority with the monopoly over the use of force. Democracy is just a big popularity contest.

However, while we are ruled by this privileged minority, they cannot for instance suddenly try to ban junk food or increase taxes to 80%.
They could try, however there would be such an opposition to these laws that they would be forced to retract.

The govt can only implement such laws that the general population support (or not care enough about to do anything about)

This is why you cannot go to a country and shove democracy on to them, real changes ultimately come from the people.

However I do believe that it is possible to slowly implement a small policy after small policy and end up a long way from where you started.

Journeyman

RupertofOZ wrote:

I agree with your sentiments Journeyman.... but in many ways it does come down to us.. the people...

We have allowed, condoned, blessed... and consented to the stupidity of a two party political system... which essentially divides the country into a 50:50 split.. usually/initially/stupidly... based on obscure old philosophical/political ideologoies... that none of us ever really understood in the first place... didn't bloody relly care less about... and have basically forgotten about... other than the continuing "belief" that one side stands for "this"... and the other for "that"...

When in fact neither, as you say.. stands for this or that... and in modern times... stands for nothing other than their own self justification.. and re-election...

If democracy is dying... it's because we have/are allowing it to die...

+1

But there is more to it than that. Back in the late 1800's there were changes made to Education that have, over the intervening decades, steadily decreased the creativity and actual learning of students. Now if is mandated that children have to attend schools - where home schooling is allowed at all it takes extraordinary efforts to get permission to do so.

For easily accessible language and information, have a read of Charlotte Thompson-Iserbyt's "The Dumbing Down of America" or John Taylor Gatto's "Challenging the Myths of Modern Schooling" or other works - he's got a new one coming called "Weapons of Mass Instruction"

The lack of ability to rationally understand the political or financial systems is no accident nor just a result of our laziness - it is a deliberately calculated strategy on the part of some very powerful families/groups.

Journeyman

SuperVeg wrote:

However I do believe that it is possible to slowly implement a small policy after small policy and end up a long way from where you started.

See my post above about (mis)Education - it is exactly the process followed to prevent the People from understanding what is being done to them.

earthbound

Can't be bothered though Stuart, no sense in beating my head against the wall trying to fight them, better off just side stepping around them and going a different way.

TC I see your using wordpress, have you thought about using an ecommerce plugin rather than just the paypal buttons? We use Woocommerce, it's a free plugin and you manage all your products within the back end of wordpress along with customer details, orders, etc.. It can all still work with paypal, but you set the mailout details and freight costs within wordpress, it's just the payment that happens through paypal. It's Far easier than selling directly using paypal to do all that side..

This is how you set who buys what in the way of countries as well, it's all part of the plug in settings.. There are heaps of other e-commerce plugins, another good one I tried for a little while was shopp, it was pretty easy..

At least you can wrestle back control of the basic stuff like freight from paypal and control it all yourself.

nebbian

If you need a payment gateway system (mastercard/visa/etc) integrated with your shop then contact me, we do this for clients all the time.

TCLynx

earthbound wrote:

TC I see your using wordpress, have you thought about using an ecommerce plugin rather than just the paypal buttons? We use Woocommerce, it's a free plugin and you manage all your products within the back end of wordpress along with customer details, orders, etc.. It can all still work with paypal, but you set the mailout details and freight costs within wordpress, it's just the payment that happens through paypal. It's Far easier than selling directly using paypal to do all that side..

This is how you set who buys what in the way of countries as well, it's all part of the plug in settings.. There are heaps of other e-commerce plugins, another good one I tried for a little while was shopp, it was pretty easy..

At least you can wrestle back control of the basic stuff like freight from paypal and control it all yourself.

Thanks for the tips, when I have some time again I'll check into it some more. I did some searching for plugins to do it a while back and all the free ones I looked into were either really limited (like you could only have 5-10 products) or I found trying to integrate them problematic at the time and finally gave up and stayed with the paypal buttons.

digitalcrunch

Paypal does this crap to everyone, not just you.

I only get a few hundred dollars per month from various sales into paypal, but I spend it asap and keep my account near zero so there is nothing to freeze.

They did this once to me before and I learned from that! Sadly, they are still the easiest way for most of my customers to pay me on subscriptions, so I still use them.

LowCarbTNPer

I don't know about AUS, but in the US PayPal is basically essential for the internet. Your only real viable options are directly taking credit cards and PayPal.
The only other thing that has any traction is Google Checkout/Wallet, but I still get 10+ PayPals for every Google Checkout.

One nice option in PayPal is Auto Sweep, if you turn it on any PayPal balance you have will be automatically withdrawn to your bank account every night. It's a secret option though so you have to call them to get them to turn it on in your account.

rsevs3

LowCarbTNPer wrote:

One nice option in PayPal is Auto Sweep, if you turn it on any PayPal balance you have will be automatically withdrawn to your bank account every night. It's a secret option though so you have to call them to get them to turn it on in your account.

The piece of info is a Gem. That one is going straight to the memory banks. Scuse the pun

fowlken

I don't think you would be much happier with a payment gateway. The rule is basically if a cardholder disputes, the burden to prove the transaction is legitimate is on the merchant. This usually means the merchant loses. Especially if the merchant ships quickly.
As a merchant connected to a processor it also means you become a target for people wanting to verify bulk card numbers, so security becomes a bigger concern.

Stuart Chignell

The thing with not bothering to fix problems is that they then don't get fixed.

From a customer point of view I have nothing but praise for Paypal but that is because I am honest.

I recently bought a lot of tools off ebay which had been described as in good condition. When I got them some of them were in good condition but about half were nackered. After a series of messages with the seller I got half my money back.

For me that is fine. I was sold items reported to be in good condition half were not give me my refund but Paypal didn't ask for detailed photos showing the damage. They took my word for it.

I suppose they keep records of the number of times people claim for a refund and if someone was repeatedly claiming refunds denying a claim. Would they go back and offer respective repayments?

SuperVeg

Does the seller get penalized for multiple refunds issued against them ?

Boris01

not accepting Bitcoin yet Joel ??

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Paypal Blackmailing Customers

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