Re: PayPal freezes $20K worth of relief donations

Dhakala wrote: 
Kris Baker wrote:

"Angrie.Woman" <Angrie.Woman@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Kris Baker wrote:

"Angrie.Woman" <Angrie.Woman@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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Kris Baker. wrote:


"TyMeDwn1st" <TyMeDwn1st@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 21:53:35 GMT, "Kris  Baker"
<kris.baker@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


"Dhakala" <NoPoliticalCalls@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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http://theinquirer.net/?article=25915

There's a link in the article that leads to the whole sorry story. 



I forgot to mention:   Something Awful set up their own PayPal
account for people to fund, rather than having people contribute
directly to the Red Cross...per the story.
Sending money to an email address doesn't mean that it's a
charitable, tax-deductible donation.




That's a major sticking point, too, since it also means there's no
accountability.

--
Ty




....exactly the kind of situation we're supposed to watch out for
right now.

Anyone want to bet how long it'll take for this to turn up on one
of the anti-PayPal sites?


You have to admit their demand for shipping information was nonsensical.

A 


Sounded to me like a "donor" was screwing with them and sent in a
complaint that he'd paid $xx.xx and not received the item (which, in
this case, could be the tax deductible receipt needed to declare the
charitable contribution on his taxes).

Has PayPal changed the requirement that payments are limited
to tangible goods?


They did just introduce an e-media policy, but that's hardly applicable in
this instance.

Are you saying that Paypal is only supposed to be used for buying things?
I did not know they had that policy. If it's true, they are indeed idiots.
I thought it was to be used for sending money.  What is the "quasi-cash"
selection for? Also, isn't there a "services" selection?

Lots of charities collect via PayPal - are they all in violation? Their
receipts are e-receipts.

A 

Charities do...and so do non-charities.  But I doubt this one's
registered.  (A point I forgot to mention.)   Setting up an email
address to "collect" money isn't going to pass muster.

Kris 


Y'all seem to misunderstand the situation.

Something Awful is an online community of people who know and trust
each other. The site operator put up a PP donation button just like a
bartender might put a mason jar on the counter. He didn't go out
seeking money from gullible strangers.

The site owner collected mailing addresses for a good reason:

"As I wrote before, I was using Paypal to gather all donors' addresses
to send them free merchandise, merchandise I paid for and I was going
to ship out with my own money, to reward them for donating."

Kris, PayPal has never limited payments to tangible goods. It limits
buyer and seller protection coverage to tangible goods.

PayPal froze the account just because donations came in too fast,
leaving PP with significant exposure to potential chargebacks. PP
punishes ANY user who is too successful too quickly. It's policy is
"freeze first, ask questions later, and take your sweet fucking time
because it aint your money that's frozen."

The site owner has been incredibly patient throughout this PITA. He's
faxed PayPal all the documentation it demanded. He offered to let
PayPal funnel all the donations to the Red Cross. PP responded that it
can only send money to United Way. But many donors on the site have
objected to United Way.

The site owner is now refunding all donations (and recovering his PP
fees), and washing his hands of PayPal. He now has a link to the Red
Cross on his site.

http://www.somethingawful.com/

The guy and his site patrons tried to do something nice. PayPal dicked
it up for them. Yay, PayPal!


And again I say : "You have to admit their demand for shipping information was nonsensical" - no matter what the reason for PayPal's decision to snatch the money.

A
.