I’ve been using credit cards for almost everything for all of my adult life. I have had exactly one instance of fraud on one of my credit cards: someone bought a $500 “all natural playhouse” (I’m not sure what this is) with my American Express card via PayPal two years ago.
Also too: do we need a PayPal category for posts here?
Omnes Omnibus
Au naturel? Interesting.
Mark S.
Sounds pretty kinky.
funluvn
I believe that “all natural playhouse” is more of an interesting category that PayPal. It allows the mind to consider the possible uses for an all natural playhouse among friends, while PayPal just sounds like a hooker with very fringe benefits.
DougJ
@Mark S.:
It’s not my bag, baby.
mr. whipple
Were you still in the GOP at the time, hmmm?
beltane
My 70 year old mother made the mistake of using her debit card for a PayPal purchase and was rewarded for her naivete by having her bank account hacked. What’s worse is that my husband thinks PayPal is perfectly secure and that this incident was unique to my mother.
Dead Ernest
Damn!
I thought I was going to be clever with this and all four of you were already here with comments similar to where my mind went. Sure, I’ll blame the culture at large.
Corner Stone
@DougJ: “One book, “All Natural Playhouses And Me: This Sort of Thing Is My Bag Baby”, by DougJ.
Jules
I make a living online and use paypal and Cole’s problems with them scare the fuck out of me.
I can’t afford to take credit cards on my own, but I’s be fucked if I ever lost the ability to use my paypal account.
Ugh.
But right now the bane of my existence is fucking Steam.com.
Sons account has been hijacked, they DO NOT have any kind of customer service number so you have to just wait around (for days) for them to respond to your issue via email.
What kind of company has no customer service phone number to call.
The Raven
Try “banking, regulation thereof and criminal conduct without.”
Croak!
The Raven
Oh, BTW New York AG’s press release on settlement with PayPal. Texas AG’s press release.
Text of consent decree.
It really is time for John to contact his state AG.
Not my usual name
I’m working as a subcontractor right now for a company that is trying to integrate PayPal into our payment system. It has been an fcuking nightmare. Their API doesn’t behave as specified, and just when we’re making progress, they stop talking to us. But then they fix the API bug and don’t tell us!
Our other payment system is Amazon Payments, and that has it’s quirks, but it hasn’t been anything like the stupid hoops we need to jump through for PayPal. (It took us over 4 weeks just be certified as a valid vendor, for instance)
Punchy
Starring Jenna Jameson, right?
Capri
My daughter sold something on Ebay and had the payment sent to my Paypal account. Unfortunately, about 5 years had elapsed since I had last used Paypal and in that time I had moved, changed phone number and address, and forgot the password. I had also wised up and dumped AOL, although according to Paypal’s records my email address was [email protected].
Having them email me my password didn’t work because the email address they had on file was dead and they couldn’t/wouldn’t use another. I finally got through and they were going to verify that it was me by calling the phone number they had on file. Unfortunately, that number was now owned by the local Moe’s Mexican Restaurant. So as soon as I got off the phone with Paypal, I called Moe’s, asked for the manager, and then asked her to say she knew who I was when PayPal called and to take down my password. She blew me off, and I can’t say I blame her. I then mailed them the request and about 6 weeks later was able to access the account and get my daughter her money.
Good times….
Tim O
Here’s the top brass at paypal:
https://www.paypal-media.com/management.cfm
Seeley
My credit cards get hacked all the time — like about 3 times a year. (I don’t know why. I use them online a lot, but only at sites that are secure.) One nice thing is that the credit card companies have gotten extremely good at tracking down and catching fraudulent charges. They have some kind of algorithm that is pretty darn good! Another nice thing is that I never have the slightest problem with getting them to believe that a charge isn’t mine. So… no cost to me.
Getting a card canceled can be a real pain though. The last time it happened to me was two weeks ago while I was on vacation in London. Good thing I took more than one card!
Seeley
Oh, and regarding PayPal, I had an old, rarely used business account that I tried to close. It’s been 3 years now, and they still won’t let go of my $600.
Corner Stone
@Seeley:
Umm, I think I’ve detected why your cards keep getting hacked.
Comrade Luke
On the phone with their tech support now, trying to get them to delete my credit card. It says there’s a pending transaction, but that card is expired and hasn’t been used in ages…
And…success!
I don’t really know what to do. I despise these guys, but they’re the only game in town. Hardly anyone uses Google Checkout.
catclub
@Corner Stone:
I think many of the card systems now allow you to generate
one-time and limited (both time and value) use credit card numbers from your
‘real’ credit card number.
A friend tells me it might be useful when that pron site only wants a dollar on your credit card for access.
You might want to look into that.
tjlabs
I’ll go you one better. I have avoided using PayPal like the plague (which is what it is). The one and only time that I was forced to use PayPal on some obscure website, I used my Amex for the actual payment. I was notified shortly thereafter by the company I was attempting to purchase something from that the charge had been declined. I called Amex to find out what the problem was and their representative informed that Amex automatically declined payment via PayPal as there has been so much fraud.
bleh
Well, you’re #1 for “paypal worst,” and you’re near the top of the second page for “paypal company,” but you’re not even in the top 10 pages for “paypal.”
Sorry, gonna have to keep bombing away.
Grrrowler
And on the left side of the blog is a link to “Donate via PayPal”. Oh, the irony.
SLCbearcat
I think pretty clearly you need a “worst company in the world” tag. You could get some mileage out of that, given the way business act these days.
Regnad Kcin
Paypal DIAF!!!!!!
Madeline
@Jules: Google. My Gmail account got stolen 2 months ago and their account recovery “process” is possibly the most ridiculous thing I have ever experienced. There is no human being you can talk to at all – it’s all automated.
After filling out their silly form and being rejected 12 times, I gave up. Will never, ever use Gmail again.
quaint irene
I sell small pieces of art on eBay. Knock on wood, I haven’t had any problems with PayPal. (Knocking on wood an extra two or three times.)
Course we’re talking about not a lot of money, and any balance that accumulates I immediately withdraw to my checking account.
But it’s still hard to believe that after all these years there’s no viable alternative to PayPal.
JGabriel
DougJ:
Something more broad, maybe Corporations: Stupid AND Evil.
That way you can use it for both PayPal and Verizon. And Comcast too. And most of Wall Street.
.
SciVo
So alternatives mentioned include Amazon Payments and Google Checkout. Anyone else?
Resident Firebagger
@quaint irene:
But does PayPal have your checking account number?
I have some things I’ve been meaning to sell on eBay, and PayPal is reasons nos. 1, 2 and 3 that I’ve yet to go down that road.
Keith G
this is a moderation test
twat