PayPal vs. Others

I've read a lot of horror stories with Paypal, and I will admit I'm not a fan. The way they handle claims on both ends, the freezing of accounts horror stories, and not to mention their horrid user panel (my own bloody war with them). I can say I am definitely not a fan, especially with our past experiences with a scammer.

It's unnerving to me that everyone uses Paypal, and it's getting to the point where people ONLY accept Paypal.

What other reasonable options are out there? Google checkout is the only other things I've heard of.

How do you prefer to deal with buyers and sellers? Anyone as untrusting of Paypal as I am? Or am I paranoid? :oops:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

I've read a lot of horror stories with Paypal, and I will admit I'm not a fan. The way they handle claims on both ends, the freezing of accounts horror stories, and not to mention their horrid user panel (my own bloody war with them). I can say I am definitely not a fan, especially with our past experiences with a scammer.

It's unnerving to me that everyone uses Paypal, and it's getting to the point where people ONLY accept Paypal.

What other reasonable options are out there? Google checkout is the only other things I've heard of.

How do you prefer to deal with buyers and sellers? Anyone as untrusting of Paypal as I am? Or am I paranoid? :oops:

---

I'm doing a deal with somebody right now..... He will only accept money orders because of the whole paypal thing! I thought paypal was #1 until he told me some stories!

Scammers all over the place! YUK!

I have been using Paypal for years as a seller on Ebay and as a buyer.

I have opened 3 claims and they have all been resolved by Paypal who refunded my money.

There are good and bad stories everywhere but out of the millions of people that uses Paypal I am sure they only represent a minority.

I think the bottom line is definitely to know who you send your money to in the first place.

If you do have a problem and they do not satisfy your claim you still have recourse with your credit card company.

Note: The only thing I would never do is use Paypal to transfer money directly from my bank account to pay for goods.

That's true. I opened a paypal account a long time ago, back when I was fresh in highschool and I had a lot of good transactions, but the last one left a bad taste in my mouth.

I've been using Paypal for years as a buyer and a seller. I've been a part of the horror stories (account frozen for no real reason and a claim not coming out in my favor), but there aren't many alternatives. I have my accounts linked to it and pay for items with debits from my checking account mostly. Haven't had much problem there. For ease of use, I'll take the occasional bad with the mostly good.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Deborah

I have been using Paypal for years as a seller on Ebay and as a buyer.

I have opened 3 claims and they have all been resolved by Paypal who refunded my money.

There are good and bad stories everywhere but out of the millions of people that uses Paypal I am sure they only represent a minority.

I think the bottom line is definitely to know who you send your money to in the first place.

If you do have a problem and they do not satisfy your claim you still have recourse with your credit card company.

Note: The only thing I would never do is use Paypal to transfer money directly from my bank account to pay for goods.

---

I think Deborah makes a lot of good points here. If the horror stories made up anything close to a significant percentage of Paypal transactions, they would not remain as popular as they are.

I will add that I would only use Paypal with an actual credit card. Debit cards may seem like the same thing, but most of them do not have the same protections built in that a credit card has.

Also, I'd be at least slightly more hesitant to use Paypal as a seller than as a buyer. Buyers can research sellers much more easily than vice versa, and have some idea if the person they are dealing with is a "good guy" or not. And as long as the transaction goes the way it should, and/or any issues are resolved between the buyer and seller, then there is no need to worry about Paypal. But if a seller runs into problems with a buyer, and Paypal decides in favor of the buyer, then the seller has nothing like the credit card company to fall back on. So it does seem much more risky for the seller. Note: I've never used Paypal as a seller, so I'm just saying what seems to be true based on what I know about how it works.

I've been using PayPal for years as both a buyer and seller. My only minor issue happened years ago when I first started eBaying. In hindsight it was my n00b fault, so to speak. I bought an item for $10 from a guy with very low rep. He never sent it, so I tried to make a claim against him, but I was told that PayPal only issues claim tickets for items over $100. My bad luck. Other than that, I've had no issues what-so-ever.

There have been attempts by other parties to create alternatives to PayPal. ThunderPay was one. They've all been short lived. Personally I don't want to have to create a whole new account with another company, submit my CC info again, etc. and then hope that somebody will be willing to do the same for the sake of conducting business off-PayPal.

Not to play devil’s advocate, but PayPal does deal with millions of users world-wide, and all the scammers that come along with them. If they were not aggressive in stopping out potential fraud, they might as well close shop. It sucks when innocent people occasionally get caught in the cross-fire, but with any big-business things slip through the cracks. Of course, I've never been in the cross-fire thus far, so it’s easy for me to say. :rolleyes:

There are several alternatives to paypal but they are all just as bad if not worse. The safest bet if you intend to do online business is to open a merchant account with a real bank. At least then you have some protection should something go wrong.

I wish I could tell you about how I really feel about PayPal but that would get me kicked from the boards. So with that said I will stop now:mad:

I have used Paypal for many years, with a lot of activity. I have never had a problem.

I have only had one issue with PayPal, we bought a DVD for $15, & the seller never sent it. PayPal said it had to be over $25 for them to refund the money(that was a while back). I signed up for PayPal right when it came out. We got rid of our PayPal accounts a few months ago. We use the Google checkout, & Money Exchange.

One time, we bought some playstation games for over $40. We received them, but they were homemade games, & didn't work at all!
PayPal refunded our money asap!!

:gj:

What is the difference between personal and premier accounts?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Otter_23

What is the difference between personal and premier accounts?

---

If my memory is good with paypal personal you can only accept transfer from paypal account to paypal account (which mean buyer must have funds o their paypal account) with paypal premier you can accept credit card payments and e-checks.

I have been using paypal for years now and along with part of the business I run, lots of money goes through paypal. I have never had a problem.

Never have used it- and dont think I ever will. I just use money orders :D

may i suggest something ? call paypal and ask them how they handle claims with live animal transactions.have fun !

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by twh

may i suggest something ? call paypal and ask them how they handle claims with live animal transactions.have fun !

---

This is going to open some eyes up!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by twh

may i suggest something ? call paypal and ask them how they handle claims with live animal transactions.have fun !

---

If you are concerned about the ability to get your money back on an animal transaction, what does that say about your trust of the seller? I have been buying and selling animals over the internet (as a hobbyist) for well over 20 years and have never been burned. Do your homework and only buy from trusted sellers and you should never have a problem.

I hate paypals confusing and non-sensible setup.
I verified my account with my bank account because it told me I had to. It also caused a lot of problems because my mom kept her maiden name and I have to make separate accounts for everyone in my family because of it.

Also, it won't let me just use a credit card or a debit card. It tells me that I have to verify to spend over a certain amount (they say its like 10000 dollars) but then when I try to buy something for say.. 100 dollars it tells me I have to verify.

I don't know. I have it because I feel like I have to.

Hmmm, i like paypal, ive never had any problems with it....so far..

For my business, I take google check out. It is less expensive and since I advertise on there as well, I usually don't pay any fees at all. It is just as easy to use as Paypal.
However, everything else it seems I have to use Paypal. If I am a buyer I don't mind and I have never had any issues.