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You could look at this as these organizations making a mistake by using Venmo and expecting them to try and re-engineertheir platform to help them, or as venmo

You could look at this as these organizations making a mistake by using Venmo and expecting them to try and re-engineertheir platform to help them, or as venmo making a mistake by failing to capitalize on this moment and ending any chance of them becoming the payments backbone of small dollar donations, while also creating the PR disaster of PayPal's notorious tendency to freeze accounts/mess things up with broken systems and poor customer service blowing up into a high profile failure. PayPal has started getting a pretty bad reputation, and while I think this site is likely to lean into the "they shouldn't have chosen venmo" angle, do remember that PayPal has a reputation for fraud systems screwing up.

close04 6y ago
"Re-engineering" is vastly overstating what they should do. PayPal has a reputation for systems screwing up almost exclusively in their favor, mostly by hanging on to money for far longer than they should. Hence the unwillingness to "re-engineer" anything even past the point when you can assume it's anything but acting in bad faith.
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
I have never seen any statistical data on PayPal's screw ups. All I ever see are anecdotes about a terrible thing that happened to someone or someone they know. PayPal is huge. It's not suprising that there would be some horror stories. What matters is how frequent they are given the number of accounts and/or transactions, and I've never come across any actual data on this. I suspect it doesn't exist.
- jjnoakes 6y ago
  What matters to me is how the screw ups are handled. If I can make a few phone calls, verify some ai-flagged transaction is legit, and clear things up in a few days max, then the occasional screw up is just a fact of life. If I have to talk to a brick wall for months or years and have my money frozen for paper thin reasons and the side who made the mistake takes no responsibility, then it doesn't really matter how rare it is. I'm not touching that business.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
    Sure. But this is another thing that is not properly known. I've been using PayPal for almost all of my income for more than 12 years. I've never had a notable financial screw up on their part, and these days whenever I need to call them I get a real human on the phone in a few minutes (even during covid-19). Most issues get solved in minutes to days (the latter if there's a problem on their end, such as instant payment notifications getting stalled). But this information is useless - just another anecdote. Nobody except PayPal really knows how things look statistically speaking.
    - jjnoakes 6y ago
      It doesn't have to be properly known; to me it doesn't matter how rare it is. A single instance of the latter case is enough for me to find an alternative if one is available.
      - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
        Good luck finding any payment processor that doesn't have a single instance of what would be enough to make you find an alternative. For myself, until someone else has a micropayments fee schedule like PayPal, I'm stuck with them.

close04 6y ago

"Re-engineering" is vastly overstating what they should do. PayPal has a reputation for systems screwing up almost exclusively in their favor, mostly by hanging on to money for far longer than they should. Hence the unwillingness to "re-engineer" anything even past the point when you can assume it's anything but acting in bad faith.

PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago

I have never seen any statistical data on PayPal's screw ups. All I ever see are anecdotes about a terrible thing that happened to someone or someone they know. PayPal is huge. It's not suprising that there would be some horror stories. What matters is how frequent they are given the number of accounts and/or transactions, and I've never come across any actual data on this. I suspect it doesn't exist.

jjnoakes 6y ago
What matters to me is how the screw ups are handled. If I can make a few phone calls, verify some ai-flagged transaction is legit, and clear things up in a few days max, then the occasional screw up is just a fact of life. If I have to talk to a brick wall for months or years and have my money frozen for paper thin reasons and the side who made the mistake takes no responsibility, then it doesn't really matter how rare it is. I'm not touching that business.
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
  Sure. But this is another thing that is not properly known. I've been using PayPal for almost all of my income for more than 12 years. I've never had a notable financial screw up on their part, and these days whenever I need to call them I get a real human on the phone in a few minutes (even during covid-19). Most issues get solved in minutes to days (the latter if there's a problem on their end, such as instant payment notifications getting stalled). But this information is useless - just another anecdote. Nobody except PayPal really knows how things look statistically speaking.
  - jjnoakes 6y ago
    It doesn't have to be properly known; to me it doesn't matter how rare it is. A single instance of the latter case is enough for me to find an alternative if one is available.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
      Good luck finding any payment processor that doesn't have a single instance of what would be enough to make you find an alternative. For myself, until someone else has a micropayments fee schedule like PayPal, I'm stuck with them.