3 ms·

Just shows the naïveté of the Diaspora team. No surprises here.

by Raphael 15y ago

Joeboy 15y ago
Is expecting Paypal to give you your money really that naïve?
- bigiain 15y ago
  Yep. If you're not shipping physical products within a day or two of accepting the money, and shipping them via a service which allows you/your customer/paypal to track the deliveries, then you're in the category who should expect Paypal to decide to hang on to any money put into your account. Surely anybody who's got access to Google can find that out before getting caught out by it?
  - Joeboy 15y ago
    Googling "paypal donations" doesn't immediately yield that information. My expectation would be that since Paypal advertises a donations service, they probably provide one, and that it probably ought to result in you being able to collect your donations.
    - ebaysucks 15y ago
      Sure, if you are in fact a non-profit. Everybody is allowed to receive the occasional donation (pretty generous of Paypal, as they don't charge commission on that), but if you build a "business of receiving donations" you need to proof you are a non-profit. It's that obvious.
  - tonybaldwin 15y ago
    Paypal doesn't know if you ship or not. I provide a service (translation) for which I am frequently paid via paypal, especially from foreign clients, and can receive several thousand dollars a month (not every month, but most, anyway) without shipping anything (just delivering documents via e-mail, which paypal doesn't see). They've made me a "premium member". I receive probably some 80% of my income via paypal.
    - bigiain 15y ago
      That's fine - until someone opens a dispute. Once that happens, the guys with UPS or Fedex tracking numbers seem to have a much easier time resolving disputes than those without 3rd party confirmation of at least a parcel being sent. If all your customers are happy with your service (and not fraudulent themselves), and you don't grow your business (in terms of cash flow volume via Paypal) unexpectedly quickly, you'll almost certainly be fine... But, I'd still _strongly_ recommend you don't keep any sizeable sort of float in your Paypal account. Sweep it into your bank account every day or two (for the seriously paranoid, sweep it into a connected bank account, then transfer it out of that one too - technically your agreement with Paypal (at least in .au) allows them to transfer money back out of a connected account "to correct errors"). And at least have a plan for what you'd do to keep accepting payment if Paypal did decide to freeze all you payments for 180 days. Seriously - _lots_ of people get caught out with this. It doesn't mean Paypal is useless or evil, it just means you need to be aware of how much risk you're allowing yourself to be exposed to by Paypal, and if that risk is high enough to have plans in place to minimise them. I'd suggest anyone who's likely to feel the need to write a blog post about how badly Paypal are treating them - was clearly allow themselves to be exposed to unacceptable risks without having risk minimisation plans in place. In mu opinion, anybody getting "caught" with Paypal withholding $45k in funds was being outrageously foolish in allowing Paypal to be in a position to do that. Anythng more than a few thousand dollars in a Paypal account needs sweeping into your bank account asap - even if that means doing it manually several times a day.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]

Just shows the naïveté of the Diaspora team. No surprises here.

by Raphael 15y ago

Just shows the naïveté of the Diaspora team. No surprises here.

Joeboy 15y ago

Is expecting Paypal to give you your money really that naïve?

bigiain 15y ago
Yep. If you're not shipping physical products within a day or two of accepting the money, and shipping them via a service which allows you/your customer/paypal to track the deliveries, then you're in the category who should expect Paypal to decide to hang on to any money put into your account. Surely anybody who's got access to Google can find that out before getting caught out by it?
- Joeboy 15y ago
  Googling "paypal donations" doesn't immediately yield that information. My expectation would be that since Paypal advertises a donations service, they probably provide one, and that it probably ought to result in you being able to collect your donations.
  - ebaysucks 15y ago
    Sure, if you are in fact a non-profit. Everybody is allowed to receive the occasional donation (pretty generous of Paypal, as they don't charge commission on that), but if you build a "business of receiving donations" you need to proof you are a non-profit. It's that obvious.
- tonybaldwin 15y ago
  Paypal doesn't know if you ship or not. I provide a service (translation) for which I am frequently paid via paypal, especially from foreign clients, and can receive several thousand dollars a month (not every month, but most, anyway) without shipping anything (just delivering documents via e-mail, which paypal doesn't see). They've made me a "premium member". I receive probably some 80% of my income via paypal.
  - bigiain 15y ago
    That's fine - until someone opens a dispute. Once that happens, the guys with UPS or Fedex tracking numbers seem to have a much easier time resolving disputes than those without 3rd party confirmation of at least a parcel being sent. If all your customers are happy with your service (and not fraudulent themselves), and you don't grow your business (in terms of cash flow volume via Paypal) unexpectedly quickly, you'll almost certainly be fine... But, I'd still _strongly_ recommend you don't keep any sizeable sort of float in your Paypal account. Sweep it into your bank account every day or two (for the seriously paranoid, sweep it into a connected bank account, then transfer it out of that one too - technically your agreement with Paypal (at least in .au) allows them to transfer money back out of a connected account "to correct errors"). And at least have a plan for what you'd do to keep accepting payment if Paypal did decide to freeze all you payments for 180 days. Seriously - _lots_ of people get caught out with this. It doesn't mean Paypal is useless or evil, it just means you need to be aware of how much risk you're allowing yourself to be exposed to by Paypal, and if that risk is high enough to have plans in place to minimise them. I'd suggest anyone who's likely to feel the need to write a blog post about how badly Paypal are treating them - was clearly allow themselves to be exposed to unacceptable risks without having risk minimisation plans in place. In mu opinion, anybody getting "caught" with Paypal withholding $45k in funds was being outrageously foolish in allowing Paypal to be in a position to do that. Anythng more than a few thousand dollars in a Paypal account needs sweeping into your bank account asap - even if that means doing it manually several times a day.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]