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"And what Hatchlings is alleged to have done is likewise fraud (or perhaps accessory to fraud)." Wait where is anything alleged to have been done by Hatchlings

by Steko 15y ago

"And what Hatchlings is alleged to have done is likewise fraud (or perhaps accessory to fraud)." Wait where is anything alleged to have been done by Hatchlings? Did you just make that up? "yet you've jumped in on one side. Why?" Because the issue appears one sided? {ignoring for the moment the many other people saying this is exactly how google operates). "Look, this isn't "PayPal vs. regretsy" here. " Funny it bore a striking resemblance. Web companies grow up and their shitty to nonexistent customer service doesn't go over so well when they decide to shutter a business account with significant balances. "It's one company in a business area rife with (pseudo-)fraud trying to make a living and getting into a tussle with another company which is badly exposed to risks from the same fraud. Yawn." There's lots of fraud in financial transactions and credit card issuers (banks) are exposed to this but if your bank suddenly closed up your account and never communicated with you I'll bet you wouldn't be yawning, you'd be screaming bloody murder.

ajross 15y ago
Not to continue a pointless flame war, except to respond to your very last point: you realize that banks do terminate merchant accounts at the drop of a hat, right? The situation there is absolutely symmetrical with the one here. They also will freeze a customer's card at the barest hint of strangeness, forcing you to call in and verbally OK the transactions. This happens to me once a year at least.
- DanBC 15y ago
  > forcing you to call in and verbally OK the transactions This is the bit that people seem to get most frustrated about. Banks have telephone numbers. Even if that support is outsourced to Mumbai you still get a person to talk to.
- bromley 15y ago
  When you call your bank they generally pick up the phone. In contrast it seems the only way to get help from Google is to know someone influential or have a high profile blog on which you can embarrass them publicly.
- Steko 15y ago
  "Not to continue a pointless flame war," I must be missing something, please quote one thing that I said that you felt was flaming you.
quanticle 15y ago
Because the issue appears one sided? The issue appears one-sided only because you're hearing just one side. There's lots of fraud in financial transactions and credit card issuers (banks) are exposed to this but if your bank suddenly closed up your account and never communicated with you I'll bet you wouldn't be yawning, you'd be screaming bloody murder. I agree. You would be screaming bloody murder. And that's exactly what Hatchlings is doing. However, I don't think commercial banks are too much better in this regard either. I mean, if a bank shuts down your merchant account and cancels transactions that are "in-flight" due to some kind of automated fraud detection trigger, would you have any more pull with them than Hatchlings has with Google? I suspect not. I think the only difference would be that you'd be getting these notices via telephone or USPS rather than e-mail.
- Steko 15y ago
  "The issue appears one-sided only because you're hearing just one side." This is exactly true and I'm perfectly willing to revisit my opinions if I hear the other side. However (and a big one), I don't expect to hear anything from Google that's going to overturn the mental verdict I've formed that this is a lousy, shitty way to do business and treat your customers.

by Steko 15y ago

ajross 15y ago

Not to continue a pointless flame war, except to respond to your very last point: you realize that banks do terminate merchant accounts at the drop of a hat, right? The situation there is absolutely symmetrical with the one here. They also will freeze a customer's card at the barest hint of strangeness, forcing you to call in and verbally OK the transactions. This happens to me once a year at least.

DanBC 15y ago
> forcing you to call in and verbally OK the transactions This is the bit that people seem to get most frustrated about. Banks have telephone numbers. Even if that support is outsourced to Mumbai you still get a person to talk to.
bromley 15y ago
When you call your bank they generally pick up the phone. In contrast it seems the only way to get help from Google is to know someone influential or have a high profile blog on which you can embarrass them publicly.
Steko 15y ago
"Not to continue a pointless flame war," I must be missing something, please quote one thing that I said that you felt was flaming you.

quanticle 15y ago

Because the issue appears one sided? The issue appears one-sided only because you're hearing just one side. There's lots of fraud in financial transactions and credit card issuers (banks) are exposed to this but if your bank suddenly closed up your account and never communicated with you I'll bet you wouldn't be yawning, you'd be screaming bloody murder. I agree. You would be screaming bloody murder. And that's exactly what Hatchlings is doing. However, I don't think commercial banks are too much better in this regard either. I mean, if a bank shuts down your merchant account and cancels transactions that are "in-flight" due to some kind of automated fraud detection trigger, would you have any more pull with them than Hatchlings has with Google? I suspect not. I think the only difference would be that you'd be getting these notices via telephone or USPS rather than e-mail.

Steko 15y ago
"The issue appears one-sided only because you're hearing just one side." This is exactly true and I'm perfectly willing to revisit my opinions if I hear the other side. However (and a big one), I don't expect to hear anything from Google that's going to overturn the mental verdict I've formed that this is a lousy, shitty way to do business and treat your customers.