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Nice to see the results of your previous post! > I was so afraid that PayPal would freeze my account that I called to let them know that I was going to sell a

Nice to see the results of your previous post! > I was so afraid that PayPal would freeze my account that I called to let them know that I was going to sell a book and that I might have a few sales. You know something's wrong when your customers are fearing you. Seriously, how did PayPal end up like this?

davidw 13y ago
Congrats, Pedro! I met him at MicroConf Europe - very nice guy, so it's good to see this. > Seriously, how did PayPal end up like this? By having lots of people out to rip them off.
- kroger 13y ago
  MicroConf Europe was a lot of fun. I learned a lot and I met a lot of nice people, like you.
kroger 13y ago
Good question. I guess the only reason I didn't ditch PayPal before was that in the past Gumroad would deposit your money in your PayPal account (i.e. you'd need PayPal anyway). Now that Gumroad deposits directly to your bank account, I'm looking forward to move to a Gumroad-only solution,
- mcguire 13y ago
  I was wondering about that. Why would you switch to Gumroad if most of your buyers seem to want to use PayPal?
  - kroger 13y ago
    Good point. Also, someone reminded me that many people may not have a credit card, so I guess I'll keep both.
josefresco 13y ago
I'm no fan of PayPal, but this customer was aware that a sudden onslaught of sales (where before there was none) might set off some sort of alarm with his payment processor. Seems like a legitimate concern for both the processor and a pro-active measure by the customer. We all know the horror stories of frozen PayPal accounts but I can't say I can blame PP given the scope of what they have to deal with when transferring money and dealing with regulators/government.
- ajpos 13y ago
  I don't know how well regulated Paypal is, as you infer, since it is not a bank and does not have to follow bank rules. Banks and credit card companies seem to get it right with many more regulations, why can't Paypal? If I use my credit card for a spending spree, all it takes is one phone call with Visa to have everything cleared up. Paypal wouldn't have earned their reputation if they were able to provide that level of service.
  - mkesper 13y ago
    https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/about https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/about PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. is duly licenced as a Luxembourg credit institution
- mhurron 13y ago
  Informing them in this instance does seem more like the situation where you tell your bank your traveling overseas between X and Y. It's reasonable to assume a flood of cash would be enough to set off various alarms. It is a shame you have to be so wary of PayPal, but in this case it did lead them to do what would be the right thing no matter what you were using to cover payment processing.
  - kroger 13y ago
    Calling them it's not a big deal, but they could make it clear. If you email their support you'll get these long and vague emails. I've learned my lesson: if I need anything from PayPal I'll call them presto. Once I was accessing PayPal while using a VPN (I was on a public wifi) and they blocked my account. I called them and the matter was solved very efficiently in seconds. But, how on earth would I know that my account would be blocked if I used a VPN?
coldtea 13y ago
>Seriously, how did PayPal end up like this? It ended up like these partly because of being the only really international online payment service -- thus having to abide and keep tabs on hundreds of different legislations and rules. How do you tell a guy making $10,000 in 7 days from a small scale money laundering attempt? How do you know he is not selling BS and that in a week or so you wont have a backslash of people demanding their money back from you (the payment service)?
wikwocket 13y ago
To be fair, if you were going to suddenly deposit a ton of money to your bank, or make a ton more money this year than last, you might call up your bank or accountant beforehand. It's perfectly reasonable.
- vidarh 13y ago
  Why would I?
  - publicfig 13y ago
    In order to inform them of the fact that an unusual rise in activity and balance is expected and to give legitimacy to it by explaining a reason. This can help prevent some of the automated (or non-automated) fraud detection that can go into place in such situations, ensuring you have access to the contents of that account as quickly as possible.

davidw 13y ago

Congrats, Pedro! I met him at MicroConf Europe - very nice guy, so it's good to see this. > Seriously, how did PayPal end up like this? By having lots of people out to rip them off.

kroger 13y ago
MicroConf Europe was a lot of fun. I learned a lot and I met a lot of nice people, like you.

kroger 13y ago

Good question. I guess the only reason I didn't ditch PayPal before was that in the past Gumroad would deposit your money in your PayPal account (i.e. you'd need PayPal anyway). Now that Gumroad deposits directly to your bank account, I'm looking forward to move to a Gumroad-only solution,

mcguire 13y ago
I was wondering about that. Why would you switch to Gumroad if most of your buyers seem to want to use PayPal?
- kroger 13y ago
  Good point. Also, someone reminded me that many people may not have a credit card, so I guess I'll keep both.

josefresco 13y ago

I'm no fan of PayPal, but this customer was aware that a sudden onslaught of sales (where before there was none) might set off some sort of alarm with his payment processor. Seems like a legitimate concern for both the processor and a pro-active measure by the customer. We all know the horror stories of frozen PayPal accounts but I can't say I can blame PP given the scope of what they have to deal with when transferring money and dealing with regulators/government.

ajpos 13y ago
I don't know how well regulated Paypal is, as you infer, since it is not a bank and does not have to follow bank rules. Banks and credit card companies seem to get it right with many more regulations, why can't Paypal? If I use my credit card for a spending spree, all it takes is one phone call with Visa to have everything cleared up. Paypal wouldn't have earned their reputation if they were able to provide that level of service.
- mkesper 13y ago
  https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/about https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/about PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A. is duly licenced as a Luxembourg credit institution
mhurron 13y ago
Informing them in this instance does seem more like the situation where you tell your bank your traveling overseas between X and Y. It's reasonable to assume a flood of cash would be enough to set off various alarms. It is a shame you have to be so wary of PayPal, but in this case it did lead them to do what would be the right thing no matter what you were using to cover payment processing.
- kroger 13y ago
  Calling them it's not a big deal, but they could make it clear. If you email their support you'll get these long and vague emails. I've learned my lesson: if I need anything from PayPal I'll call them presto. Once I was accessing PayPal while using a VPN (I was on a public wifi) and they blocked my account. I called them and the matter was solved very efficiently in seconds. But, how on earth would I know that my account would be blocked if I used a VPN?

coldtea 13y ago

>Seriously, how did PayPal end up like this? It ended up like these partly because of being the only really international online payment service -- thus having to abide and keep tabs on hundreds of different legislations and rules. How do you tell a guy making $10,000 in 7 days from a small scale money laundering attempt? How do you know he is not selling BS and that in a week or so you wont have a backslash of people demanding their money back from you (the payment service)?

wikwocket 13y ago

To be fair, if you were going to suddenly deposit a ton of money to your bank, or make a ton more money this year than last, you might call up your bank or accountant beforehand. It's perfectly reasonable.

vidarh 13y ago
Why would I?
- publicfig 13y ago
  In order to inform them of the fact that an unusual rise in activity and balance is expected and to give legitimacy to it by explaining a reason. This can help prevent some of the automated (or non-automated) fraud detection that can go into place in such situations, ensuring you have access to the contents of that account as quickly as possible.