Re: Paypal - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

It's mostly in the 25-page Terms Of Service document, which I can no longer 
access without having an account (which I do not).  

You can access it right here:

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/ua-outside

They also include information about FDIC pass through insurance here:

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/fdic-outside

The above link also includes links to the banks where the money is kept and an
additional link to the user agreement.

And if we keep a balance with them, we can turn it into a Money Market account.

They even have a fairly extensive privacy policy.

Also per paypalsucks.com, although I have not read the entire site it appears to be
fairly inaccurate to real facts.

PaypalSucks says:
- It is difficult to find the phone number to Paypal:
It was very easy to find under About us, and under the privacy agreement. It was easier to find
their phone number than many other "Online Businesses"

- PaypalSucks says: According to PayPal accepting their ToS (Terms of Service) in effect means you waive your rights
- to credit card consumer protection laws, and that you may not issue a chargeback for anything you purchase -using your credit card and PayPal account that you are unsatisfied with. Is this legal? We don't know. But it's how - Paypal operates.

Actually paypal has extensive protection policies including buyer and seller which is a rarity. Visa for example HEAVILY
favors the buyer which is a real pain the but for a lot of legitamate business that deal with fraudulent customers.


Now all of this may be the way "it used to be", but I don't think  that is the way it is anymore. Paypal has become
the preferred method of payment per Ebay (for obvious reasons) and that carries quite a bit of responsibility.

I am not saying they are perfect but EBay has done a lot of good things and I personally find that the good far
out weighs the bad.

It is kind of like the old saying, "One bad voice is heard by a million ears. A million good voices are only heard by one ear."
(o.k. I made that up, but I think you get might drift)

I have to admit that I've also heavily perused paypalsucks.com, and was 
discouraged by the number of reports there in 2002.  And there's the 
class-action lawsuit still proceeding in California and Nebraska.
 

All bearing action against previous behavior (presumably before the Ebay buy out).

However, looking at paypalsucks.com, the number of serious angry-customer 
reports seems to have decreased sharply in 2003.   This may indicate a change 
of practice by Paypal in the wake of negative publicity.   Also, apparently 
in a month they will be supervised by the British Financial Authority, which 
has *got* to mean some cleaning house. 

Yes that is very true. I know that it will be alot easier for my international customers once they are firmly
entrenched in Europe.

The reason I think Paypal is not a bad idea is that most people I know have a paypal account. However,
if it is feasible we might as well just get a merchant account for the non profit. Then we could even accept
e-check.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

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