PayPal Hates Conferences – Especially OpenCamp

Comments

1. Jonathan C says:

   July 7, 2010 at 2:31 am

   Just closed my Paypal account. This was one negative story too many.

   Reply
   • Sue Hannaford says:

     July 7, 2010 at 10:30 am

     I hate paypal too! Had a personal account in the UK but stopped using it when they took all personal info over to Luxembourg (UK account). Been paying by credit card on websites using paypal service but not using paypal account. Suddenly doesn’t work. Finally found out that there is a European POLICY (ie not written on their website and not in terms and conditions anywhere – as per customer service chap) that there is a (secret) 10 transaction limit on using their service without registering. Problem? They sell their service to unwitting businesses by saying – and your customers don’t even have to have a paypal account. No mention of transaction limit – only way round it is to use a different card – which I don’t want to do. Loads of European web based businesses are blissfully unaware that they are probably losing business because customer credit cards aren’t being accepted (because they have used paypal check out 9 times elsewhere already) without having to register for a paypal account. And strangely there are wise people out there who don’t want to do that! In my conversation with UK/Europe customer service I asked who I could talk to about this, ie a supervisor. No. Someone in the US? No and if I rang the US once they realised I was in the UK they would transfer me back to him. Nice huh?! MIs-selling free business and paid for business accounts in Europe. Oh, and I closed my paypal account to try to “free up” my credit card. Now I don’t have an account so they won’t speak to me – but it’s only the log in that has been deleted – they have kept all my personal and credit card info!

     Reply
   • EdwardP says:

     July 9, 2010 at 1:30 pm

     I think Paypal needs a good competitor- however it is possible they are being watched themselves so have to show some sort of sifting process – remeber there are loads of people using Paypal for tax evading means – i.e taking 30% rent/ deposits etc. However, I do think heavy handed phone calls suck. vieaffreuse . f r

     Reply
2. Dave Gray says:

   July 7, 2010 at 4:08 am

   We had exactly the same problem with PayPal a few years ago. We had attendees from all other the word which only made things worse. Half a year or more after the conference we had still not received any money and one of the organizer ended up in serious economic troubles. Whatever you do, never use PayPal for a conference. Indeed, try to never have anything to do with them if you can.

   Reply
3. Ian says:

   July 7, 2010 at 4:28 am

   Imagine the mafia, or the Police, contact you to force you to give them money, explaining it so as to sound legitimate, how would that go? Something like “random calls from various people, all of whom only identify themselves by their first name, none of whom have direct phone numbers or email addresses”? Maybe.

   Reply
4. Micael Olsson says:

   July 7, 2010 at 4:52 am

   I knoooooow!!
   I’m a member of Åre Rotary Club in Sweden who arranges an annual Winter Camp for Exchange Students (RYE, Rotary Youth Exchange) that spend a year here in Sweden.
   This past Winter we decided to use PayPal as a mean to simplify payment for the Camp Attendees.

   Yeah… Right!
   The event was held in March and we just got the PayPal Account restored a couple of weeks ago!!!
   First we were locked out due to EU Anti Money Laundering Laws, then they wanted to know more about us and our Winter Camp:
   I’ve sent them at least 30 different documents including, 4 different Photo ID’s, Bank Statements, Proof of Tax Exemption, Proof Chartered Club from Rotary International in Zurich, Proof of me being allowed to speak for the Rotary Club, a letter describing what Rotary International and Rotary Clubs are, web site URL’s – you name it and I’ve probably sent it to PP!

   Never Again will I use them for anything remotely like this!

   BR,
   Micael

   Reply
5. Ian says:

   July 7, 2010 at 5:20 am

   I just blocked Paypal on Twitter, I wasn’t following them anyway. I suggest everyone does. Maybe Twitter will suspend their account! I think that would send a message of some kind. If they are not keeping track of their replies, and it does look they don’t reply to people, well this will show why listening to customers matters.

   Reply
6. JT says:

   July 7, 2010 at 5:28 am

   You’ve been doing this for years, and you still haven’t set up your own processing account with authorize.net etc.

   I guess it’s really true that all the negative press in the world won’t make someone leave paypal until they are PERSONALLY messed with.

   You’re getting everything you deserve for supporting such an evil company. You probably bank with BoA too, given your lack of concern with who you trust your money to/whose existence you are financing.

   Reply
7. Edwin Khoo says:

   July 7, 2010 at 6:20 am

   Oh man don’t even get me started on Paypal … never ever attempt to move house when you’re on a Paypal account, the number of checks and changes that are required are both antiquated and pure and simply annoying.

   I’d just started university at this point and obviously moving back and forth between home and campus meant that I could not always be there when you had to receive the letter of confirmation, being on campus meant I had no landline and they don’t accept mobiles, then all the verification checks whilst my student loans were being sorted meant I couldn’t track down the £0.01 they deposited into my account, it was just a nightmare. In the end, I’m now stuck in an endless loop where I cant register for a new address or bank account because they wont let me nor can I verify my old account because i dont live at that old address and cannot pick up the telephone there. Crazy!

   Anyways, I’ve given up totally on paypal now, and switched over to Google Checkout whenever I can … death to paypal!

   Reply
8. Glenn Gillen says:

   July 7, 2010 at 8:38 am

   While fortunately for me I didn’t ever get as far as taking any money off people, I went through a particularly painful experience of my own. In trying to get a fledgling web-based service off the ground PayPal seemed like it would be the easiest means of taking subscription payments. Wrong! Despite having both personal and business accounts with them for > 3 years, I needed to “upgrade” to a Pro account and verify a heap of documentation. Things like utility and phone bills, which aren’t possible when you’re bootstrapping and sharing desk space in an office. I’ve a registered limited company (with a registered address that is good enough for the government), the company has filed tax returns for numerous years, and all of this information is available as part of public record. Yet they required a level of detail not even my bank knows about me.

   After a few months of getting nowhere with a faceless organisation I took it as a sign that I should get myself a “proper” merchant account and do it directly with a bank. It was by no means a pain-free process, but it’s done now and I’m far less concerned about my bank suddenly stopping me from withdrawing funds than I’d ever be with PayPal doing it.

   Reply
9. shadowhand says:

   July 7, 2010 at 9:13 am

   It is not just event organizers, but any kind of non-personal account. When Kohana became part of the Software Freedom Conservancy and we attempted to transfer our funds to PayPal, they immediately locked our account. After speaking with customer service, the lock was removed… for about 8 hours. I had battled with customer service and their compliance department (which can only be contacted via email) for almost two months before finally getting customer service to schedule me for a call with compliance. The issue is still not resolved, but after speaking with compliance on the phone, I was able to get real answers.

   tl;dr: PayPal is ultra paranoid and hates non-personal accounts.

   Reply
10. Rob says:

    July 7, 2010 at 9:25 am

    Can’t stand Paypal anymore. After doing business with them for over 5 years they suddenly put a 30% hold with a rolling 90 day payout on the account. No explanation, they just decided to hold 1/3 of the business income out of the blue. That obviously won’t work in a business setting.

    I have since started processing cards through a different payment gateway company and it has been virtually problem free. Paypal needs to be taken down a notch or two in my opinion (Google too).

    Reply
11. Danny says:

    July 7, 2010 at 9:36 am

    Wow, and to think that there are thousands of Drupal / Ubercart websites out there using PayPal. They should sponsor you instead!

    Reply
    • Spamboy says:

      July 7, 2010 at 10:05 am

      @Danny That is a viable alternative. As I explained above, we started off the site using WordPress, and to switch platforms so close to the conference is a big risk. But in the future, we will definitely consider it. Thanks!

      Reply
12. Dissatisfied Paypal User says:

    July 7, 2010 at 10:20 am

    I read through the article and am very disappointed at Paypal. I think Paypal is using its monopoly to trouble people.
    BTW, are you planning to go ahead with a Lawsuit? I seriously think someone should do this. You will get a lot of support on this from the blogosphere if you do.

    Reply
13. john says:

    July 7, 2010 at 11:04 am

    sounds like a scam to hold and use your money – interest free – for their own investments…
    when does this become a ponzi scheme?

    Reply
14. Traci Browne says:

    July 7, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    We also had problems with PayPal when using for our events for the BMA Philadelphia. They would no release our money until we showed them our non-profit letter from the state. Unfortunately the state is a bit behind in processing these letters by about 6 months. I understand their needing this information but they never told that to us up front. We had about $1000 in event payments in the pay pal account they would not give us to pay the venue. It took weeks of begging and pleading to get the fund released.

    We also had complaints from registrants who could not get pay pal to accept their cards because they had used pay pal years ago and they had to use the same card…or they used a card years ago and pay pal insisted they log into their account but they no longer knew the password or username. We use eventbrite now and have had no problems or complaints. We get a check from Eventbrite within a week of closing the event and our attendees find it very easy to use.

    I’m also looking into American Express’ Accept Pay system for non-event payment processing.

    Reply
15. Andrei says:

    July 7, 2010 at 1:23 pm

    They froze my account with 1500$ in it for no reason.I received the exact email you received. They held my money for 6 months. If you go over the ebay website and read the pages for investors, where they explain how they make profit, you will see a short paragraph saying they make money from interest from “some” paypal accounts(which they freeze for 6 months, engouh to make some good money from interest)

    Reply
16. Whats-a-matter says:

    July 7, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    Sounds like you triggered several flags at PayPal…. 1) domain is “out-of-country” — mp in this case and 2) getting payments from multiple countries.

    Those are prime flags for money laundering, so they’re being jerks to cover their butts.

    You probably wouldn’t have had as much trouble if the domain was a .org or .com…

    Just my worthless 2 cents…

    Reply
    • Spamboy says:

      July 7, 2010 at 2:14 pm

      True. True. Then again, http://opencamp.com was taken. And calling our event OpenCampCom doesn’t have quite the same ring. :)

      Reply
      • Whats-a-matter says:

        July 7, 2010 at 8:31 pm

        Although OpenCampDom.com would be cool. — Triple pun! (DOM sound like Com, DOM = reference to Document Object Model, and OCD = Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – a common issue for us bloggers!)

        Reply
17. John Wilker says:

    July 7, 2010 at 7:28 pm

    Wow. Sadly this type of nonsense runs throughout the company, I’ve dealt with Paypal internally for events, with similar terrible results.

    I just turned paypal off for my current two events. I’ve not had any serious problems, but I’d rather not be left trying to pay a hotel bill and have my money locked up.

    So sad.

    Reply