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PayPal gripes revisited.


wizardsandwars

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Ok, I've had an alternate payment method to PayPal for quite some time now, and even got a merchant account/gateway about a month an a half ago. I've always left my PayPal IPN module up, because I liked offering PayPal customers the ability to pay with their paypal account.

 

Recently, however, I have made some changes to the PayPla, module (specifically, I added HTML to the email customers receive), when I noticed that PayPal has REALLY changed quite a bit, none of it for the better.

 

First of all, all new customers are now charged $1.95 for a customer to open a paypal account. And all customers have to pay $1.95 in order to pay through paypal.

 

Uh, yeah. I'm sure that'll go over real well.

 

The rest is probably nitpicking, but I need to get it off my cheast.

 

Next, they have this little security code that you have to type in every time you sign in. On most websites I've seen this, its usually a little 3 digit code, and it a bit of a chafe, but at paypal, it's now a 9 digit code. How many more hoops do paypal customer have to jump though?

 

And the PayPal password now how to be 8 digits? What other website in the world requires an 8 digit code?

 

I'm sorry, but these little things are starting to pile up. It looks as though we will be disableing out PayPal module for good soon. PayPal used the be one of the best things going. Now I'd rather run every credit card through one of those old fashioned little carbon copy slider thingies than use them to process cards.

 

They are bar far the most user UNfriendly CC processor on the net.

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NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit.

If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.

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Where did you see that?? I was just on their site and they are still giving $5 to sign up and it's still free to send money. They do charge for business accounts, but I haven't seen any other changes. I would really like to knmow where you found that out, since I am using paypal for my store.

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When your customers check out using PayPal, if they don't already have one, they have to create an account with PayPal.

 

PayPal now charges $1.95 to create an account. At, least, that's what happened to me when I attempted to create a new accout with them, as a customer.

 

Therefore, your customers are being charged an additional $1.95 if they don't already have a paypal account.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit.

If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.

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I think you get that refunded on your first transaction once you have filled in the 4 digit code they print on your card statement.

 

Mattice

"Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them"

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Well that may be, but If I were the customer, I sure wouldn't hang around long enough to find out.

 

Talk about a MAJOR deterant.

 

If that isn't enought to convince everyone in the world that they at least need an alternative to paypal, I don't know what is.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit.

If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.

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We could re-introduce shells & beads.

Or 1 goat vs 2 chickens trading shemes... :D

"Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them"

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Wait.....you got chickens?

 

 

Hmmnnnnn. Let me think on that for a few.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit.

If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.

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Got me a chix that digs *nix but she ain't for trade, son :D

 

Still waiting for Patrick to jump up... silence before the storm?

...tick ...tick ...tick..

"Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them"

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There's only one way to get Patrick to show up. You have to say...

 

"PayPal Sucks!"

 

:lol: , seriously, I thought that EBay buying them would be a good thing, but apparently not.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit.

If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.

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ROTFL

 

2 souls one mind. This can't be a coincidence Patrick.

But... but ... then it must be TRUE!

 

:D

"Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them"

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I find no mention of a sign up fee. This is what I found.

 

Does it cost money to sign up for PayPal?

 

No. It is free to open and send money using a PayPal account. We do charge modest fees for our Premier and Business members to receive payments.

Steve

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Steve, I'm sorry to ask, but did you attempt to create a new account at PayPal?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit.

If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.

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Yes I did, and still no metion of a fee, but I haven't got the verify email yet either, I'm really curious about this too. I am going to be using PayPal exclusively. If there is a fee, then it goes to just check/money order. Can't afford anything else right now.

Steve

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Steve, it's not an additional fee for you, its an additional fee for your customer. Its seems that you may be misunderstanding me.

 

Anyway, by using PayPal exclusivly, you will lose a ton of sales anyway.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit.

If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.

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Who else is out there that will process CC without a merchant account and a bunch of BS fees????? I don't do enough business to justify a merchant account or $10 statement fees and gateway fees, etc,etc...

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You'd be surprised how little hassle it is to have a merchant account and gateway. and if you do more than $1000 a month, it is nearly half of the cost of using 2checkout. Sure, it's a little more thna PayPal, but we're talking less than $20 a month difference.

 

And if you are only using PayPal to process, how can you afford NOT to find a real merchant account, gateway? You are losing more than half of your customers. for me, if I get 3 more customers a month, because I offered customers an alternative to paypal, then the merchant account/gateway pays for itself.

 

Using PayPal as your only payment method is a major deterant. The whole idea behind optimizine online performance is to eliminate deterants.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit.

If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.

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That is true, but right now, I'm not doing anywhere close to $1000 a month, hence my problem. I expect to upgrade my options once the site is actually bringing in some money. I have been considering 2checkout, they seem good, it's just laying out $50 thats the problem. Any ideas???

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That is true, but right now, I'm not doing anywhere close to $1000 a month, hence my problem. I expect to upgrade my options once the site is actually bringing in some money. I have been considering 2checkout, they seem good, it's just laying out $50 thats the problem. Any ideas???

 

I'm unfortunatly with you. And I also do agree with wizards too, we can't afford not to have a merchant account. I've been in retail for more than 20 years and anymore more than 75% of our sales is some sort of CC's.

 

I think the only solution is these CC companies need to get a clue and support the small business. The fees are way too much. And some of us, just starting out, just can't afford them. So we are reduced to PayPal and Check or money order.

Steve

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To tell the truth, I like 2checkout for under $1000 a monht volume stores.

 

We started out like you, using paypal only. Then we started getting some business, and customers started complaining about having to use paypal. So we added 2checkout to give them an option. Our sales doubled overnight. When our volume got to around $3000 a month, customers were using 2checkout 65% of the time over paypal.

 

Then we started looking into merchant accounts, and found that we were paying about $100 more a month in processing fees than we would if we had a merchant account gateway. So we got one, and our signup/purchase ratio climbed even higher.

 

Hey don't take it from me. I'm far from an expert. I only know what I've experienced.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit.

If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.

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Hey I appreciate you sharing your expeience with me!! I will probably follow the route. Once I have the store bringing in money I will upgrade my payment options, unfortunately cash is tight these days...Thanks again for the info it was very helpful!

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:wink:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE: As of Oct 2006, I'm not as active in this forum as I used to be, but I still work with osC quite a bit.

If you have a question about any of my posts here, your best bet is to contact me though either Email or PM in my profile, and I'll be happy to help.

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all new customers are now charged $1.95 for a customer to open a paypal account

This is false. The $1.95 charge applies to non-US users only and is refunded upon submission of the 4 digit code. This process is necessary outside the US because address verification checking is not available which is a key fraud management tool in the US.

they have this little security code that you have to type in every time you sign in

Again, false. The security code need only be entered upon sign up or first time payment. After that, PayPal users *never* have to enter it again. As many know, this is becoming a more common means for preventing undesired screen-scraping. It's been in place at PayPal as-is for over 2 years.

it's now a 9 digit code

8, actually.

And the PayPal password now how to be 8 digits

This has been the case for at least 1 year if not 2.

What other website in the world requires an 8 digit code

Virtually every financial service.

 

While PayPal is not perfect, it is a very good solution for a very large number of online merchants. We appreciate feedback and are constantly working to improve the service (many new features went live yesterday). What is not appreciated is the type of mis-information in the original post.

Patrick Breitenbach

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