PayPal offering a bounty to signup ecommece customers

A response to Google Checkout perhaps?

[tys0n28]

I just got a notice in my email from CJ.com that paypal is offering:

$3 for each referred Business or Premier member
An additional $20 for each referral if the first payment is received from their website (ie ecommerce transaction).
Only an additional $1 if its from Ebay.

PayPal hasn't done affiliate stuff in ages - I have to think this is a response to Google Checkout. What do you think?

[jake66]

instead of fishing for new customers they should think of ways to keep their current ones

i'd leave paypal in a heartbeat the second some good competition surfaces. so far, google checkout looks to be extremely difficult to integrate into currently existing carts without paying a developer wads of cash and i can't say i'm too fond of the bits about offering "privacy" to the customer by not showing the vendor their email or not giving the seller the funds until the products are shipped... etc, etc.

of course, any of my knowledge of google checkout is mostly from he/say, she/say from forums like this, because it isn't available here yet for me to even test.

[jake66]

i'll post my response here because i'm sure i'll get more than one sticky about my comment :)

why are you so eager to switch from PayPal?

as of late, paypal has been good to me (knock on wood), but i will not forget how many bad experiences i've had in the past due to lost funds & businesses.

the majority of my problems stemmed to the fact paypal's "investigations" were nonexistant with buyer complaints... but having experienced a buyer complaint recently, i see the system has been completely redone to force the buyer to communicate with the seller (i must say, i'm thrilled at this aspect) - but i have not yet seen what a visa chargeback is like (hopefully i won't have to) if it has been redone as well.

one example (from last year): buyer gets item, buyer complains to paypal about not liking the item's size (even though that's what they purchased!). paypal offers me the option of a refund if the customer returns the product.

i say yea i will do that.

BUT -- *PAYPAL* accepted the buyer's return and turned around and tried to force me to pay for UPS shipment to send MY ITEM back to me. (why didn't the buyer send the item back!?) - paypal flat out refused to offer alternative shipping methods. in the end, they said they will not send the item back until i pay for the shipping via UPS.

this was complete nonsense. i don't know if paypal still does this, but it definately left a sour taste in my mouth. paypal is a payment processor, not a mediator. they should not get involved in handling a seller's items / buyer returns.

[ispy]

Jake, that could possibly have been a chargeback your talking about. If a customer chargebacks a PayPal purchase it gets charged back to PayPal, not you directly. PayPal is then put in the position of mediator between you and the customer. Thats the whole reason why using PayPal for shipped products is so wierd, it's a third party (or for those who want to debate the issue, a fourth party provider. You, the bank, the customer, and PayPal). With your own merchant account there is only one set of rules to follow, with PayPal you have the banks rules and PayPals rules, which results in endless problems in these kinds of cases where customers can also learn to work the system to your detriment.

[jake66]

Jake, that could possibly have been a chargeback your talking about.

i've had chargebacks before, and this wasn't one. it was a dispute and i informed the buyer (myself) i would reimburse them once i have the item back. but paypal stepped in, gave them the money back (out of my account) AND took the item (i still do not understand why this happened and i haven't found any other stories on the web like this!) makes you wonder if the particular rep at paypal just wanted the item and abused their power ( :) hey, you never know!)

If a customer chargebacks a PayPal purchase it gets charged back to PayPal, not you directly.

in the past, the money was taken out of my account and i was charged a $10 fee.. i've only been asked to PAY for my item this one time (which was one too many!).

[bwnbwn]

PayPal is a complete nonsense The only reason they will contine to do well is anybody and I mean anybody CAN GET AN ACCOUNT not everybody will spend the money or prove who they are to get a merchants account...