Forum Moderators: buckworks
If so what other "Paypal type" providers are seen as being more acceptable?
They take away your right to deal with the card banks when disputes occur and after dealing with them before
I have held a credit card with the same company since 1976. In June 2004 I had a dispute with a company who supplied me with goods that were not as described. For the first time ever I contacted my CC company and asked them to withhold payment. They refused to do so saying that the dispute was between me and the vendor.
For many years I had read about the "protection" this and other credit card companies offer in these situations. The first time I had to put it to the test this is what happened? Paypal are no different from any of the others in these situations. They just seem to attract a lot of bad publicity.
If I were to start a website asking people to tell us about problems they had had with banks and credit card companies I don't think there would be any lack of material there either. In fact here you go ...
[google.co.uk...]
It's amazing how your "rational comments" on Paypal are "rational," while mine are conspiracy theories. The more I read, the figure you're just a disgruntled Paypal customer, and as someone else said before, there are a lots of those and even some dedicated sites where they can rant.
Is it a conspiracy theory to say that disgruntled PP customers like to complain about the company? All large groups have their detractors and that's understandable. The problem is when they try to pass their visions as the accurate and objective truth.
Again, I ask that Paypal be submitted to a similar SWOT analysis as its competitors. Then, I want all the information compared with similar identifiers. Finally, I want to see a survey of Paypal customers and control group who purchased through a comparative service.
Only then, can one say that Paypal "sucks" or is unprofessional.
But as you said, these are your personal observations as compared with say, Wells Fargo. As personal opinions you are 100% entitled to them. Just don't try to pass off an opinion as a fact.
Another thing to understand is that any service will not satsify the need of all potential customers. In such cases, the customer should look elswhere for something suitable. But to say that all Internet merchants who use Paypal are unprofessional, that's going too far. For many, Paypal is the best solution to their needs. How can an outsider just declare that because the business is using Paypal, that it is not pro?
Yeah, I've never given them access to my bank account.. that always sounded a little weird.
Finally, I want to see a survey of Paypal customers and control group who purchased through a comparative service.
This would settle it but I don't suppose this information is available. Perhaps someone from Paypal could help?
No need for PayPal as around 95% of our customers pay by bank transfer since it usually free.
Paying by Paypal is free.
Both of us have mechant accounts and have paypal accounts.
He asked if he could pay via paypal and I said sure.
His paypal account did not have enough funds and neither of us knew how to replenish it.
We both were too busy to take the time to figure it out, so I sent him a cc online payment link.
We both are old dogs in ecom and still are to lazy to figure out the basics of paypal. We had a good laugh over this.
As long as you have a funding source attached to the account (which is required even if you send a balance payment), you can go to the "Send Money" option to make a payment to another account. PayPal will take the payment from your PayPal balance first, but will also transfer funds from your bank account or charge your credit card for the remaining amount.
You can make it even easier for someone to send you a payment by creating a payment link or invoice for them (so they don't have to copy your email address into the "Send Money" form). To create an invoice, use the "Request Money" option. To just give someone a way to pay into your PayPal account, use the link
www.paypal.com/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=[YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS]
You just plug in the email address of your PayPal account in the "business" field. This takes the person to a page where they can fill in the amount to pay and the item they are paying for. (Or, you can add those to the link using the variables "amount" and "item_name".)
His paypal account did not have enough funds and neither of us knew how to replenish it.We both were too busy to take the time to figure it out, so I sent him a cc online payment link.
We both are old dogs in ecom and still are to lazy to figure out the basics of paypal. We had a good laugh over this.
Old dogs in ecom that don't know how to use Paypal? Surely not? The problem is that some people just don't realise how simple or cost effective it is to use Paypal. As pp_rb says there is no need to replenish it.
The fact is that Paypal is the simplest, most cost effective and probably one of the most secure online payment systems available to online traders. The problem is that many people don't seem to be able to understand this. If Paypal can get their marketing right they will dominate the World ;)
If Paypal can get their marketing right they will dominate the World.
lol, I wouldn't go that far, Google appears to have solidified that position (World Domination that is). ;)
PayPal's biggest hurdle have been their initial business model of forcing PayPal accounts on users. While this worked well in developing a niche market of loyal fans, it didn't do anything for their branding with Joe Public. In fact, it hurt them. Joe Public tried to make a purchase, was being forced to sign up for a PayPal account, and then abandoned his purchase with a bad taste left in his mouth.
There are still many people to this day who do not know that PayPal changed their policies on this quite a while back, a PayPal account is no longer required to make a purchase. That in itself, changed the face of PayPal forever.
PayPal is a global payment solution that is unmatched from my perspective. I've dealt with quite a few shopping carts and various payment processing systems over the years. If I had the choice, I would build nothing but PayPal carts. Heck, I can have a 50 page site up with 250 products ready for purchase within 24-48 hours using FrontPage and my PayPal plugins. Can you do that with your ecom software out of the box?
By the way, in my quest over the years to learn as much as I could about PayPal customization options, I came across a website that I believe is of great benefit to those who are using PayPal and want to expand the capabilities of their cart. When I found this site, I thought to myself, "wow, this is the W3C of PayPal customization". He's got some great stuff there for all to implement at no charge.
PayPal Helper
[members.aol.com...]
I believe Paypal has something like 100 million accounts, but only 1/4 are active users.
Bummer! Okay, I'm going to take down all of my PayPal carts because PayPal inflates their numbers and there are really only 25 million active users. That's not enough users for me to consider having PayPal as a payment option.
Oh well, back to the drawing board. Now I have to find a shopping cart program, a CC processor, a programmer, etc. And, I need to get this done in less than a week. :(
Now I have to find a shopping cart program, a CC processor, a programmer, etc. And, I need to get this done in less than a week. :(
Anyway, thanks for the idea. I've been wanting to get things delivered to my work address but have run into that problem with the addresses not matching.
PayPal is a global payment solution that is unmatched from my perspective.
Paypal could be a true global payment solution - if the Paypal technical staff would be able to figure out how to fix the language support in their checkout system that has been broken for years now.
If you are trying to sell in Europe Paypal is a nightmare. 70% of europeans have at least some knowledge in one foreign language - but that is not necessarily english.
I have many customers in the Netherlands speaking perfect German. But as soon as they select "Netherlands", the Paypal system overrides the localization code and the language changes from German to English.
Paypal also has not yet realized that the main language in Mexico is Spanish not English.
And what about all those other services that are so similar to Paypal but are called 2Checkout, Worldpay, and so on?
When I say that it's a smear and fear campaign against Paypal, people say I'm digging up conspiracy theories, but when you look at the logic behind the anti-Paypal crowd, one can only say that it's a well organized smear campaign to discredit another company.
I see. So either I love Paypal, or I am part of a conspiracy. Well, you have done quite a bit to trash any reputation Paypal has got with me, I can tell you that.
I'm trying to understand the virulent attacks the service gets that doesn't stand solid criticisms. It's all about opinions, "they did this to me once," "it looks unprofessional" and so on. None of the arguments are based on things like how well their products and services fare with their competitors.
I asked for a SWOT of Paypal versus its competitors, and no one seems capable of doing one. I wonder why.
Sure, there are stats showing this and that reported in the papers or in magazines, but so what? We live in a world of spin. Stats can't be trusted any more than anecdotal evidence can. In this thread someone has pointed out that Paypal massaged the stats about how many users they have. Now, that's no crime. But it does mean they are just as capable of spin as the next company.
I don't see any conspiracy. And I don't see myself as the cat's paw of some Paypal competitor, whoever the heck that might be. I see some people who don't like Paypal and some people who do, some people who hate it like hate is a hobby and some people who love it so much it makes me feel uneasy. Oh well. That's what makes it a horse race, right?
If you think there's a conspiracy against Paypal, then I will turn the tables on you and say feel free to go ahead and prove it, or at least opine about who it would benefit and exactly how.
PayPal might have processed 10 million transactions, and 50 of those went bad. But all you hear about is the 50 that went bad, not the 9.9999995 million that did not.
There used to be, maybe still is, some website about how PP sucks - they got maybe 10-15 posts a day about horror stories. But everyone failed to mention that PP did 25 million transactions during that time, so the percentage was microscopic.
Nobody is perfect, but a lot of the bashing is highly exagerated.
Here we go again folks. What potential problems do you mean? Third parties are involved in almost all transactions. Paypal is no different and they do have procedures in place for dealing with problems.
Is there no one out there that has a problem with Worldpay or 2CO?
I guess I don't get why some people believe Paypal is being picked on.
I answered that one earlier in the thread. Part of the criticism comes from
1-Merchants who have invested in other solutions/merchant accounts and thus see Paypal as a cheap alternative. People do that in all walks of life. When you pay for something expensive and a little guy comes off the road with something cheaper but performs just as well, one often feels justifies in devaluating the little guy's widget.
2-I believe in something called viral markting. We don't talk about it much here at WW, but it exists. Opinion makers are frequently hired by companies to influence potential customers by posting "personal accounts" on products and services. I cannot prove that folks here are doing it, but it exists, and in message boards and public forums such as this one, it is often used.
>>I guess I don't get why some people believe Paypal is being picked on.
Here are some comments on Paypal, that could apply to 100% of Web payment solutions, but are usually limited to Paypal.
1-"It is by definition, the choice of amateurs and part-timers."
Once could say the same about Amazon Merchants and Yahoo. But it rarely happens at WW.
2-"For a while PayPal had kind of a shady reputation"
Anyone can have a shady reputation. Does the word Paysystems ring a bell?
3-"when someone hits the buy button and is taken off to PP that says, by definition, I cannot handle this part of the transaction"
Worldpay, 2Checkout?
4-"Thats hilarious, Paypal has become synonimous with fraud."
From my personal experience, there has always been less fraud attemps from Paypal than other payment processessing solutions I've used.
But in this instance, copy and pasted from another thread, the poster says that because fraudster are using Paypal and Ebay as a cover to nick credit card numbers and accounts from unsuspecting folks with spam, that by default, Paypal is equalled with fraud.
The problem is that there are an equal ammount of such attemps with City Bank, Chase and other banks. It is not limited to Paypal.
5-One of the reason most attack Paypal is because it's one of the larger. Goggle and Microsoft are also victims of this type of behaviour.
Didn't there used to be a Paypal representative on one of these forums? I think it was probably the ecommerce forum.
It would be good if we could his/her commments on this.
It's amazing how your "rational comments" on Paypal are "rational," while mine are conspiracy theories.
If it looks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it's a duck.
The more I read, the figure you're just a disgruntled Paypal customer,
Conspiracy theories and now you're fantasy role playing me.
and as someone else said before, there are a lots of those and even some dedicated sites where they can rant.
Now I am ranting. Maybe you should make some paper dolls and pretend they are me so you can have a full effect.
Is it a conspiracy theory to say that disgruntled PP customers like to complain about the company? All large groups have their detractors and that's understandable. The problem is when they try to pass their visions as the accurate and objective truth.
They are number on the ebay financial report 4th quarter 2005 that shows that 70% of registered users do not use PayPal. It is pretty much constant over a year period. That is a far cry from PayPals smoke & mirrors.
Again, I ask that Paypal be submitted to a similar SWOT analysis as its competitors. Then, I want all the information compared with similar identifiers. Finally, I want to see a survey of Paypal customers and control group who purchased through a comparative service.
Yeah I am going to do that just for you. LOL :)
Only then, can one say that Paypal "sucks" or is unprofessional.
Lets see... Paypal sucks and is unprofessional... gee I just said it.
But as you said, these are your personal observations as compared with say, Wells Fargo. As personal opinions you are 100% entitled to them. Just don't try to pass off an opinion as a fact.
Facts as I see it, take it or leave it. If you don't like it, go lecture someone who cares.
Another thing to understand is that any service will not satsify the need of all potential customers. In such cases, the customer should look elswhere for something suitable. But to say that all Internet merchants who use Paypal are unprofessional, that's going too far. For many, Paypal is the best solution to their needs. How can an outsider just declare that because the business is using Paypal, that it is not pro?
bla bla bla...
