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PayPal Brings Mobile Payments To U.S.
An anonymous reader writes "PayPal is bringing the eastern use of the cellphone as a payment method to the United States. The company's mobile service aims to use secure text messages as a payment method for direct-marketing initiatives and other 'on-the-spot' mercantile opportunities." From the article: "To the extent that digital money doesn't feel like real money, it may increase spontaneous purchasing ... " This story offers more details on a discussion we had last month.
Now I can fall victim to a phishing scam anywhere
So, what's wrong with PayPal?
What do I need to know about PayPal and what about the lawsuit?
http://www.paypalsucks.com/
1. According to PayPal accepting their ToS (Terms of Service) in effect means you waive your rights to credit card consumer protection laws if you want to use their service, and that you may not issue a chargeback for unauthorized use of your credit card and PayPal account, or if you do, then they have the right to limit your account. Is this legal? We don't know. But it's how Paypal operates. See my credit card waiver page for more information.
2. Their customer service is horrible. They used to hide their telephone number, (intentionally - by their own admission) and only provided support via "form" emails:
"As for the customer service, Sollitto said they intentionally make the phone number very difficult to find in order to save costs."
This is confirmed in the book "PayPal Wars". If you have a problem, you are at their mercy! (And you will eventually have a problem.) The only reason their number can be found now is because they were forced to by law (EFTA Electronic Funds Transaction Act) due to complaints from users of this website. You can also click on our FAQs page. Just scroll down a bit, and you'll find their phone numbers, plus their toll free numbers as well, plus a huge list of unpublished PayPal phone numbers.
3. Their terms of service are not completely disclosed upon signup and some key "conditions" are not disclosed. They fail to mention their total lack of security to prevent your account from being compromised by phishing & spoof sites. That if your account is accessed by a criminal using one of these methods, PayPal will hold YOU monetarily & legally responsible! Also, no place do they openly tell potential members that their money is 100% at risk. That PayPal can, will, and has in the past, completely cleaned out customers' accounts, (including your checking or savings account) with no appeals process available. Instead they bury in the fine print of 37 pages of their "Terms of Service" (ToS) where they disclose to you that PayPal can close your account for any reason what-so-ever, or no reason, and then you have to wait 180 days to get your money. Think that'll never happen? Think again. That's what everyone thinks till it happens to them.
4. If PayPal feels your actions are questionable, PayPal is the investigator, judge, jury and executioner. "Telling your side" of what happened, in most cases seems to be irrelevant. They also refuse to provide you with the details of their investigation and withhold documents they relied upon to make their decisions. Your only contact will be an email that says:
Thank you for contacting PayPal. We apologize for the delay in respondingto your service request.
After review, the decision has been made to keep your account locked. This decision cannot be appealed.
If you have any further questions, please reply to this email.
That will be the end of it as far as PayPal is concerned. You can email back, but you'll just get more of the same. Oh yea, and you'll have to wait 180 days to get your money.
5. If you are a bona fide, up-standing individual with hundreds of successful transactions, but someone pays you with a stolen credit card, your account (by PayPal's own admission) is immediately flagged as being "criminal behavior" and any money in that account is confiscated. If a customer "disputes" the charge, same thing happens. (See email above.) PayPal claims that they will fight chargebacks, but read this before you fall for that one.
6. Paypal's fees for NON-credit card funding are the same as for credit cards! This is the single biggest rippoff on their site. We understand Paypal charging a fee when you fund your account with a credit card. After all, they are being charged by Visa/Mastercard, etc. And we understand there is a lot of fraud with credit card funding. However, most of the money sent withi
So, on top of the already outrageous eBay and Paypal fees, there will be text messaging fees. I'll be sure to use this on a regular basis. Paypal is already worse than my bank when it comes to ridiculous fees.
This is a logicalextension of paypal's increasingly omnipresent marketing and services.
Paypal has diversified into many diferent branches and while this new mobile payment may be subject to some criticism and a degree of scepticism it is likely that this will come to be as pervasive as credit cards.
...is to be able to take a picture with my camera phone of a barcode on an item that I want to purchase. This would bring up comparison shopping info about the item, etc. If I want to buy the item, I'd just push pound or whatever.
No parent will buy a cellphone to their kid unless the feature is disabled.
What a sensational business model.
1) Act and charge like a real bank, but don't say you're one.
2) Offer no real customer service, treat customers like thieves, offer no financial protection, unlike a real bank don't be forced to implement security and continity controls
3) Profit!
This interests me primarily because PayPal was originally designed as a mobile payment service for PDA users. Mobile phones now incorporate a substantial amount of functionality that was once restricted to the PDA.
Maybe their original idea was simply ahead of its time.
TextPayMe already provides this exact same service. I wonder if they have a patent on it.
so far the only thing they seem to be pushing is cd/dvd sales -- how the hell could it possibly be convenient to buy a cd via paypal via phone? why would i want to send a text message, and then receive a call in order to find out the price and shipping?
if i want music, i want it now, so if i'm shopping i will buy it at the campus music store, or if i am home i will buy it on itunes. the only time i buy cd's online at all are when they are not on itunes or at the cd store.
there's still hope though!
what if i could buy my movie tickets on my phone instead of waiting in line at the theater? that would actually be cool.
-- lol pwned
So now after the hookers done, all I got to do is text her?
We'll call it Pay4Pal.
$sig$
This problem has been solved years ago and the average mobile phone is more than capable of working as an electronic purse. A mobile phone needs no centralized network to process transactions and most certainly is more efficient and trackable than paper currency and Visa/MC association payments.
A tangentially related way to see how abusive things are in the association world is Walmart wants to open a "bank" so they can keep a piece of the Visa/MC Association rent.
The way this will be implemented will be the same old very inefficient way of processing payments with each company in the "chain" demanding their pound of flesh along the way.
This idea is DOA.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
I'd like to take the word tonight to whine about PayPal not supporting my country, Bulgaria.
Every time I see a PayPal donate / purchase button I'm automatically filtered out since they just don't support my country and declineto accept my credit cards if I try to sign up.
For what is considered the most popular micropayments system in the world, they'd do better to hurry up and actually support the world..
An automatic system makes a voice call to your phone after you have texted "send 14.99 to 2125551212" to 729725 ((PAYPAL)) and you touch-tone back a PIN which you set up when you activated the PayPal Mobile service. So the phone thief would need your PIN, not just your phone.
Oh, I'm sure PayPal will do everything in their power to make sure there are plenty of protections in place for consumers.
</cynicism>
This guy's the limit!
Guy: "Hi, sir, Could you help a poor man out and let me borrow your cell phone for a quick moment to call my family? I'm going to be late for my daughter's birthday." Me: "Sure, here you are" Guy: "Thank you kindly, sir.." Guy: *transfers cash to his paypal account, while pretending to have trouble figuring out the phone* Guy: "Ah ha!" *after having transferred the money and pretending that he finally figured out what to do* Guy: *fakes a call to his pretend family, while actually calling his voicemail* Guy: "Thank you sir! ^__^" Me: "No problem! ^_^" This'll be fantastic!
"Everything worth innovating today will go to court tomorrow."
Does that mean we can have our own little Donate Now text message or recording on our cell phones?
A mobile phone needs no centralized network to process transactions and most certainly is more efficient and trackable than paper currency and Visa/MC association payments.
Of course it needs a centralized network. Otherwise, what's to prevent me from hacking my phone and changing the amount of money that I have?
I understand what you're saying, in a sense: the transaction processing does not have to be centralized but it definitely must be authoritative. Without an authority, you must trust the phone to accurately report the amount of money it has -- clearly not workable. Thus, centralization is certainly needed.
Now I can lose my cell phone and my credit card at the same time!
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Open Source Sysadmin
Just because it's a rant doesnt mean it's a flamebait . And about Paypal Vs CC clearing : Paypal account freezing policies are much worse that any CC clearing company , in Israel cc clearing is around 1.7%, and as low as 0.65% for gas stations and travel agencies , with no per-transaction fee at all , setup fees , monthly fees or gateway fees . .The ebay integration is what keeps this company alive and I am confident that 80% of it's revenue is generated throgh Ebay's sites .It has very little use outside it ,unless you just dont have a CC with you(or at all)
Since here (in Israel) the credit cards are the same as in any other part of the world (Visa , MC , AMex , Diners) I don't see why should small merchants pay the 2.9%+ 0.3usd per transaction in the US , and risk fund freezing(plenty of PayPal horror stories) . Paypal is used mainly for two reasons - Ebay and really small merchants
A Paypal transactions doesnt make much sence for a merchant outside of ebay . Every merchant allready pays the CC clearing fees (because no one in their right mind would actually not accept credit cards) , so a paypal transaction would just cost more , and moreover it would actually hurt the merchant's chances of getting better % from his CC clearing company .
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