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Paypal Agrees to Consumer Protections
davidwr writes "Paypal settled a suit with Maryland and 27 states. Among other things, they'll conspicuously advertise a contact phone number and staff it 14 hours a day and be much more forthcoming about when they will debit your bank account. For those of you who think Paypal Sucks, well, starting soon it sucks just a little less."
The US is clamping down on thier branch of paypal, those who provide bank like services should be treated like banks.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
I'm more interested in when they will be sued for blocking accounts based on "terrorist" last names.
Human rights, anyone?
parasight.de
If there's a payment problem on eBay, eBay will say "No, it's Payal's problem."
You go and contact Paypal, they say "No, it's eBay's problem."
See here
Reduce, reuse, cycle
If I pay someone on ebay by a bank transfer, they give me their details, not the other way round (so my privacy is actually maintained, of course they get an address to post the goods to). I don't use ebay much, but from my recent use it appears that a reasonable amount of (power?) sellers openly publish their bank details for payers' convienience. To transfer money I need the accounts name, sort code and account number, and with that info I can only put money into the account, not remove any. The ebay seller would get my bank details on their statement probably.
Of course I'm aware of the 419'ers, but no (British) bank should let funds be removed from an account with just the a/c name, number and sort code, AFAIK! I have heard the senario you have described above before, and always taken it with a pinch of salt, but that doesn't mean I'm blazé with my bank info. Also, that bank info is nothing more than can be shoulder surfed from my card anyway, or from the bottom edge of a cheque - i.e. the info is essentially in the open anyway. If I am a fraud victim and I haven't disclosed anything stupid (like my PIN), then my bank should be receptive to giving me a refund (they should refund fraud victims no matter what, but I digress). If I have allowed a corporate entity to drain my account because I didn't read terms and conditions correctly, then I'm a bit fucked.
Car analogies break down.
I'm just an innocent bystander here, but do you have proof for your claims? Or at least a little more development?
Misleading titles? Inflammatory blurbs? Keep in mind that Slashdot is a tabloid.
Up until 2 weeks ago, I would have said the same thing. I've used Paypal for about 4 years, bought/sold hundreds of items on eBay, paying exclusively through Paypal. I even had the debit card, which I used to take advantage of their cash-back for Visa purchases.
In July, I sold an item on eBay, got paid for it, life went on. Second week of September, I get an email from Paypal saying that they had reason to believe this item was paid for with fraudulent funds, and asked me to provide tracking info, etc., for the item sold. I did, gave them everything they asked for.
Two weeks later, I get another email from them, stating:
"We have conducted a review of a payment that you received. In this case, returning the funds to the sender was determined to be the appropriate action, and we have completed a reversal of the payment. Good selling practices, like trackable shipping, prompt shipment, and communication between buyer and seller help prevent disputes."
Huh? I provided them with a tracking number, delivery was confirmed, item was shipped the same day payment was received. I contacted the buyer (this person has purchased multiple items from me, I have no reason to not trust them), asked them if they knew anything more than I did. They have not received any refund from Paypal, and in fact didn't even know there was a problem.
So, who was my money "returned" to? Repeated emails to Paypal have been ignored, so I've closed my account, I'll never use Paypal again.
From TFA:
"Under terms of the settlement agreement, PayPal said it is not admitting any liability for the allegations in the dispute."
From the actual court transcript: "Your Honor, my client PayPal is sorry, but not sorry for what the plaintiffs thought we should be sorry for. I mean sorry in a general yet noble way. My client will keep doing what they were doing but with a much more cautious unscrupulousness.
At the same time, Your Honor, PayPal recognizes that people were genuinely angry and my client is sincere in their wish for the plaintiff to shut the hell up before more people can smell the stink.
Oops! Gotta run... Would Your Honor please give the plaintiff this bag of cash? Thanks!"
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
I think an issue here is *who* should be bashing the bigot. If corporations do this on our behalf then we (or our community) lose the capacity to fight bigotry. It's up to us, not faceless corporations, to challege these people. And it is through the process of open discussion that we come to understand what is right - lest we end up in some Orwellian void where PayPal et al do all the thinking for us.
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