Turing Pi Trouble with PayPal
r.m.turingpi.com
r.m.turingpi.com
The person who posted this is likely on Turing Pi's e-mail list and they simply copied-and-pasted the link they received.
Or if you're a programmer debugging something, the software is malware until you fix and recompile. Because during that time you are debugging it, it is instructing your computer to produce output that you don't want to observe.
> Links of this campaign are temporarily blocked for you. This happens when you access the links multiple times in a short interval. Please retry after 7 days. The links will work fine for other recipients.
I received the same thing. Attempted to view with disabling of blockers, but same result.
And, to confirm this, I also got this email (because the product looked interesting a few months ago) and I can still use the link in my email but the one on the HN post doesn't work.
Don't really get why the mods haven't changed the link to the twitter URL yet?
PayPal sucks—big surprise. But at the same time, I preordered a Turing Pi in February, they communicated in March that it was processed, and then I didn’t hear from them again until May 25, and then it showed up in early June. That two-month communication lapse between March-June might have been your problem with PayPal disputes. Next time, communicate more.
Similar experience. I wouldn't be surprised if they had a lot of outstanding orders and disputes that have prompted PayPal to keep their funds on hold.
If you're taking credit card payments, regardless of the processor, you need to stay on top of these things. A trend of disputes or chargebacks will trigger this with any processor.
"communicate more" might be easy to armchair project manage, but one of the reasons i won't do a startup is i don't want to deal with customers. A couple of bad actors can ruin your reputation with no way to recover it. I was banned from paypal because someone in NYC said we never shipped a $150 textbook, but oddly, they never ordered another one! I had been using paypal (and ebay) for about a decade prior to that with no complaints or issues, as well.
I know..I know..god forbid you have to communicate with those dreaded customers who pay for your existence. It’s not like it’s easy using one of several mailing list, social media, etc., tools these days. I guess my ask is too difficult, next time I will only expect a hand-written letter and mailed with a proper 58-cent current-year stamp for my collection.
It's a small company so, if I didn't hear anything about them, I might as well think that the project failed and take my money back.
IIRC you have 60 days to dispute a credit card charge. Maybe they release some news only after seeing a lot of chargebacks.
https://liberapay.com/ (imagine your bank or paypal were open source: https://github.com/liberapay/liberapay.com )
I am not affiliated in any way, but I funded K9 mail through this, F-Droid, Matrixdotorg, and presumably more projects in the future. It's so pain-free, just put in any amount, your details (IBAN, address), check the box to authorize the direct debit, done. No account needed, but you can check your history by "logging in" which just emails you a one-time login link.
It's also transparent about how much the beneficiary is already receiving, so it doesn't feel like you're all dumping money into a black hole with no idea if it's way too little or already a decent amount (and you can fund other things instead). I just wish more projects used it.
Cash App just terminated my account because I quibbled their support.
I used their card to buy something in Sep 2021. It was shipped weeks late in Nov, but FedEx never attempted delivery and returned it to the merchant. Merchant never responded to my emails (they have 732 complaints and no positives on BBB). I had already asked Cash for a chargeback in Oct. In Jan (!) Cash finally responded and asked for all documents. I sent them. They said they can't do a chargeback as the package was delivered. They only do chargebacks for nondelivery. I said "it was delivered to the merchant". They said "we understand that, but it was delivered". This went around and around.
I then got the cell # for one of the managers at Cash and texted him. He responded and escalated. Same response from their executive team. Then they terminated my account for contacting their employees outside the online support channel LOL. I've eventually managed to get my balance out at least.
[funny side note: you can't transfer from Cash to Square Checking (their parent company) because Cash says Square's fees are too high and it blocks it]
p.s. Cash App has a decent exploit in it that lets you convert last 4 digits of a SSN + Name into a full SSN, so be careful.
Paypal is awful for this crap. I understand why they do it, but they literally cripple small businesses with this policy. At the very least they should make it very clear under what conditions money will be locked.
More interestingly, they're also a bad fit for online payment systems like Paypal. Paypal steals its customers' money like this because it's profitable for them to do so; receiving money from money senders and then just keeping it is very profitable indeed. But they get away with doing it, despite the bad publicity, because there's no less-corrupt alternative their customers can switch to. The other Paypal-like companies born late last millennium all failed because the reversible payment infrastructure of the credit card and banking system stuck them with the bill for whatever scams and fraud were perpetrated on their platforms.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/01/paypal-stole-use...