> I was so afraid that PayPal would freeze my account that I called to let them know that I was going to sell a book and that I might have a few sales.
You know something's wrong when your customers are fearing you. Seriously, how did PayPal end up like this?
It ended up like these partly because of being the only really international online payment service -- thus having to abide and keep tabs on hundreds of different legislations and rules.
How do you tell a guy making $10,000 in 7 days from a small scale money laundering attempt?
How do you know he is not selling BS and that in a week or so you wont have a backslash of people demanding their money back from you (the payment service)?
We all know the horror stories of frozen PayPal accounts but I can't say I can blame PP given the scope of what they have to deal with when transferring money and dealing with regulators/government.
Banks and credit card companies seem to get it right with many more regulations, why can't Paypal? If I use my credit card for a spending spree, all it takes is one phone call with Visa to have everything cleared up. Paypal wouldn't have earned their reputation if they were able to provide that level of service.
It's reasonable to assume a flood of cash would be enough to set off various alarms.
It is a shame you have to be so wary of PayPal, but in this case it did lead them to do what would be the right thing no matter what you were using to cover payment processing.
In this case the fear of dealing with PayPal lead the author of the link to do what would have been the right thing no matter who they were dealing with.
Let me put it another way: when my CC issuer detects an anomaly, they block the charge and contact me rightaway to resolve it. I don't fear anything because I know they'll do the right thing and keep me in the loop. Why can't PayPal have such a symbiotic relationship with their customers, rather than instilling fear?
> Seriously, how did PayPal end up like this?
By having lots of people out to rip them off.