[thelist] How do you extract money from people over the internet?

Pieter Roosens pieter at roosensdesign.com
Wed Sep 7 12:53:57 CDT 2005


>> It happens... but it's much less frequent for merchants.  The only  
>> time they freeze accounts is when the buyer files for reversal  
>> claiming they never got the product, etc.
>>
>
> There was a time before PayPal was owned by eBay where PayPal was  
> pretty ruthless in shutting down accounts with no explanation and  
> sitting on the money with no apparent recourse for getting your  
> money out. They were not technically a banking institution and thus  
> were not held to the same FDIC rules that other banks were and  
> their customer service had a tendency to just ignore people.
>
> Consumers had little recourse and one trick PayPal used was that  
> although they might "freeze" an account, they would still allow  
> money to be deposited (by a customer of yours) but you couldn't  
> take any money out. Thus they could earn a pretty penny on interest  
> on the accumulating money while they "checked into it" for months.  
> Meanwhile your customer is saying, "Where is the product I ordered?  
> I paid you through PayPal." but you haven't really been paid.
>
> Once eBay bought PayPal and more competition arrived, I believe  
> things were cleaned up although I don't know if the FDIC plays a  
> role now or not. But that's the back story as I understand it.
>
> My suggestion is to read the fine print.
>
>
> Erik Heerlein
> erik at erikheerlein.com

Thanks all. I learned a lot about Paypal here :-)
Pieter


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