Why PayPal sucks

[23skidoo]

If I had the resources I'd put up a facepalm graphic here.

A fellow named Steve Berry is trying to publish a book called Behind the Sofa as a fund-raiser for Alzheimer's Research. It is a book featuring people's memories of Doctor Who. The book was publicized on the Doctor Who News Page and elsewhere last week.

The book hasn't been published yet; the idea being people would pre-order the book via a PayPal payment, Berry will then use a portion of the proceeds to pay for getting the book done. Sounds OK, right?

Not according to PayPal. According to a DWNP report, PayPal received so many pre-orders in such a short period of time it FROZE the account and refused to give the money to Berry, forcing Berry to pay for the publishing costs out of pocket.

PayPal eventually agreed to release some of the funds, but the guy still needs to pay costs up front.

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2012/03/dwn130312044512-behind-sofa-has-paypal.html

More detail from the official website for the book, including the fact PayPal only blinked when the likes of Neil Gaiman and the Radio Times got involved:

http://behindthesofa.myshopify.com/blogs/news

Keep this in mind if you ever plan to self-publish or do anything that involves a popular TV series and want to use PayPal: expect actual interest and popularity to bite you in the ass.

Alex

 

[ALF]

I thought PayPal sucked because it dreams up its own exchange rates.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Why PayPal sucks.

 

[SonicRanger]

So he wanted people to buy a book he hadn't actually produced, and Paypal wanted him to prove that he was, in fact, producing a book and not going to cheat numerous Paypal customers, who'd no doubt complain to Paypal that they'd lost their money? Sounds like he was foolish and Paypal was taking reasonable steps to limit their liability. What if you were one of the people who paid for a book that was never produced? Would you complain Paypal wasn't doing their job when you lost your money?

 

[Starkers]

In fairness Steve Berry does admit

In PayPal's defence, they are doing this to protect you, the purchaser, because you are pre-ordering a book that doesn't yet exist.

You can almost see the reverse headline here. "Who fans scammed out of money for book that doesn't exist whilst PayPal does nothing..."

Given that, now PP can clearly see the book is legit I don't see why they won't release all the funds.

 

[Timofnine]

In this instance Paypal sucks... but I can see a con artist using the same method to steal people's money, they are just being cautious. If this book/project has been confirmed as legit by paypal though they shouldn't be witholding anything. I hope that this gets sorted soon, and that the extra publicity sells a tonne of books and raises even more for it's good cause!

 

[wamdue]

isnt there already a crowd sourcing funding website for books, which would by pass the need for Pay Pal?

 

[OmahaStar]

isnt there already a crowd sourcing funding website for books, which would by pass the need for Pay Pal?

Several, yes. Kickstarter and IndieGoGo for example.

 

[Sindatur]

Paypal apparently does the same thing with new Ebay Accounts also. Less than so many feedbacks (maybe 10?) and you only have access to so much money in your eBay account for such and such a period of time (I guess so there is time for a Buyer to lodge and complaint and get a refund if you don't ship to them?)

 

[zarkon]

Yeah, much as I dislike them this isn't paypals fault.

This is the kind of thing kickstarter is for.

 

[StCoop]

The book hasn't been published yet; the idea being people would pre-order the book via a PayPal payment, Berry will then use a portion of the proceeds to pay for getting the book done. Sounds OK, right?

Of course it doesn't sound OK, it sounds like a scam.* Which is why PayPal did the right thing.


*I know it isn't in this case but with tens (hundreds?) of thousands of transactions taking place every day how are they supoosed to know it isn't?