Originally Posted by
SkiAdcock
Not to sidetrack the thread, but a # of people have had problems w/ Paypal in the past & choose not to use it. Short of FT & perhaps eBay, most don't really need to use Paypal. The 'locked out' of the account that has been described by a few here is one of the said problems.
Plus last year those of us who paid the TATL & Charter via Paypal had the charges reversed & holds put on our accounts, because they were larger amounts &
oliver2002 had to jump through hoops to convince Paypal he was not a drug dealer
w/ those amounts coming into the SMDO account, which is one reason he worked w/ them this year..
Originally Posted by
USirritated
To add my voice to the chorus, I have also had problems with PayPal through the years. Based on the amount necessary for the final payment due by the end of July, I fully expect the size of the payment to cause at least a "hiccup" when I try to put the payment through.
Considering the huge volume that this DO is going to generate, maybe a credit card payments online shopping cart could be set up to take payments? I am not bringing this up to cause problems, so I withdraw my suggestion in advance if SMDO II organizers or participants object or are offended by this suggestion.
You two are becoming like Statler & Waldorf....
Paypal: last year we set up the account and the money flowed in two days later in massive scale (we got some 22 000€ in one week) without any tangible goods changing hands. As it should be paypal got very concerned this was some fraud. So it took a while for the money to be released after Condor assured Paypal that a tangible good will be provided. The reason behind this is the buyer protection: if you don't get what you want from us, paypal has to give you your money back
The other issue that pops up is people accessing their account from abroad and making transactions. So even access from innocent NZ to a US account to pay someone in Germany raises an alert. Don't even start bringing countries like china or russia in to the picture, it will get even worse. Again, this is to protect you against fraud, so probably justified. Not all paypal customers are jetsetters like FTers.
Getting a credit card terminal: yes, this was one of the options we considered last year and this year. However, the same fraud rules apply: credit card companies will also shut you down when you start collecting 100-150 k $ within a few days online without any tangible goods passing across the merchant table. Plus we don't have the flexibility to move money across continents quickly (and nearly free) as we do with paypal. A wire from a US bank to a german bank takes 3-4 days and costs 35-45$, plus transfers at that level attract the attention of the taxman and the DEA, so even though the operation is legit I would just end up justifying my actions to agencies for no reasons.