Grinch: They're finding out now that no Christmas is coming.
They're just waking up, I know just what they'll do.
Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,
Then the Whos down in Whoville will all cry, "Boo Hoo!"
That's a noise, (the Grinch said,) that I simply must hear.."
That's basically what paypal said this week when they froze the account of regretsy. Regretsy is a site that makes fun of re sellers and creeper crafters that sell stuff on etsy. In their non mocking time they raise money for various causes.
The latest was low income families and Christmas presents. The toys had been bought and ready to ship and the evil regretsians had even raised enough to send sizable cash donations along with the toys to each family. Then April Winchell - miss regretsy herself (also the voice of Clarabelle cow, cruella deville and countless other Disney characters- her dad was tigger) got notice that Paypal deemed her a fraud because she was using the donation button but was not listed as a non profit entity.
Nevermind that all kinds of blogs and sites use the donate button for anything but non profit activities (buy new me boobs got some now well endowed turd enough for not one but two sets of ta tas) or that this WAS a non profit cause - paypal not only refused to allow the money to be released they :
1 forced her to return all monies one small donation at a time.
2 took not only their initial fee but a SECOND fee during her refund process
3 froze her account so no poor child money may get into the hands of... Poor children.
4 also froze all her monies in the accept that have nothing to do with this such as money from her book and dazzle.
5 and the kicker- responded to her like this:
Actual transcript . "me" refers to April Winchell.
Here are a few highlights from our conversation:
YOU CAN ONLY HELP CATS
PAYPAL: Only a nonprofit can use the Donate button.
ME: That’s false. It says right in the PDF of instructions for the Donate button that it can be used for “worthy causes.”
PAYPAL: I haven’t seen that PDF. And what you’re doing is not a worthy cause, it’s charity.
ME: What’s the difference?
PAYPAL: You can use the donate button to raise money for a sick cat, but not poor people.
YOU HAVE TO START A NEW WEBSITE
ME: The problem is I’ve already bought all of these toys, so now I’m really in a position like any other merchant – which is to say, I have inventory I need to sell. Why can’t I sell them as gifts, like any other retailer?
PAYPAL: Don’t you think it would look suspicious if the same people bought them again?
ME: Why? These are my customers!
PAYPAL: If you wanted to do that, you’d have to start a new website.
ME: What? Why would I start a new website?
PAYPAL: I’m not going to argue with you.
WE WILL TRACK YOUR SHIPMENTS
PAYPAL: The only way you’d be allowed to sell these as gifts is if you sent them directly to the person who bought them. And we will track your shipments and make sure it goes to the buyer.
ME: That’s discriminatory! You don’t make other retailers send purchases to the buyer only, especially not at Christmas.
PAYPAL: No one but a nonprofit would send gifts to someone else on buyer’s behalf.
ME: What about Amazon?
PAYPAL: We know what you’re doing and we’re through playing games with you.
YOU’LL NEVER GET AWAY WITH THIS
PAYPAL: You say you’re selling these as gifts but there is no information as to what the gift is.
ME: People sell mystery gifts and grab bags all the time. What about sites where they say, let us choose for you?”
PAYPAL: It doesn’t say that on your site.
ME: Is that the problem? If I say it’s a mystery gift would that be sufficient?
PAYPAL: You aren’t going to be able to get around this. It’s too late, we know what you’re trying to do and we’re not going to let you do it.
ME: But there are hundreds of toys! Do you think it’s reasonable to create a drop down menu for hundreds of gifts, all of them different, and create an inventory for each as “one?” So that every time one sells, it’s sold out, and the customer has to keep choosng options and going through check out to see if they can find a gift that’s still available?
PAYPAL: Yes, I think it’s reasonable.
Then my brain exploded.
At this point, I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that “No one above me will talk to you. No one at my level ever makes phone calls. We’re only doing this to help you.”
When I asked how to close my account, he said I had to “refund everything, write a letter saying you understood what you did WAS WRONG AND YOU WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN, and then request permission to close your account.”
Then, for good measure, they froze my personal account, which has revenue from my book sales, e-books and all the other Finnish Folktales Swag. They’ll be holding that money for 6 months."
Found on Regretsy
So if you've been following along you have learned that poor kids at Christmas are NOT a worthy cause but sick cats are. I mean we all knew that right? I see how the kids totally violated paypals non existent guidelines on who you can use the donate button to benefit but cat is perfectly legit.
They effectively ruined Christmas for I believe 200 families over - well I'm not sure the issue since Many people not labelled non profit use the donate button... Which was regretsys supposed offense.
What if the poor kids had sick cats... Does that make it legit?
Feel free to post on the pay pal fb page and let them know you don't like companies with hearts three sizes too small.
Edited to add that paypal says they've remedied the situation but April has yet to hear from them...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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