We interrupt your casual Tuesday for some despicable news!

Dec 06, 2011 10:39

Hey everyone, how's your blood pressure doing? Good? Well break out the coumadin, it's about to skyrocket.

For some of you who aren't familiar, there is a website called Regretsy, which takes some of the worst and most inexplicable items from Etsy and showcases them in humorous posts usually consisting of 'why would you do that'? However, Regretsy isn't always picking on the little hipster that could; April Winchell, the site owner, often holds events through Etsy as well as her site where people can choose to donate money or sellable crafts with the proceeds going to charities and people in need, from Etsy sellers who have hospital bills to people who've lost their jobs.



Recently, the group known as April's Army decided to do something for children and needy families who were struggling with medical bills; once again people made crafts or found toys, and others chose to donate the price of the toys or sometimes even just out of pocket to help these children.

Unfortunately, the digital currency program they chose to send their money through? Those of you who are familiar are already cringing: PayPal.

Another backstory- PayPal is notorious for freezing anyone's account for any reason they deem suspicious. They are known for freezing accounts of sellers and clearing their checking accounts when a scammy buyer claims fraud, even when the seller has proof. PayPal is the AT&T of digital paysites.

So anyway, PayPal was alarmed when April's accounts reached around $20,000 USD or so in such a short amount of time, and froze her accounts. Both the one dedicated to the charity, as well as her personal, non-related to the charity account. (site has NSFW LANGUAGE)She details the story far more eloquently than I could on her site.

I'm detailing this story because PayPal has long been the dominant paysite of EGL Comm Sales, but I think we should derail that. PayPal has done this before, and while it's understandable that they would be suspicious of any account racking up thousands of dollars in a day or so, but as detailed in the post on Something Awful, they demand incredible hoops for the account holder to jump through, and continue to make money on the frozen accounts. Yes. They have all your money, and make interest on it too.

Regardless of how you feel about kids or cats or Etsy or Regretsy, PayPal's actions rub the wrong way all around. I know that I will let PayPal know my displeasure the only way I can; deleting my account with them. Please consider doing the same.

Mods: I believe that as a majority of lolitas are crafters and also compassionate human beings, that this is relevant and it is important to spread the word.

PayPal apologizes and explains.

Other Services like PayPal
I have NOT personally tried any of these services myself; most of the sites I buy from allow direct credit card input as opposed to the hassle of logging into PayPal. My info has come from various people on the internet, as well as PayPalSucks reviews of different services.
WePay
Dwolla Transactions under $10 are free!
Google Checkout
Allpay.net RECOMMENDED UK ONLY
Paymate RECOMMENDED AUS AND NZ ONLY
Ipaymu https://ipaymu.com/ You'll need Bank Account from Indonesia to register but you are allowed to do overseas transaction. *thanks snowsparklegems
Popmoney *thanks lotusx

As always though, do your research and plan carefully when selecting any service. It might take some time, but perhaps if more and more sellers and buyers switch to a different service, we can dismantle paypal just a little bit :)

EDIT:

Everything kinda resolved?
So I guess no one's still sure when it's okay to use the donate button, so if you plan on using PayPal to fund charity drives any time soon, either be a non-profit or be doing it for sick cats and not people.
In the meantime, research some alternatives.

discussion: consumer ethics, ordering: paypal

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