AmericanGoy Investigation discovers that PayPal sucks

So I was reading reddit and came upon this little gem.

Paypal Freezes New Hampshire Recount Funds

From the article: "Paypal has frozen the fundraising account of the Granny Warriors, a Ron Paul supporters group who had been pushing for a recount in New Hampshire, causing a 3pm Tuesday deadline to be missed and the application rejected for lack of payment.

The Granny Warriors had raised the necessary $55,600 deposit for the recount but at the last minute before it was transferred to the New Hampshire Secretary of State, Paypal blocked access to the funds."

A corporation, arbitrarily, decided to hold onto the money that its customers have given it. Of course, the whole purpose of this money was to allow the recount in N.H. state in the USA.

Alas, a corporation decided on a whim to fuck up democracy.

And why not? Since Kucinich can be excluded from a presidential debate in Nevada on a CEO's whim, why allow a recount in a key battleground state in this election?

So I, your truly, the chief idiot of this site, decided to investigate.

And a surprising conclusion was reached after a diligent research (3 minutes spent on reddit and 4 minutes googling).

This has nothing to do with Ron Paul.

Paypal people are dicks.

Something Awful paypal story

A popular humor internet site, called somethingawful.com, got its butt in gear and asked for monies from its subscribers to donate them to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

After collecting over $30,000 in under nine hours into a paypal account, the good people at somethingawful.com were ready send the money to the victims (American Red Cross).

And here is when PayPal said NO.

Full stop.

We at PayPal keep your money and make interest on it, while you... you don't get the money back. Haha, isn't it funny?

What is funny is that PayPal can "close, limit, freeze, or take money from your account whenever they like and for whatever reason they like; when you join their service".

From the PayPal official agreement that you, the sucker dumbass err I mean customer, agree to:

"PayPal, at its sole discretion, reserves the right to close an account at any time for any reason."

"PayPal, at its sole discretion, also reserves the right to limit access to sending money or making withdrawals from an account for any one of the events listed below"

You don't get it, so reread it... What is missing? That's right - there is NO TIME LIMIT on how long PayPal can keep your money!

"PayPal encourages all buyer purchase disputes to be filed and resolved through the PayPal dispute resolution process, and reserves the right to terminate or limit account access privileges of buyers who file reversal complaints without attempting to resolve the complaints through PayPal."

What this legalese mumbo jumbo means is exactly what the good folks at somethingawful.com told yah and I quoted: they can do with your money what they like. Take it, move it, freeze it, wipe their asses with it. And there ain't nothing you can do, bubba, because if you complain, THAT is a violation of the user agreement. even if you complain through your credit card company (as you do in any other case when there is an issue with a credit card payment).

Hahahahahahahaha!

This is soooooo gloriously eeeeeeeeevil!

I am impressed.

From paypalsucks.com, they reach the same conclusion: "According to PayPal accepting their ToS (Terms of Service) in effect means you waive your rights to credit card consumer protection laws if you want to use their service, and that you may not issue a chargeback for unauthorized use of your credit card and PayPal account, or if you do, then they have the right to limit your account. Is this legal? We don't know. But it's how Paypal operates."

How can PayPal do this? I mean they can choose to literally hold on to your money for a day, two days, a week - and there is NOTHING you can do. You agreed to their Terms of Service, remember, sucker?

Well, they can do this because... Well, I will again quote the good folks at somethingawful.com: "So how can they get away with this? I mean, banks can't rip off customers like this, can they? No, banks can't... but Paypal isn't a bank. They aren't governed by the FDIC. They literally answer to nobody."

It is not a bank, they are NOT governed nor protected by FDIC... Down the rabbit hole we go...

But wait, if you discover their hidden customer help phone number, and actually get to speak with a human being (a miracle akin to the coming back of Jesus), you will be told there is action you can do to unfreeze your money.

The 6EZ steps include: "faxing in photos of my driver's license, recent bank statements, recent credit card statements, and a letter explaining I'm not a thief".

Meanwhile, that money is earning a nice percentage for PayPal...

What happened with the folks at somethingawful.com (the folks who donated $30,000 to Katrina victims, remember?), is that PayPal asked them to provide tracking (shipping) numbers of all transactions.

Which was a problem, as, this being donations, there were no tracking numbers...

Finally, the sane option happened, and PayPal refunded everybody's money.


These people are lucky. According to PayPalsucks.com, the following is a very likely scenario when your account is closed:
"Thank you for contacting PayPal. We apologize for the delay in respondingto your service request.

After review, the decision has been made to keep your account locked. This decision cannot be appealed.

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email.

That will be the end of it as far as PayPal is concerned. You can email back, but you'll just get more of the same. Oh yea, and you'll have to wait 180 days to get your money. "


Stop by PayPal sucks website and say hi

So sorry, Ron Paul supporters - no conspiracy there...

PayPal are just dicks