CATS 1, KIDS 0
Photo by Cathy Hurley
As you know, we have been trying to buy Christmas presents for kids in the Regretsy community.
We took many applications, vetted them carefully and set about creating a giant gift exchange program, where you could buy a gift for the over 200 children we’re helping.
We raised so much money that we found ourselves in a position of not just being able to send toys, but to send a monetary gift to the families as well. We hoped it might help them make their holiday dinners more special, or maybe pay a pressing bill.
PAYPAL SHUT IT DOWN
Apparently we made the mistake of using the “Donate” button, which Paypal is now claiming is only for nonprofit organizations to use.* They froze the account, which also includes Zazzle money that we use to make emergency gifts. That money isn’t in issue, but what the hell! Might as well keep everything!
*EDIT: For the record, this piece of information is completely false. As per Paypal, anyone may use a donation button for any reason.
So last night, I decided to go about this a different way. Since these toys are already purchased, I decided to offer them up for sale on this site, just like any other retailer would. You could buy them according to what you wanted to spend, and we would send them on to the recipient of your gift, just like any other retailer.
PAYPAL SHUT IT DOWN
After a very long and jaw-dropping conversation with an incredibly condescending representative, they have decided that I must refund all the donations and purchases that have not been processed. If you don’t get a refund, it’s because we got your money before they got smart and kept us from helping children at Christmas, which is really the best move any corporation can make.
Here are a few highlights from our conversation:
YOU CAN ONLY HELP CATSPAYPAL: 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.
So to recap:
$ They allowed me to use a donate button, and got a portion of the donations
$ Then made me return the donations, and kept a portion of the fees on the donations
$ They allowed me to use a Buy Now button to sell gifts individually, and got a portion of those sales
$ Then made me return the sales, and kept a portion of the fees on the sales
$ They processed the toy purchases, and made fees on that
They have made a fortune for not doing anything but making me manually return thousands of $2 sales and contributions.
I have been able to guarantee purchase and shipment of the toys, so that part is happening, as are the letters from Santa (most have already been delivered).
However, I am very sorry to say that at this point, I am not able to make a monetary gift to the families. They have frozen everything that was not already spent or donated, and I have no more funds to make a gift of that size.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Wanna tell Paypal how you feel? Here’s a list of every administrative Paypal email address and phone number The Consumerist was able to find.
UPDATE: Paypal has responded and this matter is largely resolved. You can see the outcome here.
December 5, 2011 at 6:10 pm
WHAT THE FUCK.
December 5, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Cunt, what the shit? As they say in Finnish. Off to email PayPal.
Fucking fuck fuckery.
December 5, 2011 at 7:35 pm
Posted on their Facebook page, which was swiftly removed.
Try being less “asshole” and more “forgiving.” It’s absolutely appalling the crap you guys are pulling with Regretsy. Congratulations on successfully screwing families out of some much-needed donations because you’re greedy bastards who care more about red tape than people. I hope the Karma carousel comes full circle and hits each and every one of you with the force of a fully-loaded bus. Merry fucking Christmas to you too.
December 5, 2011 at 8:51 pm
Posted the following to PayPal’s FB (But it looks like they’ve disabled posts? It disappears on every reload…):
Have you heard the news? PayPal has decided that donating gifts and money to needy children and families is wrong. So wrong that they’ll take their cut of the donations, then require that the organizer refund all the money (that PayPal took their cut of); then allow the organizer to sell the (already purchased) gifts (and take a cut of the sales); then decide that because it’s not a charity for cats, but for kids, all of the sales have to be refunded (giving PayPal another transaction cut); and then, to add insult to injury, freezing the personal account of the organizer.
http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/
#PayPal #FAIL #Scrooge
December 5, 2011 at 8:54 pm
Odd – I can see the post here, which says it’s on their wall…but I can’t see it on their wall…
December 5, 2011 at 9:19 pm
At the top of the wall you can decide whether you want to look at posts by PayPal or posts by Everyone (Most Recent). So none of them are getting deleted…. they just aren’t on the default wall view.
December 5, 2011 at 9:29 pm
They’ve hidden their wall like a bunch of chicken shits. It’s still there and their still deleting like wild gibbering monkeys. Only now you have to click a link from the main page. Typical, making their customers put out the extra effort to have their say.
December 5, 2011 at 9:32 pm
I copied/pasted what you posted. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO CLICK ON
Everyone (Most Recent) when you’re looking at their facebook. They’re not deleting everything (although I did not see your post, it could have scrolled off by now with all the hate mail.)
December 6, 2011 at 6:18 am
I copy and pasted your post on Paypal’s wall. It’s getting “likes” so apparently it is showing up somewhere.
December 6, 2011 at 6:59 am
I stole your post to see if it worked and it did. Sorry about copying you
It was just a lot more easy and now that we know posts work lets all post on the wall!!! You just have to click the filter to see everyones post not just paypals on the top of the wall.
December 6, 2011 at 11:11 am
To anyone who “stole” my post – you were welcome to it. My goal was to get the word out widely, and your appropriation of my words only helped that cause.
Apparently, we got their attention.
Would be cool if Regretsy/Ms. Killer gets a chance to let us know if the resolution was reasonable/acceptable to her.
December 5, 2011 at 9:11 pm
I copied and pasted this and it’s been up long enough now to get nine “likes”, so maybe the locking of posts has been taken out for the time being?
December 5, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Just got my *second* refund from PayPal. Fuck you, greedy losers.
Post to Colbert:
https://www.facebook.com/thecolbertreport?sk=wall&filter=1
And Jon Stewart:
https://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow?sk=wall&filter=12
December 6, 2011 at 7:42 am
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/12/paypal_kills_christmas.php
It’s also on
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/06/do-you-hear-what-i-hear-yes-its-paypal-stealing-money-from-kids/
December 6, 2011 at 7:45 am
Oooh! Feel the love, slags!
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/paypal-faces-pr-nightmare-over-poor-handling-of-regretsy-incident.html/
December 6, 2011 at 7:49 am
And THIS:
http://www.businessinsider.com/paypal-regretsy-2011-12
December 5, 2011 at 11:12 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 6, 2011 at 10:58 am
YESSSSS
Fingers crossed this is true!!!
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/12/06/paypal-says-that-the-regretsy-funds-have-been-released-apologizes-and-makes-donation/
December 5, 2011 at 6:35 pm
Post on their facebook wall:
https://www.facebook.com/paypal?sk=wall
December 5, 2011 at 7:05 pm
I saw it further below, but not just pissing all over their Facebook and decrying their actions on Twitter, which I have found really gets a company’s proverbial goat, someone needs to start a Change.org petition. I know Paypal has already been under fire for handling certain groups who promote anti-gay agendas, etc.
December 5, 2011 at 10:54 pm
Someone did http://www.change.org/petitions/paypal-stop-being-greedy-idiots-who-shut-down-organizations-to-help-the-poor#
December 5, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Their FB page is blowing up! I lurve you fat jealous losers!
December 5, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Oh, I did, I did. The post was removed in seconds. Literally, in maybe five seconds.
December 5, 2011 at 7:32 pm
I just did and in four seconds 5 people had liked it. I also sent a pissy email to some of the heads listed on the email addresses website. Assholes, everyone of them.
December 5, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Yes, I’ve tweeted and Facebooked and got about 8 likes in less than a minute. I will not be censored, mother fuckers. I’ve also shared the story with others to get their rage built up.
December 6, 2011 at 6:50 am
Personally I’m going to wait a day or two until PayPal thinks we may be done. What the fuck, this fat jealous loser LOVES to copy and past email addresses and send out snarky emails to company officials – who, btw, will probably be pocketing large bonuses this year, consisting of all the fees they’ve hoarded from people whose money they won’t refund.
December 6, 2011 at 4:41 pm
oh yes make them think we are done to get their guard down! THEN SUCKER PUNCH THEM WHERE IT COUNTS !
December 5, 2011 at 7:57 pm
We are BLOWING UP their FB page. Now… how do we get this on Reddit? Any of you have accounts? We need to get this as viral as possible. Public shame and scorn is the only way they might back down.
December 6, 2011 at 12:19 am
Done.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Corporations/comments/n2b0y/paypal_cares_more_about_cats_than_the_poor_paypal/
December 6, 2011 at 3:55 am
Qix: you posted in /r/corporations? There are literally only 2 subscribers there. What about /r/WTF?
December 5, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Not only am I doing that – I am PERSONALLY email each and every one of those fucking emails. If everyone does the same – we will blow up their emails
FUCK YOU PAYPAL.
December 5, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Picked up by Wall St Journal and several other sites already, if you google it.
December 6, 2011 at 12:04 am
CNN too. CF4L
December 5, 2011 at 9:37 pm
How bout blowing up some inboxes for local news media, their headquarters is in San Jose, here’s the contact info I’ve found so far.
crime@mercury news.com, community relations@mercury news.com, local@mercury news.com, feedback@nbcbayarea.com, news tips@ktvu.com, general.manager@ktvu.com, community.affairs@ktvu.com, webstaff@ktvu.com, ire ports@ktvu.com
Also, http://www.nbcbayarea.com/contact-us
December 6, 2011 at 12:23 am
I’m sure paypal will enjoy the video i posted to their wall. santa knows what those greedy bastards are up to
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/mErK4dKzF1eyKa-gxg7fjYQ
December 6, 2011 at 5:19 am
I actually lol’d at that video. The pictures were priceless.
December 6, 2011 at 10:15 am
Sam Cornwall FTW!!
I’ll chip in the $5 to have him rant at Paypal – especially since my family (among SO many) is among those who would have benefitted from a little extra $ from the F(abulous)JLs doing the secret santa. Been wanting to wrest myself away for greedy grasp of Paypal for years – now I’m so enraged I’ll DO IT. FUCK YOU PAYPAL!!
December 5, 2011 at 6:56 pm
Can’t we just mail you checks? Maybe?
December 5, 2011 at 7:03 pm
No, I don’t take checks meant for charitable purposes. I cant deposit that money into my account. Paypal was just a landing page for collections, and I disbursed it as quickly as I could.
December 5, 2011 at 7:18 pm
I wonder how much money etsy makes paypal, paypal loves resellers.
I say conspiracy!
December 5, 2011 at 7:25 pm
I think it’s time to get your old friend Judith involved.
December 5, 2011 at 7:27 pm
YES!!!!
December 6, 2011 at 12:22 am
YES. I’ll go get my PBR and Cheetos!
December 5, 2011 at 7:26 pm
can we send you well concealed CASH?
December 5, 2011 at 7:39 pm
That would only reinforce Paypal’s unsaid accusation that they apparently think this is some sort of illegal money laundering or fraud scheme…why grow their already shockingly large ego?
December 5, 2011 at 10:15 pm
You can send cash with these guys – https://www.dwolla.com/
I’m not sure yet if you can use them on Etsy, another fabulous Regretsy reader posted about them on the paypal fb page, and I’ve been looking into them, looks good so far.
December 5, 2011 at 7:26 pm
This whole thing is beyond comprehension for me. Paypal needs a serious kick in the ass. We need to get this story more attention somehow…
December 5, 2011 at 8:15 pm
I don’t even…
when Diaspora got fucked over by PP, they went with Stripe. Could Regretsy do the same?
https://stripe.com/
(no affiliation, just read it here: http://blog.diasporafoundation.org/2011/10/19/how-diaspora-found-its-tiger-stripe-in-the-midst-of-a-paypal-fiasco.html)
December 5, 2011 at 8:45 pm
I posted a comment on their page and they took it down. I’m upset because mine was polite and intelligent AND THEY TOOK IT DOWN! They left up all the ones cursing at them, because that’s ok, BUT SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK?!?
December 5, 2011 at 9:13 pm
Well, yeah, comments cursing can be portrayed as “oh those idiot scammers are mad they got shut down.” Politeness and intelligence are signs that there are thinking people on the other side, which can’t be shown.
December 5, 2011 at 8:50 pm
Jennifer CoxPayPal
Regretsy. Really. My gut response is, shame on you. It’d be great if you din’t delete this and posted a reasoned response to your position on that one. I have, admittedly, only heard one side, and as someone who “donated”, or whatever you guys want to call it, I would like to understand why we’ve all got it wrong. I have used PayPal for years and while I can’t in good conscience encourage my friends and colleagues to use your services based on my dealings (some of which were rough) it’s not been as bad as others have experienced. And, even if this Regretsy kerfuffle is the impetus I need to cancel my accounts, you probably wouldn’t care. They’re not generating much in the way of fees for PayPal or anything, but, that said, while I’m still a customer, I am asking you to help me understand why a kid who would have delighted in the wagon my $40 donation could have purchased, can’t have that Christmas now.
Like · · about a minute ago ·
December 5, 2011 at 9:33 pm
To everyone reading this, sign the petition.
http://www.change.org/petitions/paypal-stop-being-greedy-idiots-who-shut-down-organizations-to-help-the-poor#
December 5, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Let it be known that I believe that internet petitions aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. BUT this is the 1st one I’ve signed. I wish to stand & add my voice to *any* forum that you FJLs can come up with.
I’m here to help! Let’s make this viral!
December 5, 2011 at 10:09 pm
Also put one on the government’s own site, once they’re done maintaining it: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions
December 6, 2011 at 6:57 am
We’re up to 799 signatures.
December 5, 2011 at 10:56 pm
the petition is here http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
by the way.
December 5, 2011 at 11:51 pm
Vote here, this needs to be on CNN! http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-713002?ref=feeds%2Fnewsiest
Fuck you, PAYPAL.
December 6, 2011 at 3:12 am
Well, everybody knows charity isn’t a worthy cause. /sarcasm
December 6, 2011 at 5:36 am
Shouldn’t we be going to Paypal’s biggest competitor (whomsoever that may be) and giving them the opportunity to shame PP into the ground? It’s all well and good to want to inundate April with checks and cash, but if we can somehow go to WePay or whoever and say, here’s a golden PR opportunity, come forward and say “we’re going to show Paypal how it’s done” and have them handle the donations. Or something, I might be talking out of my ass, I’ve gotten on my righteous horse a couple of time the last month. The last time was when my little sis got scammed on a ring she bought for her wedding that’s happening in two weeks, I went apeshit and logicked the cuntbag seller into a refund. I have the sinking feeling my rage is going to be slightly less effective here.
December 6, 2011 at 5:50 am
I suggest you set up some sort of petition and get several hundred people to sign it and send that to someone at PayPal.
They keep saying “We know what you’re trying to do.” What is it they think you’re trying to do?
December 6, 2011 at 6:41 am
paypal are ruined. Their FB page has been taken over with messages from us and people are tweeting about alternative sites to paypal.
December 6, 2011 at 8:50 am
Observe this PDF, designed for no-profits! https://cms.paypal.com/cms_content/US/en_US/files/merchant/paypal_nonprofit_faqs.pdf
Notice point 3 carefully. Read the second-to-last sentence: “If your organization does not have 501(c)(3) status, it will pay our standard low transaction fees.”
BINGO! That is *proof* that groups/organizations who ARE NOT 501(c)(3) non-profits can STILL use the “Donate” button.
I call bullshit on PayPal! I also call LIAR and THIEF!
December 6, 2011 at 9:35 am
Apparently PayPal just released this “Issue Resolution”
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/12/regretsy-issue-resolution/
December 5, 2011 at 6:10 pm
Fuck paypal. Fuck paypal in its paypal ass.
December 5, 2011 at 6:15 pm
I am in complete awe of your amazeballs avatar. Sums it all up pretty darn well.
December 5, 2011 at 7:26 pm
Someone contact ANONYMOUS!!! I want to know if there is another site better than paypal????
I was already pissed as hell at paypal as they shafted me twice this month on charge backs. Paypal CHARGED ME 20.00 to give the money back to the customer who already said THEY GOT THE MERCH!!!!!
Just to clarify how great paypal is:
A charge back was started by the bank
Even though I had full proof of delivery, I lost the case
The customer sent an email saying she got the goods AND her money back.
Then I had to PAY 20.00!!!!!!
Burn them with fire!!!!!!!!
December 5, 2011 at 7:33 pm
Anonymous is not April’s private army. We, however, are.
December 5, 2011 at 7:49 pm
They are in deep shit now. Fucked with the wrong jealous, fat losers.
December 5, 2011 at 8:15 pm
There is a site called “WePay” that I will be looking in to. Paypal has frakked me over too. Someone lied about their location on ebay and when I decided to ship it to them anyway, they claimed they never received the item. Even though I had the receipt to prove I sent it, PayPal forced me to give back 185$ without even trying to assert whether the customer was lying. Bullshit. They also have unreasonably long holds on money for sellers. It’s stupid, evil and wrong.
Anyway, WePay –> https://www.wepay.com/
December 6, 2011 at 1:56 am
I was just going to add this as a comment not only complain, but let papal know that there is competition popping up out there. People will have a choice,
December 6, 2011 at 9:46 am
That’s exactly what happened to me, except it was $275. The buyer claimed he never got the item, and because he was in Canada, PayPal wouldn’t accept my tracking info as proof. Thanks for the tip about WePay!
December 5, 2011 at 8:17 pm
I haven’t tried them yet, but someone else linked me to dwolla.com as a paypal alternate?
December 5, 2011 at 8:59 pm
Dwolla is based in Des Moines and I used to work with a guy who now works for them. They’ve gotten some positive press around here and seem legit from what I’ve heard.
December 5, 2011 at 10:13 pm
Yeah Dwolla is amazing! I’ve met many of the people that work there, and I can assure you they’re legitimate!
December 5, 2011 at 10:22 pm
I’ve been looking at Dwolla too, I’ll check out wepay. Here is an article on Dwolla.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2011/11/12/dwolla-the-dollar-that-keeps-its-value/
December 5, 2011 at 10:26 pm
And here’s an awesome thing wepay did, dropped off 600 lbs of ice with the words “PayPal freezes accounts” and some other stuff outside a PayPal conference.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/26/wepay-ice-paypal/
December 5, 2011 at 8:47 pm
They’d probably like it too much.
December 6, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Then get the pineapple.
December 6, 2011 at 1:20 pm
I just want to take a little time out from this and say: I LOVE YOU APRIL, and thank you SO MUCH for your efforts to help kids this Christmas. I am incredibly unemployed and broke this year myself, and it made me feel pretty awful that I couldn’t send anything to help with this. But I have been keeping up with every word, and I couldn’t be more proud of you. You are my hero. CF4L.
December 6, 2011 at 1:21 pm
errr, I typed this at the bottom of the page and it still posted here as a reply. Oh well! The sentiment is still the same. Walla!
December 5, 2011 at 6:11 pm
You should bill them by the hour for the time you spend refunding people.
December 5, 2011 at 6:12 pm
I’m doing it.
December 5, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Good. This whole thing is utterly ludicrous.
December 5, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Good for you guys. This just goes so far beyond the pale of fuckery it’s not funny.
December 5, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Bronc, are you on the account as well? I’m asking because if you’re not, do you think it would solve anything by creating your own account? They might be looking for an account request by Bronc Drywall, but we all know your real name is Muscles McCaffery (how prophetic that your parents named you Muscles!). Oops. I hope PayPal isn’t reading this!
December 5, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Bless you, Mr. Drywall!
December 5, 2011 at 6:34 pm
hi5
PayPal’s going apeshit over what would normally be chalked up to an honest mistake.
December 5, 2011 at 6:11 pm
This is the stupidest bunch of fuckery I have ever heard of. Raising funds for my sick cat? FINE. Trying to do a good thing for needy people? SHUT IT DOWN IMMEDIATELY.
December 5, 2011 at 6:22 pm
Okay, so who wants to start the series of letters to PayPal to see if we can slowly chip away at finding out exactly what the donation rules are?
They said sick cats are okay, but not poor people. What about sick people? What if my cat isn’t sick, just poor? Will they let me fundraise for my gerbil’s surgery? What if it’s elective cosmetic gerbil surgery?
Since they won’t post the rules upfront, the only way we can find out is by asking a lot of highly specific questions.
December 5, 2011 at 6:32 pm
What if we all collect donations for our sick cats/gerbils/horses/rabbits/mermaids (wait, are those people?)/unicorns, and then because of the overwhelming response, we are able to care for our sick animals and have money left over, so we decide to give it to Ms. Killer as a gift?
December 5, 2011 at 6:55 pm
What if I can get a vet to certify that my cat is allergic to assholes who take money from children? And she’s having a major allergy attack RIGHT NOW!
Your move, PayPal.
December 5, 2011 at 8:17 pm
as a vet student, i would be more than willing to sign off on that diagnosis.
diagnosis: allergic to bullshit
prescription: JUSTICE
pretty sure they mentioned that somewhere in my immunology course…
December 5, 2011 at 6:49 pm
Well, I sent them a very polite email (seriously!) pointing out their opportunity to show heart and compassion. They’re still fucking asshats though.
December 5, 2011 at 7:25 pm
My email was nothing like polite, but it was rude in a very erudite fashion.
December 5, 2011 at 7:08 pm
“..the only way we can find out is by asking a lot of highly specific questions.”
That’s what got them so angry in the phone call. I wanted clear instructions I could follow without running afoul of their rules, but they were so arbitrary and random that they could’t really give them to me.
PAYPAL: Do it like X.
ME: Okay, I’ll do it like X.
PAYPAL: WE’RE THROUGH PLAYING GAMES WTH YOU
December 5, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Clearly your evil plan involves doing exactly as they say, when they say it. They were just testing you, and you failed. Thus, game over – they’d tell you to have a nice day and come again, but they already have your money.
December 5, 2011 at 9:47 pm
I am so sincerely sorry for all of this. I wish I could say this was the first time I’d heard of PayPal doing something like this, but it’s not. There’s always Google Checkout.
December 5, 2011 at 10:44 pm
this is how paypal plays games.
December 5, 2011 at 11:01 pm
It’s like CalvinBall from hell, really.
December 5, 2011 at 11:32 pm
And then they get to punish you for talking about your experience, by freezing your own account.
December 5, 2011 at 10:46 pm
So, PayPal is fine with “donating” to people who make downloads for video games whose publishers don’t allow SELLING custom content…but poor kids are verboten.
Right.
December 6, 2011 at 7:05 am
They aren’t worth the time and effort.
December 5, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Someone should make a petition and lets promote the usage of google checkout instead!!!
December 5, 2011 at 11:04 pm
at over 2400 signatures!
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
December 6, 2011 at 7:08 am
Now at 4,498
December 6, 2011 at 12:23 am
Raise money for the poor people’s sick pets??
December 6, 2011 at 5:26 am
I was thinking more for their “sick pets” but I think that should be a way around it apparently.
December 6, 2011 at 7:42 am
Ha! Replacing the secret santa with a _Donation_ for those families’ pets! Ha!
December 5, 2011 at 6:12 pm
this is so utterly ridiculous. Is there any other way that you can collect funds for donation? perhaps via indiegogo.com? If you can find a way to re-collect the money I would be happy to donate the same amount I donated last time whether or not I get refunded from the first time… I hope that makes sense.
December 5, 2011 at 6:22 pm
This.
I’m sure there are a lot of us who are both willing and able to donate more money through a different service to ensure these families can get SOMETHING. This is absurd, and these families deserve something, regardless of whether PayPal continues to fuck them over.
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
I had nothing to donate the first time around, but I could totally afford a decent donation now. Is there anything we can do that doesn’t involve selling our souls to paypal?
December 5, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Count me in on this, too. I think my donation went through and isn’t being refunded (hopefully) but I will happily send you a check for the same amount to help give these families a little something.
I am just livid about this and because it can’t be said enough: FUCK PAYPAL!
December 5, 2011 at 10:40 pm
I didn’t get a chance to donate last time, there were already too many, so I’m totally willing to donate if there is a second round.
December 5, 2011 at 6:12 pm
This is disgusting. April, this is a better time than any to use your media connections – you work for DISNEY, for Christ’s sake, I know you have connections – and get this on the news. Public shaming is our only hope at this point.
December 5, 2011 at 6:16 pm
At this point, anything April does will just look like her being butt-hurt.. WE have to get it out to the rest of the public. I’m glad that the Consumerist has already picked it up.. That’s a start at least..
December 5, 2011 at 6:22 pm
…and the BBB?
December 5, 2011 at 8:52 pm
They’re just a fee-collecting scam themselves. If PayPal is paying them, then nothing anyone says will make a bit of difference.
December 5, 2011 at 6:24 pm
I disagree, johnstb3 – this is a situation where getting help from “friends in high places” is totally, wonderfully appropriate.
April, use your magical famousy powers for good!! Either that or use your special vocal talents to have Mickey Mouse give them a call. “How ’bout some cheese, fuckers!!”
December 5, 2011 at 6:36 pm
WHAT WOULD MS FRIZZLE DO
December 5, 2011 at 6:43 pm
*Finster
December 5, 2011 at 6:49 pm
WHOOPS. Thank you Forspecial, I MEANT FINSTER.
I can’t even blame it on the wine I’m not drinking! (Office hours, and as a receptionist, it’s generally frowned upon to drink at the front desk.)
December 5, 2011 at 8:07 pm
ziggystardust – I’m a receptionist, and my boss refers to the front desk as the “zone of first impressions.” I think impression given by drinking at your desk depends on your workplace.
December 5, 2011 at 11:02 pm
rioux – my workplace deals heavily with the upper echelons of public transport, in turn, dealing with CEOs of transport companies. Unless it was 5pm on a Friday, it’d probably be frowned upon. Booze-free office, y’see, orders from the Chief Exec himself. Who, now that I think about it, isn’t as serious as he makes out he is. Today, I caught him holding onto the top rail of the staircase and the top of someone’s cubicle, and swinging from them like they were parallel bars. I quipped, “trying out for the next Olympics, Bob?” and HE GRINNED LIKE A LOON. He is my favourite head of any company I’ve worked for.
December 5, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Petrock – I agree – I do PR and this is a prefect story for xmas – headline – “Paypal? How the Internet Grinch Stole Christmas”. happy to help on the free if needed
December 5, 2011 at 7:38 pm
It’s got something for absolutely everyone: Christmas, children, a small business not being evil, Christmas, an unregulated banklike corporation being evil, children, private-sector charity, Christmas, and children. It could hardly be timelier without a sex scandal and a run for President. And CF4L has plenty of scandalous sexiness. So obviously, there’s only one thing left for us to do.
APRIL WINCHELL FOR PRESIDENT!
December 6, 2011 at 6:14 am
I’ve e-mailed the Daily Telegraph and Private Eye, two members of the British press that do a lot of righteous campaigning.
The story has officially gone transatlantic!
December 6, 2011 at 7:46 am
…And now also the Daily Mirror, which is also a big campaigning paper.
December 6, 2011 at 7:47 am
…And now also the Daily Mirror, which is also a big campaigning tabloid.
December 5, 2011 at 6:52 pm
The Wall Street Journal has linked to the Consumerist article, too.
December 5, 2011 at 7:01 pm
*eeets workiiing*
/Mr Burns fingers
December 5, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Brainflash: someone needs to call COLBERT. He is the only who could do this story proper justice.
December 5, 2011 at 7:12 pm
https://www.facebook.com/thecolbertreport?sk=wall&filter=12
Someone posted about it here – LIKE THAT POST!
December 5, 2011 at 7:13 pm
This is the biggest bag of fucking fucks I have ever seen. The one atom thick silver lining would be to see Colbert do this story.
December 5, 2011 at 9:45 pm
I want to see a wag of the finger from Colbert.
December 5, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Oh, this IS nice. I listen to WCBS-AM newsradio faithfully in the morning, especially for the business reports from the Wall Street Journal columnist. I’ll let you guys know if he says anything about this. In fact, I’m going to mosy on over to the site now and see if I can’t e-mail him whilst he’s asleep.
December 5, 2011 at 7:19 pm
I couldn’t find Joe Connolly on the 880 Newsradio site, but I sent an e-mail to CBS-TV (forgive any wimpy language)
You may have heard of the Web site http://www.regretsy.com, which may be classified as a humor blog except that the owner, April Winchell, has a charity fund that is used to help people on Regretsy when needed as well as people who are not associated at all with the site. Recently, Ms. Winchell was collecting money from us readers using PayPal, for the SOLE purpose of buying toys for a select group of vetted children (those who are truly needy, whose parent cannot afford anything for them for Christmas this year). She was so overwhelmed with donations that she would be able to send the families a small financial gift, to do with as they please, whether to have a nice(r) dinner for Christmas or pay an outstanding bill.
December 5, 2011 at 7:19 pm
(Rest of the e-mail)
PayPal has since shut down the “donate” button, claiming that she was misusing it, and has instructed her to refund all the money. This was apparently resolved earlier today (“buy a gift” choices of dollar amounts were offered), but PayPal shut that down as well. There are two Regretsy postings that apply here: The original, explaining the problem (PLEASE do not let the language turn you off of this serious situation; read what she’s written): http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/04/fuck-you-paypal/ The follow-up one, tonight, detailing how PayPal is specifically targeting her site and would accept donations “for a sick cat” but not for poor children: http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/#comment-323974
December 5, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Where is it? Can you post the link here? I want to get that link going in twitter but I don’t see it on the WSJ page.
December 5, 2011 at 9:42 pm
http://onespot.wsj.com/personal-finance/2011/12/05/3cdd1/paypal-rains-on-regretsys-secret-santa
and it’s on CNN iReport. http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-713002
December 6, 2011 at 6:33 am
This story made it to the front page of the front page of the internet (www.reddit.com)
The actual post is http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/n1yx1/scumbag_paypal/
6k+ upvotes so far. 4k downvotes, and there are some misinformed people in the comments. It’s not Wall Street Journal or anything to do with trusted journalism, but the story is definitely getting out there.
PayPal best come to their senses.
December 5, 2011 at 6:12 pm
I fucking hate paypal.
December 5, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Surely we can mobilize the legions of fat lazy slags and do something about this.
SLAGS, ACTIVATE!
December 5, 2011 at 6:15 pm
I would buy “WONDER SLAG POWERS ACTIVATE” on a sampler.
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
FORM OF…AN ICEBERG
FORM OF…AN EECB
December 5, 2011 at 6:16 pm
I feel like we need rings that glow as we scream “SLAGS, ACTIVATE!” and punch our fists together, morphing into Power Rangers. But cooler.
December 5, 2011 at 6:28 pm
I think one of our slogans should be “Hey, Ho! The slags say PayPal has to go!”
December 5, 2011 at 9:57 pm
I prefer Battle of the Planets, myself.
They had cooler modes of transportation… and a monkey.
December 6, 2011 at 10:43 am
Hey! Keeyop just had a speech impediment.
December 5, 2011 at 10:16 pm
I demand part of our uniforms to include skants, snuggies, and fascinators. /nod
December 6, 2011 at 2:28 am
I will also require a snood.
December 5, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Dear Paypal,
I’m sure you’ve already received many complaints about this, so I’ll keep it brief. I’ll be referring your business practices and policies, as well as your specific treatment of April Winchill, to a substantial number of my legal and government contacts in the Northeast. Rest assured, it will make for great material in class as we discuss corporations and the law; in fact, we’ve seen Paypal’s name come up before, in our chapter on duty of loyalty and inappropriate corporate opportunity.
I urge you to consider amending your policies, and at the very least, refunding any fees collected for transactions that you are deeming invalid and forcing to be refunded.
I look forward to being updated with your plan of action. You can reach me via email at this address.
Sincerely,
A Fat Lazy Slag
December 5, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Holy crackers! Tell them the money is really to pay for your upcoming hobo-themed wedding.
December 5, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Fuck Paypal. We’ve got a credit account with them, I’ll be closing as soon as its paid off. Just fuck them.
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Just closed mine. Under reason I put: “I am truly sickened by your handling of the Regretsy Holiday Fund. You are preventing a bunch of underprivileged kids from getting the presents that a whole community came together to purchase for them. You won’t let anyone repurchase, you won’t let anyone re-donate, and worse than anything, nowhere in your policies does it state that this is a possibility when using the “Donate” button. I will never use PayPal again, and any store that demands PayPal I will be happy to write an email to the seller explaining exactly why I will never give your company another penny of my money. I will be telling everyone I know via internet and word of mouth about this soulless act of Scroogery, and encouraging all my fellow Etsy users/sellers to discontinue their PayPals and accept a different form of payment. I hope you all have a really hard time sleeping at night.”
December 5, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Thanks for the idea! the husband is shutting his down now
December 5, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Merry Fucking Christmas, PayPal.
What in the ever loving FUCK do they think they’re doing?? What miserable people. WHAARGARBL, I SAY.
December 5, 2011 at 6:13 pm
And working off of that list, these are the valid e-mail addresses that don’t immediately get bounced back.
mrfry@paypal.com, sthompson@paypal.com, mhentges@paypal.com, crme@paypal.com, mvergara@paypal.com, cwong@paypal.com, mbarrett@paypal.com, executiveoffice@paypal.com, harbor1@paypal.com, ppelce@paypal.com, cardreview@paypal.com, complaint-response@paypal.com, abuse@paypal.com, resolutions@paypal.com, compliance@paypal.com, escalations@paypal.com, webform@paypal.com, spoof@paypal.com, aup@paypal.com, press@paypal.com, apires@paypal.com, pending_reversal@paypal.com, global2@paypal.com, intl@paypal.com, ppe_courtesycredit@paypal.com, scott@paypal.com,
December 5, 2011 at 6:13 pm
You can also write a letter to PayPal president Scott Thompson at the following address:
Scott Thompson
President PayPal
2211 N. First Street
San Jose, CA 95131
You can fax the letter to the following:
1-408-376-7514 (FAX Number — General office)
And call them directly here: 1-402-935-2050 (PayPal Customer Service)
1-888-215-5506 (Another PayPal Customer Service Number)
1-888-221-1161 (Another PayPal Customer Service Number)
December 5, 2011 at 6:45 pm
I wonder why the fax number area code is for san jose, like the address, but the customer service is for Nebraska or something. ps I live min from this address.
December 5, 2011 at 7:10 pm
I believe their corporate headquarters is in San Jose, and the call center is in Nebraska. After all, do you really think it would be a good idea to put the higher-ups and the idiots that answer their phones in the same building? Why, when a customer called, they wouldn’t have an excuse to not get a supervisor! Customer concerns would actually GET RESOLVED! That’s not the PayPal way to do things!
December 5, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Their call center is in Omaha, Nebraska, where I live. Anyone else live here? We should go picket their campus!!!! Jealous, fat losers UNITE! With our powers combined, we are Captain CF4L!
December 6, 2011 at 5:52 am
HQ or something like it is in Omaha.
December 5, 2011 at 7:51 pm
You can send a free fax from your computer using http://www.faxzero.com
December 5, 2011 at 6:41 pm
mrfry@paypal.com just bounced on me (as did moldenburg@paypal.com, which I’ve seen in other lists)
December 5, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Additional email addresses from The Consumerist comments:
crule@paypal.com
csme@ebay.com
jcanfield@ebay.com
john@ebay.com
lfriedberg@paypal.com
mbarrett@paypal.com
mvergara@paypal.com
pierre@ebay.com
rajiv@ebay.com
scott@paypal.com
slivnat@paypal.com
ulieberman@ebay.com
December 5, 2011 at 8:06 pm
A bunch of those bounced when I sent my first e-mail.
December 5, 2011 at 8:20 pm
Most recent comment on Consumerist:
LotusNJ
April 18, 2011 6:34 PM
pierre@ebay.com worked for me (I found that on another site).
By the end of the day I had a resolution from a lovely gentleman in his office. Very helpful, very polite, very professional and very serious about a happy customer.
December 5, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Some bounced the majority didn’t but I sent my letter of outrage without the use of any profanities! Proof that I have a semblance of self control..
December 5, 2011 at 6:13 pm
There’s a special place in Hell for Paypal and it’s founders and employees. What a pack of scum.
December 5, 2011 at 6:28 pm
I love you man, because your name includes the word “gelatinous.”
December 5, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Those dirty, cock-eating motherfuckers.
I dearly wish that every single one of them would draw a cunt over their heads and flee to the mountains.
December 5, 2011 at 6:13 pm
This is absolutely sickening.
December 5, 2011 at 6:13 pm
I am filled with so much rage. This NEEDS to be picked up by mainstream media, ASAP. Fuck you, PayPal. You have messed with the wrong group of fat, jealous losers!
December 6, 2011 at 12:11 am
Tweeted a link to @robinmeade and @hlntv. They tend to love the fluff and correcting injustice. I suggest others do the same.
December 5, 2011 at 6:13 pm
Unbelievable. Is there some way we can send to your address, not through PayFrenemy? I wasn’t refunded, so I assume my gift made it under the wire, but I’ll give more if there’s a way.
December 5, 2011 at 6:13 pm
THIS MAKES ME SO ANGRY..
I’m glad I bought the liter and a half of wine instead of just a bottle, or else I might be forced to get off my fat ass and walk to PayPal headquarters (wherever that is) and kick their idiot, Grinch asses.
December 5, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Here’s the address. I vote all Regretsians within travel distance do a knit-in until Paypal stops dicking around.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=2211+North+First+Street+San+Jose,+CA+95131&hnear=2211+N+1st+St,+San+Jose,+California+95131&gl=us&t=m&z=16&vpsrc=0
December 5, 2011 at 9:06 pm
So what are the rules for picketing? Those abortion protesters have got it down pat, what do they do to not get arrested?
December 5, 2011 at 9:06 pm
Petitions and emails are all fine and dandy, but is anyone up for some good old fashioned in person protesting? PayPal has “service” centers in Scottsdale and Chandler Arizona as well as San Jose.
Here’s how I see it – a fat jealous loser in a Santa suit wrestles a hand made upcycled barnwood toy from a mustachioed bird wearing Etsian while a crowd of barefoot steampunk urchins wails in the parking lot of every PayPal corporate office on the fucking planet!
The local news will eat that shit up.
December 6, 2011 at 5:35 am
HQ is in OMAHA
December 5, 2011 at 6:13 pm
They keep saying they “know what you’re trying to do”… what is it that they think you’re doing? Or are they really just that averse to helping the poor?
December 5, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Well, their mission statement IS “Fucking people in the ass, one fee at a time.”
December 5, 2011 at 6:25 pm
I was thinking/wondering the same damn thing! Is there any way possible for them to sound more ominious then “we know what you’re trying to do, and we’re going to track your shipments”…Holy Big Brother Batman!
December 5, 2011 at 11:22 pm
I think what the PayPal representative was trying to say, when they said “We know what you’re trying to do,” was:
“My hipster daughter glues Chinese reseller shit to other shit and sells it on Etsy, and I know who you are.”
December 5, 2011 at 6:14 pm
This is honestly sounding more and more like a nightmare with each update. I’m going to get a couple glasses of wine in me and tell the ones with the funniest names how I feel!
December 5, 2011 at 6:14 pm
/headdesk. I am just fucking appalled.
December 5, 2011 at 6:14 pm
I’ve always hated Paypal and their double and triple dipping ways. But this puts the douchnozzle bar at a new high. Is there any way we can send money orders to help donate money for families?
December 5, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Bullshit!!! There’s got to be a way to get to the top and make them fix this total screwover. Unbelievable.
December 5, 2011 at 7:09 pm
That response about no higher-ups being willing to talk to her totally reminded me of the Dave Chappelle PopCopy bit.
December 5, 2011 at 6:14 pm
I am so steamed there are not even words. I’m talking to my business partner and closing my paypal account.
December 6, 2011 at 1:17 am
I’m pretty sure our good friend Sam could come up with some words–deliciously foul words creatively strung together. Has anyone Fiverred him in on this?
December 5, 2011 at 6:14 pm
I tried to cancel my paypal account after this bullshit and was told that they’re waiting for money to clear my account, which is SUPER FUCKING WEIRD since nothing is pending. I’m going to keep trying though, and if they won’t let me cancel it, I’ll mail them a bag of poop programmed to start burning as soon as they take it out of the box.
December 5, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Did you donate to the Regretsy drive? Some of the refunds are frozen in April’s account, which could be counting against you.
December 5, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Yes but I think mine made it in fast enough, since I donated approximately .5 seconds after she posted the link. Or at least I hope it did. Oh look, my headache is coming back.
December 5, 2011 at 6:23 pm
The refund she’s required to issue is frozen. That impacts your account.
December 5, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Flaming shitbag it is.
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
WTF…. so, refund it but we’re freezing that too??? What is wrong with these people!?
December 5, 2011 at 6:16 pm
I wish I could deliver that box!
December 5, 2011 at 6:29 pm
Wait… so not only have htey fucked over April, they’ve just fucked over hte accounts of potentially all of us who donated because now we’re connected with an account tehy’ve deemed “fraudulent”. BRILLIANT
December 5, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I have an account, but my “purchase” went through my credit card instead of my actual PayPal account, so I was able to close my PayPal account tonight. They made it REALLY difficult! I had to search for “how to close account” on PayPal and then on Google (since PayPal wouldn’t help me find it), then keep going back and forth until I figured out how to do it. Then my session timed out while I was telling them exactly why I was closing my account. I had to log in again, and by then they had forgotten that I was closing my account, so I had to start all over. I had to type like the wind to actually submit my request.
December 5, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Next time, compose it in Word/Notepad/etc., then copy/paste into their text box.
December 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm
I just put “The Regretsy incident” as my reason for leaving. I bet they know what the fuck that means by now.
December 5, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Pretty much. I can’t even delete my card that doesn’t exist anymore as the secondary source:
This is even though it says that the payment has been processed
Flaming dickbags.
December 5, 2011 at 10:39 pm
Same boat here.
December 5, 2011 at 11:29 pm
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
December 6, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Aaaand it’s still problematic even after they say they’ve fixed things. Which means they haven’t. Quelle surprise.
December 5, 2011 at 8:04 pm
I just tried, too, and it said the same thing. But I didn’t donate (I just spent most of my money loaning cash to my father so he could go to a funeral) and I haven’t made any purchases recently that didn’t already clear…so I have no idea why I can’t close my account.
I’m a little afraid as to why.
December 6, 2011 at 6:13 am
Maybe PayPal is in panic mode and has frozen all account closures.
Ooooh. I just gave myself goosebumps. That would be soooooooo actionable in court…!
December 6, 2011 at 8:42 am
I just closed mine. Feedback: “I kept my Pay Pal account open in case I needed to use it, but I just didn’t need it all that often. But recent PayPal actions pushed me over the edge of indecision. After reading about PayPal’s disrespectful customer service and shut-down of Regretsy’s charity project, I decided I didn’t want to risk the same mistreatment if I made an honest mistake myself.”
December 5, 2011 at 6:14 pm
It’s time to start copy, pasting and sending emails to everyone on that list.
December 5, 2011 at 6:15 pm
This makes me want to scream. I don’t understand how people can act this way. For some of these children, this is the only way they will have a gift at Christmas. Nice to know that unless they are sick, PayPal could care less. I hope each and every worker there gets punched in the junk.
December 5, 2011 at 6:28 pm
No, not sick *kids* – sick *cats*. So those kids better work on growing furry ears & tails ASAP.
December 5, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Yeah, the extra-sucky part is that some of the kids are sick.
December 5, 2011 at 8:35 pm
Maybe it will work out if the kids have cats?
December 5, 2011 at 6:15 pm
What the fuck is this shit??
I tried to be eloquent before…but that part of my brain has officially been broken.
Charity = Worthy Cause…when did that stop being true??
December 5, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Can someone who’s blood isn’t boiling right now please write a nice concise fuck you style email that I and others here can copypasta, change a few details like name number of fucks and then use to email blast Paypal with please?
I can’t see straight.
December 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Your wish, my command.
I’m trying to understand what your company expects to get out of denying a registered charity, Radio Savant Productions, Inc., the ability to raise funds to purchase gifts for children at Christmas. I have scoured your policies and found NOTHING that correlates with the following official message from your customer service representatives to Radio Savant Productions, Inc.
“You can raise money to help your sick cat, for example, but not poor people.”
That is a direct quote from one of your representatives. Your behavior disgusts me. You shut down a charity drive not once, but twice. Here was your response to the second attempt that followed your policies as laid out when the last charity drive was shut down.
“WE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND WE AREN’T GOING TO PLAY GAMES WITH YOU”
As a concerned customer who donated to this charity drive, I will be contacting all of the editorial departments at major newspapers in the country and even go after
December 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm
television news stations I can find the contact information for. I will be contacting any site I know that uses your service to strongly encourage them to stop using PayPal as their primary payment option. There are enough reputable competitors that don’t discriminate against charity.
The easiest solution is to issue an apology, allow the charity drive to go through, and update your policies and website design to reflect your pro cat/anti-poor people policies. All you are doing now is angering your customers and destroying your reputation. Do you really want to be the company that ruined Christmas for hundreds of needy children?
With great disgust,
[name]
December 5, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Oh right, use this one instead. It’s way more professional. Damn.
December 5, 2011 at 6:35 pm
I used this. Thanks!
December 5, 2011 at 6:39 pm
rj, I love you
December 5, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Except my understanding of the original “problem” (in air quotes bcs it wasn’t a problem if PayPal had a heart or even half a brain) is that RSP Inc. isn’t a registered charity?
December 5, 2011 at 6:44 pm
My understanding is it’s not a 501(c)3, which PayPal claimed they had to be to use that button. The only thing you need to be a 501(c)3 for is to get a discount on the fees. It’s not a matter of if they are or aren’t a charity. It’s a matter of PayPal lying about their policies to “win” in this situation.
December 5, 2011 at 6:45 pm
I love you. I mean that from the bottom of my fat jealous heart.
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Just emailed this to every address in RJG’s earlier post. Thanks!
December 5, 2011 at 7:07 pm
This is the email I got back from spoof@paypal.com:
Hello {MY NAME}
Thanks for forwarding that suspicious-looking email. You’re right – it
was a phishing attempt, and we’re working on stopping the fraud. By
reporting the problem, you’ve made a difference!
Identity thieves try to trick you into revealing your password or other
personal information through phishing emails and fake websites. To learn
more about online safety, click “Security Center” on any PayPal webpage.
Every email counts. When you forward suspicious-looking emails to
spoof@paypal.com, you help keep yourself and others safe from identity
theft.
Your account security is very important to us, so we appreciate your
extra effort.
Thanks,
PayPal
It’s so nice to know that they take the time to read the emails.
December 5, 2011 at 7:14 pm
I said it was every e-mail that didn’t get bounced back. I didn’t say some weren’t completely irrelevant. Maybe they’ll report their customer service rep for fraud?
December 5, 2011 at 7:47 pm
it’s almost impossible trying to get a form to contact them on their website. I ended up calling. There are so many drop down menus and it won’t let u actually contact them unless you pick the right combination. I finally decided I would go with “fraud”- all that work and they probably won’t read it- fuck i hate corporations
December 6, 2011 at 9:23 am
In looking at the addresses, The Managing Director (Mr. Clarke) lives in the town next to mine in Surrey, UK. Might make some use of our Royal Mail…
December 5, 2011 at 9:02 pm
Your 1-page fax to Michael Oldenberg at 4083767514 has been sent successfully!
Thank you,
FaxZero.com
December 5, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Go go mad libs!
Dear (expletive of choice – I know we have a whole book for that now),
You guys are so (adjective, preferably impolite) at customer service. I’m glad you caught April before she was able to do real damage, like helping these families feed their kids a nice meal, god forbid. You did the right thing shutting her “charitable” shit down. I hope when you’re at the company circle jerk, you tell this story about how you managed to ruin (number) Christmases. If that doesn’t get your (colloquialism for sexual arousal), I don’t know what will.
Keep killing dreams.
Love,
(Insert name here)
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
I know I am a lowly lurker… but…
marry me.
pst, don’t tell my husband though
December 5, 2011 at 6:32 pm
As long as you don’t tell my fiance. We’ve only been engaged for a few days so he might not appreciate me running off to marry someone from Regretsy already.
December 5, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Congrats on your engagement! At least there’s SOME good news today!
December 5, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Fair enough. I think our secret is safe!
December 5, 2011 at 9:23 pm
I am so sorry that I have but one thumb to give you.
December 5, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Bump! I will so email, fax, and USPS that.
December 5, 2011 at 6:15 pm
This is so disheartening.
December 5, 2011 at 6:15 pm
This has made me sick to my stomach, I’m so pissed. I can’t imagine how you feel, April.
I’d say use chipin for collecting funds, but, like most everything, they go through PayUsNotYourPals.
Anyone know of a site that collects funds without this asshattery of pp involved somewhere?
December 5, 2011 at 6:16 pm
If you do not have a giant fucking apology by to-morrow evening I am closing my account with Paypal, no questions asked. You know, if they let me.
December 5, 2011 at 6:16 pm
April, I think you should file a complaint with the State Attorney General. Holding your money for 180 days? Bullshit
December 5, 2011 at 6:28 pm
Especially her personal account that has nothing to do with the disputed account.
December 5, 2011 at 6:30 pm
YES. THIS. ^^^^ x1000!!!
December 5, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Yep. This x 1000. I am pretty sure that’s illegal for a company to do.
December 5, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Unfortunately, if your state Attorney General isn’t listed as one of the agencies you agreed to file complaints to as per the user agreement you have to sign when you open a paypal account, you are in violation of the agreement and they can keep your money.
December 5, 2011 at 7:14 pm
No user agreement can legally put someone above the law. Even if you sign a user agreement that says “You hereby promise to never never never call the authorities when we do something illegal OR ELSE”, if they’re breaking the law, they’re breaking the law and one can and should contact the AG’s office.
December 5, 2011 at 7:44 pm
No, but they can force you to fight their incredibly nebulous user agreement in court, while they keep making interest on the money they’ve frozen in your account.
December 6, 2011 at 8:30 am
PayPal also has a very extensive contract you have to sign when you first join up. It may not be the moral thing to do, but they are probably within their legal rights to do what they are doing. Doesn’t make them any less of fucktards but since when did the law benefit the little guys?
Oh, wait. It’s benefiting the wee wittle kitties.
December 5, 2011 at 6:42 pm
This is so beyond any reasoning. They’re punishing children because of some personal bias against you, April. Perhaps contact consumer reporters at your local and at the San Jose news stations? I’m not suggesting an out-of-character “Do you know who I am and what these people are doing TO ME?” tack, but a “Thought you’d like to know about Scrooge that’s ruining Christmas for dozens and dozens of children and their families.”
December 5, 2011 at 10:13 pm
This totally seems like lawsuit territory. By violating their own terms (“worthy cause” not applying to charity, HAH) and conveniently allowing you to sell items and then force you to return them, they’re effectively stealing their fee from you without providing the actual service you enlisted them for. In what universe is that ok to do? Repeatedly?
December 5, 2011 at 6:16 pm
April you should just email bomb all of the top executives at PayPal. I guarantee you by noon tomorrow everything will be fixed. I had an issue with PayPal and bombed executive relations, press, complaints, CEO, VP’s, President and I received a phone call first thing in the morning and within an hour everything was fixed. They DO NOT like people bombing executives. The person you spoke to was a low-level mouth breather who deserves to be fired.
December 5, 2011 at 6:34 pm
I work in customer service, and this is RIDICULOUS. Of course there is someone else you can talk to! This rep is going to be walked out with a box of his shit. Tomorrow. No question.
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Yeah I have to say that if he’s pretty low level, he just did a whole bunch of bad PR for that company.
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Hit post too soon… he did a bunch of bad PR without good reason. As if Paypal really needs MORE bad PR.
December 5, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Oh, and P.S. – I closed my PP account.
December 5, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Me too! Fuckers can choke on a goddamn dick, they’re going to be whoring themselves out this Christmas.
December 5, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Not only was that rep nasty and unhelpful, but they don’t know about internet stores shipping gifts directly to the recipient? Have they never bought anything online themselves? What did they think the point of the separate forms for billing address and shipping address at every online store ever were for? Are they going to shut down all the other stores that use Paypal and allow gift shipping? SO MANY QUESTIONS.
December 5, 2011 at 8:44 pm
That was my first thought too (I mean after the silence of my mind being blown by this fuckery). I can’t even think of a website off the top of my head that doesn’t have an “Is this a gift?” box to check if you ARE sending it to a separate address.
And I guess, by their standards, the entire floral delivery business is just one big rose-scented scam.
December 5, 2011 at 9:14 pm
“Sorry, ma’am, but if you want to pay with PayPal we’ll have to send the roses to your house and then you can drive them over to your grandma three states away in time for her birthday yourself. It’s for your own protection.”
December 6, 2011 at 12:21 am
Yeah, seriously, I just bought a present on Etsy (don’t hate me, it’s a cute sea fossil print t-shirt that I saw in person, but they were out of my dad’s size and sent me to etsy), and asked them to send the package to me at my mom’s house.
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
But so so so much better if we are the bombers, yes? For then, it is clear that she is not the only one of the opinion that children can be worthy causes in addition to cats.
December 5, 2011 at 6:48 pm
I’m sure a bunch of fat jealous unemployed losers like us can come up with some creative ways to let paypal corporate headquarters know how we feel. I wonder how they will feel about the deluge of XXX rated balloon sculptures, drawings, and goatse collages we could rain upon them? If everyone sent just one goatse we could goatse the desired result I bet.
December 5, 2011 at 7:54 pm
goatse activism ftw
December 5, 2011 at 8:32 pm
Oh my god, I choked on sugar cookie while I was reading this. “Goatse the desired result…” classic.
December 5, 2011 at 7:55 pm
What were their email addresses?
December 5, 2011 at 6:17 pm
I’ve never personally had an issue with paypal, but oh my Lord. This is just beyond the pale. It really seems like there should be something you can do.
Do they really have any idea with whom they are messing?
December 5, 2011 at 6:17 pm
WHAT IN THE FLAMING FUCK.
I need another drink to process all this.
December 5, 2011 at 6:17 pm
this is insanity! i just keep thinking of the kids and it is making me really upset
December 5, 2011 at 6:18 pm
I didn’t even get a chance to donate, but this is making me so angry that I’m tearing up!
December 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Me too! I was unable to donate but I’ll be damned if they steal from my CF brothers and sisters and get away with it!
December 5, 2011 at 6:18 pm
This is truly, truly awful.
LETS GET THESE BASTARDS
December 5, 2011 at 6:18 pm
paypal account=shut down.
December 5, 2011 at 6:18 pm
Holy fuck. I am agog at the crassness of this corporation.
We are going to drag their name through the mud. Get the media involved. Fuck Paypal.
December 5, 2011 at 6:32 pm
I made a $20 contribution earlier today, but so far it hasn’t been taken out of my bank account. I am wondering what to do. DAMMIT I want to help, but these worthless cock-juggling thundercunts are making it impossible. This of all times of year is time to work with people trying to help the poor…and instead they’re just being ass-licking turdmuffins. The contempt I feel for PayPal right now is unbelievable. I had some old stuff I was thinking of selling on Ebay but am now having major second thoughts.
December 5, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Same boat here… In spite of the ass-hattery associated with their first shut down, I was so excited that I could donate during the second round. This hurts, honestly. All of us read those letters from the children’s families. We all wanted to help those FAMILIES not just the children. Isn’t it nice to know that PayPal is such a delightful corporation that they would do this to those voices and the people who wanted to help? Fuck PayPal.
December 5, 2011 at 8:20 pm
“Cock-juggling thundercunts” injected some laughter into my rage. Thank you.
December 5, 2011 at 10:30 pm
Agog?! Agog you say?!
December 5, 2011 at 6:18 pm
I wish this wasn’t the first time Paypal has hated a well meaning charity, but hey: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/paypal-fiasco-summary.php
December 5, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Oh wow, type “something awful paypal” into Google and you find out that this is a horrible habit: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2011/10/diaspora-becomes-paypals-lates.php
December 5, 2011 at 6:18 pm
I am so glad I didn’t get a refund. TAKE MY COMMUNIST MONEY.
December 5, 2011 at 6:36 pm
I didn’t get one yet, either, but that doesn’t mean I won’t — it either means my donation went through (yay!) or it’s all caught up in the bullshit (FUCK YOU PAYPAL!).
What’s your mailing address to send a money order, April? I’ll get one out tomorrow. Even if my first donation went through, I am SO PISSED.
December 5, 2011 at 6:45 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 5, 2011 at 7:28 pm
See above–April does NOT want us to send any checks:
“No, I don’t take checks meant for charitable purposes. I can’t deposit that money into my account. Paypal was just a landing page for collections, and I disbursed it as quickly as I could.”
December 5, 2011 at 9:31 pm
This sounds like a case for cash — untraceable, bankable, fee-free, US currency cash. Damn it, those kids are going have a fucking Xmas if it kills me, and I don’t even celebrate Xmas.
December 5, 2011 at 6:19 pm
watch out now, careful you don’t rouse them to send you a ‘crease and desist’ for being a hateful slandering slag.
December 5, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Omg sue them, sue them, sue them. There is NO WAY that no one else would talk to you above a customer service rep, that is not the way those companies (or any company) works. That is all such bullshit.
December 5, 2011 at 6:46 pm
I am all for this. The problem: Even though HKapril has a legitimate claim, PayPal is so fucking huge that I can see this getting uber ugly… What they are doing sounds so illegal but I am not familiar with the laws associated with online transactions. We really should publicize the hell out of this, if anything else that will reveal PayPal as the mutated combination of Hitlerbell, the Grinch and Dr. Mengele it truly is.
December 5, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Class action suit. Obviously, this is a systemic problem with them and eBay … in fact, I got a check in the mail for a class action settlement from eBay. I’ll post a picture of it:
I wasn’t going to bother depositing it, but now, I am going to. I’ll bet eBay is counting on thousands of people not depositing their checks so they can keep their settlement money. You know it costs them way more than a penny to process that bitch.
December 5, 2011 at 7:52 pm
The disgusting thing is that we are talking about a charity fund and the stories on the last few posts about how arduous it is for 501(c) ‘s to even go through the PayPal vetting process is ridiculous. I’m all for us taking our moolah over to something like WePay. HKapril and the others certainly have a case but enduring that ass-pain is their call…
December 6, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Ooh you got me beat – I got a check like that for 5 cents once.
December 6, 2011 at 6:36 am
Take a look at the Geek Girl blog, if you haven’t already. There’s good grounds for a lawsuit, I think, since PayPal is acting in contravention of its own rules (vague though they are).
Like all big organisations, PayPal takes comfort in the thought that nobody will want the trouble of taking them to court. They may have messed with the wrong party this time.
December 6, 2011 at 1:29 pm
I’d kick in for legal fees. Long as there’s some way besides PayPal to do it.
December 5, 2011 at 6:19 pm
I hope the Paypal assholes get gangrene and divorce papers for Christmas. If this was any site but Regretsy, I guarantee they wouldn’t say shit. This is discriminatory, pathetic, and heartless.
December 6, 2011 at 12:31 am
I’m sure if any of their spouses reads Regretsy, they have already filed.
December 5, 2011 at 6:19 pm
I have written and email and forwarded it to all those people on the email list. It was much nicer than I wanted to send.. but I figure you get more flys with honey. or however that saying goes.
December 5, 2011 at 6:21 pm
I’m tempted to write a letter or e-mail that praises their easy-to-use system, how I’ve never had a problem with them…and in the second paragraph, which will begin “Until now…”, I’ll rip them a new one. Lull them into a sense of false security and then flip that throwing star right up their nostrils.
December 5, 2011 at 6:19 pm
HK and Bronc o rama:
I run a non-profit AND I am already vetted by PayPal.
Is there anything I can do???
December 5, 2011 at 7:06 pm
Stay far away from this, Somebidder. PayPal will not hesitate to do the same thing to you for being involved.
December 6, 2011 at 10:52 am
Close your PP account and explain that you have no reason to believe they won’t treat you as foully as they did April, so you are taking your business to someone who will not pull such a stupid and arrogant attitude?
December 5, 2011 at 6:19 pm
I have never ever said this before but I think a lawsuit might be in order. Even though they are not FDIC regulated, they can’t just make this up as they go along. Or a very public shaming.
December 6, 2011 at 12:30 am
I think the ‘very public shaming’ is taking care of its self. (Or rather we’re taking care of it.
December 5, 2011 at 6:19 pm
One of the ads on the side is from mynightsucked.com and it show a photo of a woman kneeling over a toiler, presumably puking her guts out. Oh, how I wish we could all do that over the head of that PayPal Pus Pocket who spoke to April. And all of PPPP’s “pals.”
December 5, 2011 at 6:19 pm
I’m about ready to overnight you and Bronc $20 in concealed cash and I don’t even want to KNOW what you do with it – at this point I wouldn’t even care if you used it to buy hooch so you could get absolutely blasted while clicking through refunds over and over again!
December 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm
A third party money handler acting shady and immoral?
We’re starting an Occupy PayPal!…or something.
December 5, 2011 at 7:00 pm
yes, they are acting just like the Wall Street Bankers that did illegal things and then got bailed out. We need to Occupy PayPal!!
December 5, 2011 at 8:18 pm
I’m in! Do they have a corporate headquarters that we can mail coal to?
December 5, 2011 at 11:18 pm
In an interesting coincidence, the Occupy San Jose people have been gone from City Hall Plaza for about a week. Perhaps tomorrow morning I’ll print a copy of HK’s original post, go down there and see if I can find a few of them still lurking. It’s only 3 blocks over and a light-rail ride straight up to Paypal HQ…
December 6, 2011 at 12:21 am
Yes, please do!
December 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm
aww fuck them! It came back ‘unknown’!!!!!
December 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm
One of PayPal’s customer service centers is in Omaha, NE (the 402 area code). I emailed a local news station — it’s just the type of thing they’d like to highlight.
December 5, 2011 at 6:35 pm
I also contacted Huffington Post, Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore. They like to poke a mega corporation in the eye when innocent children are harmed. I say, the more exposure the better!
December 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm
I’m perfectly happy to send a check to you, April. Just post and address and it goes out tomorrow.
December 5, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Yeah, this, totally.
December 5, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Ditto!
December 5, 2011 at 6:28 pm
YES PLEASE
December 5, 2011 at 6:47 pm
This again!
December 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm
Is there a NFP account we could send checks to?
December 5, 2011 at 7:54 pm
I had that idea too until I read this comment up thread from Helen.
“Helen Killer
December 5, 2011 at 7:03 pm
No, I don’t take checks meant for charitable purposes. I cant deposit that money into my account. Paypal was just a landing page for collections, and I disbursed it as quickly as I could.
+4″
December 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm
This is ridiculously fucked up. I just emailed every email address on that list — some bounced back; I guess since the article was published in 2008 that some are no longer active, but the rest got through.
December 5, 2011 at 6:21 pm
There is a lawsuit here. There really is.
December 5, 2011 at 7:36 pm
agreed.
This is the case against eBay:
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/candce/5:2009cv01733/214015/
the attorneys for the plaintiffs are listed towards the bottom.
December 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Just as long as it is not a class action lawsuit. They are just ways for the attorneys to make money. Plaintiff’s attorney makes a deal with Defendant’s attorney to say “I’m sorry we were wrong” in exchange for giving Plaintiff’s attorney a few million for himself and a small amount for the people in the class. That’s why your checks are so small. If April sues, it should be her alone.
This is so sad. My son was on the list and I was really surprised to hear we were getting cash, too. Its disappointing, but I just hope the kids who need the toys the most get them. Still, it would be nice to get a mystery envelope in the mail or something with enough to eek out a meager Christmas dinner this year.
December 5, 2011 at 6:21 pm
Is anyone else having the same problem as me? they refunded my contribution, but they won’t release it to me!
I’d mail April a fucking check and help support the USPS at the same time, if I only had my money from paypal(sucks)…
December 5, 2011 at 6:48 pm
PayPal-Tripple dipping their fuckheaded grinchery…
December 5, 2011 at 7:54 pm
WHAT??? They won’t release it to you??
December 5, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Well how can he cancel his account (assuming it’s a him) if they release his money? You can’t cancel if anything is pending.
December 5, 2011 at 9:38 pm
too lazy to get a screen cap.
Every other refund I’ve gotten from them, the funds were available to be redeposited immediately.
Dec 5, 2011
Temporary Hold Placed
PayPal has placed a temporary hold while we’re reviewing it. We’ll contact you shortly with further information. Details -$20.00 USD
December 5, 2011 at 9:58 pm
What might be happening is that they are waiting for April to manually refund it (if she hasn’t already. It has a hold on it because the money isn’t technically in your account and is still in the limbo of hers.
December 6, 2011 at 6:47 am
Mine looks like it was directly refunded by April. There’s a note on the refund:
“Note:
PayPal pulled the plug again.”
So April refunded it and now Paypal is still holding my money.
December 6, 2011 at 6:46 am
The fuckers did that to me too.
December 6, 2011 at 8:01 am
They did it to all of us. I can see that I was refunded but my account is still zero.
December 5, 2011 at 6:21 pm
This just makes me so frickin sad. I hope they see all the bad PR this is causing them and decide to act like someone in the fucking company has a soul.
December 5, 2011 at 6:21 pm
seriously. this makes me want to cry.
December 5, 2011 at 8:38 pm
I’ve been crying for a couple hours now, this is just so sad, and so fucking heartless of PP to do, especially since there’s kids involved. My crotchfruit were on that list and I have never felt such faith in humanity as I have with you fjlers. But Paypal can suck a choate right now! I’ve emailed every pp address I could find and attached a photo of my kids so they could see exactly who they’ve fucked over the most.
December 6, 2011 at 3:22 am
I know I am only a humble lurker, but I would purchase a toy and mail it directly to you myself so that your crotchfruit could have a Christmas.
December 6, 2011 at 7:34 am
Babs, check you email please!
December 5, 2011 at 6:22 pm
Never let it be said that a good deed goes unpunished.
December 5, 2011 at 6:22 pm
I’ll just be deleting my PayPal account. So glad I never linked it to my bank account.
December 5, 2011 at 6:23 pm
December 5, 2011 at 6:42 pm
I wholeheartedly LOVE reading random sentences in Hank Hill’s voice; it makes it so much more stern and poignant.
December 5, 2011 at 7:21 pm
I think I love you.
December 5, 2011 at 6:24 pm
I don’t suppose some eloquent soul out there would mind writing a canned response for those of us who are too drunk to write to copy and paste to the execs at Paypal? I want to help, but I don’t think writing “FUCK YOU TWATWAFFLE PAYPAL HARGLEBARGLE” like I want to will get the right message across…
… or will it?
December 5, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Check out numbers 28/29 above — I asked and I received.
December 5, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Email sent!
December 5, 2011 at 6:24 pm
I emailed them all (What’s happening with Regretsy’s charitable donations is pure bureaucratic evil. I’m posting it on my facebook. She’s posting it on her site. You guys better fix this before the almost million followers she has close their paypal accounts. I know I will if you don’t reverse the decision to freeze all of her accounts. She is trying to organise presents for poor kids, what the hell is your problem?!
http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/
I will delete my account with them if they don’t deal with this. I have no idea how many followers you have but a million sounded nice.
December 5, 2011 at 7:22 pm
In my message when I closed my account, I used “legion of fans.” I thought that was a nice huge-sounding descriptor, while also sounding vaguely threatening.
December 5, 2011 at 10:17 pm
We are legion for we are many.
December 6, 2011 at 1:37 am
Enjoy hell, devils!
December 6, 2011 at 3:33 am
“Enjoy hell, devils”
I so should have ended my comment with that, when I closed my paypal account. I’m a little tempted to open and close a new one, so I can tell them that.
December 5, 2011 at 6:24 pm
We know what you’re doing and we’re through playing games with you.
OH OH OH. An epic (and I don’t use that word lightly) EECB will be raining down upon Paypal. They will rue the day. There will be extensive rueage.
December 5, 2011 at 6:24 pm
I dunno if this will still help you, alot of people have switched to https://www.alertpay.com/ because of the paypal issues. My friend sent me this link, and its pretty horrid. I’m sorry.
Hope this helps.
December 5, 2011 at 7:16 pm
Will look into it.
December 5, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Funny how they don’t shut it down until after they make tons of cash on the illegal use of button.
December 5, 2011 at 6:25 pm
Unfortunately, I’ve seen more problems like this. I’ve seen Paypal TAKE thousands of dollars from this one small website I used to be a member of, just because they didn’t like the pictures posted.
I finally figured out how to get amazon funds sent directly to my bank account, because, despite promises, Paypal keeps holding my funds for WEEKS, and I cant afford that
December 5, 2011 at 6:25 pm
I tried calling a couple numbers; one was busy and the other a ‘wrong number’ – do you suppose they’re getting tired of being called already? That would be fantastic.
December 5, 2011 at 6:26 pm
This is my first comment as previously I was too lazy to make an account.
In addition to emailing and calling every single one of these clowns and posting this story on every social media outlet, I’ll also be making a number of purchases from http://www.poopsenders.com. I think you know where they’ll be going.
And is there a PO box address we can send cash to?
December 6, 2011 at 12:28 am
Bonus: You don’t have to use PayPal to buy and send PayPal poop!
December 5, 2011 at 6:26 pm
In Before PayPal Dies.
December 5, 2011 at 6:26 pm
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v122/bradbury/paypa.png[/IMG]
I did a screencap in case they decide to change their wording without notice.
December 5, 2011 at 7:04 pm
December 5, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Made it visible for ya!
December 5, 2011 at 7:14 pm
So basically you can add a donate button for something even when you’re a business. Isn’t that EXACTLY what April did?
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Because of character limits, here’s what I sent, paragraph by paragraph, to every email on that list:
Dear Paypal:
I am sure that you will receive dozens, if not hundreds, of emails regarding the recent unpleasantness that your company instigated with April Winchell, Regretsy and her fans, followers and supporters. Some of them will seethe with anger, some will contain foul language and all will be rife with emotion. Some may even come from the intended recipients’ parents. I hope that someone at PayPal reads each and every one of them, and I hope that this issue is solved in a satisfactory manner.
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
I am writing to voice my support of April Winchell and her endeavors this holiday season. When your representative said that PayPal knew what Ms. Winchell was trying to do, what exactly was it? She was asking her fanbase to donate money in order to supply kids whose parents had requested help this season with gifts. People sent in stories about parents dying of cancer, toys being stolen and kids who just knew they wouldn’t get a single toy for Christmas this year.
Your representative told Ms. Winchell that people could raise money for sick cats, but not for poor human beings. What is it, exactly, that is so offensive to PayPal about trying to help children have a happy holiday?
December 5, 2011 at 6:28 pm
I am asking, as a long-time PayPal customer, that you release the funds being held so that Ms. Winchell can continue her good works. Just as one must not be religious in order to live a good life, one does not need to have an incorporated 501(c)3 to do something to help another human being.
Please consider a reversal of your seemingly arbitrary decisions in this matter.
Respectfully,
My real name and city.
(I got about 12 bounce-backs)
December 5, 2011 at 6:32 pm
You are amazing, thank you for sharing this.
December 5, 2011 at 7:05 pm
Thank you for being so eloquent, I love you long time.
December 5, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Thank you both. I know it’s not exactly chicken soup for fat, jealous souls,but if anyone wants to C&P it and send it along to Paypal, go right ahead.
December 5, 2011 at 7:28 pm
Cut, pasted, sent.
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Crap, grabbed the wrong code.
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
An excerpt from my e-mail that I’ve sent to about a thousand people: “Don’t tell me that, because Regretsy used the “wrong button”, there’s nothing that can be done….don’t tell me that your hands are tied… You are freaking human beings. You are not machines, or robots. I am so tired of corporations like yours pretending as though the bottom line is poured concrete, that policies and procedures are written in permanently inked unicorn blood. We both know that with a few clicks of some fingers, you could fix this problem… You could fire a person who would actually say that “you can raise money to help a sick cat, but not a poor child.”But no you’ll leave work, return to your home, maybe hug your spouse, tuck your children in to their warm beds, and won’t think, for five seconds, what it’s like to what it’s like to be poor, or hungry, or scared on Christmas. I truly hope that you are haunted by what you’ve done…” and then some more mean stuff.
December 6, 2011 at 7:46 am
The issue is, regretsy didn’t even use the wrong button!
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Oh, this timing could not be more perfect. Just turned in my final project for the academic term and have NOTHING but time in the next few days. Hello, cellphone; let’s blow some shit up.
December 5, 2011 at 9:23 pm
Username love.
December 5, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Thank you! I have been waiting forever for someone to get it! Yours is also clever.
December 5, 2011 at 10:20 pm
I used to MUD in lingerie, so I appreciate it double. Unless that’s totally not what you meant, in which case I’m going to go hide in the closet now.
Mine is actually motivational on a personal level. One of these days, I’m going to play hockey. Being a goalie means I’ll have to get much, MUCH healthier and more reliable about being able to leave the house. (Wo)man the crease and resist chronic illness! kind of thing. Er. So there’s that. Yay tangents.
I think I may actually be drunk on rage.
December 5, 2011 at 10:31 pm
I’m drunk on vodka, so we’re well-matched! It’s actually a Penny Arcade reference based on the true story of one of the creator’s wives being asked in a Quake match if she “Quaked Naked.” (To which she responds with a glorious “No.” and it is noted that she was a badass with a rocket launcher) I can’t game because I have the finger dumb, but I do like them! I would love to play hockey, but I don’t really have knees anymore. You must play for both of us!
December 6, 2011 at 12:21 am
Oh, yeah, I remember that bit!
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Although it’s kind of late now, has anyone looked into PayPal alternatives like Obopay? https://www.obopay.com/consumer/welcome.shtml I’ve never used it. Anyone else have any experience? If it seems like a good deal, imagine how much egg would be on PayPal’s face if thousands of people switched to this service…
December 5, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Or…has anyone used Google Checkout? https://checkout.google.com/sell/?gl=US&hl=en
There’s gotta be a service that we all could switch to.
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Merry Fucking Christmas to you too Paypal! I don’t know HOW they get away with pulling shit like this, but they do. Don’t know how they sleep at night. I’m really sorry you got dicked around. I hope they make this right to avoid further embarrassment on their part, but I doubt they will. So instead I hope they get flooded with letters, phone calls, and emails from angry people.
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
Strikes me that we should be sure to let PayPal PR know all about our shitstorm of complaints :
press@paypal.com (Let public relations know you are filing complaints)
apires@paypal.com (Amanda Pires — Media Relations Contact)
They may help put the pressure on stemming the bad PR
Also be sure to hit these top 4 people:
moldenburg@paypal.com (Michael Moldenburg, Paypal Complaints)
sthompson@paypal.com (Scott Thompson, PayPal President)
mhentges@paypal.com (Mary Hentges, CFO PayPal)
crme@paypal.com (PayPal Office of Executive Escalations)
Yeah, they’re REALLY gonna love hearing from a whole lot of Fat Jealous Losers with righteousness on their side.
December 5, 2011 at 6:27 pm
I’m a bad combination of tired and furious.
I donated in the second round, and it hasn’t been refunded. Does this mean Paypal is holding my money without it being used or refunded? That is total bullshit.
December 5, 2011 at 6:28 pm
I sent an email telling them they hate children and happiness. I also told them that they have no right to tell me if that how I spend my money isn’t good enough – I knew exactly what I was doing when I donated to Regretsy and now their parenting my purchases and making someone give me a refund I don’t want.
December 5, 2011 at 6:28 pm
Complaint sent. A lot of those emails bounced back, but some of them have gone through. Take that you grinchy stooge bastards.
December 5, 2011 at 6:28 pm
What the fucking fuck? I’m so tired from all this nonsense, and all I’ve been doing is reading and posting notes on Facebook. I can’t imagine actually dealing with PayPal’s asswipery while traveling through and back from Europe and doing whatever else you and Bronc do in a normal day.
December 5, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Paypal:
If they’re all butthurt that they were run as wrong type, it should have been an easy “apply to all” fix to change the transaction type on THEIR backend. BUT THAT WOULD MAKE SENSE.
December 5, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Fenris that gif was so perfect I squealed.
December 5, 2011 at 6:58 pm
That cat is so cute it makes my brain melt.
December 5, 2011 at 6:58 pm
I need to save that gif.
December 5, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Wow, this is insane.
I can understand having rules around collecting donations/charity on behalf of others, however their policy is far from clear and they should have made every effort to work with you to resolve it. Hopefully this will be rectified and those who do email paypal will do so in a respectful manner and not say anything to make the situation worse. Consumerist has a lot of info about writing effective complaints letters.
December 5, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Time for an attorney. A real one. Not Copian and Paystin or whatever Glitter Eagles use. That’s too much money for them to be fucking with.
December 5, 2011 at 6:31 pm
Done and done. This is what i sent them.
Need help here to understand wtf it is you people think you’re doing. April of regretsy was trying to give toys to poor kids on christmas. You really must be a bunch of heartless bastards. Not only did you screw up the gift giving, but you took fee after fee after fee.. you made her return the sales and kept those fees too. You made out like a bunch of greedy bastards while trying to screw over kids on christmas.
THEN you freeze her business account AND the personal one? for 6 months? She was not doing anything wrong. You people, however, are all sorts or wrong. I’m seriously questioning whether or not to keep my account with paypal.
Oh and well over 90000 other people know about this and are also pissed….. and they have the same e-mail addresses.
Good luck.
December 5, 2011 at 6:32 pm
April, can you please post a snail mail address where we can send you donations so we can bypass this Paypalian nightmare?
December 5, 2011 at 6:32 pm
So, where can we send a few bucks *not* using PayPal?
December 5, 2011 at 6:32 pm
This is all so stupid and ridiculous.
However, I donated in the first round, and I got a full refund showing up in my PayPal account, so not sure what that means. Do they refund the donors, and bill Helen for the fees?
December 5, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Yes, precisely.
December 5, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Wow. That is insanely shitty.
December 5, 2011 at 7:57 pm
Yep. Your fees are taken out of my bank account.
December 5, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Whoa. That is just an incredible amount of bullshit. I don’t WANT a refund, and I especially don’t want it now. I’m going to stuff an envelope full of cash and mail it to you anonymously so you can’t return it.
December 5, 2011 at 8:18 pm
No! Don’t do that. I sincerely appreciate everything you guys want to do, but I am really scrupulous about this stuff – I can account for every penny – and envelopes of cash will fuck me up.
December 5, 2011 at 8:23 pm
Ok I woooon’t, but I hate that a donation I was so happy to make is now going to cost you money. I’m going to cry maybe.
December 5, 2011 at 10:15 pm
It just burns me up that we don’t want these donations back, and yet, not only are they MAKING you give them back, they’re charging you for it. What part of “WE DON’T WANT IT” don’t you flaming bags of poo understand??
December 6, 2011 at 6:49 am
I just want to say that I have a lot of respect for you and the way you handle these things.
December 5, 2011 at 10:41 pm
I can’t believe they’re making you pay for their supreme fuck-up.
I hope so much that you and Bronc are still having a fantastic time in Finland, aside from all this crap. I’ve spent the entire day feeling angry on your behalf, and I’m pretty sure the rest of these fjls have too.
December 5, 2011 at 6:33 pm
I closed my Paypal account while also letting them know that I was disappointed with how they’re handling this issue. I don’t care if I can’t buy jackshit online now because everyone uses their Scrooge run corporation to sell things, I won’t give my money to douchebags.
December 5, 2011 at 6:33 pm
These are the good email addresses from that list that did not bounce for me–hope that helps:
sthompson@paypal.com
mhentges@paypal.com
crme@paypal.com
harbor1@paypal.com
account-review@paypal.com
ppelce@paypal.com
cardreview@paypal.com
complaint-response@paypal.com
abuse@paypal.com
Europeanservices@paypal.com
resolutions@paypal.com
compliance@paypal.com
webform@paypal.com
service@paypal.com
spoof@paypal.com
aup@paypal.com
press@paypal.com
apires@paypal.com
pending_reversal@paypal.com
global2@paypal.com
intl@paypal.com
ppe_courtesycredit@paypal.com
December 5, 2011 at 7:05 pm
Both account-review@paypal.com and cardreview@paypal.com have bounced for me
December 5, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Same here
December 5, 2011 at 11:28 pm
If you guys get bouncebacks on the “real person” emails, try firstname.lastname@paypal.com
December 5, 2011 at 6:33 pm
I already had an issue with PayPal adding money to a purchase that I only authorized to be $4.99, which apparently they read as “$17.52″.
This gives me more reason to dislike them. Whether they apologize or not, I am closing both my accounts with them. There are other ways to spend money the internet, and I’m sure I can use something other than PayPal when/if I get my business going.
December 5, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Maybe you could try Dwolla?
It’s US only, unfortunately, but is a flat fee of $0.25 for transactions over $10, and free for transactions $9.99 and under.
[Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with the site, I just read about it the other day. For reals.]
December 5, 2011 at 10:55 pm
Just signed up for it thanks to everyone mentioning it. Read through their TOS with a fine-tooth comb, and I give it the tech writer stamp of “pretty damned good.” Some fancy language, but nothing as double-speak as PayPal’s phrasing.
December 5, 2011 at 6:33 pm
Jesus. It’s been a long time since I was this angry.
What can we do to help? I don’t have much, but I’d be happy to send you some cash to redistribute (or, rather, “to purchase 1 ‘cash redistribution’ gift, deliverable to whomever the fuck needs it” – that good enough, PayPal?)
December 5, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Email a polite but stern letter of complaint to PayPal. Contact your local news stations. Spread the word on social media.
This is already starting to blow up so fast that I’d be surprised if April didn’t get a profuse apology and a matching donation from PayPal sometime tomorrow evening.
December 5, 2011 at 6:33 pm
I just closed out my PayPal account and left a nasty note calling them something along the lines of soulless leeches on humanity. It’s fucking Christmas. These kids, these poor families, they deserve to get a goddamn break.
These people are monsters, not even human beings. I’d quit my job in a second if it ever demanded I do something so downright fucking despicable as this. Off I go to write some strongly worded emails…
December 5, 2011 at 7:25 pm
It reminds me of Doctor Who
Programmer: That’s not our fault. We’re just doing our jobs.
The Doctor: And with that sentence, you just lost the right to even talk to me. Now back off!
It’s ridiculous to be okay with doing wrong just because it’s your job. How do you live with that?
December 5, 2011 at 8:12 pm
I don’t know if the facebook software is having a chuckle at my expense or what, but the ads on the right now include a woman holding a large cat. WTF?!
December 5, 2011 at 10:12 pm
I have loved the Doctor for that line, and the writer who understood him well enough to put it in his mouth, since that episode came out, and I love you now for quoting it.
December 5, 2011 at 6:33 pm
derp question… Yesterday, a new donate box appeared (the one where you could select “okay” gift for $5, etc. etc.) – did that box work, or is that now part of the purgatory money? I donated $20 (because I’m a rich motherfuckin bastard in a country where minimum wage is like $1.50). As long as the money doesn’t stay in Paypal’s greedy hands, I really don’t care what happens to it – but I’m curious if that money was able to actually go to something, or if it’s now an added part to the refund headache (if the former, I apologize profusely, and when it becomes working hours in America, I will call and harass some assholes)..
Unrelated: got my book last week!!!! My poor Korean coworkers are so confused…
December 5, 2011 at 6:40 pm
That was what led to freezing the account. The “We know what you’re doing” bullshit was in response to setting up the charity drive exactly like they told her it needed to be set up. That’s the frozen money.
December 5, 2011 at 6:48 pm
I feel so guilty for donating today, because now it’s made April’s nightmare even worse. How fucked is that? Thanks for the extra therapy sessions, PayPal.
December 5, 2011 at 6:33 pm
I had previously set up a section of my shop from which I would donate all profits. I will do this again, dump the money into MY OWN bank account, write a check, and mail it to you. I’ll also post this in the April’s Army discussion board and update you all on participating shops.
December 5, 2011 at 7:57 pm
No don’t ever send me checks! I’ll return them.
December 5, 2011 at 8:30 pm
Well, damn. I am officially out of ideas.
December 5, 2011 at 10:21 pm
I hate that this is happening, and that you can’t accept the money we want to give you, but I do kind of love how often you have to tell us not to send you checks.
Seriously, Regretsians, how many other people in your life would you be this persistent about sending money to, and this upset that you couldn’t?
Look at what you’ve done, Helen. You made this. SHAME ON YOU. We know your game, you charitable devil.
December 5, 2011 at 8:03 pm
same here. I’m going to get you that money somehow, goddamnit.
December 5, 2011 at 6:33 pm
#wtfpaypal may be my friend tonight.
December 5, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Helen – does your local t.v. station’s news have a consumer advocate? Have you thought about contacting the media? This is just straight fucked up. And around the holidays!
December 5, 2011 at 6:34 pm
I usually don’t drink during the week, but boy oh boy, I am sorely tempted tonight.
December 5, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Is there a lawyer among us?
December 5, 2011 at 10:33 pm
That is pretty good advice. I’d be sitting down in a local one’s office with all the paperwork, just to get the fees back – over thousands of “”Items” the cut would be hefty.
Personally I’d do it just to make a point – It’d require going through A LOT of fine print, but very satisfying.
December 6, 2011 at 8:17 am
There is! But it seems like she’s already lawyered up. I’m happy to help any way I can – this is like the definition of Grinch. It’s right there in Black’s Law, right after “Goetse.”
December 5, 2011 at 6:35 pm
Maybe someone has already addressed this as I have a short attention span, but how can they legally freeze your PERSONAL account? That has nothing to do with the account in question. Frankly, I have three words about this: CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT. Since when has a monetary site the right to dictate the use of even charitable funds? A bank can’t do this. They might report you to the IRS or some such, but they can’t unilaterally TAKE the money. That is robbery pure and simple. Letters are a start, but frankly, what this needs here is… a LAWYER (and I say that as someone who hates lawyers.)
December 5, 2011 at 6:52 pm
And I say Class Action Lawsuit because not only is the account involved, but all the donors as well–that’s a lot of pissed off people.
December 5, 2011 at 6:35 pm
I just sent a long email with this page attached. I received at least 4 of the emails back though, so maybe some of those addresses aren’t up-to-date.
we need to band together on this. please.
December 5, 2011 at 6:36 pm
April, got an address to send checks to? I’ll have on in the mail tomorrow….
December 5, 2011 at 7:58 pm
No checks, sorry.
December 5, 2011 at 10:39 pm
What about singles? Does Bronc accept singles? Further, does Towel Mike?
December 5, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Tweet them, and use the hashtag #paypalsucks. Twitter can get things done.
BTW, Paypal WAS owned by eBay (not sure if they still are or not), and eBay is known for screwing people over. They froze my dad’s eBay account because I had a package sent to his address once and I owed them about two dollars in sellers fees. I didn’t use the account, didn’t remember the password, and I couldn’t access it because I didn’t have the email associated with the account anymore. Long story made short, they wouldn’t just take my money. I had to fax copies of identification before they’d just take my money and unfreeze my dad’s account. Ridiculous.
December 6, 2011 at 12:49 am
I tweeted a direct link to @andersoncooper, @robinmeade, and @hlntv. When you follow any of them, a few other writers and production people pop up from HLN & CNN to tweet too.
December 5, 2011 at 6:36 pm
So who’s going to start the change.org petition?
December 5, 2011 at 7:29 pm
If no-one has yet, I’d be happy to. This is just all kinds of wrong.
December 6, 2011 at 12:37 am
There’s a link to one above.
December 5, 2011 at 6:36 pm
RegretsyNation.CF4L.
December 5, 2011 at 6:36 pm
And let us not for get, good losers, that EBAY OWNS PAYPAL. >sniff sniff< Smells like corporate conspiracy…
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
http://pages.ebay.com/help/pay/paypal-and-ebay.html
December 5, 2011 at 6:45 pm
Oooh lest we forget…
Fuck EBay too then.
December 5, 2011 at 6:36 pm
FUCK THAT GRINCHY PAYPAL IN ITS COLD AND LONELY AND FULL OF SHIT ASS
i am beyond angry.
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
i would call every last one of them and curse them out in several different languages, but that might count as harassment, and i am too angry to deal with them in a reasonable manner.
thank god for emergency klonopin.
December 5, 2011 at 6:37 pm
This is such bullshit. A friend of mine found her 2 year old dead a couple of weeks ago, terrible tragedy, the child just died in her sleep, they called it Sudden Unexpected Death in Childhood, SUDC, like SIDS but happens to slightly older kids. Another friend, who is NOT a nonprofit, set up a Paypal donation account to help the devastated parents pay for funeral expenses, etc. We all donated, raised something like 13,000 dollars, the account was closed, money given to the family, no problems.
This just happened in the past couple of weeks so it’s not true that you can’t raise money to help ordinary people.
December 5, 2011 at 6:40 pm
You’re right–this situation is NO different.
December 6, 2011 at 3:49 am
That’s so sad.
Tell your friend we’re thinking about her?
December 5, 2011 at 6:37 pm
I know it won’t solve your immediate frozen funds issue, but is it possible for you to use google checkout or some other sort credit card processing company from now on? Paypal can suck it.
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
It isn’t much, but The Ginger is making a team fortress raffle on http://tf2r.com/raffles.html advising people of the shitstorm.
December 5, 2011 at 6:49 pm
Here’s what he posted:
Ok, seriously– Christmas is all about the holiday spirit, giving, helping those in need, and all that jazz. Paypal apparently didn’t get the Memo. There’s a funny site out there called Regretsy that set up a Christmas donation drive for kids in need– We’re talking kids who aren’t getting anything else for Christmas, and some who won’t HAVE another Christmas. Regretsy “foolishly” used the DONATE button to receive DONATIONS for their drive, and Paypal is “being a Gigantic bag of dicks” (quoting one Regretsian).
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Here’s Regretsy’s message: They (Paypal) are forcing a refund of the money that Regretsy raised to benefit a huge group of needy children. These are kids for whom a gift paid for by a Regretsy donation may have been their ONLY gift. Of course, PayPal is keeping their chunk of all the donations…. See http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/ Send emails, FB wall posts, tweets, or whatever you have at your disposal. How bout we help out a CHARITY EVENT during Christmas, guys?
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
I’m at a loss for words. They are just purely despicable people.
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
I got a hold of Adam Braasch’s, Senior Agent, voicemail and left a message saying I thought the way the rep treated April was deplorable and I gave him my name and contact number to call me back to tell me how they plan to fix this situation. >:[ I am SO PISSED.
December 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
My email to them is too long to post here but I think I did a good job with it – no threats, no cursing, no exaggeration, just the facts about what a fiasco they have caused and the shame they have brought on themselves. It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings to Regretsy.
December 5, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Dude, could you email it to me so I could help spread it around? whohasseenthewind at hotmail dot com
December 5, 2011 at 6:52 pm
You could post the first part of it, and then, in a reply to yourself, post the rest of it. See what LEAH did above (she used a reply, and a reply to her reply).
December 5, 2011 at 7:12 pm
Yes, I was too tired to clue in to doing that. Here goes:
I won’t go into details as I’m sure you are all very much aware of the situation by now. Of course I am talking about the Regretsy fiasco. If PayPal were my company, I would be mortified beyond belief at, not only the situation itself, but the responses from the PayPal representatives that Ms. Winchell dealt with. The utter nonsense they subjected her to is beyond the limits of comprehension and good customer service. This is a PR nightmare for PayPal. The Regretsy blog is read by well over hundreds of thousands, many of whom are sellers who, until today, had been using PayPal for their own storefronts. The story has already been picked up by The Consumerist, and I have no doubt it will go further.
December 5, 2011 at 7:12 pm
Perusing some of the comments on your facebook page, I saw one commenter who made a rather sane suggestion: refund ALL of the fees you have kept and match the donations. This would be a drop in the bucket to make reparations, but it would be something. The readers of Regretsy are very involved in charity and they wanted nothing more than to help out some of their own this holiday season. You have now turned that into a huge ugly mess that will never be forgotten.
Shame on all of you.
December 5, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Hmm.. got 8 undelivered e-mails. These two, however, SHOULD have gone through and did not.
moldenburg@paypal.com -top exec
complaints@paypal.com -Complaints.. seriously? Their complaints email isnt functioning. Maybe we already broke it lol.
December 5, 2011 at 7:31 pm
I hope their inbox is too full to accept any more!
December 5, 2011 at 10:28 pm
We’re always surprised by how much we accomplish together, but that’s only because we keep accomplishing more. Think of the times we’ve stripped an Etsy shop clean, like a swarm of fat, jealous locusts, when the seller needed it. I have no doubt that we can flood their inboxes without realizing we’re doing it, simply because such a huge percentage of the people here are willing to say “I’ll do my little bit.” Half the comments I’ve tried to post here tonight have generated a database error; if we’re doing this to Regretsy’s servers (in part by linking here everywhere we can), think of what we’re doing to servers we’re hitting a dozen times over with mass emails.
December 5, 2011 at 6:39 pm
You know what’s odd…anyone who’s ever downloaded free software has undoubtedly seen a “Donate” button on that site (Spybot S&D is a perfect example) and there’s no way they’re Some Money You FJS!” button to avoid this crap in future.not-for-profits.
My own rescue efforts were never 501C and I always used the donate button.
Someone needs to make a custom “Gimme
December 5, 2011 at 10:17 pm
Sorry – that “Some Moey You FJS” part should have been in my previous post – stupid fingers.
December 5, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Okay, let me get this straight. They are SCREWING OVER needy children at CHRISTMAS? On the list of things NOT to do to look like a jackass, I think that’s got to rank pretty close to #1. I’m with whomever said to open a new donation station somewhere: I missed donations the first time around, and I’ve been kicking myself all week. I know there are other members out there who feel the same way. That’s just beyond words. Screw you, Paypal. Screw you.
December 5, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Plus he kept referring to the kids as “orphans” which I found really offensive. I said, “I didn’t say these kids were orphans!” He said, “I NEVER SAID YOU SAID THEY WERE ORPHANS!”
When the level of discourse dissolves into I NEVER SAID YOU SAID, you’re done.
December 5, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Oh, yeah. You can’t argue with stupid. I cannot believe a live human being would treat someone else that way.
December 5, 2011 at 10:42 pm
You should have just told him to “ride that spicy chicken”
December 6, 2011 at 1:48 am
From my understanding from friends who work in callcenters, and with this being a call center..”ALL calls are recorded for training purposes” and to help resolve issues the customer may have when the rep. can’t resolve them…That being said, your whole conversation should be recorded SOMEWHERE, PP will know the rep. you spoke with(im pretty sure they must state their name during the call) ,they can simply replay it and hear the mean horrible things you were told! I pray someone pushes it hard enough that PP has to turn over that recording for investigation purposes, it’s untelling what may come of all this…sucks to be them at this point!!
December 5, 2011 at 6:39 pm
New twitter hash tag. #FUPayPal. Let’s see this trending by the morning!
December 5, 2011 at 7:25 pm
done
December 5, 2011 at 6:39 pm
So apparently I’m not allowed to complain because my dollar wasn’t refunded. I’m glad you got to keep my dollar, but I also want a valid reason to complain.
December 6, 2011 at 1:05 am
Well apparently April doesn’t currently have access to the remaining funds in any of her accounts, which effectively dilutes the effectiveness of your donation, and mine. And Paypal is taking money from April for fees on donations they refuse to process, for no good reason. She got to spend my money, and I’m glad for that, but it doesn’t mean I’m not pissed off about the other donations. There’s no difference between the first dollar into the pot and the last.
December 6, 2011 at 6:53 am
I never got to donate at all, and I’m complaining.
It’s a miscarriage of justice. EVERYBODY has a reason to complain.
December 5, 2011 at 6:40 pm
Here’s what I sent:
Please read the attached account of a website trying to do charitable things for sick kids, and the problems they’ve had with Paypal and with Paypal customer support.
http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/
I am a veteran currently doing contract work in Afghanistan. I use the internet to buy a lot of things. I *had* been using Paypal for much of this. My Paypal account is ********@hotmail.com (the email I sent has the full address), and it has done hundreds if not thousands of dollars in purchases just over the last year alone. If you don’t make right what Paypal has done with Regretsy’s efforts to help out sick kids, I’ll never use Paypal again. I’ll also be spreading the word to my fellow coworkers and veterans.
December 5, 2011 at 7:15 pm
AWESOME!
December 5, 2011 at 11:38 pm
I heart you.
December 5, 2011 at 6:40 pm
I cancelled my PayPal account and let them know why. Way to ruin Christmas for kids, dick bags!
December 5, 2011 at 6:40 pm
I suppose the real question is this:
What other company will you be using instead for regretsy after this? Because I presume that Paypal is now officially ranked just below flushing the money down the toilet as a means of getting it to you in the future?
December 5, 2011 at 6:53 pm
Google Checkout is an option
December 5, 2011 at 8:02 pm
People have made some great recommendations, and I’m looking into a few now.
December 6, 2011 at 7:51 am
i WISH i knew how to make cat toys, there’s so much potential right now! The classic centipede one would be but the beginning…
December 6, 2011 at 7:52 am
(Ugh, that was supposed to be the latest comment at the end of the page; anyway.)
December 5, 2011 at 6:41 pm
April I hope you hire a lawyer. There’s no way this is legal
December 5, 2011 at 6:41 pm
What the actual fuck?
I hope all the Gods rain hell down on their miserable existences.
I just
Words. I am at a loss for them, and I’m a writer, for fuck’s sake. It’s 3am, and hoo boy are they getting chewed out!
December 5, 2011 at 6:41 pm
I have to say that this has raised a stink. I posted on my blog about this whole ordeal and when I look at my Sitemeter stats I’m seeing a bunch of keyword searches like “Paypal Regretsy.” And people are clicking on links to see the whole story.
PayPal – the Christmas fucktards
I’m off to link to this update.
December 5, 2011 at 6:41 pm
I will never use payal for anything again. They put a lengthy hold on my own funds that I tried to send to my own f’in husband to pay the mortage while I was traveling for work. This was resolved after a substantial delay only after a threat of litigation against them. About a year ago, someone made a fraudulent paypal transaction on my Amex account. After paypal failed to resolve the problem, Amex stepped in and resolved the fraudulent transaction after paypal sat back and did nothing. The supposed seller could not come up with an order invoice, what I supposedly ordered, when it was sent or anything about the alleged transaction other than they claimed to be entitled to over $1000 charge on my Amex. Paypal sucks.
December 5, 2011 at 6:41 pm
I’ve always just read this blog for entertainment, but this makes me so very sad. I think this is a good time to harness the power of the internet. Check out the Bloggess and a PR company that called her a b*tch.
http://thebloggess.com/2011/10/and-then-the-pr-guy-called-me-a-fucking-bitch-i-cant-even-make-this-shit-up/
http://blog.chron.com/babysteps/2011/10/picking-a-fight-with-the-bloggess-and-other-big-pr-mistakes/
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2011/10/07/brandlink-communications-has-the-internet-drop-on-its-head/
December 5, 2011 at 10:46 pm
Oh dear lord another internet rabbit hole for me to fall into…thanks! The picture of Wil Wheaton collating cracked me up – I must bookmark this blog for a day when my head isn’t exploding. Thanks again!
December 6, 2011 at 6:05 am
Derp, comments being weird, so if it posts twice sorry.
“Yeah, ‘stand by for demonstration of relevance’ is the first thought I had when I read this update.
December 5, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 5, 2011 at 6:42 pm
Off to close down my pay pal account. This is fuckery of the highest kind. There is a special place in hell for everyone at pay pal who has done their best to throw a wrench into this. This is nothing but insanity. I hope you get lawyers on this because there is no way that what they have done can be legal.
December 5, 2011 at 6:44 pm
This is fuckery… and not the whimsicle sort.
December 5, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Fucking disgusting. I wonder how Paypal is going to try and backpedal their collective ass out of this, especially after the vitrol their representative spewed. Charity isn’t a worthy cause? Bullshit.
December 5, 2011 at 7:26 pm
They’re not. They’re simply not going to do anything. And won’t, until they’re somehow forced to and it involves them losing money.
December 5, 2011 at 6:44 pm
Mr. Thompson will have now have an email waiting from me… and hopefully a few thousand others here. This is truly reprehensible. I can only hope that the Scrooges at PayPal will have a change of heart in time to make things right.
December 5, 2011 at 6:45 pm
So is paypal going to start raiding “toys for tots” bins because they are not CAT toys??
December 5, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Oh that’s the other thing they said! I forgot!
They said they’d let me have the money if I gave the Toys to Toys for Tots.
December 5, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Soo…. You need non-profit status or else you’re a thief. Unless you give the money that you raised as a non-profit company to the toy-raping charity of our choice?
December 5, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Or your cat.
December 5, 2011 at 8:37 pm
If I mail a sick cat to the needy children will it make this whole mess go away?
December 6, 2011 at 12:54 am
I have a sick cat. She doesn’t give a damn about Christmas, unless she gets some of the turkey.
December 6, 2011 at 3:57 am
catherder, my 18yo cat thinks the same thing! It’s literally all she’s deigned to eat since Thanksgiving. I dunno what we’ll feed her when the leftovers are all thawed and shredded for her.
December 5, 2011 at 8:13 pm
This hurts my brain!!! So now they can dictate where the money YOU raise goes!? WTF PayPal!? What kind of goo is in your noggins because it certainly is NOT a brain!?
December 5, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Let you use your own money?
December 5, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Wait, WHAT?
I just posted a comment about how PayPal’s own policies say they wouldn’t have lost any money due to the “Donate” button being used.
The last reason I could think of for them having a problem with the “Donate” button was that they had some kind of (BS, in this case) consumer-protection agenda. People knowing exactly how their money is being spent when they click that button, blah, blah, blah.
But if they’re willing to redirect hundreds of customers’ money to a different charity, they clearly don’t give a crap about that, either.
This is amazingly poor policy design/handling all around by them. It’s almost impressive that they could get it so wrong.
December 6, 2011 at 1:36 am
Cunt the fucking shit what? No. Awww, hell no. Oh I wish I’d been a fly on the wall in your house while this was going down.
December 5, 2011 at 6:45 pm
Geez, and here I am ready to open my Etsy shop, Paypal as my pay option, and this happens. Now I’m terrified to use them!
This is awful. You mean to tell me we don’t have any fat, jealous losers on here that work for Paypal?
All these poor families. This Christmas sucks.
December 5, 2011 at 6:49 pm
I’d be happy if any of us are journalists or bloggers who could get the story out there. Sadly, this is the perfect time of the year for such stories (then again, if it were not this time of the year, April would have not been doing this specific project).
December 5, 2011 at 6:51 pm
I just put it as a story on CNN ireport, it’s all I could think to do. Not enough people read my blog to make a difference.
December 5, 2011 at 7:53 pm
I managed to send a detailed e-mail the the NYC CBS television station (couldn’t find a link to the newsradio stations, which is what I’d most hoped for) AND to NPR’s All Things Considered. Had to jump through so many hoops on NPR to get my e-mail accepted (“our system has flagged things in your e-mail that may be spam”), but it went through.
December 5, 2011 at 10:01 pm
I’ve been posting the CNN iReport all over the place.
December 5, 2011 at 6:51 pm
I don’t blog, myself, but I know lots of people who do. I’m working on getting this around to them. Don’t know if it will help anything, but it can’t hurt to try.
December 5, 2011 at 7:03 pm
I was going to close my account, but it says the money I donated is still pending. I don’t know what’s going on with it. Is it really pending, or is it some of the frozen funds still in the pot?
Fuck you, Paypal.
December 5, 2011 at 6:46 pm
December 5, 2011 at 6:48 pm
December 5, 2011 at 10:33 pm
Weezil love!
December 5, 2011 at 6:48 pm
I’m trying to close/cancel/delete my Paypal account. I have nothing pending and it’s not allowing me to close my account and saying I have something pending withdrawal from my Bank Account. The only thing I have that is reoccurring is A $4.99 Spotify payment, which went through several business days ago and is listed as completed in my overview. GRRR.
December 5, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Whoa. Just called customer service. They said that the bank transfer for Spotify wasn’t complete. They told me to pull up the details. So I did. Two transactions (one original, one “related”), both completed. Then they tried to say I wasn’t looking at it right and that while Spotify had received the funds, my bank hadn’t completed the transfer. So I ask them, then why does it say under ‘add funds from bank account’ on this transaction, identified as the ‘related’ transaction.. completed. She said that she would check and put me on hold for about five minutes. Then she came back on and said they were experiencing some technicaly difficulties and while on MY end it was saying ‘completed’ it wasn’t on their end. They are running a system update that will be done in 3-4 hours. I’m calling them in 3.
December 5, 2011 at 6:48 pm
PayPal: Making Ebenezer Scrooge Look Like Andrew Fucking Carnegie Since 2011
December 5, 2011 at 6:49 pm
I reported this idiocy to CNN. Perhaps if we get enough people to do the same, we can stop the Paypal robbery and help the families in need. Do so here: http://www.cnn.com/feedback/show/?s=storyidea
December 5, 2011 at 7:49 pm
done! sent off a suggestion!
December 5, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Done.
December 5, 2011 at 9:24 pm
I’ve done so as well! Hopefully a nice, national-news-sized helping of shame will make Paypal do the right thing.
December 5, 2011 at 11:25 pm
Thanks I just sent something. I am new here after being directed here from a group, and I have closed my paypal account! Totally disgusted!!
December 5, 2011 at 6:49 pm
I use PayPal for a lot of things – an eBay store, an Etsy store, and for buying things off those strange little sellers who refuse to use anything for payments except PayPal. But if this isn’t resolved in a satisfying way in the next few days, it’s so long eccentric sellers and overseas Etsy buyers, I’m shutting my PayPal account down for good.
December 5, 2011 at 6:49 pm
Duh on me. Folks, check the “Contact” tag at the top — it’s got the snail mail address to send stuff to April.
And I for one cannot WAIT to see PayPal come crawling to April with their tail between their legs when this one hits the national news. Because you KNOW it’s going to, somehow. In this season of good cheer, there’s not much the press likes more than a corporate Grinch.
December 5, 2011 at 8:10 pm
You’re not alone I thought the same too until I read this comment up thread from Helen.
“Helen Killer
December 5, 2011 at 7:03 pm
No, I don’t take checks meant for charitable purposes. I cant deposit that money into my account. Paypal was just a landing page for collections, and I disbursed it as quickly as I could.
+4″
December 5, 2011 at 6:49 pm
How about a PO Box and we’ll do it the old fashioned way? PERSONAL CHECKS!
December 5, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Ms Killer says no checks
I’m willing to send these kids toys myself
December 6, 2011 at 5:15 am
No checks guys – she can’t deposit personal checks into an account meant for charity. Didn’t think of that. This just sucks. You do something out of the pure goodness of your heart – something that makes HUNDREDS of children and their families happy for Christmas – and you get screwed. What a world.
December 5, 2011 at 6:49 pm
PayPal account cancelled. Reason for cancellation: The way they treated April Winchell/Regretsy. If that’s how they treat long-term customers, I don’t want to be one. Jerkfaces.
December 5, 2011 at 7:31 pm
This makes me want to keep trying to close mine hearing that you were able to cancel yours.
December 5, 2011 at 6:49 pm
Etsians were complaining of not being able to use PP today, I hope it’s because they were getting bogged down with people rushing to the site to close their accounts.
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
I posted this to CNN iReport in hopes it will get picked up. Fingers crossed.
December 5, 2011 at 8:02 pm
It did!!!
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
That’s just shitty of Paypal. I can’t say I haven’t had my own run ins with them. A few years ago I sold some digital artwork for food money when my husband first lost his job, and when the buyer did a chargeback a week later, paypal sided with with them and charged me fees for going in the negative, then more fees when they couldn’t withdraw money from my bank account (I had told them I was using the money for food since I had nothing in the bank) And even when I provided screenshots of emails and the artwork I did for the buyer, they decided I was at fault, kept the money, and charged me MORE fees for it. At that point I’d decided I’d had enough with paypal.
Besides that..
Thank you for the letters from Santa. My kids are ecstatic over them! I’m just glad I got anything at all for them!
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
I guess we can safely say that no one at Paypal has ever struggled to make ends meet for Christmas or else they’d know that this shit IS a big deal. It’s not just about presents, it’s about having a fucking heart and not penalizing people for trying to give a helping hand to deserving people.
We need to tweet Keith Olbermann and get Paypal as “worst persons”.
December 5, 2011 at 11:24 pm
Even if they’ve never personally struggled, anyone with any imagination should get it!
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
We got a blurb in the Wall Street Journal to the consumerist article!
http://onespot.wsj.com/personal-finance/2011/12/05/3cdd1/paypal-rains-on-regretsys-secret-santa
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
Who wants to start the petition on change.org? Someone better with words than I, I hope.
Whoever makes this should link me to it. I’m forcing the article to go viral within my (tiny) college campus, so the petition will help spread the news even further.
December 6, 2011 at 5:49 am
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need (hopefully others have posted it upstream, but here it is… again!
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
apires@paypal.com is out of the office but kindly left this as a forwarding address for immediate assistance: teampaypal@accesspr.com
email forward ho!
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
1. FUCK PAYPAL. I’ve always hated them anyway.
2. CAN WE SEND CHECKS?? MONEY ORDERS?? Cash in the mail? Do you have another way of handling this? TELL US HOW!
3. I seriously thought, when I saw my refund come through, that you took my comment from this morning, “you can’t stop me, HK!”, seriously until I saw this post.
4. Seriously. How do we get you money?
December 5, 2011 at 8:16 pm
No checks, I was thinking about sending one until I read this comment up thread from Helen.
“Helen Killer
December 5, 2011 at 7:03 pm
No, I don’t take checks meant for charitable purposes. I cant deposit that money into my account. Paypal was just a landing page for collections, and I disbursed it as quickly as I could.
+4″
December 6, 2011 at 4:26 am
How about gift cards for the families?
December 5, 2011 at 9:13 pm
I don’t know the logistics of this, but has anyone considered donating directly to the families on the list? I have no idea how to go about it, but it would cut out the Pay Pal middlemen and follow April’s no checks rule.
December 5, 2011 at 6:50 pm
I hope the assholes at Paypal wake up with prolapsed rectums tomorrow morning.
December 5, 2011 at 6:51 pm
I tried to close my Paypal account and I can’t… I have 49 cents in it, and you can’t withdraw less than $1. So I have to transfer money into the account and wait 4 days and then withdraw the money and wait 4 more days and THEN I should be able to cancel. BS.
December 5, 2011 at 8:47 pm
They charge you $1.50 to send you a check. If you have less than than in your account, they just keep it. Don’t add money just so they can take it away!
December 5, 2011 at 6:51 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 5, 2011 at 8:14 pm
You’re comment 146…this place is just exploding with commenty goodness!
December 5, 2011 at 8:22 pm
PLEASE No! Don’t do it!
I am really squeaky clean with this stuff. I have a lawyer and a CPA and everything, and I can account for every cent. Money orders, cash and checks are all problematic and I will just have to return it to you.
December 5, 2011 at 10:12 pm
How about pre-paid debit cards? You wouldn’t even need to deposit them, just mail them to the families?
December 5, 2011 at 10:36 pm
HAY GUISE! There’s a possible IRS tax issue at the VERY least, that I can imagine off the top of my head, for Helen if we all start flooding her with income. Seriously.
Helen, I hereby award you eighty gajillion intarweb dollars (which are only good for lighting the digital fire under Paypal), and a buncha hugs.
The best thing we can do is to hold on to our cash and money orders and dollars until it’s time to help her with legal fees, and I’m sure she’ll tell us when that time is and how to go about.
Helen, we’re poised and ready for Operation Fuck PayPal Back, just let us know.
December 5, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Sorry, April, I won’t send anything, promise.
Although it occurs to me, could you set up a separate account for your charity stuff? I know I’ve done that for small organizations I’ve been involved with, far too small to worry about getting a 501(c)(3), and have even gotten a free account for a year; and then you could accept direct donations of cash/check/money order. Just a thought.
I am really, really sorry they fucked with you like this!!!
December 5, 2011 at 6:52 pm
i called one of thre customer service numbers, yelled agent angrily at it eight times, and then sobbed to a representative who agreed that it’s not right and that he would speak to his supervisor about the concern. even spelled out regretsy for him.
it may be the “shut up would you?” consolation response, but i’m okay for now. i just need a cigarette and 20 minutes with the punching bag.
December 5, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Tweet of this post? Check.
Angry but semi-polite e-mail (did not call them fuckers)? Check.
Closing of PayPayl accounts? Imminent.
December 5, 2011 at 8:47 pm
Have completed your list and also surprisingly did not use profanities! Lots of shame though…
December 5, 2011 at 9:30 pm
A friend and I call it “business bitchy.” On the surface, you’re holding it together. Just under, it reads, “fuck you fuck you fuck you fuck you”
December 5, 2011 at 6:52 pm
I’ve never made an account here before, but I wanted to share the email — some ganked from April’s helpful breakdown above — I just bombarded all those fuckers with in case anyone else would find it of use:
[name of specific shitsmear],
I was disgusted to learn what your company has done to the charitable donations fund set up by April Winchell and the Regretsy community. The idea that you would freeze an account that has been using your service for years to make charitable donations, and then go a step further and freeze April’s own money from unrelated sales in that account, is shocking. While Regretsy might have made an error in using the Donate rather than the Buy Now button, the magnitude and rigid bureaucracy of your response is far more egregious. Moreover, the fact that your company has profited repeatedly from these donations, while blocking the families themselves from receiving the money donated to them is revolting.
December 5, 2011 at 6:53 pm
You allowed the website to use a donate button, and got a portion of the donations
You then made the website return the donations, and kept a portion of the fees on the donations
You then, in what seemed to be a fairly reasonable way out of the confusion, allowed the website to use a Buy Now button to sell gifts individually, and got a portion of those sales.
But you then made the site return the sales that you had permitted, but kept a portion of the fees on the sales regardless.
Finally, they processed the toy purchases, and made fees on that.
In essence, your company has profited not once, but three times on money meant for charity, and then refused to let that charitable money be used for its intended purpose. Profiteering off of needy children and their families — I trust you’re well pleased with yourselves.
If you had a modicum of decency, you would unfreeze the account, and let these people have the gift of a slightly less lean holiday season.
December 5, 2011 at 6:54 pm
Surely an error in what button April used to set up her site is less important than that.
I will be passing along the details of this fiasco to my friends and coworkers, and will encourage them not to use your service again — I certainly won’t, as this is how you treat not only your clients, but people in need.
[fat jealous slag]
I also second the commenter way, way above that noted it’s time to use some Disney sparkle power on their ass and get this to the mainstream media.
December 5, 2011 at 7:43 pm
Thanks! I copypasta-ed!
December 5, 2011 at 6:52 pm
I know some of you jerks have to know people in the media.
December 5, 2011 at 10:22 pm
I do!
My boyfriend is doing grunt work at Global Edmonton (he runs a teleprompter by spinning a wheel), and I have ever-so-sweetly asked him to talk to his higher ups about it.
PAYPAL MAKES ME SICK.
Is there anyway we could send donations directly to the families?
I’m in Canada, but I’ve got some american money laying around the house, or they could always exchange the cash at a bank….
Also, CORPORATIONS EAT SOULS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
December 6, 2011 at 4:47 pm
I don’t personally know any, but have forwarded the story via Twitter to the Toronto Star, so us canucks can have at PayPal for a bit.
December 5, 2011 at 6:53 pm
FUCK THOSE FUCKING CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNTS.
December 5, 2011 at 6:55 pm
Just closed my Paypal account. Haven’t used it in forever but won’t be any longer after this douchebaggery of +INFINITY.
I hope Paypal’s e-mail servers are ready as there are 160,000+ (just going on the Facebook number) angry Regretsians getting ready to fling burning shit at their electronic doorstep.
December 5, 2011 at 6:56 pm
FML! I had a full draft of a letter I was going to email to PayPal in MS Word and my fucking laptop just ATE IT. It was all eloquent and shit too. I’M SO FUCKING PISSED OFF!!!! And I have to wake up in four hours for work. AHHH! I’ll write another one tomorrow, but hopefully by them all you fat jealous losers will have caused the world to cave in on PayPal and they’ll stop being such fucking douchenozzles. I have faith in you all. Go forth and conquer.
December 5, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Haha! Evil laptop (aka Beelzebub) just coughed up my email draft. Sent! Suck on that, PayPal.
December 5, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Woo!
December 5, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Even Skynet thinks PayPal is evil.
December 5, 2011 at 6:57 pm
Wow, talk about corporate greed!! You cant tell none of them are having money issues at the time of year when it hurts the hardest to pay your bills and give your family some extra gifts without maxing out a credit card. The media NEEDS to get ahold of this and shame Paypal into returning the money and fees, and to make them donate a large chunk of their own $$$!!!
December 5, 2011 at 6:57 pm
This Yahoo question on the subject of charitable donations sheds some light:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080912175736AA0CMai
Still, Paypal has not been forthcoming about the use of the “donate” button.
December 5, 2011 at 6:57 pm
Wondering if this is revenge of Crying Glitter Eagle dude? (I have strange proclivity towards conspiracy theories) I agree with all of the above – Stupid Pay Pal!
December 5, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Husband says you should call your local news and get this on TV, or GMA, or something, b/c this is exactly the sort of thing they like to run at this time of year – especially with the sentiment against Big Corporate being what it is.
It’s monstrous. Let’s make them look like monsters in a BIG way!
December 5, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Even though I can’t afford to donate, I was so excited about this. As a kid, we didn’t always have the best Christmases/birthdays. It sucked. The original post made me cry. Then, I cried more when I saw how quickly the donations had added up. I get a little more hopeful for humanity when I see this stuff.
So, I have to say, this pisses me off. When I went on PayPal to deactivate my account, I noticed that a deposit hadn’t gone through (my paycheck came in and I was so excited about having some money I forgot all about a little $10 thing). No notification that it failed. Nothing. Not even a fucking email. And I can’t view any transaction history — nothing but the account overview.
Anyway… fuck PayPal. I’ll be spreading the word around through friends and family. It’s one thing to rip off a customer when it comes to a small amount of money — it’s a whole ‘nother ball game when it affects so many needy kids and their families. This shit sucks.
December 5, 2011 at 6:59 pm
Does ANYONE in NY or LA have friends (or friends of friends) that work for or are producers on any of the major networks for news or talk shows (Today, The View, Ellen, Etc.)? ANDERSON anyone? ANYONE?
December 5, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Yet people have gotten away with the whole “My girlfriend and I need to raise X amount of cash or we’re having an abortion” and used a PayPal donate button… I don’t get it.
December 5, 2011 at 7:00 pm
I sent two polite but stern emails to the consumerist list.
December 5, 2011 at 7:00 pm
I also sent Paypal a Nasty Gram.
I missed the first drive entirely, and will happily donate through some avenue other than PayPal. I noticed Serve (by Amex) will actually give you $10 just for signing up with their service right now. I suggest April signs up with Serve, all of us do the same, and everyone donates their $10 bonus to this cause, plus whatever else they are willing. According to their website, person to person transfers of money are free. I’ve signed up, but haven’t yet received the bonus. It says my account is under review, so I assume this is a new account processing delay.
If this works, I will also match the first $100 that comes in. The thought of being able to soothe my rage at corporate misconduct is actually more satisfying than donating to charity. I think we should always combine the two from now on.
December 5, 2011 at 7:01 pm
That does it I’m closing my paypal account ASAP. (well as soon as I can carefully vet the alternatives).. I hear Dwolla is pretty sweet….
December 5, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Paypal account closed, regretsy.com’s holiday fundraiser cited as reason, comment left regarding their business policies.
Side note: 2 of the top 5 results for the search “close my account” were “this answer no longer available”. Clicked on another and the page said “This answer is temporarily unavailable while we update the information.” Fuckers.
December 5, 2011 at 9:06 pm
In case anyone else reads this:
Click on Profile in the menu bar
Click on the third option on the left side (I don’t remember what it said, sorry)
The top field will let you either upgrade or close your account.
Find your bank card or bank account number to close it.
December 5, 2011 at 7:01 pm
I just closed my account and made sure to tell them it was because they are such tremendous douchenozzles. I never really used it, so they probably won’t feel much of a loss, but it still made me feel better.
What about a change.org (vel sim.) petition? I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would sign, even if they’re not Regretsians.
December 5, 2011 at 10:18 pm
someone already made one http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
December 5, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Douchenozzle. Pure Genius. I’m using this one.
December 5, 2011 at 7:01 pm
I’ve heard of similar scenarios. Sweet Charity on LJ went through similar shit every year, trying to prove they were not laundering money, for fuck’s sake. Eventually you can wear them down. And there is ALWAYS a higher supervisor.
I suggest everyone start Tweeting, FBing and otherwise posting the story. Nothing like a little Scroogy publicity during holiday shopping season to put pressure on PayPal.
December 5, 2011 at 7:03 pm
I just submitted this page to Digg. Digg’um, bitches!
http://digg.com/news/business/paypal_hates_children
December 5, 2011 at 8:30 pm
This is blowing up all over Twitter. Even Wil Wheaton tweeted about it!
December 5, 2011 at 7:01 pm
…Ok, so I can’t even put together a coherent thought because MY BRAIN IS MELTING. Like, is this seriously happening? Once I can actually form a proper sentence, I’ll be emailing everyone I can think of about this. The responses from Paypal regarding this are seriously vile.
December 5, 2011 at 7:02 pm
Jesus, could I have said “this” one more time?
December 5, 2011 at 7:02 pm
I have sent an email to every last fucking one of them.
December 5, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Well, most of the addresses were refused by the server, but this one came back with an out-of-office. I think Amanda is going to be very unhappy come the 12th.
FROM: Pires, Amanda
TO: Kaye Winter
Message flagged
Monday, December 5, 2011 10:01 PM
Thank you for your email. I will be out the office until Monday, December 12th. For immediate assistance, please contanct Access Communications at teampaypal@accesspr.com.
Thank you,
Amanda
December 5, 2011 at 7:02 pm
WHF!?! and they just opened a FB send money “just because” option, no reason, no exchange, just send gift money
http://apps.facebook.com/paypal_sendmoney/
serious fucktards.
December 5, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Wow. Just wow. And I read all the information about it and it doesn’t have a maximum or any rule. They’re rolling this out and holding the Regretsy funds at the same time? Crazy.
December 5, 2011 at 7:03 pm
So, this is likely going to be buried, but I decided to quest for what Paypal’s terms were for using the donate buttons. According to their Help Center, you do NOT need to be associated with a charity/non-profit to use the buttons. Donations are subject to Paypal’s approval, but they basically say that amounts to following the Acceptable Use Policy, which Regretsy undoubtedly does. This is 398176413298 shades of fucked up. Here’s the two most relevant links from the bullshit I trawled through:
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/AcceptableUse_full&locale.x=en_US
https://www.paypal.com/helpcenter/main.jsp;jsessionid=GlZVTdDQHBtGYBwMp9ffhhv0WqJyNxpn0SFvt5pyDQgyTQt5tGgh!-831548207?t=solutionTab&ft=homeTab&ps=&solutionId=39084&locale=en_US&_dyncharset=UTF-8&countrycode=US&cmd=_help&serverInstance=9004
December 5, 2011 at 7:03 pm
This now on their facebook page.
PAYPAL HATES POOR CHILDREN AT CHRISTMAS!
I am absolutely gobsmacked at the disgusting way paypal has treated the owner of the “Regretsy” website. This amazing woman often directs her time and efforts towards helping those in need, and ran a Christmas Charity project to support 200 families below the poverty line in the USA so that their children would receive gifts this Christmas.
The Regretsy community raised the required amount in about three hours, at which point they stopped accepting donations.
Paypal, having received it’s ‘processing fee’, has now decided that we are unable to use this money to buy Christmas presents and in a move that goes beyond all good business sense and common decency, has frozen ALL of Regretsy’s accounts and funds.
http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/
Paypal, the new grinch of the season.
Merry Christmas.
December 5, 2011 at 7:03 pm
I gotta believe that, somewhere in the mythical land of Fuckeria, there has to be a fat jealous loser familiar with federal financial regulations. Paypal may not be a bank, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t laws they have to follow when they are handling huge tons of other people’s money.
December 5, 2011 at 9:48 pm
PayPal DOES have FDIC pass-through insurance so I imagine there is some sort of federal oversight involved.
December 5, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Wow, just wow. I missed all this, Ill be jumping on to email tomorrow, when Im not so pissed I cant articulate.
December 5, 2011 at 7:04 pm
I just sent the same email like 6-7 times and will be resending it numerous times bastards
December 5, 2011 at 7:04 pm
I so rarely comment, but this is BULLSHIT! I can’t believe how scroogey and unkind this is. I didn’t give the first time, but if you come up with an alternative way to donate, I totally will. FUCKERS!
December 5, 2011 at 7:05 pm
Here’s what I sent them:
To Whom It May Concern,
I am a member of the website Regretsy. As a community, we decided to pool our resources and help the children in the community that wouldn’t be getting a Christmas this year. The simplest way to do that was to donate to the fund via PayPal. Apparently, your company and some very unprofessional representatives decided that this wouldn’t be an acceptable use of the “donate” button. Then you made April (the owner of the site and account) refund the money – but not all of it, see you kept your profits. Then, when they updated the button to allow us to “buy” a gift to give to the kids, you shut that down too. But hey, you kept the fees for all of those transactions – classy. I’ll be cancelling my account and telling everyone that will listen that you essentially robbed needy children at Christmas and managed to make a profit at it. I hope you find it appropriate to refund your ill-gotten fees.
Merry Christmas,
Jackie G
December 5, 2011 at 7:06 pm
I have cancelled my paypal account.
December 5, 2011 at 7:06 pm
I just sent the following:
December 5, 2011 at 7:09 pm
To Whom It May Concern:
I am highly disappointed in your treatment of Regretsy blogger, April Winchell. Ms. Winchell arranged a Christmas donation drive for needy children and their families. She used PayPal to collect said donations. If you read the following blog post, http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/03/quick-santa-fund-update/, you will find information regarding why and how the donations would be used. Reportedly, one of your customer service representatives treated Ms. Winchell disrespectfully. Ms. Winchell was informed that she cannot use the Donate button because she does not run a non-profit organization;
December 5, 2011 at 7:09 pm
however, there is no clear indication that one cannot use said Donate button unless they are a non-profit. The representative then contradicted herself stating that an individual can raise money for a sick cat but not poor people. The logic here is unclear to me, as well as Ms. Winchell, so perhaps you would provide Ms. Winchell with some clarification. Reportedly, the representative also stated, “We know what you’re doing and we’re through playing games with you.” Again, I am unclear about the logic; Ms. Winchell, as well as the fans of her site, were attempting to help needy children during a time when they deserve a little light in their lives. I, as well as the other Regretsians, are requesting that Ms. Winchell’s account(s) be unfrozen and this matter be addressed. Additionally, I am requesting that the fees
December 5, 2011 at 7:09 pm
obtained by PayPal due to this situation be donated into the Regretsy charity fund, that no additional fees be taken from the fund once this matter has been rectified, and for PayPal to make their policies clear as to avoid another unfortunate situation such as this.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Respectfully,
Sarah J (aka Kosouki)
CF4L
December 5, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Now on the Wall Street Journal blog:
http://onespot.wsj.com/personal-finance/2011/12/05/3cdd1/paypal-rains-on-regretsys-secret-santa
Where next, eh, Paypal?
December 5, 2011 at 7:08 pm
Oops. Already posted.
Well, shit, the more inbound links to stories on this the better.
December 5, 2011 at 7:07 pm
The body of my letter is too long for the comments but I blasted it to every email listed for them. I have also posted it on their facebook wall, and used every form of social media I could to spread the word. Two friends have confirmed they’re closing their accounts immediately, although one is finding Paypal won’t allow her to.
As a Burner, I remember all too well how they seized and froze money raised in 2010 for the temple- also a non-profit/charity. We had to work endlessly to raise the shortfall from the community after they refused to release over $25,000 needed to finish construction, assembly, and transportation to the desert. SCREW PAYPAL
December 5, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Fuckin’ bastards.
I swear to God, the Grinch and Scrooge are taking jobs at PayPal just to screw Christmas charity funds like this one over. Why don’t they just shove a reindeer antlers up our asses?
So do me a favor, people, and go ahead, call the damn company. Let’s see how many middle fingers via landline we can give them. I’ll stay here and rant and on and build our army.
December 5, 2011 at 7:07 pm
This has happened before:
https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/Donations-and-Fundraising/Donations/m-p/156016#M265
It took a while to find the “Acceptable Use Policy Page”
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/AcceptableUse_full&locale.x=en_US
December 5, 2011 at 7:08 pm
OH REALLY? From @AskPayPal
“Ask PayPal
Sending money during the holidays to friends or family? We have an option just for you! paypal.com/sendmoney”
How about fuck you, you bastards.
December 5, 2011 at 7:08 pm
Closed my PayPal account. I don’t need to deal with their shit. Maybe I’m not always a fan of folks on here being strange, but goddamn it, everyone should be able to donate to a greater good without a pile of bullshit being thrown at them repeatedly by some corporation who thinks cats are better than people, even if those people are fat jealous losers or trolls.
Fuck you, PayPal.
December 5, 2011 at 7:09 pm
I have a very strong hunch this “representative” was featured at some point on regretsy. I bet she was the cat hair balls lady, but also possibly the married Hobo’s.
December 5, 2011 at 7:09 pm
Well, shit a cat’s ass!
December 5, 2011 at 7:09 pm
So I have a question.
Right now, major internet retailer Woot.com is having a sale. The most popular item in that sale will surely be, as it always is, a mystery item. You can pay for it with Paypal, and have the seller ship it directly to the recipient if it’s a gift.
When does PayPal freeze their account and stop taking a cut of the Woot money?
December 5, 2011 at 7:18 pm
WOOTOFF SHOUTOUT! Ahem. Sorry. Back to the paypal fuckery…
December 5, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Balls O’ Christmas!
(now back to your regularly scheduled fuckery)
PayPal needs an uppercunt.
December 6, 2011 at 6:11 am
If it helps, I did call them cunts when I closed my account.
December 6, 2011 at 11:24 am
They didn’t deserve that, due to their demonstated lack of depth, charm, and warmth.
December 5, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Oh, crap, my woot addiction.
December 5, 2011 at 7:10 pm
Submitted to the Consumerist, because you’d be amazed how many people watch it for complaints from companies. They have people from Sears, Comcast, Time Warner, and probably at least one Paypal rep watching it.
December 5, 2011 at 7:10 pm
To whom it may concern:
I would like to inform you I will be shutting my Paypal account down due to the completely idiotic and unethical treatment given to Ms. April Winchell of Regretsy. She tried to do a very good thing that would have benefited multiple children and their families. The fact that your sad excuse of a company led her on and condemned her for such trivial issues is mind-boggling. I have lost all respect for your company and will continue to slander your company unless you can fix what you have done.
Sincerely,
Hailey M. Delamaire (Former Customer)
December 6, 2011 at 10:56 am
It isn’t slander if it’s true.
December 5, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Wow. Just fucking wow. I am so royally pissed off at this moment that I can’t even… yeah. I didn’t get a chance to donate before and the main reason is that paypal pissed me off so badly that I haven’t used my account in about a year or so. Both the bank account AND the credit card linked to my paypal account no longer exist. I’m so pissed off that I’m updating all of my information solely so I can close my account out. Rationality is not my strong point, okay!?
December 5, 2011 at 7:11 pm
I’ve never opened a PayPal account. It seemed like a scam. Now I realize that I was right in the first place.
Sigh. Do they *REALLY* have so many people taking advantage of them that they have to do business this way?
December 5, 2011 at 7:11 pm
https://www.paypal.com/helpcenter/main.jsp;jsessionid=GRJmTdHXWJVhfd9ptsJypQt122HG1sgMGvhF6kvpqvLJM8ygFpks!-883599648?locale=en_US&_dyncharset=UTF-8&countrycode=US&cmd=_help&serverInstance=9002&t=solutionTab&ft=searchTab&ps=solutionPanels&solutionId=39084&isSrch=Yes
the quote from this page in question:
“Donations not associated with a charity or nonprofit organization don’t need to meet these requirements, but all donations are subject to review. Donations must also follow our Acceptable Use Policies.”
REVIEW NOT A UNILATERAL FREEZING. And where has this situation violated the acceptable use policy page? It hasn’t from the way I read this.
December 5, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Here’s the email I just sent:
It seems there has been some kind of mistake here. I thought during this time of year most people tried really hard to be charitable and kind toward their fellow human beings instead of acting like the Grinch by stealing Christmas from small children. Apparently I was wrong, given that it appears Paypal is in full “Bah humbug!” mode at the moment.
I am referring the freezing of the account used by the website Regretsy to gather donations to help fund a Secret Santa gift exchange for needy children. What really “grinds my gears” in this instance is not only did you try to take away presents from small children, you’re also taking fees off of they transactions, despite making April Winchill refund all the transactions.
You can read all about it here – http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/
December 5, 2011 at 7:12 pm
continued…
At the very least I think you should make sure this fundraiser is allowed to happen so you don’t look like Scrooge. I’d also recommend reviewing your customer service policy because seriously? Having someone say “You can use the donate button to raise money for a sick cat, but not poor people” is a bit dense, don’t you think?
December 5, 2011 at 7:12 pm
This is ridiculous. I went to shut down my paypal account in protest and they won’t let me. I get this bs:
“This account cannot be closed at this time because there are outstanding payment authorizations. Please try again after the authorizations have been settled or voided.”
The last time I used my account was November 22. WTF?
December 5, 2011 at 7:13 pm
PayPal links to corporations like Sears, Walmart, Best Buy & Ebay on their wall- I suggest it may also be helpful to let these companies know that you do not appreciate or approve of their relationship with PayPal and withhold your business accordingly.
December 5, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Just sent email to Ellen and Today Show with quick explanation of what happened and link to site.
“Long story short, regretsy.com raised thousands of dollars to buy presents for 200 needy kids via paypal donations. Paypay says they cant to it because they used a “donate now” button than can only be used by non-profits and makes site owner refund monies not processed – but not before keeping fees. So, she sets it up again as a “Buy It Now” and gets TONS more donations. Paypal, again, says no because they “know what she is up to” and make her refund everyone’s money but, again, not before keeping their fees for every transaction. Now, they have frozen her account for 6 months – an account which holds personal monies for other projects. You’ve REALLY got to read the post on regretsy.com. It is MADDENING. The Today show could feature this and make a real difference. If nothing else, it could shine a light on their greed and overall scroogeness at Christmastime. Thanks
December 5, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Perhaps we can all start contacting national media with quick summaries and a link to this page and someone will pick it up. If they get enough tips from enough people SOMEONE should pick it up.
December 5, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Someone posted this on Colbert’s FACEBOOK PAGE: https://www.facebook.com/thecolbertreport?sk=wall&filter=12
LIKE Courtney Hamilton’s post about halfway down the page; maybe don’t spam it but definitely get it noticed!
December 5, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Couldn’t find it and so I reposted. Hope that is OK. I’ll also hit other media pages.
December 5, 2011 at 7:28 pm
I’m up to like 50 likes already! I’ve never felt so popular.
And Abelle, you need to click on ‘everyone’s posts’ on the top of their wall in order to see it. But I’m glad you reposted. Hopefully whoever is in charge of sifting through all the crap on their facebook wall will take notice.
December 5, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Also posted on FB for: The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmell Live, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show. And George Takei.
December 5, 2011 at 7:56 pm
George will help, he’s cool like that, oh my
December 5, 2011 at 8:47 pm
I also posted on The Rachel Maddow Show’s facebook.
December 5, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Also : there is a $1.50 fee to close your account. How lovely!
Closing your account is final and both your account history and reputation number will be lost. There is a check processing fee of $1.50 USD (or the equivalent amount if your balance is in another currency). If your balance is the equivalent of $1.50 USD or less, you will not receive a check.
December 5, 2011 at 11:48 pm
If you read that again, it means that if you have money in your account and they send you the check in the mail for that money, they will take a $1.50 fee out of the money as a processing fee. If your account is empty they don’t take anything as there is no fee to process due to there being no checks to cut.
December 5, 2011 at 7:16 pm
I have not actually used this service, but I drive by this billboard a lot:
December 5, 2011 at 7:20 pm
Having said that, I went to their URL, and they actually say “You can collect donations for needy people.” They also make sure that they have an 800 number on every page of their website, and proclaim that they want to talk to you on the phone, or via internet chat things. Pretty neat.
December 5, 2011 at 7:16 pm
I posted this on their facebook wall:
“I find it ironic that your company ‘likes’ a page entitled ‘Charity Smackdown.’ Because that’s exactly what you did in the case of Regretsy/April Winchell.”
December 5, 2011 at 7:17 pm
I sent a strongly worded email to the list of addresses and encouraged everyone I know to do the same.
December 5, 2011 at 7:31 pm
FYI: I just got bounced emails and auto responses.
BoEappeals@ said “We’re not able to respond directly to emails sent to this address.”
Spoof@ said my email was indeed suspicious.
“address rejected” delivery errors for:
moldenburg@
boeappeal@
appeal@
account-review@
cardreview@
appeals@
escalations@
complaints@
chargebackresponse@
December 5, 2011 at 7:18 pm
They act like a bank, yet don’t have to play by the same rules.
Interesting court decisions related to PayPal: http://paypalsucks.com/Fogel-PayPal.pdf
December 5, 2011 at 7:19 pm
january 6 – I have to wait 45 days after my last transaction to close my account. Are you kidding me?
December 5, 2011 at 7:20 pm
I’ve been lurking for a long-ass time, but it was finally time to actively show some support.
Paypal can suck it.
I just closed my personal account with them, but haven’t done my “business” one yet. I have an Etsy shop and don’t want to mess that up…any other options out there?
December 5, 2011 at 7:20 pm
PayPal is such a rip off. Try dwolla.com 25 cent fee no matter the amount, and I think they just made it free thing for anything under $100
December 5, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Down me if this is a stupid idea:
What if we ‘adopt’ a toy and HKapril or Bronc charge us an adoption fee? Can anyone sort of run with this? My ritalin is expired.
December 5, 2011 at 11:03 pm
I would gladly pay you today for a picture of Bronc in the shower on Tuesday.
December 5, 2011 at 7:21 pm
I think I might know of an alternative – it’s direct, the fees are lower, and can be classified as charity – intuit GoPayment (http://intuitpayments.com/creditcardprocessing/landing-1495-1728QZ.html) I think it is called, and you can do it directly on your site.
Therefore:
-No new site
-faster (next day deposit)
-included accounting
-lower fees
+cute iphone/droid card swiper thingy for credit cards that plugs into the headphone jack
I use it for my small business to avoid paypal BS when I can
Love YOU ALL
CF4L
xx Hempco
December 6, 2011 at 5:30 am
So great to know that there is an alternative. Thanks.
December 6, 2011 at 6:16 am
Thanks for this Hempco. I’ve been looking into switching out of paypal as an etsy payment option.
December 5, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Paypal did the exact same thing to Something Awful a few years ago. Lowtax in his posting about it raises great points about PP, namely they act like a bank but are not part of the FDIC. I hope you get this straightened out!
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/paypal-fiasco-summary.php
December 5, 2011 at 7:21 pm
spreading the word on tumblr for all of you who have tumblrs and want to reblog the important email addresses/general shituation to your followers, or make your own posts with your emails you sent to get the word out to anyone who might follow you or track any tags you want to slap on it. Emails sent, also.
December 5, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Shared the Facebook link on my wall. Within 15 minutes three friends had shared it as well. Hopefully this snowballs like crazy.
December 5, 2011 at 7:22 pm
god, i love how many people have already posted on Paypal’s facebook. myself included.
December 5, 2011 at 7:24 pm
“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.”
What do they think you’re DOING? They’re handling this like they have proof that this money is going to buying terrorists shiny new guns. It’s all over your site what you’re doing! WHY do they think you’re lying and are obviously causing harm worthy of freezing your entire account? And why did they let you start doing things they say are against their rules? Aren’t they the ones that make the site functions available?
/flips table
December 5, 2011 at 7:24 pm
How are they able to freeze peoples accounts? Douchbags.
December 5, 2011 at 7:25 pm
I’m making the petition on change.org right now.
I’ll post the link as soon as I’m done.
December 6, 2011 at 3:23 am
it has been done twice already.. read the comments above.
December 5, 2011 at 7:25 pm
The email addresses are no good. I think we can find updated contact info on those people. Anyway here’s my letter: Why is Paypal doing this to April Winchell’s charity? On her current charity project, you allowed her to use a Donate button, and got a portion of the donations; then made her return the donations, and kept a portion of the fees on the donations; allowed her to use a Buy Now button to sell gifts individually, and got a portion of those sales; then made her return the sales, and kept a portion of the fees on the sales; then processed the toy purchases, and made fees on that as well. In addition, you have frozen all of her accounts and funds, including those not related to her charity work. If we aren’t supposed to collect money for a charity, the donate button should not be available. Please release Ms. Winchell’s money at once and either refund all fees, or allow the charity work to continue.
December 5, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Is it just me or did PayPal’s FB page go really strangely blank about 15 minutes ago? Sorry if this was already noticed, unable to read all 350 comments… but they have other related FB pages that I’m looking forward to sharing my thought on
December 5, 2011 at 7:26 pm
I just made a petition on Change.org.
It is linked below. Sign it and show Paypal that we mean business.
http://www.change.org/petitions/paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
December 5, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Signed. It’s up to 2000 signatures right now.
December 5, 2011 at 7:26 pm
I just closed my Paypal account. I’ve been meaning to do it for quite a while, but this was the final straw for me. I’m sorry you have to go through this. It’s absurd, but it’s the kind of B.S. that I’ve come to expect from Paypal.
December 5, 2011 at 7:27 pm
Posted on Daily Show, Colbert Report and CNN walls. Also submitted emails to NPR, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post and ABC news. I suggest everyone else does the same so those who are in charge of sifting through all that crap will take notice.
December 5, 2011 at 7:43 pm
I’ve tried everything I can to post to NPR’s page (their own site) but to no avail. Said my e-mail may contain spam. I even stripped out the links. Then I gave them the dates of the posts and the titles. Still wouldn’t allow me…so I wrote:
12/4/11: f–k you, paypal [Please spell out expletive]
Success!
Wow. Who would have thought that NPR had a problem with expression of language!
December 6, 2011 at 12:02 am
I just sent it to the business writers at the SJ Mercury News. I’m so tired of the paper being a blathering PR mouthpiece for Apple, Google et al — time to see what’s going on in the back room!
December 5, 2011 at 7:28 pm
I sent a message to The Young Turks. Not sure what they can do, or if they’ll even look at the message, but they’re a news group with a ton of followers, so fingers crossed!
December 5, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Oh. I never post here,but I couldn’t resist. The FB page for Paypal is FILLED with nothing but you all and this issue. Just thought you would all want to know that EVERYONE is pissed about this and,I can tell you,the media will be all over this very soon. You cannot do this to nice,kind people trying to do nice,kind things.
Oh,and I closed my two PayPal accounts today.
December 5, 2011 at 8:54 pm
And now the PayPal FB page is filled with only posts from PayPal, looks like they have scrubbed every single message that isn’t their own self-promotion.
December 5, 2011 at 10:50 pm
You have to keep clicking on the “Everyone-Most Recent” to be able to see posts from non-Paypal people.
December 5, 2011 at 7:30 pm
do a google search for this “paypal-rains-on-regretsys-secret-santa”, and you will see TONS of links … this is gaining exposure, and hopefully PayPal higher-ups will be getting calls from their publicists shortly …
December 5, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Whoever had the petition idea:
I already started one, friend is helping me continuously edit so I don’t keep writing fuck you through it. Because honestly, I want to.
What strikes me as odd:
I can use Paypal to donate to soldiers in need, or my aunts charity, but not this? Hmm. Me thinks they’re fucked in the head.
December 5, 2011 at 7:31 pm
Link?
December 5, 2011 at 7:31 pm
http://paypalsucks.com/
December 5, 2011 at 7:31 pm
I’ve gotten 8 bouncebacks and 2 autoreplies so far from the Paypal email list from Consumerist but Buzzfeed has picked up the story. Hopefully Consumerist will report it too.
December 5, 2011 at 7:33 pm
I think there might be a germ of truth in the humorous suggestion on Facebook that a PayPal employee has had something featured on Regretsy.
Regardless, I closed my PayPal account. They won’t feel it. I’ve only used it for outgoing for several years as they have long been bullies and thieves.
December 5, 2011 at 7:48 pm
Glad you got a giggle out of that. I’m exhausted and the floodgates of cynicism burst open. Not stopping my contact campaign to get as many writers as I’ve worked with/for to cover this story ASAP on their sites until I feel downright loopy.
December 5, 2011 at 7:34 pm
that sucks hard. PayPal has screwed me over once but not to this extent. This leaves a very unpleasant taste in my mouth. I hope they will deeply regret what they did to Regretsy! Shame on them, especially for such a worthwhile cause.
December 5, 2011 at 7:34 pm
I am freaking stunned at this BS. I am telling them what I think in the comments field as I cancel my account. Someone better read it and get a clue, cause I am sure I won’t be the only one.
December 5, 2011 at 7:35 pm
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
December 5, 2011 at 7:36 pm
Not only are the people at PayPal heartless fucktards who take money for children, but this whole debacle has made me stay up past my bedtime! Fucking heathens! They all need to go eat a bowl of bees.
(P.S. the check is in the mail)
December 5, 2011 at 11:37 pm
Eat a bowl of bees! Gotta remember that one.
December 6, 2011 at 1:55 pm
I wish I could take credit for it, but I picked it up from Tomato Nation.
December 5, 2011 at 7:37 pm
Emailed some execs; I really hope you actually get this issue resolved.
December 5, 2011 at 7:37 pm
“You have successfully closed your account.” Good Riddance, Paypal. I hope you get fucked with barbed wire, lubed up by satan’s spit.
December 5, 2011 at 7:38 pm
A convenient copy/paste for your e-mail to: box ~ harbor1@paypal.com; account-review@paypal.com; ppelce@paypal.com; cardreview@paypal.com; complaint-response@paypal.com; abuse@paypal.com; Europeanservices@paypal.com; resolutions@paypal.com;
appeals@paypal.com; compliance@paypal.com; escalations@paypal.com; webform@paypal.com;
service@paypal.com; spoof@paypal.com; complaints@paypal.com; aup@paypal.com;
press@paypal.com; apires@paypal.com; chargebackresponse@paypal.com; pending_reversal@paypal.com;
global2@paypal.com; intl@paypal.com; ppe_courtesycredit@paypal.com; BoEappeal@paypal.com;spoof@eBay.com; exec.relations@ebay.com; matthewb@ebay.com; government_relations@ebay.com; billcobb@ebay.com;paypal.robert@ebay.de;paypal.nico@ebay.de;paypal.eva@ebay.de;paypaldamon@ebay.com;
December 5, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Paypal account deleted.
December 5, 2011 at 7:41 pm
Whoops, eleven of which just bounced back to me. Either the e-mail addresses have been changed on some or PayPal is done listening to concerns.
December 5, 2011 at 7:41 pm
Angry emails sent. Good luck April! I hope everyone gets what they deserve.
December 5, 2011 at 7:42 pm
CAKEWRECKS tweeted it. AWESOME.
December 5, 2011 at 7:43 pm
I mean, Cakewrecks has 1.2 million followers, ffs!
December 5, 2011 at 7:45 pm
I’ve always loved CAKE WRECKS, but now they’re extra awesome!
December 5, 2011 at 8:38 pm
So did Wil Wheaton! He’s the leader of geeks everywhere.
http://twitter.com/#!/wilw
December 5, 2011 at 7:43 pm
So I got less than three hours of sleep last night and now that I COULD sleep, I’m too pissed off to sleep. So I’m writing letters of various rudeness. I even made a reddit account JUST so I could upvote stuff like this: http://redd.it/n1ssw
December 5, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Upvoted on Reddit.
December 6, 2011 at 6:22 am
you sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. My upboats to you. And welcome to Reddit!
December 6, 2011 at 8:12 am
well I didn’t post any links, I just clickied upvotes. This one is on the front page though, woo: http://redd.it/n1yx1
December 5, 2011 at 7:44 pm
I just sent an email carpetbomb to Paypal. And yahoo made me select all those emails one at a time, so it took forever. I am even pissed off enough to do that! (Usually my indignant rage has settled by the time I realize it will take *work* to do something…)
I’ll try to make some calls tomorrow but who knows how busy I’ll be.
December 5, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Closed my Paypal account with some choice feedback, and am now preparing some narky emails. Maybe somewhat should buy the shit painting and send it to the CEO.
December 5, 2011 at 7:52 pm
He’d think it was a self-portrait and a compliment.
December 5, 2011 at 7:48 pm
Signed up for Paypal just so I could comment here. I closed my Paypal account with this feedback and posted on the Paypal page with it just for good measure:
” I’m appalled by your handling of Regretsy’s business with you. Regretsy may not be a non-profit organization, but the reason they used the donate button was because the money was going to just that: Donations to families who could not afford Christmas gifts for their children. Not only that, but when they used the Buy Now button, you shut that down too, along with their entire account and their personal, unrelated account, claiming they were being fraudulent. Apparently, according to one of your customer service representatives, “You can raise money to help your sick cat, for example, but not poor people.”
Because of this, you’ve lost me as a customer- but I’m sure you don’t care, since you’re collecting fees from all the refunds that Regretsy has to provide at a loss anyway. ”
CF4L!
December 5, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Rather, signed up for Regretsy. Stupid typos.
December 5, 2011 at 8:50 pm
I was going to say, that’s pretty impressive, signing up for Paypal just to be able to send an angry closing account comment!
December 5, 2011 at 7:49 pm
CNN I report picked up the story. http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-713002
December 5, 2011 at 7:53 pm
Ha. It comes up with a huge “You may be offended” warning.
I am very offended, CNN. Thanks for noticing.
December 5, 2011 at 8:07 pm
yeah
December 5, 2011 at 8:32 pm
I submitted info to them, and I assume some of you other FJLs did too. That, and Twitter is CLOGGED with PayPal-driven irea ATM!
December 5, 2011 at 8:35 pm
ire, I meant, and my browser just went nuts. it is angry, too.
December 5, 2011 at 7:50 pm
April, thank you so much for doing what you can to help needy families. My husband and I are not one of the families you’re donating to but we are getting help from Toys for Tots and we are so, so grateful for all you wonderful people who take the time and money to bless those less fortunate. It’s too bad Paypal decided to take a huge shit on your Santa suit, but I believe that they’ll get theirs, the greedy assholes.
December 5, 2011 at 7:50 pm
I just left a “news tip” with every single television news station in the greater Washington D.C. area (where I live). Someone HAS to pick up the story! PayPal must do what their name says: Be a PAL and PAY up!
December 5, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Dear April
I am a very poor starving student and I could not afford to send money to help the kids. But I am so pissed over this that if you set up a fund (using a different company) to pay the legal bills for whatever form of litigation you deem fit, I will eat dirt in order to donate. This company has hurt too many people, this behaviour needs to end here.
I am dead serious by the way, they need to be regulated the same way as banks. People have probably died because of their irresponsibility.
December 5, 2011 at 11:13 pm
I’ll send you cookies so that you don’t have to just eat dirt, subtle. We’re all in this together.
December 5, 2011 at 7:52 pm
I just closed my account with this message in the comments:
The way in which Paypal chose to handle Regretsy/April Winchell’s fund raising efforts for children in need is bothersome and illogical. The comments attributed to customer service representatives, vague and arbitrary rules, and withholding or forcing donations to be refunded while keeping fees twice all contributed to my choice to close my Paypal account.
I will be recommending alternative payment processing services to all of the individuals whom I work with or do business with and will no longer use Paypal for any of my financial transactions because of this incident.
It is my sincere hope that this situation can be rectified by individuals willing to clarify policy and allow a more reasonable solution when a reputable individual who has used the site for many years is collecting money for verifiable and charitable causes.
December 5, 2011 at 7:53 pm
Welcome back to the Good Ol’ U.S. of A.! See what you miss when you’re swilling Sea Buckthorn cocktails from a Frozen Bear Paw in Scandinavia?
December 5, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Its absolute, unjust bullshit like this that makes me wish I went to law school.
December 5, 2011 at 7:55 pm
http://www.change.org/petitions/paypal-allow-regretsys-secret-santa-to-continue#
December 5, 2011 at 7:55 pm
This is absolutely outrageous. I usually stick to lurking, but felt the need to post in this instance!
Hopefully we can get the word out, and make a change!
December 5, 2011 at 7:55 pm
I posted the link to Perez Hilton, a game I work on (admins are trying to brainstorm how to help). Also, Paypal Page on FB may have crashed.
December 5, 2011 at 8:03 pm
I love Perez Hilton, I hope he brings some publicity to this.
December 5, 2011 at 7:56 pm
I posted a link on the Young Turks’ Facebook page as well. I tweeted a few things and I know some media outlets follow me so they might pick up on it. I posted the story on my own Facebook page. We all should spread this on social media and see who takes notice.
December 5, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Left a kindly worded comment on their Facebook wall and about to send the same hateful e-mail to as many of their emails I can find. Fuck you Paypal, I’m totally closing my account.
December 5, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Or I will close my account when my donation goes through since I apparently can’t yet.. What a joke.
December 5, 2011 at 7:56 pm
I know we aren’t the types to “kill ‘em with kindness” but I think it would be worthwhile to in *some* of the emails to PayPalers remind them that they work at a company and that they have a say in what it’s like there. Closing accounts is awesome, signing the petition (http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need) is great, but also telling people to talk to everyone they know in the company imploring them to reverse their decision and change their practices also can’t hurt.
December 5, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Is it possible to contact Google Checkout and see if they could offer a similar donation service? Incredibly annoying to redo efforts, yes of course, but I think this is a fantastic cause, and perhaps if you forward them this link, Google could help find the right service for you?
December 5, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Regardless, I emailed everyone at Paypal, and will try to do so every day until some sort of resolution is reached.
December 5, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I just finished closing my account, and I let them know why, as well.
I see that several of you have contacted various media outlets (Huff Post, CNN, Kieth Olberman, etc.) but has anyone gotten to Rachel Maddow yet? :3 I feel like this would be her type of thing.
December 5, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Facebooked TRMS, but I haven’t emailed yet, as I’m not capable of sounding like anything other than a raging lunatic right now.
December 5, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Infuriating to read that, HK, I can’t imagine actually being on the phone with that paypal psychopath.
I’ve sent a letter, and will now share this story with every motherfucking person I know.
December 5, 2011 at 8:02 pm
I closed my account too. Here’s the letter I sent them.
“I recently donated $20 to the Regretsy.com “Secret Santa” program to help needy children who would otherwise have no Christmas this year. I’m sure by now you are well aware of that situation. As I have not used my paypal account in years, I have determined that it is in my best interest to close my account and spread the word of the incredibly inhuman way they treat their customers.
If by chance this is actually read by a person and not just stuck in a computer database, and if by chance you are reading this and are unaware of the “Regretsy Situation”, and if by chance you are a caring human being, please educate yourself at regretsy.com. I sincerely hope that if you are ever in need, you do not depend upon paypal to ever be your “pal”.
CF4L.”
December 5, 2011 at 8:02 pm
Don’t forget to sign the petition!
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
I’m totally going to get blocked from facebook for reposting this so many times. You can too!
December 5, 2011 at 8:03 pm
I called about 10 numbers to leave one message. And now I have to find another way to send money to Bill In Portland Maine. Why do they want to tick me off?
December 5, 2011 at 8:03 pm
I suggest taking this to the media. They may not be good for much, but they are good about bitching. If you get a good media site on your side, Paypal will buckle.
December 5, 2011 at 8:07 pm
How Paypal Stole Christmas saga has now been tweeted about by Wil “Don’t Be A Dick” Wheaton!http://twitter.com/#!/wilw
December 5, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Behold the power of Social Media! Get your paintbuckets ready–we are going to harvest shitpaint from the coming shitstorm and send shitty art to Paypal
December 5, 2011 at 8:29 pm
You’re sending the Wheaton? Well shit Negro, that’s all you had to say!
December 5, 2011 at 8:07 pm
WIL WHEATON JUST TWEETED THIS. Ahem.
December 5, 2011 at 8:09 pm
I’m using my small part of the cunty twilight universe (Nonsten.com) for good: PayPal = cunts. And not the “good” kind. Like us.
December 5, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Send the story to Ellen! And.. Hmm. As many celebs on Twitter, Facebook and such? Also.. Jay Leno, John Stewart and your local news stations.
December 5, 2011 at 8:10 pm
This is absolutely infuriating. I’m going to send a letter when I get a bit more coherent but I also passed the story on to a fried who does some media related stuff and she is going to see what she can do.
December 5, 2011 at 8:12 pm
http://www.dailydot.com/news/paypal-makes-regretsy-refund-donations/
December 5, 2011 at 8:14 pm
there are still 17 more shopping days until Christmas….not a good time for them to pull a move like this…I have bombed all my friends on facebook, and they are bombing their friends…..
December 5, 2011 at 8:15 pm
Job for our old friend Sam Cornwell, perhaps?
December 5, 2011 at 8:40 pm
YES. THIS.
December 5, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Some other places to post your comments and remarks towards the ugliness that is paypal.
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/connect-with-us-2/
December 5, 2011 at 8:19 pm
The petition is now over 200 please sign it and send it to your friends.
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
December 5, 2011 at 8:21 pm
You should send a complaint into the BBB!
https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started
December 5, 2011 at 8:21 pm
From The Consumerist:
http://consumerist.com/2011/12/paypal-rains-on-regretsys-secret-santa-campaign-over-use-of-wrong-button.html
December 5, 2011 at 8:23 pm
I just closed my (admittedly moribund) PayPal account. Among the ticky-box reasons I gave for doing so was “Appallingly bad treatment of other PayPal users” (written in the box next to “Other”). And then, in the larger comment box, I wrote this:
“I haven’t used PayPal in years–I’ve seen too many people have their accounts frozen for arbitrary reasons, only to be subjected to a bureaucratic nightmare straight out of a Terry Gilliam film when they sought remedy and redress. Some never got their money back; it was effectively stolen by PayPal.
(cont’d)
December 5, 2011 at 8:27 pm
“The latest one (and my last straw) is blogger April Winchell of Regretsy.com, who organized a Christmas gift drive for needy families. Regretsy readers contributed funds to pay for those gifts through PayPal–only to end up jerked around over imaginary TOS violations. I haven’t time nor space to go into detail here, but the full story is at Regretsy.com, and it’s just…insane. There is no other word for it.
So I want nothing more to do with PayPal. I’m already using Google Checkout and Amazon Payments, and thus have no need–much less desire–to maintain an account with a company that has proven itself abusive as well as untrustworthy.”
Or, to spare y’all the tl;dr: “EAT A BAG OF DICKS.”
December 5, 2011 at 8:23 pm
Occupy PayPal! the new face of Corporate Greed
December 5, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 5, 2011 at 8:42 pm
A lot of people are closing their accounts, actually.
December 5, 2011 at 8:47 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 5, 2011 at 9:00 pm
You’re solution is….. or are you just being a dick for dick’s sake?
December 5, 2011 at 9:01 pm
or “your”. dang.
December 5, 2011 at 9:56 pm
So, rather than doing what I can in a shitty situation, I should bitch about how it doesn’t do anything? Noted.
December 6, 2011 at 12:44 am
NO IT’S SPREADING.
Sorry, I saw a complaint this morning on Cracked on one of their articles. It was basically “OMG this doctor was terrible because he rescued a poor little girl during the Haiti mess instead of donating all the money they used to fix her up to the other poor people in Haiti.”
WELL I’M SURE HE’S SORRY FOR HELPING EVEN ONE PERSON INSTEAD OF WHINING HIS ASS OFF.
December 6, 2011 at 10:31 am
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/12/regretsy-issue-resolution/
Yep, good thing we didn’t do anything useful.
December 6, 2011 at 11:10 am
They’re being incredibly squirrelly about the comments to that post, too. I suspect they’re being flooded with comments and don’t know what to do with them. (Why they still have them enabled, I don’t know.)
December 5, 2011 at 8:25 pm
I am so angry I’m shaking. But I am loving the absolute firestorm that is blowing up twitter and fb! I jizzed in my pants when Cakewrecks and Will Wheaton tweeted about it!
December 5, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Same here. God, this is infuriating and heartbreaking! Just when we manage to redeem a little faith in humanity, this happens. It’s sickening.
We can’t send $$$, and this is corny as hell, but ((((Hugs for April)))
December 5, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Ok, there is finally a competitor for PayPal, it is called Dwolla. Their site is: https://www.dwolla.com/
I found out about them through another blogger and here is a link to another one of his blog entries about paypal.
http://www.crankycustomer.com/paypal_sucks.html
Check Dwolla out, they have flat transactions fees, but best of all, they are not paypal.
December 5, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Occupy PayPal! The new face of Corporate Greed.
December 5, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Maybe some of the families who are affected can put some letters together? Maybe post their story on the site?
December 5, 2011 at 8:28 pm
I’m physically ill. This is simply disgusting. A level of disgusting that I can’t even put into words.
I’ve already tweeted this (including some @ messages to people I know have active followings). Then I *tried* to post on their FB page. Immediately deleted. So I posted on my FB page and am now actively trying to figure out who I know that can get them some PR.
December 5, 2011 at 8:31 pm
OK, I’ll try this again. Sorry if it posts twice, but I keep getting a data base error. Are there too many of us angry, fat bastards commenting? Anyway, I just closed my PayPal account and signed the Change.org petition. Screw the PayPal creeps.
December 5, 2011 at 8:32 pm
The one time decide not to spend money on coke….
December 5, 2011 at 8:34 pm
*I decide
but seriously, that is so fucked up, I am now hating the idea that some of the money I donated went to paypal
December 5, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Tweeted The Ellen Show
December 5, 2011 at 8:51 pm
I tweeted GWAR because they’ve been using the PayPal donate button to raise funds for the family of recently deceased guitarist Cory Smoot. I’d hate to see them get hit the way Regretsy has.
December 5, 2011 at 8:34 pm
@wilw
Wil Wheaton
This is a stupid fuck up of EPIC proportions, PayPal. Make it right. Admit you screwed up, and make it right. http://t.co/9gFswAQ9
I love this man!!
Also Daily Dot picked it up. http://www.dailydot.com/news/paypal-makes-regretsy-refund-donations/
December 5, 2011 at 8:43 pm
We got Wil Wheaton on this shit? Aw snap.
December 5, 2011 at 8:36 pm
Obviously somebody at PayPal is fucking some scorned Etsy seller.
The question is which one?
December 6, 2011 at 12:11 am
You thought it was a sweet bride in recycled quilts and a starry-eyed groom in overalls… but in reality, that was no hobo wedding. It was the Paypal quarterly shareholder meeting.
December 5, 2011 at 8:38 pm
I’m done, too. Just closed my account, cited the reason as Other, and put this: “I don’t work with companies that profit from unclear policies at the expense of needy families.” I also added a long diatribe about how despicable the handling of the situation was. They had the opportunity to be fair, especially in light of the “unclear policies” (to give them more credit than they deserve), and instead, they decided to be douchenozzles.
Ridiculous. What can I do instead? Anything? Can I mail someone some toys or something? I’d love to help make this better. If there’s a family I could help by sending a money order or delivering toys/groceries (if they’re in the KC area OR in Northern Arkansas, as I’ll be there soon), please let me know.
December 5, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Update: I just got my email from PayPal confirming that I closed my account. The first line said that they were sorry that I closed my account. The rest of the email was basically a blurb about how awesome PayPal is. Uh. What the fuck?
December 6, 2011 at 11:38 am
Standard form letter.
December 5, 2011 at 8:43 pm
“This account cannot be closed until the funds transfer from your bank account is completed” You mean the funds that you won’t allow to be donated to poor children? Sick children? Either give the money back to the cause or to me but CLOSE MY DAMN ACCOUNT.”
December 5, 2011 at 8:44 pm
I have closed my account. I gave my reason as “PayPal’s customer service was unprofessional” and elaborated as follows:
‘This is in regard to the inept handling of April Winchell’s charity account on her PayPal site, as documented here:
http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/
Calling PayPal’s customer service here “unprofessional” doesn’t even begin to describe it. If your business thinks that being insulting and obstructionist is any way to treat long-term clients, I have no reason to continue business with you– why should I assume you would treat me any better?
Sincerely,
[FilliamHMuffman]‘
December 5, 2011 at 8:44 pm
I really hope that PayPal fixes this!!!! This is the most ridiculous thing ever!!!
December 5, 2011 at 8:45 pm
NY Times, the Oregonian contacted. Lets see how fast we can get an apology from Pay Pal.
December 5, 2011 at 8:46 pm
Read into what happened to TicketMaster over their fees. If they’re taking it out of Helen’s bank account, isn’t that theft?
December 5, 2011 at 8:46 pm
I want to close my paypal account, which has $1.89 in it. Paypal says it will take $1.50 to close the account so I will only get 39 cents back anyway. Are there any worthy causes that HAVEN’T been blocked by paypal that I can give my $1.89 to? (If it even works that way…) Donating more than that is a little out of my means right now but it seems like a waste to just give it to paypal. Thanks for your help, losers!
December 6, 2011 at 11:13 am
Try Shakesville – if you like sarcastic feminism, they take tiny donations for the upkeep of the blog as well as larger ones.
December 5, 2011 at 8:48 pm
I wish on the PayPal team decoupage vaginas for their Christmas presents. Bahahahaha
December 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm
The ones WITHOUT goggley eyes or glitter.
December 5, 2011 at 9:09 pm
What’s all this “we know what you are doing” crap? Do they have a rich fantasy life where they think April is the next Osama bin Laden? Or do they really know what she is doing and get a sick thrill out of stealing from people in need?
December 5, 2011 at 8:50 pm
That is the most ridiculous and appalling thing I’ve heard in a very long time. Does anyone else feel like PayPal might be running under the supervision of those same chickens that do the pick of the day over at etsy?
You can count me in on this.
December 5, 2011 at 8:52 pm
oh here go hell come.
Paypal will burn.
December 5, 2011 at 9:15 pm
OMG – we need a Calvin/TFS sampler of this, STAT!
December 5, 2011 at 8:53 pm
December 5, 2011 at 8:55 pm
“Paypal: Taking out the ‘pal’ and making you pay.”
December 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm
Share on twitter! I posted the link under #paypalhatesxmas Make this a trending topic.
December 5, 2011 at 8:56 pm
My letter-hardly eloquent, but there it is.
Dear PayPal,
I find your current business model a shining example of how truly wretched corporations can be. Ms. Winchell has been contributing to needy families for years. She, and her fans, are just trying to ensure that at least some people have a good Christmas this year. These families have been going through incredibly challenging times, and the Regresty Christmas drive was a chance for parents to give their children something better.
December 5, 2011 at 8:58 pm
However, you have taken an act of charity and profited off of it, while leaving these families in the lurch. Furthermore, you have frozen Ms. Winchell’s accounts, your customer service representative was mind blowingly rude and condescending, and your company has generated some major backlash due to your unjustifiable cruelty. You have failed at customer service as well as human decency. I sincerely hope that your company comes to understand the difficulty that you are putting families through this time of year, and, more importantly, that you come to care about the damage you have caused.
Sincerely,
name
December 5, 2011 at 8:57 pm
December 5, 2011 at 8:58 pm
April- Can you update the post with the petition link? http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
December 5, 2011 at 9:01 pm
I posted this myself on PayPal’s FB Wall:
http://www.facebook.com/paypal/posts/10150439439454573
I’ve gotten quite a few likes so far but I’m sure they’ll still sweep it under the rug.
December 5, 2011 at 9:02 pm
Aside from their appallingly Grinch-like behavior towards your charitable efforts — I am also pretty creeped out that PayPal can apparently just freeze funds and withhold thousands of dollars because they feel like it. And that their customers apparently have no recourse, because PayPal is not held to the already weak rules that real banks have to play by. I couldn’t figure out how to close my account, but I have at least disconnected it from my legitimate bank account.
December 5, 2011 at 9:06 pm
They can also just arbitrarily freeze accounts that have nothing to do with their initial claim. Whether or not they have a legit beef, they shouldn’t just be freezing our other accounts as well. That’s being done purely out of spite.
December 5, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Agreed. Absolutely utterly ridiculous and arbitrary. I learned from this whole discussion that PayPal is owned by eBay. Not surprised, evil sticks together.
December 5, 2011 at 9:02 pm
December 5, 2011 at 9:10 pm
Everybody who gave money needs to call their State Attorney General’s office and complain. Also the local TV consumer complaint reporter – this is a GODSEND of photojournalism to do a story like this at the holidays. I wrote several Emails to Paypal Muckity mucks off the Consumerist list and told them ‘you couldn’t have planned a public investigation of your twisted corporate practices any better if you had tried’ and “maybe next year at this time you’ll be asking April for gifts for YOUr kids. Lucky for you she is a very generous and big hearted gal.’ I am SO PISSED. And I love a good fight. Look out Paypricks, you’re going DOWN.
December 5, 2011 at 9:04 pm
Has anyone written to Paypal to ask for an explanation of this whole disgusting performance? It would be interesting to see if they bother to reply, and if so what spin they put on it.
December 5, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Wil Wheaton tweeted about it too. He has millions of followers. I bet he’ll log about it as well.
December 5, 2011 at 9:06 pm
*blog damn iPad keyboard
December 5, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Actually, you’re right with “log”. That’s what he writes on the Enterprise.
December 6, 2011 at 12:02 am
We don’t talk about those dark, dark times.
December 5, 2011 at 9:06 pm
I closed my paypal account and reposted where I could. Rachel Maddow, Colbert, CNN.
December 5, 2011 at 9:10 pm
use the @breakingnews twitter account. I’m facebooking every news outlet I can find.
December 5, 2011 at 9:12 pm
I vote we start faxing and emailing pictures of cats in Santa hats. Nonstop.
December 5, 2011 at 9:14 pm
I’ve reposted in as many places as I could – plurk, facebook, twitter and livejournal. It’s also on my AIM status.
Also, the Better Business Bureau might be able to assist here as well as the change.org petition and maybe getting lawmakers involved. If people keep trying, eventually you’re going to make the right person mad to change this bulls-. Some saying I heard somewhere about squeaky wheels getting oil.
December 5, 2011 at 11:34 pm
For folks who donated: contact the Better Business Bureau and file a complaint against Paypal. Paypal currently has an A+ BBB rating.
December 5, 2011 at 9:15 pm
I submitted this to Jezebel via their tips e-mail address. Greater public/media scrutiny might not force PayPal to reverse their decision, but I think the execs there should have to explain to their mothers why they ruined Christmas.
December 5, 2011 at 9:15 pm
I just closed my paypal account and left them w/ this parting message
I recently saw how you treated Regretsy.com. They were trying to get toys and money out to families in need. You not only didn’t allow them to do that; you were rude, accusatory and downright heartless. I refuse to participate further with a company that would be so morally bankrupt. I would rather go without items if the website doesn’t accept my credit card then allow you to make one more single cent from me. You are what’s wrong w/ society today.
December 5, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Hoollyyy crapola, WHAT?
Are you SERIOUS?
Im Canadian, so I usually wouldnt even say this, but, sue them? Surely this cant possibly be legal o.O
Im kinda scared now since I myself use paypal. I mean, I doubt Id ever rake in this kind of money from my silly little zine sales, but, still, it is unnerving to learn that a company that I trust with my money does this sort of thing.
December 5, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Petition just passed 1000 people. Please take a moment to sign and pass it along to your friends.
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
December 5, 2011 at 11:02 pm
at over 2400 signatures!
December 6, 2011 at 12:34 am
3000.
December 6, 2011 at 8:14 pm
(hit over 6k, that is just AWEsome.. ~grin~ )
December 5, 2011 at 9:17 pm
I think I’m mostly worthless at this “getting the news out” thing, because I don’t use Twitter, but I shared it on George Takei’s wall and asked him to share with his followers. I’ll see about doing that on other FB pages.
December 5, 2011 at 9:26 pm
Wil Wheaton shared it on Twitter.
December 5, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Just saw that Neil Gaiman did as well! Wow!!
December 5, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Wil and Neil? My geekery just exploded, and I had no idea it was even an organ I possessed! (Somewhere near my bajingo apparently.)
December 5, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Helen and Bronc: I apologize for the unintentional double post earlier. I swear it’s because I was shaking in anger on your behalf from this Paypal bullshit. Please forgive me.
On another note, after reading this fuckery to my husband, we have not only closed our Paypal account (it’s in his name, not mine, hence the need to consult), but we are selling our stock in Paypal. We want no part of this corporate kacky.
December 5, 2011 at 9:18 pm
I wish I was in a position to be of more help. But I do write for a political blog and I’m pretty sure I can spin this into a decent article for tomorrow morning. I’ll update with the link tomorrow (tomorrow, also known as “Operation Email Paypal”).
December 5, 2011 at 9:19 pm
I encourage everyone to like https://www.facebook.com/NoPayPal?ref=ts&sk=app_128953167177144 PayPal Sucks page on Facebook- they have a website also. KUDOS to everyone who closed their account. I am also reviewing my options. It sucks because I am a jewelry seller on Ebay, but between their fees and Paypal’s, I’m pretty much getting raped anyway. Down with the corporations!!
December 5, 2011 at 9:20 pm
December 5, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Thanks to John for providing me with the shortened Twitter version of the petition. Please pass it along.
http://chn.ge/vmsVV7
December 5, 2011 at 9:21 pm
Another little bit of media attention:
http://www.medacity.com/2742/regretsy-takes-on-paypal-for-asinine-policies-arbitrary-money-holding/
December 5, 2011 at 9:21 pm
I have lurked for many a year, but I registered just to say:
I emailed all those paypal email addresses, though many of them came back with failures. I also contacted CNN and will be telling all the PayPal users I know to close their accounts and not tolerate this total fucking bullshit. Stealing from needy kids at Christmas? SO NOT COOL.
Paypal can go fuck itself with a rusty pitchfork.
December 5, 2011 at 9:22 pm
My emails to the Paypal cretins are bouncing. I imagine they plugged the hole some how. And I was in fine form to! Sample: ‘next year when the company has gone down in flames don’t hesitate to contact us if your kids need presents. We wouldn’t hold it against a child that their parent was an unprincipled, greedy fool.”
December 5, 2011 at 9:22 pm
At the top of the wall you can decide whether you want to look at posts by PayPal or posts by Everyone (Most Recent). So none of them are getting deleted…. they just aren’t on the default wall view.
December 5, 2011 at 9:27 pm
Thank you, I couldn’t figure out why everyone was saying they’re deleting posts, when I can still see them all.
December 5, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Everyone should check out the amusing action on Paypal’s Facebook wall. April and me and others are posting – they’re getting taking down almost immediately.
December 5, 2011 at 11:02 pm
I’m posting like a mother-effer.
December 5, 2011 at 9:24 pm
… kind of surprised they still let people post comments without hitting “like” first on the page…
December 5, 2011 at 9:24 pm
oh man, they fucked with the WROOONNNNG lady. because now they’ve fucked with all of Regretsy.
I’ve heard a lot of shit from Paypal. is there a better site that provides the same kind of service? it’s a pity that so many places only accept Paypal though.
December 5, 2011 at 9:32 pm
April is our Joan of Crap. We’re behind her all the way…and checking out Bronc’s ass while we’re at it.
December 5, 2011 at 10:09 pm
And Towel Mike! God help you if you don’t mention Towel Mike!
December 5, 2011 at 9:25 pm
December 5, 2011 at 9:54 pm
I might actually cry. Awesome.
December 5, 2011 at 9:26 pm
I posted this on PayPal’s FB wall, and it’s still there…
The Regretsy situation is a disgrace for Paypal. Attention is being drawn to this in the media and this could well turn into a PR disaster for the company. If PayPal doesn’t want people using the Donate button who aren’t nonprofits, they shouldn’t make that button available to general users, period. As a company, you should be making an effort to work with customers when situations like this arise, because it is the company’s fault and the customer was operating in good faith. The actions of PayPal are unconscionable; I’m sure many have canceled their accounts and more will continue to do so. If Paypal doesn’t want its corporate reputation dragged further through the mud, it will return Regretsy’s money with an apology.
December 5, 2011 at 9:40 pm
I just emailed CNN and got an email that my contribution was returned.
Fuck.
PayPal, I detest you.
December 5, 2011 at 9:27 pm
I posted “PayPal doesn’t care about poor people” and a link to this thread on every status PayPal had on their page….. well every one until they blocked my account from making any more comments.
December 5, 2011 at 9:31 pm
I got blocked also for reposting the petition link
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
One of your slags has to take over now! Sign that shit and share it! Those 200 kids and their parents are counting on you!
December 5, 2011 at 9:27 pm
I would never really wish for someone to not have a job, but I sincerely hope that the jackass agent who spoke to you like that at least has to face the fear of what it’s like to be unemployed/broke/needy at Christmas (or anytime for that matter).
If I spoke to a customer like that, wrong or right, I’d lose my job before the conversation was over.
And this doesn’t even touch the other stuff.
I’m so sorry this happened.
December 5, 2011 at 9:48 pm
My husband worked tech support for a few years. He’d have been fired immediately for that kind of jackassery.
December 5, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Use Google Payments. Word. They’re cool.
http://www.google.com/payments/#utm_source=wallet
December 5, 2011 at 9:30 pm
Keep up the good work. when you visit the CNN article, be sure to vote for it being covered on CNN!
Digg, StumbleUpon, Tumblr, Tweet, post on Facebook and your blogs. Write to news agencies and networks (Google “Submit news item”). As other people to do the same. Keep doing it until they relent.
Stealing from kids at Christmas. Hell, someone’s going to make a movie out of this someday!
December 5, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Is there a link to the CNN article up there? I’m going backwards, scrolling upwards….
December 5, 2011 at 9:31 pm
signed petition, tweeted and facebooked it, can’t close account tonight but will soon. Love you April and Bronc. I hope this shows all the corporate assholes that you can’t fuck with US.
December 5, 2011 at 9:32 pm
I just heard Neil Gaiman retweeted! That’s a whole new fanbase, hundreds of people, if not thousands.
December 5, 2011 at 9:38 pm
he did. It makes me love him more than I do already, if that’s even possible.
and he’s got 1,666,129 followers. A bit more than hundreds or thousands
December 5, 2011 at 10:12 pm
I don’t tweet. I’m seriously out of the loop when it comes to most things.
At least there’s Regretsy.
December 5, 2011 at 9:38 pm
it’s TRUE! @neilhimself: RT ” The wonderful @regretsy is trying to make a better Christmas for needy kids. @paypal has screwed them over. goo.gl/045w4 RT?”
December 5, 2011 at 9:40 pm
We are not worthy.
*bows to floor*
Oh, God, I hope his wife (Amanda Fucking Palmer) jumps on this train. She performed at OWS!
December 5, 2011 at 9:54 pm
I just tweeted George Takei and asked him if he’s like to call PayPal a douchebag.
December 5, 2011 at 10:03 pm
I tweeted Ellen Degeneres.
December 6, 2011 at 7:22 am
I’m not on Twitter. Can someone please tweet Stephen Fry about this? He’s just about the biggest private voice in Britain.
December 5, 2011 at 9:49 pm
Yup.
neilhimself Neil Gaiman
RT “@eflind: The wonderful @regretsy is trying to make a better Christmas for needy kids. @paypal has screwed them over. goo.gl/045w4 RT?”
December 6, 2011 at 7:48 am
le sigh…Neil Gainman.
ah, the 90s.
December 5, 2011 at 9:34 pm
I was already mad at PayPal for having unclear policies and making sure their customers and adorable children were the only ones punished for it. Then I actually went to their site and saw this (under the “Setting Up” tab):
WHAT. THE. HELL.
That suggests that they weren’t even going to give a cut rate when the “Donate” button was used as long as the account wasn’t registered with them as a non-profit. (A specific type of non-profit, no less.) They had nothing to lose. So why do they care what button was used, again?
December 5, 2011 at 9:44 pm
I don’t what’s worse: the fact that they’ve phrased everything so that you’re screwed coming and going or the fact, as a tech writer, I’m dying to fix their paperwork. Sometimes, I wonder about myself.
December 5, 2011 at 9:36 pm
I’ve been using PayPal for six years and tens of thousands of transactions (my business basically runs on PayPal and Amazon), and they’ve been pretty decent to me during that time, but I agree, that is messed up to freeze your account. They are big into shutting down fraud, and as a small business person, I am grateful for that, because I’ve never lost a dime to fraud with PayPal in all those six years of doing business, but hey…they need to be cool here.
You really should call back and *demand* to speak to a supervisor, it sounds like you got a real power-tripping freak on the phone. I’ve talked to supervisors there before, on several occasions, and everyone has been pretty cool, but there’s always a bad apple, and it sounds like you got one. Sorry.
My advice is to switch to Google Payments, and don’t ever mess with a “Donate” button again. If you use PayPal, use a straight up “Buy Now” button, or a shopping cart transaction. Much easier, more straightfoward.
December 5, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Screen shots of my post to paypal’s wall:
December 5, 2011 at 9:41 pm
For anyone who’s good at SEO, this needs to make it to the front page of the results for “Paypal Christmas” (sans quotes, of course).
December 5, 2011 at 9:42 pm
The onslaught continues on the paypal facebook page.
December 5, 2011 at 9:42 pm
So I just called Paypal to try and close my account since it says I can’t close my account till the donation has been transferred from my bank account. However it says in my Bank Statement it’s been processed since Dec 2 and it says the transaction is completed on Paypal.
I very nicely tell Habib or whatever his name is that I want to close my account and can’t understand why I can’t close it since it says the transactions have been processed in both areas. He basically just repeats that it hasn’t been processed yet but can’t tell me why or how it hasn’t been processed yet and basically to call back Friday if I can’t close my account by then. I think he was too busy nursing a sick cat back to health then to actually answer my question or you know.. Close my fucking account.
December 5, 2011 at 9:43 pm
December 5, 2011 at 9:45 pm
Sorry, Fail^ http://www.youtube.com/user/analandyero#p/a/u/0/wV2fk56ktVE “A PayPal Christmas”
December 5, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Contact link for the local US Representative for that district:
https://forms.house.gov/honda/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm
December 5, 2011 at 9:47 pm
1621 and counting on the petition
http://chn.ge/vmsVV7
December 5, 2011 at 9:48 pm
Something awful is showing their support and having a discussion on their forum as well
December 5, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Bless those utter assholes and their support for we fat slags.
December 5, 2011 at 9:49 pm
I had an interesting PayPal experience not that long ago…my friends started up a fundraising page on FB for my son (he has severe medical issues, the fundraiser was to raise money for medical treatments). I ended up being able to use the “Donate Now” button even though I do not have “official charity status”, etc….all it took was a phone call and the person I talked to was really great.
HOWEVER…this is a thousand ways of uncool and I am pretty disappointed by the amount of fees going to them from people sending us donations and me sending them to my bank account (that sounds illegal, but the money is for my son so I need to access it somehow, lol!).
BOO PAYPAL. This was ten thousand ways of uncool!!!
December 5, 2011 at 9:50 pm
Yep, I emailed the list provided asking politely for them to comment on the allegation that they hold no stock in human welfare, holding feline welfare in much greater esteem. I am rather eager to hear what they have to say for themselves
December 5, 2011 at 9:53 pm
I can’t even CLOSE my account! The bank account I was using with my paypal was closed the other day and they want me to confirm the account number- which I can’t do- to close it. So I’m just abandoning it instead. What a fucking LOAD of it. I emailed, and offered to take my top off for media coverage.
December 5, 2011 at 9:54 pm
Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) is now linking to The Consumerist’s earlier article.
http://onespot.wsj.com/personal-finance/2011/12/05/3cdd1/paypal-rains-on-regretsys-secret-santa
December 5, 2011 at 9:58 pm
Just hit the wikipedia page. I love you guys-have I told you that lately?
December 5, 2011 at 9:59 pm
April – I can only imagine the anger and irritation you feel because I feel a fraction of it. I am licensed in CA but on inactive status and don’t do this area of law, but I think you should look for a class action attorney in CA and see what your options might be. Clearly you are not the first philanthropist this has happened to. Thank you for having your heart in the right place (and for being fucking hilarious – but mostly for your heart).
December 5, 2011 at 9:59 pm
The thing that I hate about this is that I really want to close my paypal account, but I feel like I CAN’T because I have my etsy store and stuff and.. sigh.
Also I think it’s really fucking scary that they closed April’s personal account- it’s like they are trying to punish her for making a stink.
Bad move imo. Us fat jealous losers are so stinky that they aren’t gonna know what hit them.
December 5, 2011 at 10:14 pm
You make a really good point about the accounts. Does Etsy offer you the chance to have people pay a different way, or is PayPal the only thing going? Not saying it’d be an easy switchover, but you could work towards it, maybe. Either way, I don’t think anyone will blame you if you don’t shut it down right this instant. There are those of us who had PayPal accounts for occasional need (as I did), and then people who use them enough that finding a solution to telling them to suck it takes more time.
December 6, 2011 at 11:34 am
Agreed. Currently PayPal is the only service that allows my clients to use a credit card without an account that I know of. However, it looks like WePay may offer that option; I have an email to them about it. If so…
December 5, 2011 at 9:59 pm
Maybe we can craftard up some Ghosts Of Christmas Past/Present/Future. There have to be atleast twenty regretsians who know how to rig a fly system, right? Eh?
December 5, 2011 at 9:59 pm
December 6, 2011 at 8:20 pm
I wish I had more “like”s for this one…
December 5, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Apparently PayPal doesn’t believe in Christmas. Or souls. So maybe renaming the post will help.
‘Mittens the Cat
My cat’s breath smells like cat food. Please help by sending money.’
December 5, 2011 at 10:01 pm
Is Dancing Dror willing to shuffle this message for us?
December 5, 2011 at 10:07 pm
I think they need one of Sam’s rants. then again, are they going to start freezing accounts in retribution?
December 5, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Could we get them both in the same video? Dror could bust a move in the background while Sam lets loose in the foreground.
December 5, 2011 at 10:43 pm
And the belly guy too.
December 5, 2011 at 10:57 pm
What should they be dancing to? “Fuck You” seems a little on the nose.
December 5, 2011 at 10:03 pm
I’m so angry, I threw up on my cat.
December 5, 2011 at 10:05 pm
they did the EXACT SAME THING TO ME !!! OMG they are the most frustrating organization EVER to deal with.
I followed a button off their stupid page to donate to a charity THEY recommended after the Japan Quake and they froze my account and stole 600 bucks from me….told me to show proof I was the charity… they do this to so may people. They are thieves !!!
PayPal sucks !!!!
December 5, 2011 at 10:07 pm
April, my partner just suggested that e very one that donated and yourself, file a class action suit against paypal. I say go for it!
December 5, 2011 at 10:08 pm
How dare you…! Giving money to families in need at Christmas-time while we take our standard cut is bad enough, but using the donation button to accept donations?! Have you no shame?
You’ll never get away with this. We know damn good and well exactly what you’re up to, Ms. “secret Santa”, if that is your real name.
December 5, 2011 at 10:44 pm
Pssst: her name is really Ellen.
December 5, 2011 at 10:09 pm
This is the bullshittiest bullshit that ever bullshat.
December 5, 2011 at 10:09 pm
My son just closed his PayPal account. As soon as a final transaction clears, I’ll close mine, too. I’ve been a PayPal business customer for over ten years, but this is the only statement I can afford to make right now. Well worth it to be rid of them, I say.
December 5, 2011 at 10:12 pm
To be clear, April, “well worth it” refers to our closing long-term accounts. NOTHING could possibly be “worth” what they’ve put you through. NOTHING.
December 5, 2011 at 10:09 pm
I started a moveon.org petition. This may not be much, but it’s something: http://signon.org/sign/make-paypal-allow-donations?source=c.url&r_by=646568
December 5, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Just emailed this to April. Hope this can go viral and show paypal some bad press.
December 5, 2011 at 10:19 pm
Thank you! Signed it, and shared on Facebook.
December 5, 2011 at 10:20 pm
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-paypal-unfreeze-regretsys-account-to-help-children-in-need
December 6, 2011 at 12:05 am
Thanks
December 5, 2011 at 10:09 pm
For shame, PayPal. I’ll be taking that check they sent me when I closed my account, and rolling it right over into this project or April’s Army whenever this gets straightened out, even if I have to hand deliver the damn money.
December 5, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Grind the grinch fuckers into the dirt. For the kids. And because Paypal are grinch fuckers. And deserve it. As for you, well done and carry on.
December 5, 2011 at 10:14 pm
just closed down my paypal account as well
December 5, 2011 at 10:17 pm
#howpaypalstolechristmas
December 5, 2011 at 10:29 pm
Before all this started, PayPal tried to steal Christmas from me by randomly reversing a payment on a Christmas gift for my wife, that had already cleared my bank account. I’m going to try to buy it again.
December 5, 2011 at 10:19 pm
I love that the amazing Neil Gaiman has tweeted about this!
December 5, 2011 at 11:39 pm
It looks like the change.org petition has crashed the server or something.
“504 Gateway Time-out
The server didn’t respond in time.”
December 5, 2011 at 10:20 pm
I also closed my account. And made sure that every chance possible, I made sure it was known that it was because of this.
Even to the virtual help lady (I couldn’t figure out how to close my account.) Not that she cared.
December 5, 2011 at 10:22 pm
December 5, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Is there a way to donate money without PayPal? I’ve tried donating $10 twice, and hoped it would be a total of $20, as in, no refunds. And now that I’m sober, I want to donate even more to make up for this asshattery. Can we mail you a check, April?
December 5, 2011 at 10:36 pm
April has asked us to refrain from sending checks or cash so that the IRS doesn’t get all goatse on her ass.
December 5, 2011 at 10:25 pm
I honestly don’t think PayPal has realized what a very large mistake they have made.
If this can happen to Regretsy, think of the smaller charities they have done this to.
They just pissed off an entire small country without even realizing it.
December 5, 2011 at 11:03 pm
A small country and fat jealous loosers, no less.
December 5, 2011 at 10:25 pm
I sent emails. My husband is contacting some local news stations. I’m also having way too much fun harassing their facebook page, but that’s just my childish way of dealing with how much I feel like killing someone right now.
December 5, 2011 at 10:25 pm
Post a listing for a PDF printout iron and sell it for two bucks a pop. *(insert Paypal hating wordage of your choice)*. That’ll teach corporate bloated crapweasels that they can’t fuck with fatjealouslosers of Regretsy.
December 5, 2011 at 10:43 pm
*iron on* I type too fast when I’m pissed off…
December 5, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Who the fuck is Niel Gaiman? Am I just stupid and haven’t been paying attention?
TO GOOGLE.
December 5, 2011 at 11:16 pm
One of the 1st graphic novels I read was of his Sandman comics
December 5, 2011 at 11:19 pm
Lol. Extremely popular American author. I take it you don’t read SciFi or watch movies. I’ve never read any of his stuff and I don’t watch movies, but I know who he is.
December 5, 2011 at 11:30 pm
LOL, he’s English, not American. Though he does live here now.
December 6, 2011 at 12:24 am
(He’s British Fonzie!)
December 5, 2011 at 11:32 pm
@Sandi – *cough* British author *cough* but at least you’ve heard of him.
December 5, 2011 at 11:28 pm
He’s the man who wrote the Sandman comics, American Gods (only one of my all time favorite books), Stardust, Neverwhere, Coraline, co-wrote Good Omens with Terry Pratchett and wrote numerous other successful and entertaining novels.
December 6, 2011 at 2:36 am
Got a Newberry Award for The Graveyard Book. Read it to my kids this summer. They LOVE it!
December 6, 2011 at 12:27 am
Also: wrote an ep of Doctor Who.
Wrote an ep of Babylon 5.
Guest starred as himself on The Simpsons a few feeks ago.
Guest starred as himself on the kid’s series “Arthur”…and appeared in some felafel.
Is married to, and frequently shares the stage with, the amazing Amanda Palmer.
December 6, 2011 at 12:29 am
– falafel. My spellcheck actually mis-corrected me!
December 6, 2011 at 1:42 am
Hyper, I adore you too much to tease you. But srsly, check the man’s work out. Hard.
December 5, 2011 at 10:27 pm
A freind just suggested that instead of donations, Regretsy should sell tickets, which is where a person buys a ticket, and its used to send the money to a family. I think thats what he’s getting at. Would this help at all? I’m not sure.
December 5, 2011 at 10:29 pm
HUNDREDS OF KITTENS NEED TOYS!! WON’T SOMEONE THINK OF THE KITTENS????
December 5, 2011 at 10:30 pm
April’s Army is tenacious. 74,000+ dedicated PEOPLE posting against Paypal is awesome.
December 5, 2011 at 10:31 pm
closing mine after transaction clears…
December 5, 2011 at 10:32 pm
My latest post to PayPal
“And another one’s gone, another one’s gone
Another one bites the dust.
Hey, I closed my account too
Another one bites the dust.”
December 5, 2011 at 10:33 pm
Looks like this is going to bite PayPal in the ASS. Big TIME. I just sent emails, hopefully all their inboxes will be inundated.
December 5, 2011 at 10:36 pm
I’ve cancelled my pp account – Haven’t used it in years, and then only to buy stuff from other DIY-ers. No problem closing the account (most likely due to the not-having-used-it-in-years aspect). I chose the “other” box in the ‘reason for leaving’ and typed “You know what you did” and added a link to here, basically(not like their robots will click/look). I’ll be encouraging the other DIY-ers whose work I enjoy to move away from pp, so that we’ll all be able to continue in life without these leeches.
December 6, 2011 at 3:47 am
‘You know what you did’ made me chortle out-loud. Thanks for that, made a nice change from being angry and confused. ( about the paypal thing, although anger and confusion are common emotions with me)
December 5, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Is there any way to prove the legitimacy of your charitable contributions over the past few years? It sounds like they are accusing you of fraud, so if a counter was made with sufficient proof of your history and goals it might be enough to at least make them unfreeze the account, if not let you continue with the project. I’m guessing there are plenty of people and paperwork to back you up, enough to convince them that you’re not a criminal but rather someone who truly gives a shit.
December 5, 2011 at 11:14 pm
it doesnt matter how much proof you have they will never be satisfied and you will never see the money again unless you can drain out your account via refunding everyone… it sucks.
December 5, 2011 at 10:36 pm
I know I’m inpatient, but is there a way to pull out and consolidate a “here’s what to do if PayPal pisses’ you off post? I literally JUST YESTERDAY convinced Paypal to approve me for a credit card so I could send a good friend some money (I’d hit that “unverified” limit), so what do I need to do to fix that mistake?
I’ve been posting negative crap like nobody’s business on their FB wall.
December 5, 2011 at 10:39 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 6, 2011 at 5:05 am
Well, no. Other areas of their website – including the instructions for the “Donate” button – state it merely needs to be a “worthy cause.” If you read the examples in the post, there’s no way a “sick cat” would be a registered non-profit, but that’s the Gold Standard, apparently. Also, other people within the comments have posted everything from medical bills to a child’s funeral expenses as other instances in which the “Donate” button was invoked, and none of them had trouble.
Plus, the worst issues for April seemed to begin after she tried to do it with “Sales,” per PayPal’s instructions.
December 6, 2011 at 9:21 am
Then you’ll be able to explain how the “makeabimbo.com” site is successfully using the “Donate” button to raise money for boob jobs and thong underwear?
December 5, 2011 at 10:40 pm
I’m Twitter-bombing anyone in the media that I think might be able to help.
December 5, 2011 at 10:41 pm
all of you fat, jealous, loser types (myself included), need to mail a shitload of feral cats to paypal headquarters. we’ll get the delivery guy to open a bucket of catnip in the middle of the parking lot, and the cats will start dancing like cocaine horny strippers. we can get some of the cats to strap on ipods and a set of speakers that is blasting some pantera, and then…oh shit!…then these cats will bring down the fucking hammer, man! once the first bottle breaks, total hell will follow. this should scare the absolute pure hot shit out of the paypal execs.
i’m not sure if it will change their minds, but it’s worth a shot.
December 5, 2011 at 10:51 pm
I’d do it, and I’ll attach captions to them that say “I hazz a sick. Plez halp” and the such.
December 5, 2011 at 11:20 pm
Even if we’re sure it won’t change their minds, it’s still worth a shot.
Cat raves!
December 5, 2011 at 11:31 pm
I shudder to think of the atrocities those monsters might commit against actual cats.
December 5, 2011 at 10:43 pm
Posted to The Love of Beard on facebook as well as local Houston, Tx news stations
December 5, 2011 at 10:46 pm
After this shit cloud subsides, I’d be really interested in finding out alternatives to paypal. I use the hell out of paypal all the time, and this has t-totally pissed me off, but what are the alternatives? I’d like to know if anyone out there is aware of any.
December 5, 2011 at 11:03 pm
There have been three mentioned that I can find by remembering the names:
Dwolla (US only) http://www.dwolla.com
Obopay: https://www.obopay.com/consumer/welcome.shtml
wepay: http://www.wepay.com
I just signed up for Dwolla because I’m in the US, want to sell PDFs of my ebooks on my website (as opposed to through a third-party), and can appreciate a service that doesn’t charge me for less than $10 (and it’s only .25 cents per charge after that.) But you may prefer one of the others.
December 5, 2011 at 10:55 pm
Just sent angry emails to almost 30 different PayPal email addresses, along with CNN, Fox, and MSNBC.
Will there be another way for us to donate?
December 5, 2011 at 10:58 pm
December 5, 2011 at 11:16 pm
WHAT IF THOSE POOR KIDS HAD SICK CATS
OH GOD
December 5, 2011 at 10:58 pm
I had to come out of lurking for this. I closed my PayPal account and signed the change.org petition. There were 2,326 signatures as of my signing. I wish there was a way we could quantify how many people have closed their PayPal account because of this. I would love to see the statistics on that!
December 5, 2011 at 11:06 pm
As a side note, there is a PayPal streaming on the right side of my screen right now. Oh, the irony.
December 5, 2011 at 11:07 pm
*ad, there is a PayPal ad streaming. *sigh*
December 6, 2011 at 2:37 am
Funny–I still have a picture of a woman holding a large cat. Weird.
December 5, 2011 at 10:59 pm
please go to http://www.boycottowl.com/ and file a boycott on this company. It might help.
December 5, 2011 at 11:00 pm
Just an fyi to anyone who wants to send angry emails:
Having worked in Market Research, I know that if you want to make a company listen to you you must use what’s called “trigger language”. Mostly trigger language is threats (generally of a personal nature), but they’re also threats to go public with damaging information–especially to a local or national media outlet. That’s a surefire way to get a reaction.
December 5, 2011 at 11:00 pm
Here’s my email to the dispute folks at paypal:
As someone who uses paypal myself for the ease transaction it offers, I think your recent actions with regards the Regretsy’s site’s attempt to get gifts and money to children in need was despicable. You’ve shut down a holiday transaction system that was making people’s lives better and quibbled over the difference between “worthy cause” and “charity.” If your
administrators had taken any real time to investigate how the money and gifts were being distributed, I am confident that this would not have happened. However, YOU DID NOT TAKE THE TIME, either to understand thesituation or to help April set up a system that would work. (http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/#comments)
I use you service frequently, but if you do not rectify the situation soon, I will be deleting my account and encouraging everyone I know to do the same.
Thanks for acting like the 1% on this one. We do the work. You reap the
benefits
December 5, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Paypal is run by a bunch of idiots. My husband and I used to sell on ebay but we quit because of how paypal treated us. They tried to lock down all of our funds, which we needed because we needed to ship out our items! They blamed ebay, which we discovered had nothing to do with them after we spoke to ebay. They tried the same crap with a supervisor won’t speak to you and all that happy crap. We found out later too that after we paid the ebay fees and they had a little fee as well, that they were randomly helping themselves to increments of money from our bank account! They nearly financially destroyed my family. This organization needs shut down! Dirty bastards. Then to do something like this, it just sickens me. Yeah, I am sorry but I would rather give my money to a poor family than a sick cat. You can always get a new cat, but you can’t replace your children nor their happiness. Sorry if that sounds crass, but it is what it is.
December 5, 2011 at 11:05 pm
The Etsy / eBay / PayPal connection REVEALED!
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150586000048136.478420.185499393135&type=1
December 5, 2011 at 11:06 pm
8 ways not to Paypal: http://thatdamnwolf.net/post/13818153226/the-8-ways-to-not-paypal
December 5, 2011 at 11:06 pm
It’s hit CNN:
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-713002?ref=feeds%2Fnewsiest
December 5, 2011 at 11:06 pm
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/06/1042708/-Corporate-Greed-20:-PayPal-Shuts-Down-Regretsys-Attempt-to-Donate-to-Needy-Children
December 5, 2011 at 11:06 pm
You guys realize this story hasn’t just gone viral, it’s gone Captain Trips level of viral.
Holy crap, this is amazing.
December 6, 2011 at 1:40 am
Neil, Will, now CT references? Just some of the reasons I love you all even more…
December 5, 2011 at 11:09 pm
So now I’m seriously confused. I’ve seen cartoonists using the “Donate” button on their websites to solicit donations to supposedly pay for the upkeep of their sites, etc. They’re not non-profits and there’s usually no sick cats involved. What’s keeping them from using the money to fund their cocaine habits? And if Mr. Copy-Paste-Shit is doing lines paid for with donations, why can’t we give poor kids some toys for Christmas?
PAYPAL, I AM DISAPPOINT.
December 5, 2011 at 11:32 pm
Yeah WTF, I see a donate button on the majority of websites/blogs. They’re on there for things like “helping to reimburse programmers” for free use programs or apps. How is buying nerds their mountain dew and chips a “worthy cause”? The worst is some bloggers. I don’t know how many I’ve seen with donate buttons right at the top of the page with not even a single explanation about what the fuck you’d actually be donating to.
December 6, 2011 at 9:25 am
http://makeabimbo.com/ is using the donate button. For thong underwear and boob jobs. Sick cats, diseased pussy … whatever, same thing.
December 5, 2011 at 11:10 pm
PayPal says we can only help sick cats. How about we send them this one:
(That link might completely fail.)
December 5, 2011 at 11:12 pm
Someone has alerted 4chan!! I saw a post on paypal’s facebook page (which will inevitably be deleted) that they were referred there from 4chan. Looks like April’s Army has reinforcements!!!
yay!
December 5, 2011 at 11:22 pm
There’s a pedo bear joke in there somewhere…
December 6, 2011 at 12:07 am
More than one.
December 6, 2011 at 3:22 am
Oh, man. You toss 4chan in and it’s like a step below Anonymous. Especially if the /b/ people get involved.
December 5, 2011 at 11:14 pm
@TheEllenShow just retweeted
December 5, 2011 at 11:17 pm
wait….read that wrong. Time for me to go to bed.
December 5, 2011 at 11:15 pm
I used the Paypal “Donate” button on a website to raise money for my cousins legal defense fund and I am definitely NOT a non-profit organization. They are absolute liars. I am appalled at this story!!
December 5, 2011 at 11:16 pm
Meanwhile, that foolish PayPal representative has inadvertently revealed how to use their service to get away with whatever you want:
I think he’s sick. He just can’t stop winking.
December 5, 2011 at 11:18 pm
He obviously suffers from winky face. The cutest little cat sickness in the world. HAVE ALL MY MONEYZ IS NOT FOR CHILDREN.
December 6, 2011 at 12:52 am
Looks like he needs eye replacement surgery. That’ll probably cost quite a bit.
December 5, 2011 at 11:17 pm
Google search for “PayPal Christmas” returns a bunch of pages about the wonderful charity work PayPal is doing for Christmas. I sent a link to this page to several charitable organizations and companies that have partnered with PayPal to provide matching donations. (BTW Either PayPal is lying about only being able to donate to The United Way, or they’re lying to these other charities that they will match donations. I suspect the former.)
Google search for “PayPal Regretsy” returns a bunch of stories how PayPal has shut down Regretsy’s Christmas drive. (Daily Kos, The Consumerist, The Daily Dot, et al.)
December 5, 2011 at 11:21 pm
My writing blog is getting a lot of hits (for it) about it just because I mention it in a semi-related post. Short version: Regretsy has taught me I’d rather be my own, heartless bitch self than pretend niceness in hopes of gaining an audience that wouldn’t actually like me if they met me. Team Fat Slag!
December 5, 2011 at 11:18 pm
Paypal makes the Grinch look like a philanthropist.
December 5, 2011 at 11:23 pm
I sent an email to my local morning news show about this. Hopefully they decide to cover it.
December 5, 2011 at 11:23 pm
Bring on the wrath of the fat jealous losers! How in the fuck can they talk to you that way, implying that you’re just trying to scam, then turn around and keep all the fees for themselves. How is THAT not a scam?? And I can’t believe they froze your personal accounts. That is such incredible bullshit.
I really wish I could shut down my paypal forever but unfortunately Etsy is always going to be twiddling their balls.
December 5, 2011 at 11:24 pm
this whole clusterfuck needs to go viral
I have spoken to Paypal before and it really is like someone puts their hand in your brain and punches it. The people there are terminally stupid.
December 6, 2011 at 9:47 am
I think Reddit is taking care of that. They are having a field day with this!!
December 5, 2011 at 11:25 pm
Neil Gaiman has been a dear, tweeting links to your troubles with PayPal and even a link to an old George RR Martin blog about his experience with being ripped off by PayPal: http://grrm.livejournal.com/7831.html
December 5, 2011 at 11:25 pm
I stopped using crazypal a couple of years ago for double charging me on an item I bought which gave me insufficient funds to actually get the item and overdrafted my bank account. When I talked to them, they said that they refunded both charges since my account was overdrafted, but kept transaction charges and other fees. When I told them it was their fault because of this, they started reciting their policies and procedures and that nothing else could be done.
December 5, 2011 at 11:27 pm
Holy hell twitter is blowing up!
Keep the pressure on!
Here are the addresses to the big wigs, media and CS for Paypal. Give them a piece of your mind!
‘moldenburg@paypal.com’; ‘sthompson@paypal.com’; ‘mhentges@paypal.com’; ‘crme@paypal.com’; ‘appeal@paypal.com’; ‘harbor1@paypal.com’; ‘account-review@paypal.com’; ‘ppelce@paypal.com’; ‘cardreview@paypal.com’; ‘complaint-response@paypal.com’; ‘abuse@paypal.com’; ‘Europeanservices@paypal.com’; ‘resolutions@paypal.com’; ‘appeals@paypal.com’; ‘compliance@paypal.com’; ‘escalations@paypal.com’; ‘webform@paypal.com’; ‘service@paypal.com’; ‘spoof@paypal.com’; ‘complaints@paypal.com’; ‘aup@paypal.com’; ‘press@paypal.com’; ‘apires@paypal.com’; ‘chargebackresponse@paypal.com’; ‘pending_reversal@paypal.com’; ‘global2@paypal.com’; ‘intl@paypal.com’; ‘ppe_courtesycredit@paypal.com’; ‘BoEappeal@paypal.com’
December 5, 2011 at 11:32 pm
Long time lurker, first time poster. I have posted this to my Facebook page, posted a link to the PayPal Facebook page, and submitted this as a story idea to every news outlet I can think of. PayPal’s actions are beyond despicable and hardly legal. Hopefully the backlash will be so severe that they will be forced to refund the money and eat some humble pie.
December 5, 2011 at 11:37 pm
I’ve started writing to my local news stations asking them to investigate PayPal’s uncaring and unethical business practices.
I urge everyone else to do the same.
December 5, 2011 at 11:46 pm
You can also email story tips/ideas to major news stations. Let’s make this a NATIONAL issue.
December 5, 2011 at 11:40 pm
http://www.screw-paypal.com/ maybe they can help?
December 5, 2011 at 11:43 pm
pay pal removes posts off of their facebook wall do they ? heres what to do that might work just as well make a dud account go to their wall and start sending out messages by privately sending a message to everyone to people in the comments of the posts paypal makes just leave one window open then drag and drop to a different tab the person’s profile your leaving a message for whilist all along having this story copied to clipboard and just paste and let other people know whats up. its time fat cats had heart attacks.
December 5, 2011 at 11:48 pm
I have no idea how much a PO box in America costs, but I will personally pay for a PO bx for this for people to send cheques, money orders, cash donations etc. Sales have been good and damnit I WANT to share some fucking LOVE. whether PayPal want me to or not!!
December 5, 2011 at 11:48 pm
Someone maybe tweet this to Rosie O’Donnell or even Oprah. I know Rosie would have a field day with this. I’d do it but I know jack shit about twitter.
December 5, 2011 at 11:54 pm
@twittered to Suze Orman, Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper, Rosie, Ellen, and Oprah.
It’s a good start, no?
December 6, 2011 at 12:01 am
and warren buffet, bill gates, conan, donald trump..
*waits for twitter to shut him down for spamming*
December 6, 2011 at 12:05 am
and Colbert and Jon Stewart, and Bill Maher
December 6, 2011 at 2:01 am
Oh look, paypal has a customer help Twitter account at @askpaypal!
December 5, 2011 at 11:49 pm
Don’t forget to enact your social media contacts on Facebook, Google+, etc. The more you contact, and the more they contact, etc.
Waves of piss should wash them clean! Or something biblical sounding.
December 6, 2011 at 12:09 am
And Slashdot! I don’t see anything posted there yet.
December 6, 2011 at 1:17 am
And make the FB posts about it public–they’ve got all their fancy little options to customize every post, so even if your FB is usually locked down like Fort Knox, you can make the ones about PayPal public which should get them showing up in internet searches, I think. (At least, it totally won’t happen otherwise, so making them public will at least give a chance of this happening.)
December 5, 2011 at 11:53 pm
May I suggest calling them again, demanding politely to talk to a supervisor, then another, all the way up and mention three seldom used words. Small Claims Court. See how fast they offer to remedy the situation, especially since they profited every step of the way. And if not, I’m sure a law firm somewhere would LOVRE to hear about this and file a lawsuit against them. Make sure you print out the pdf for proof and save the url.
December 5, 2011 at 11:53 pm
Can you do a kick start project for this? Or a fund me project?
December 6, 2011 at 12:17 am
Many crowdfunding sites use PayPal. Ironic, isn’t it?
December 5, 2011 at 11:54 pm
HK, when you started this Secret Santa program, I was really, really touched by it. As a kid, Toys for Tots and family friends made Christmas gifts happen for me and my brothers more times than I probably know. The only reason I hadn’t donated is because I have a hard time getting my shit together and making financial decisions in a timely fashion. I would be sorry for that, but I guess in the end, it just would have been one more piece of ass-hassle. The poor little boy that I used to be thanks you for trying. Really.
I closed my PayPal account. I posted my reasons on Paypal’s FB wall, my own, and on my Twitter and LinkedIn account. I signed the petition on Change.org.
I hope this goes farther than Consumerist and Change.org. I won’t overestimate our ability to make that happen, but I’m doing what I can do to get the word out.
December 5, 2011 at 11:58 pm
PayPal behaved like a bunch of SOBs. Ever heard of Bitcoin? (http://bitcoin.org/ or http://weusecoins.com/)
December 6, 2011 at 1:17 am
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 6, 2011 at 12:01 am
This is my first post. Here are all of the PayPal emails already done up nicely for your use. Just copy+paste. A lot got returned to my gmail account, but my secondary account I think got through to them all.
moldenburg@paypal.com, sthompson@paypal.com, mhentges@paypal.com, crme@paypal.com, appeal@paypal.com, harbor1@paypal.com, account-review@paypal.com, ppelce@paypal.com, cardreview@paypal.com, complaint-response@paypal.com, abuse@paypal.com, Europeanservices@paypal.com, resolutions@paypal.com, appeals@paypal.com, compliance@paypal.com, escalations@paypal.com, webform@paypal.com, service@paypal.com, spoof@paypal.com, complaints@paypal.com, aup@paypal.com, press@paypal.com, apires@paypal.com, chargebackresponse@paypal.com, pending_reversal@paypal.com, global2@paypal.com, intl@paypal.com, ppe_courtesycredit@paypal.com, BoEappeal@paypal.com
December 6, 2011 at 12:05 am
I got this response from the spoof@paypall.com addy about 2 minutes after sending the email. So, you know, if you ever do need to report a spoof this probably isn’t the place to do it.
Hello ##### #####,
Thanks for forwarding that suspicious-looking email. You’re right – it
was a phishing attempt, and we’re working on stopping the fraud. By
reporting the problem, you’ve made a difference!
Identity thieves try to trick you into revealing your password or other
personal information through phishing emails and fake websites. To learn
more about online safety, click “Security Center” on any PayPal webpage.
Every email counts. When you forward suspicious-looking emails to
spoof@paypal.com, you help keep yourself and others safe from identity
theft.
Your account security is very important to us, so we appreciate your
extra effort.
Thanks,
PayPal
December 6, 2011 at 12:01 am
I told my friend about this, and all he said was “I dont think regretsy of all websites has the political clout to take down paypal”
Okay, we’ll see. Maybe regretsy itself doesn’t, but over 100,000 people might make an impact.
December 6, 2011 at 12:12 am
The Better Business Bureau is also another good source that can help, AND convince them to help you.
December 6, 2011 at 12:13 am
So I just sent a very politely worded e-mail expressing disappointment, disgust and general confusion to the 29 e-mail addresses on The Consumerist that was linked to. I’ve had 11 failure notifications (three from complaints and appeal addresses) and 3 automatic responses saying messages to those addresses won’t be read.
PayPal: In our little corner of cyberspace we stick our fingers in our ears, shout ‘la la la la la’ and hope nobody with any authority can hear you kick and scream over our utterly dickish behaviour.
December 6, 2011 at 3:28 pm
Why, it’s just like Etsy!
December 6, 2011 at 12:15 am
I’m just gonna leave this here…
*crosses fingers and hopes her link works*
December 6, 2011 at 12:17 am
I’m so fucking irritated right now that I could spit fire. Stupid ass fucks. I’m mad as fucking hell that you can’t make any monetary gifts to the families. For fuck’s sake, have a fucking heart! Parents cry about not being able to provide for their kids during the holidays…I don’t fucking understand. Find out about this WePay I hear people mentioning and get this shit going again.
UGH. I’m so mad I feel like randomly screaming FUCK! like I have Tourrette’s.
FUCK!
December 6, 2011 at 12:22 am
I know this is going to be comment #1billion, but I just made an account so that I can express my hate. I’m in fucking China teaching English and telling my kids about the kindess and charity that it usually entails and then I read this.
I didn’t curse in my e-mail to *all* the e-mail addresses, but it did include this:
Congratulations, I hate you and I plan to avoid using Paypal for the rest of my internet existence, which may indeed outlive my bodily one.
It will be written in my will – “Dear kids, don’t use Paypal in any transaction having to do with my estate – they hate kindness, love, compassion and Christmas.”
December 6, 2011 at 12:24 am
I can’t help but think you could probably pull one over on them (despite them knowing what you’re up to and all that) by saying “Did I say 200 poor KIDS? silly me, I meant to say 200 sick CATS! As if anyone in their right minds would want to help kids, of all things, especially at Christmas.” because they seem pretty damn dumb there at paytroll.
Also, the evil slag in me is saying someone somewhere reading this has to know a Hell’s Angel or 2. And that someone should maybe show this to them (being notorious softies for underprivileged non-felines) along with office locations that they could “visit” and perhaps have a lovely discussion over where paypal went astray with its policy in this regards. Perhaps over tea and broken teeth. Sure, no one actually has to get hurt, but wouldn’t we all feel a little better if they did? No one said karma couldn’t be kick-started with a few properly placed boots.
December 6, 2011 at 12:27 am
I probably posted my comment 5 times on their FB page. Also signed the petition, whatever good that might do;
“I understand that, as a professional company that deals with the delicate business of trying to protect people’s funds and bank information online, there is going to be a certain amount of red tape and bureaucratic hoops to jump through which might occasionally trip up and cause problems for specific customers.
However, that does not excuse the way Paypal representatives have treated the Regretsy issue. From the snippets of conversation Winchell has posted on her website, you can see she’s made numerous suggestions on how to change the toy drive in order to make it compliant with Paypal’s rules – yet rather than help her sort things out, the representatives she spoke to have treated her like a criminal.
December 6, 2011 at 12:28 am
By doing this, Paypal is disrespecting a ten year long customer, committing borderline fraud by keeping a portion of the donations that donators thought would be going to charity, freezing legitimate money from previous Regretsy sales, blocking poor children from receiving presents for Christmas, and creating a public relations disaster the likes of which makes CEOs wake up in a cold sweat at night.
Even if you don’t give two flips about poor children without Christmas presents, you must have realized by now that because of the obscenely large readership, Regretsy is not a beehive you want to poke. The money you’ll lose in closed accounts following this scandal will far outweigh whatever measly profits you’ve gained by asking Winchell to return all the donations she’s collected.
December 6, 2011 at 12:28 am
I hope some higher ups with a bit of common sense get involved soon – you can still salvage this, as long as you get things set straight, make sure the money goes where it needs to go, and stop salting the wounds by letting your representatives spew out accusatory scoldings such as, “We know what you’re doing and we’re through playing games with you,” to long time customers who are trying to get their issue sorted out.
I am a Paypal account owner who until now has enjoyed using a secure and reliable service for over a year. Don’t make me sever my account because of sloppy business practice.”
December 6, 2011 at 12:34 am
Kudos to you for having the most level-headed and calm letter i’ve read all night. <3
December 6, 2011 at 12:51 am
Okay, FORMER EBAY/PAYPAL REP HERE….
As soon as possible get a lawyer and have that lawyer file an intent to sue for anything/everything you and they can think of. As soon as the suit is filed PayPal will fold like a cheap suit. PayPal and its parent company eBay are terminally afraid of the courts ever since they lost the multi-million suit to Louis Vuitton in France.
Contact PayPal corporate. Keep going up the food-chain until you get a response.
Also, keep spreading this far and wide. Like any declining business eBay is terrified of bad publicity. Especially one that could damage the great cash cow that is eBay.
Finally, PayPal has 4-7 government agencies watching over them, depending on the country. Contact whatever agencies in your country handle banking and get them involved. It won’t help much in all likelyhood but Interpol and the US Department of Homeland Security also have overwatch regulations on PayPal. Good Luck!
December 6, 2011 at 2:46 am
I stopped using eBay except for random purchases I couldn’t find anywhere else (like buying 60 pink pairs of Barbie tennis shoes for a project) but now I’m going to quit completely. It’s really too bad that they’ve had the market cornered so completely for so long . . .
December 6, 2011 at 12:53 am
This upset me so much I posted to their FB page, but of course it was deleted. Then I deleted all my financial information and I closed my account and wrote this for my reason:
I posted on my FB page urging for people to close their accounts too. I hope Google Checkout crushes them.
Sorry for your frozen accounts April, its total bullshit. And thanks for letting us know. I hope we have some effect.
December 6, 2011 at 12:54 am
It’s ridiculous the kind of thing these people allow themselves to do with our money, and the level of douchebaggery inherent in their “service”.
1. Close your account if you still have one.
2. Sign the petition if you can.
3. *IMPORTANT* don’t use it in your business, charity or project, and encourage business/projects where you have a say not to use it; any site that uses PayPal is an encouragement for people to have an account.
4. Spread the word. Including, if there’s a site or project you really like which only accepts PayPal, tell the owners to fix that.
5. Make sure this isn’t forgotten in a couple of months.
December 6, 2011 at 12:56 am
Don’t forget this isn’t the first or only instance… search for the Diaspora link above, and if you wish, you can google and find numerous previous cases.
December 6, 2011 at 12:54 am
Really, I think this situation calls for a googlebomb a la Dan Savage and Santorum. Someone come up with the right phrase, and we can all make sure they get paypalled where it counts the most!
I missed the details of the fund, so forgive me if this is stupid, but…April doesn’t want cash or checks. People want to give money to help. Other people will appreciate help. Is there a way to eliminate the middle-person here, and give the money directly?
Or for the sake of the presents that April is in the hole for now, is there maybe a way to help without giving money? I don’t know, donating stamps or packing materials, or something like that which would be needed for the process anyways? Or would donating goods cause the same problem as cash money?
December 6, 2011 at 12:54 am
There’s a bunch of streams about this on Google+ too.
December 6, 2011 at 1:00 am
More support:
http://www.chud.com/community/t/140748/evil-paypal
December 6, 2011 at 1:00 am
Oh. My. GLOB?!
This is fascist and wrong and I feel a monster, across the board and total boycott is in order. If someone said it first, sorry, but 880 some responses is beyond me at 4 in the morning…
I think it’s time to throw a lawyer at these sick fucks, I’m sure one would do it pro bono…
December 6, 2011 at 1:01 am
Also, whoever recommended writing to Paypal business partners is totally on the right track–if I close my paypal account, that means I won’t be able to continue using Ebay, Etsy, Woot.com, etc (either at all or at least without a lot of hassle). So a polite note to the heads/higher-ups at those companies explaining how much you wish you could continue being a good customer with them, if you didn’t have to cancel your paypal account, might do some good as well.
December 6, 2011 at 1:02 am
My cat has packaged the contents of her litter box and is ready to send it to PayPal. I told her to let it ripen in the sun for a few days but she said it would be stinky enough via USPS.
December 6, 2011 at 1:04 am
As I am reading this post, guess what I see at the top banner ad:
What TERRIBLE coincidence, they are sponsoring the page! ahhahaha
December 6, 2011 at 1:15 am
Actually it’s kind of great, because they’re slowly giving the money back.
December 6, 2011 at 1:44 am
Hi, it’s me, the dour Maine party pooper. You’re only seeing the Paypal ad because your browser knows that you have been looking at stuff about Paypal tonight. Paypal is sponsoring your browser. Unless you did other searches, all sites that use that kind of banner will now be showing you an ad for Paypal, til you clear your browser cache.
December 6, 2011 at 1:46 am
Mine’s showing an ad for Visa rewards because I ordered new checks for my bank account a few minutes ago.
December 6, 2011 at 2:02 am
I know its based on my browsing silly. But the ad is on Regretsy’s page, not part of my browser. So its sponsoring Regretsy, not my browser.
December 6, 2011 at 9:49 am
It’s crass I know. It really is only your browser they are sponsoring. It goes away when you do something else online. Go to your local newspaper website and you’ll see the same ad unless you did something else in between. Most newspapers use the same service.
December 6, 2011 at 10:56 am
Actually, while it’s true that ads are targeted, Helen gets a kickback by virtue that the ad banner is there at all.
On the backside, Paypal had to pay (either per click or per X number of impressions) to have their ad run on that ad network. Ergo, Paypal Money goes to the ad network, and ad network money goes to Helen. Thus, Paypal is (indirectly) paying Helen to run their ad.
The assertion the Paypal is sponsoring the browser is in fact false – what I believe you mean to say is that the ad network that is showing Paypal’s ad is using the browser cache to select an ad, and that PayPal has no CHOICE in the matter of which site its ads are rotated on. {/END_GEEKERY}
December 6, 2011 at 1:06 am
Just closed my account with them
December 6, 2011 at 1:08 am
If I didn’t constantly read news like that about Paypal, I wouldn’t believe it. So I finally decided to say good bye to my Paypal account. Closing the account proves more difficult than I anticipated. Suddenly I have to answer security questions like the last 4 digits of my long expired ID-card. No I don’t collect expired documents. Luckily in Germany they have to delete my data if I demand it; going to send them a letter with return receipt, in case they won’t react to my email.
December 6, 2011 at 1:23 am
I’m Finnish. In my case closing the account was relatively easy.
In the Account Settings, there was a link named “Close account”. Easy to miss, but it’s there. After that it basically asked “Are you sure”, and after clicking “Yes, close account”, I was done. Good riddance.
December 6, 2011 at 1:23 am
At least some good is coming out of this, I am getting that whole “morally outraged so let’s throw a bajillion pounds at some charities” rage thing going on. I don’t even DO Christmas for religious reasons, yet I’m currently trying to find 3 seperate “toys for kiddies” charitiesago send a tender each. Making sure at least 1 is in America, as that was where my original £10 was going after all.
Btw, DO NOT give money to Samaritans purse for their christmas shoebox “Operation Christmas Child” campaign. They are evil evangelical turds, who have been denounced as such by every church leader in the UK.
P.S. anyone know of any non-religious presents for kids things? Only one I can find is toys for tots. I want to give them presents, not indoctrinate them. FFS.
December 6, 2011 at 1:59 am
Check out some of the Angel Tree groups. Some are sponsored by the Salvation Army (which is a cause for discussion, true), some are for kids with parents in the prison system…
December 6, 2011 at 3:32 am
The Salvation Army does a hell of a lot of good. Even if you disagree with what they say, their actions count. After all, isn’t that what we keep saying about Regretsy?
December 6, 2011 at 3:37 am
And in the interest of fairness, the statement about Samaritan’s Purse is an exaggeration – I live in the UK and this is the first I had heard of the criticism. They certainly were not widely denounced by church leaders, and many churches still support them.
For anyone looking for more info on the actual controversy, here’s a news article – http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/3205495.stm
December 6, 2011 at 5:24 am
Well, no. Actually. There’s no need to support abominable charities that are trying to do some good when there are more reputable charities that are also doing good. It’s not “support Salvation Army or use your money to light a campfire.”
In addition to spending money helping the poor, the Salvation Army ALSO spends money lobbying for “protection of marriage” and against LGBT-equality legislation. Throw a buck into their red kettles, you might feed a homeless man, or you might stop someone from reaching their dying partner’s bedside. Why take the chance?
http://fromtheleft.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/boycott-the-salvation-army/
December 6, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Unless you try donating “supernatural” items (Harry Potter, Twilight) to the Calgary SA. Then you can go to hell.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/canada/2010/12/08/16478011.html
December 6, 2011 at 6:55 am
Skip the Salvation Army – in addition to being religious, which isn’t inherently terrible but doesn’t fit your descriptor, they actively discriminate against LGBTs.
GoodWill does some stuff and is secular. Finding groups that specifically do Christmas gift projects but aren’t religious is tricky, oftentimes, because … well … Christmas is a religious holiday. Or used to be, anyway, before Charles Dickens taught us it could be otherwise.
December 6, 2011 at 7:38 am
Have a look at Good Gifts, which is sort of a charity clearinghouse. http://www.goodgifts.org
They have a range of good causes, including Christmas hampers for lone elderly people.
All Good Gifts causes are guaranteed to use your donation to fund exactly what is advertised — the money won’t be shunted into other activities or overheads.
December 6, 2011 at 1:24 am
I just heard of this site when a friend posted a link here about three hours ago. I should have gone to bed, but instead I’ve been watching a PR Shitstorm be born, and I think it’s incredible! Just wanted to say that anyone in the Seattle, Washington area should definitely post this to any radio or news stations. I’ve posted it on the Bob Rivers Show FB page. This is definitely the kind of thing they like, if we can just get enough people to post about it!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bob-Rivers-Show/95917624167
Good luck, Regretsy Nation! Viva la resistance!
December 6, 2011 at 1:30 am
I just closed my Paypal account – good luck holding my money – I DON’T HAVE ANY. Furthermore, they will be getting a big fat GO FUCK YOURSELF from me over the phone during normal business hours. Chin up, April. You’re still my hero. Asshole.
December 6, 2011 at 1:33 am
I have somewhere around 250$ for presents ans everything else this Christmas. Guess how much of it I am willing to share with those kids? (About 2/3 because I have nieces and nephews and I don’t believe in cheating kids out of their christmas gifts)
Please, someone find a way to make this work?
December 6, 2011 at 1:49 am
And could someone make Chuck Norris tweep this? Not because I think it would help, but because it would be freaking awesome.
December 6, 2011 at 1:36 am
December 6, 2011 at 1:43 am
Hmm, I don’t know. If Paypal is acting this desperate, maybe they really do need the money (from all the transaction fees)?
In the spirit of giving, perhaps we should set up a little charity for the Paypal folks, only you can only donate to them via snail mail and in $0.01 increments per donation. Same idea as “Keep Wallstreet Occupied”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JlxbKtBkGM
In the meantime, talk to the press about how sorry you feel for Paypal, who must be struggling if they are forced to nickel and dime even clearly charitable causes!
December 6, 2011 at 1:45 am
Holy SHIT!! I’m going to blog about this. I’m also going to make angry calls tomorrow
Also my paypal is closed now
December 6, 2011 at 2:10 am
I’m not eloquent or anything. But I blogged about this
http://scarsinmyyarn.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-which-paypal-royally-screws-people.html
December 6, 2011 at 1:49 am
I started my business in July, and it was just starting to gain some traction. I’ve been selling on Etsy using PayPal to process payments. Even before this assfuck, I knew PayPal was a potential landmine (and I know Etsy has its dark side), but as a first-time, small business owner, I needed ease-of-use and the exposure one gets in the Etsy community.
But good goddamn. I just can’t associate with such douche nozzles. Now ArtFire is looking much more attractive with their other payment options.
If PayPal actually responds and tries to chalk this up to one bad CSR, then they are truly brimming over with shit because they are not virgins in the art of screwing you up the ass.
If anything HK, I guess your very unpleasant experience has reminded us just how unsafe our money is with PayPal. =/
December 6, 2011 at 1:54 am
I always ALWAYS withdraw the second I am paid.
December 6, 2011 at 2:02 am
Are we still talking about PayPal?
(paypal the evil corp, not.. oh, you get it)
December 6, 2011 at 2:43 am
Ah, my two worlds collide in such strange ways!
This will amuse my pimp
December 6, 2011 at 1:55 am
I have a good feeling that Paypal is going to wake up in a bad place tomorrow morning. Hopefully that will provide them some motivation to make this right. Keep it up, fat slags!
December 6, 2011 at 2:02 am
http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/1638/ppflies.png
’nuff said
Please feel free to share that. ;p
December 6, 2011 at 2:07 am
December 6, 2011 at 2:13 am
The ‘optional comment’ that I left when I closed my account:
REASON: General damn Grinch-like behaviour
COMMENT: You really ought to be ashamed of yourselves for what you’re doing to the people over at Regretsy. They’re trying to help kids at Chrismtas, and instead of helping them, you take part of the money they’re trying to raise and then screwing them over. Bizzarely, it appears that none of you can see past the end of your own nose at the astounding quantity of bad PR you are buying yourselves by behaving this way.
If were to behave in a manner such as your corporation does, I would be brought up on charges and likely sent to prison. It’s unethical, cold, and you should all be ashamed of yourselves.
I will not be doing business with your corporation ever again. Doing so would likely make me feel so dirty that I would never be able to shower long enough to get rid of that feeling.
December 6, 2011 at 2:13 am
I think this needs to be taken to the next level. Closing accounts kicks paypal in the shins, but to get them in the nads, I think we all need to let the big retailers like zappos, buy, overstock, etc know that unless they stop using paypal, we boycott them. I definitely know paypal will sit up and pay attention at that point.
December 6, 2011 at 2:18 am
I’ve just closed mine with no problems (UK account) – in the final screen it gives you a customer service phone number to call, as a last ditch effort to keep you. 08707 307 191
December 6, 2011 at 2:20 am
Type “paypal grinch” into Google search, all the top results come up from regretsy member posts and blog articles! I can’t wait till this makes the news!
December 6, 2011 at 2:33 am
Wow! Look at the Regretsy members go. It’s quickly going viral
December 6, 2011 at 2:29 am
I’ve used Paypal exclusively for my small business’s online transactions, but after this, I deleted my account with them (after backing up stuff for financial records, of course). I sent the following as my reason:
I’m closing my account because of your callous and extremely unprofessional treatment of April Winchell regarding her “inappropriate” use of the “Donate” button. Your customer service representative was out of line and hostile, and while I was not personally involved, I am disgusted enough with the proceedings that I no longer wish to have anything to do with your company.
December 6, 2011 at 2:37 am
Also just put the call out to my Facebook list to boycott Paypal.
December 6, 2011 at 2:51 am
Expect this to get deleted, but I’m posting the following to their FB:
I am thoroughly disgusted with your business policies and your blanket censorship of those trying to spread the truth about your ridiculous, unprofessional, paranoid, and hostile customer “service”. I’ll be telling everyone I know to boycott you, and this is coming from a once-loyal, formerly verified business account holder.
December 6, 2011 at 2:35 am
PayPal just lost another customer.
I have also taken some time to detail and forward this story to all of my local news outlets. I hope they pick up this story and run with it.
G’luck, Regretsy.
December 6, 2011 at 2:43 am
I can’t sleep so I’m liking all of the comments speaking out against PayPal on PayPal’s page. Not sure that it will do anything, but it makes me feel slightly better about the situation and the repetitive activity helps to soothe my OCD tendencies.
December 6, 2011 at 2:52 am
@Helen Killer or ANY OTHER REGRETSY ADMIN/STAFF/POSTER/EDITOR:
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me you have stats on the pageviews/etc on this article!
December 6, 2011 at 3:04 am
Alerted NZ Herald- I can’t say they’re gonna pick it up or anything since NZ is small and doesn’t care about what’s going on outside of this country, but I wish you luck all the damn same. If this blows up enough, NZ will pick it up. We do love America.
December 6, 2011 at 3:11 am
And we love New Zealand! Or, I do, at least. (Especially Craig Parker.)
December 6, 2011 at 3:18 am
Oh honey. EVERYONE loves Craig
December 6, 2011 at 3:27 am
Who the Hell is Craig?
December 6, 2011 at 3:36 am
Haldir in Lord of the Rings, Darken Rahl on Legend of the Seeker. Generally wonderful, charming, funny, and gorgeous Kiwi actor.
December 6, 2011 at 3:38 am
I’m so in love with him it’s not even funny. *sigh*
December 6, 2011 at 3:13 am
http://www.dailydot.com/news/paypal-makes-regretsy-refund-donations/
December 6, 2011 at 3:16 am
Has anyone else spotted the deliberate mistake?
The implication in PayPal’s vague waffle is that the donations were collected in a way that was somehow fraudulent or illegal, so they have to make you pay it back ASAP in order to maintain their unimpeachable moral/legal purity.
But they’ve taken a cut of it? They’re profiting from “fraud”?
December 6, 2011 at 3:30 am
The second half of my letter to the CFO and President.
I hope that you all enjoy your many-figure Christmas bonuses and that your children have fun opening the multitude of expensive gifts under the tree that I’m sure will total what most of these families manage to scrape together in a year. I hope that you sleep well on the 24th knowing that far too many families will have just that much more of a frugal and disappointing Christmas, very specifically and in no uncertain terms directly due to YOUR poor business practices.
Have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tapdanced with Danny fucking Kaye, you cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, flour-flushing, low-life, snack-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sacks of money shit. Hallelujah! Holy shit!
Yours faithfully,
Emily
December 6, 2011 at 3:31 am
Truly disgusting behaviour, not to mention the way you were talked to, isn’t this suppose to be a charity loving company? always offering you to donate a little with any transaction.
I am sorry to hear these people’s Christmas is ruined, I twatted (tweeted/twerps/twit?) a few times and emailed a few people.
I also created what I think was paypal’s latest staff handout informing staff of their policy.
Feel free to check out my blog or twitter.
@BehemothCousins
http://behemothrules.blogspot.com/
December 6, 2011 at 3:34 am
So Ann_Sommerville on Twitter, is a twit. Even funnier, she went after Wil for supporting Regretsy because we make fun of everyone.
Keyword: EVERYONE.
God forbid you do any good along with having an awesome sense of humor.
December 6, 2011 at 3:40 am
This user does not exist. They ran?
December 6, 2011 at 4:55 am
Yes she does, I just can’t spell! Ah the perils of a very fucked up sleep schedule and lots of cold meds:
http://twitter.com/#!/ann_somerville
December 6, 2011 at 3:35 am
On a side-topic.. might want to change the advertising Regretsy ;/
http://oi44.tinypic.com/10h20it.jpg
December 6, 2011 at 3:39 am
Three words– FEDERAL TRADE COMMISION– Nobody wants to hear that you are calling the FTC. I worked in finance many moons ago and just the mention of the FTC had my bosses backing right the fuck off…
December 6, 2011 at 3:40 am
Lets see if we can get some love/paypal hate from Valve
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=26786640
December 6, 2011 at 3:44 am
Favorite Quote from the Green Geeks Article April tweeted:
They are also the ones who lose customers in droves if their security isn’t tighter than Fred Phelps’ asshole in a gay bar. (meaning Paypal). <3
December 6, 2011 at 5:21 am
Thanks.. I was pretty proud of that one
December 6, 2011 at 3:46 am
This happened to my 501c3 a few years back when we collected funds (not via a donate button) to give to one of our members who had an emergency. You can also not use PayPal to collect member dues for an organization unless you pay their fees.
Our funds were frozen, then limited, but I waited and quietly withdrew $500/monthly until the account was empty before making the calls to fix the problem.
I understand that it is largely tax law behind PayPal’s policies, but I absolutely believe it is purposeful action on the part of PayPal to hide their policies so that people get tripped up and have money frozen, fees triple dipped, and cash ripped out from under them. There is nothing ethical about PayPal at all.
Hey, on the good side, logging into the Facebook mobile app & going to the PayPal site brings up ALL the user-generated comments. All I saw was you FJL’s on there.
December 6, 2011 at 5:52 am
Yes, I agree. If you smoke a joint and then squint you can kinda see some sort of reasoning behind what Paypal is saying (it does make sense to police the use of a Donate button so that you don’t have scammers putting it up everywhere claiming the money is going to charity), but if they want to play that they need to put up a clear fucking policy and restrict use of the donate button upfront. This bullshit with having opaque policies and freezing people’s funds after the fact for no good reason has gone on for years, and I hope this case is outrageous enough to bring about a change. It’s just so fucked that kids are losing out in the meantime.
I’m also canceling my Paypal account. That necessarily means not buying or selling on eBay, too, because the services are tied together. Fuck them.
December 6, 2011 at 6:47 am
I tried to cancel my account but they want the last 4 digits of the 2 cards linked to my account and I wasn’t yet out of bed.
After I posted, I thought about how at LEAST five times I have clicked on a DONATE button to give money to individuals who were fundraising. I helped send a blogger to a conference that was important to her. I helped another person buy more server space when they broke the internet posting something important. Just a couple bucks here and there. But still donations, and still not to an organization, corporate or otherwise. Were these just small potatoes transactions, so PayPal didn’t bother intervening because they wouldn’t get enough skimmed-off-the-top triple transaction fees?
December 6, 2011 at 3:47 am
Lets get this on the airwaves!!! If everyone posts a “Don’t Let PayPal Ruin Christmas for the Underprivileged” for their local news area, hopefully SOMEONE will pick it up.
http://www.complaint.tv/
December 6, 2011 at 3:48 am
Ps I find it ironic that when I landed on the Regretsy page a big ol’ Paypal Ad flashed onto the top of the screen…
December 6, 2011 at 3:53 am
Keeping it moving! FB’d, emailed and sent to local news! This is beyond sad! Rock on to everyone getting this out there, those kids deserve a Christmas!!!!
December 6, 2011 at 4:02 am
Furious. Tweeted and Facebook’d about it. Closed my account, opened new accounts with at least 4 rival companies. Wrote blog post (http://www.mitchellwillie.com/2011/12/06/paypal-can-suck-it). Plastered links to my blog post and this page on my local news network’s Facebook and Twitter feeds.
What can I do next?
December 6, 2011 at 4:02 am
I just tried to send an email to the complaints email account, I got a delivery status notification failure message in return.
December 6, 2011 at 4:03 am
Oh holy hell. THe baby picture I posted hours ago, has bandwidth exceeded. I cannot use that on my tumblr!
December 6, 2011 at 4:13 am
On top of how Paypal is literally stealing from the less-fortunate, I have been trying for more than three years to get them to change my name to my married name. They refuse without being mailed/faxed a copy of the legal documents where my name changes, which is ridiculous since they didn’t need any legal documents whatsoever for the account to start up.
How does one close a Paypal account? I have to call and talk to someone, don’t I? Ugh.
December 6, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Look under “Account.” Someone upthread said that the closing option link is there.
But, given your name issues, I bet it will be complicated.
December 6, 2011 at 4:13 am
I’m late to this whole thing as I only really check regretsy randomly (sorry! I’m a bad fat, jealous, loser)
This is disgusting behaviour from paypal, it also led me to check out other stories of their dodgy dealings in the past.
I’ve had enough of this shit from big companies, not just Paypal.
Too angry and confused to really word things properly at the moment. Angry emails will be being sent to various people including Ebay for their support of ( are they not the parent company of Paypal or have I made that shit up ?)this nonsense. Accounts will be being closed and angry bitching will take place. Notjust because of the Regretsy scandal, although this is what brought this to my attention and is disgusting, but also because of what seems to be deplorable business practices from Paypal which have been ongoing for years. Anger brain rendering me rubbish with words and stuff.
I would like to repeat once again, I’ve had enough of this shit. Grrrrr
December 6, 2011 at 4:15 am
Sweet Viral-Goodness, Batman! Amaze-balls what 8 hours will bring.
I want the lowdown – any new developments?!
December 6, 2011 at 4:15 am
Sweet Viral-Goodness, Batman! Amaze-balls what 8 hours will bring.
I want the lowdown – any new developments?!
December 6, 2011 at 4:22 am
Reported/shared with every blog and newsource I can think of.
Screw off paypal.
December 6, 2011 at 4:26 am
Unless I’m mistaken, wasn’t there a webpage set up years ago by some woman who was trying to pay off her bills from being a shopaholic and she had a PayPal donate button? I could be wrong, but I vaguely remember this being all over the news – the idea that someone could create a webpage to pay off their debt – and people were actually giving her money.
If this is the case (and true – still trying to find it online, but I think it happened >5 years ago), how was that at all along the lines of PayPal’s “policies” regarding use of the donation button?
December 6, 2011 at 5:15 am
You are right! I think she was like asking everyone all over to donate $1! She had a donate button too
December 6, 2011 at 5:57 am
Hell, I gave her a buck! Thought it was clever – and clever people get my money if they entertain me. She did.
December 6, 2011 at 5:18 am
yep. it was savekaryn.com and paypal knew exactly what she was doing because her site and story was on EVERY news media outlet and was even in a book. They let it slide because of all of the free publicity they got out of it I’m sure.
December 6, 2011 at 5:53 am
Oh good! I thought I was crazy for a minute there (and that her name was “Lisa”)!
AND! There is a wikipedia page on it too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Save_Karyn plus her book (mentioned on this site – http://www.prettyinthecity.com/save-karyn/ ).
So remember, Regretsians, it is perfectly okay to shop your way into debt but not help kids at Christmas.
December 6, 2011 at 6:00 am
The second link, it turns out if I read, is actually Karyn’s personal website where she pretty much brags about what she did in ’02.
April – let’s go back in time, collect money for kids, put it in a savings account and leave a note for ourselves that in 2011 we’ll buy presents for these children at Christmas.
December 6, 2011 at 4:28 am
These guys are such assholes and I’m glad so many news outlets are picking up on this. Paypal used to be a viable option and now they are way too big for their britches. This year my personal account was limited three times and they couldn’t tell me, on any of those occasions, WHY they kept limiting it or what looked suspicious. Their reps have no idea what’s going on, they are just parrots.
The right thing to do would be for Paypal to admit THEY fucked up. Why? Because it’s very simple to limit the donate button to nonprofits and make it unavailable to those who aren’t. Because it’s very simple to provide specific documentation outlining when the donate button is and isn’t acceptable. They’ve done neither.
Instead, they want to pull shit out of their asses and make you pay twice for it.
I am done with them and I will be writing every one of those addresses.
December 6, 2011 at 4:34 am
I just send this in to Gizmodo as well as the Consumerist.
Both sites get a LOT of traffic.
December 6, 2011 at 4:38 am
Damn you April. I quit lurking on Regretsy as the snark got to be too much even for me. I wanted to be all cupcakey for a while. Wil W’s tweet brought me back to see this.
*sigh*
Paypal account closed, reason given: Regretsy debacle.
If you’ll excuse me I have to get back to my rainbows and unicorns. Keep up the good work.
December 6, 2011 at 4:44 am
PayPal is being ridiculous. They’ve always been such a lame company.
December 6, 2011 at 4:44 am
I really hope that PayPal sees how much they fucked up because I for one will not be using PayPal ever again. I’ve left a couple comments on their facebook page and discovered they also have a YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PayPal?feature=watch
However it looks like they are actively monitoring comments as my comment was ‘awaiting approval’.
Life is hard and the economy is crap right now. It’s absolutely disgusting that charitable donations cannot be made through PayPal to families who could use them. Really there are no words.
December 6, 2011 at 4:49 am
I posted this on their FB page …
Hey, PAYPAL! How about allowing CHARITIES to do their WORK while you get some business from your NAME being out there ins a POSITIVE way??!! Wacha think about that? Maybe you should re-think the choices you made by PISSING OFF MILLIONS OF CUSTOMERS! I’m glad that I deleted my account while in the process of changing to my new name. I WAS going to set up another account. Guess what? YOU SCREWED THAT UP!
http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/”
It was quickly removed from their page. So, like lots of you guys, I posted it as a comment on 5 or more of their recent links. Here’s hoping that we can make a difference together.
December 6, 2011 at 4:52 am
Paypal is messing with you!
Check you own site, paypal ads all around it!
December 6, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Those are intuitive ads delivered by Google Adsense. They show you ads based on what you’ve been typing or searcing for. So… they’re actually fucking with you.
December 6, 2011 at 4:58 am
Soon as work dies down (Damn working in a hotel) I’m gonna start writing out what I wanna say and posting on the forums I belong to. If I don’t, I’m liable to just scribble “Paypal fucking sucks.” which will help 0.
Also, I see Google Checkout is still a viable option.
December 6, 2011 at 5:00 am
I know you probably won’t get round to reading all the comments, but to help I’ve sent an email to every single one of those addresses simply saying:
“Hi there, I was just wondering if you lot were having Christmas presents this year? It’s just that there’s about 200 kids we raised money for but you decided that the money shouldn’t be used to help them. It’s a shame, I’m sure they were looking forward to their new truck.
Merry Christmas you heartless, misinformed bastards.”
Glad I could help. I’ve had 8 delivery failures but that’s not bad considering I sent it to 29 emails (all using BCC, hehe)
Hope it gets sorted x
December 6, 2011 at 5:02 am
<3 that email
December 6, 2011 at 5:19 am
Does anyone remember http://www.savekaryn.com? That was the site where the girl used paypal (and a DONATE button) begging for $1 from everyone to help get her out of $20K in debt?
PayPal knew exactly what she was doing because her site and story was on EVERY news media outlet and was even in a book. They let it slide because of all of the free publicity they got out of it, I’m sure.
December 6, 2011 at 5:21 am
Whelp.. had to register to tell y’all that I’ll be boycotting Paypal and having my crafty ebay seller friends boycotting them, too.
Hit’em in the wallet. Anyone contact the news stations about this? I’d be curious to see what they had to say.
December 6, 2011 at 5:25 am
I can’t even get to Paypal’s FB page. I am being directed to their Dutch PP page and they want all sorts of info from me to continue. BTW, PP also did this to a Japanese MMA fighter named Enson Inoue when he took donations for the Tsunami victims. He was buying shoes, among other things, for those who lost everything. So their punitive bullshit goes back a way.
December 6, 2011 at 5:25 am
Aww, shucks. Thanks for the link to my blog.
Seriously, though, this pissed me right the fuck off, so I was more than happy to dig into their policies before they had a chance to “update” any of them. (Hence the almost paranoid screencapping.) What is astounding me? The people who still can’t figure out the difference between “charitable giving” and “a charity.” And the people who think it’s totally okay that they have the power to freeze your account after you “fail” a review, but won’t give clear guidelines to protect yourself from this happening.
December 6, 2011 at 5:26 am
I’ve been coming to the site for a long time now, but didn’t register until I heard about this outrage. I was so angry I had trouble sleeping. On a positive note, seeing how quickly the outrage has spread (holy crap, Neil Gaiman retweeted me) has given me more faith in the internet community. The Secret Santa program sounds like such a fantastic thing, and seeing a company put a stop to it like this…ugh.
Anyway, keep being awesome and good luck with everything. Last night was tweeting and facebooking for me, today will be writing e-mails.
December 6, 2011 at 5:27 am
Don’t forget to complain to the BBB. Here is the URL: http://sanjose.bbb.org/ComplaintDetail.aspx?CompanyID=210387&bbbID=1216
December 6, 2011 at 5:27 am
Everyone needs to check out Dwolla (https://www.dwolla.com/) – Maybe these guys could do what PayPal didn’t?
December 6, 2011 at 5:30 am
Yea they suck.. They just put a hold on my account saying they are going to hold funds for anything I sell for 30 days. When I called and asked why they said because I don’t sell much or have bad feedback…. I have 99% feedback and just sold 2 items within 2 weeks… Doesnt compare to what they did to this charity, but I would’ve demanded to speak to someone else.. Sounds like she just got a hardheaded rep. Also… File a compaint through the Better business bureau.. That’s what they’re there for
December 6, 2011 at 5:34 am
AOL is running the story on PP through their web search. It’s from Techcrunch. Posted at 8:15 EST.
December 6, 2011 at 5:35 am
PayPal’s bullshit has caused me to lose half my income. They are a monopoly and even worse now that evilBay owns them. My alternatives had either the exact same bullshit rules or go to a processing company that had set up fees so high I couldn’t possibly go to them. They froze my money too and I had to jump through hoops to get refunds done and that burdened my customers who couldn’t figure out how to cancel their payments.
December 6, 2011 at 5:40 am
Paypal also has a blog (https://www.thepaypalblog.com/) that could use some commenting on it, if anyone wants to spread their distaste a bit further.
December 6, 2011 at 12:02 pm
They must be getting a lot of comments, because I kept getting error messages every time I tried.
December 6, 2011 at 5:40 am
Can you email me your email address? I have some legal advice for you. x
December 6, 2011 at 5:41 am
I had the SAME problem with Pay Pal for a convention I run and I AM a Non profit. they refused to limit their intake of fees (even though they are supposed to, if not totally not collect them) and took over 3k from an event that had a charity attached to it. I have since stopped using them for anything, and started using eventbrite. And You should seriously consider getting a Non profit status for a Regretsy Christmas charity, otherwise the taxes on all this is going to be insane.
I think what you are doing is fantastic, and Pay Pal are a bunch of asshats and schisters. Sorry this happened, seriously.
December 6, 2011 at 5:45 am
I emailed them, I threatened to close all accounts I am associated with if I don’t see a post on Regretsy soon that says they have repented and given you your accounts back.
I work with several non-profits, and I’ll be happy to take our business elsewhere, as well as my own personal accounts. They are being complete Douchebags.
December 6, 2011 at 5:45 am
Ok, not sure if my comment got through, but I’m just thinking we should approach who ever PayPal’s biggest commercial competitor is and offer them the PR gift letting them go “We’re handling the donations for this drive, showing PP how it’s done.” That way there’s no need for anyone to feel useless since sending checks and cash to April would just be counter-productive, and even if PP refuse to approach this with any kind of salve we could still save something here?
December 6, 2011 at 5:54 am
Any mefites here want to post a link to this on metafilter? They’re good at internet shitstorms. I would but I’m too intimidated by them…
December 6, 2011 at 5:55 am
I just closed my account and wrote about this debacle in the Reason/Comments box. Also asked my imaginary-fat-jealous-loser-internet friends to do the same.
Grr! This will not stand.
December 6, 2011 at 5:56 am
I created an account (usually a lurker) simply to say that I’ve closed my Paypal as well, and let them know why. This is appalling.
December 6, 2011 at 5:56 am
shared on facebook and had peopple share that have nothing to do with regretsy at all…. more pople hit share than comments or like hits. I hope the word spreads!
December 6, 2011 at 6:00 am
I am so proud to be associated with the likes of you people! All that you are doing to help rectify the situation warms the cockles of my heart. Every little bit helps. I just hope Paypal mans up by fixing, apologizing and matching funds.
Also, the Schadenfreude that I am feeling is like a great sugar buzz…though my son gives me an odd look every time I let out a maniacal giggle.
December 6, 2011 at 6:06 am
I have emailed them and left messages on their Facebook. Seems like this is just making them douchier. I cannot believe their behavior in light of all this criticism. Wonder what the stock holders think.
December 6, 2011 at 6:09 am
The petition is now over 4000. Please sign and continue to spread the word.
http://chn.ge/vmsVV7
December 6, 2011 at 6:12 am
I’m really upset about this. Not just angry and frustrated, but sad and upset. I’m posting the link to this page on the Facebook walls of various news programs (as well as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report). Someone has to pick up this story!
December 6, 2011 at 6:13 am
HK,
Seriously, do you still need $$ for the kids? I can send you my famous ColdHardCash Cookies, overnighted for freshness, of course. Just don’t tell my husband b/c he is a tight motherfucker. Seriously.
December 6, 2011 at 6:17 am
Hey — made the Guardian blog! http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/dec/06/society-daily-email. You have to scroll down a bit.
December 6, 2011 at 6:31 am
I tweeted it to all my local news people, also to Private Eye, who just LOVE stories of big corporations fucking the little guy and people like Tim Minchin and Stephen Fry. Oh, and Neil Gaiman is on our side.
December 6, 2011 at 6:32 am
Cunt what the shit indeed. I look forward to seeing what kind of media coverage this gets in the next couple days, what with the Regretsy minions (myself included) tipping off everyone we can think of …
December 6, 2011 at 6:32 am
Normally a slack lurker but this just made my blood boil – spammed every paypal associated email you guys linked with a complaint – it really does beggar belief
December 6, 2011 at 6:33 am
Emailed CNN.com. Hope they do the story.
December 6, 2011 at 6:36 am
The awkward moment when you open this article and there is a PayPal ad at the top of it.
December 6, 2011 at 6:42 am
I am just so ashamed to have a Paypal account. I’m starting up my own website at the end of the month, and this whole fiasco has made the decision to cut all ties with Paypal and use another money transferring service REALLY easy.
December 6, 2011 at 6:44 am
Canceled my PP account, Let all my FB friends know about this, sent some letters to CNN / MSNBC About this / Fuck paypal this is complete bullshit.
December 6, 2011 at 6:45 am
That is so fricking horrible…WTH is wrong with them??? Have you ever tried using http://www.gofundme.com? I know nothing about it, but it could be another option.
December 6, 2011 at 6:45 am
Twitter and Facebook are blowing up. They were deleting Facebook posts but now they can’t keep up.
If you want to contact PayPal’s PR team, their e-mail is teampaypal@accesspr.com. I saw another PR e-mail on this list, but wanted to add this one as well.
Oh by the way, you can donate to fake tits on http://www.makeabimbo.com but you can’t donate to needy children for Christmas. Yay PayPal!
December 6, 2011 at 6:48 am
A lurker lurks no more… Ginger Snap in a Bowler Hat is here to spread our fuckery and physically paste this shit around NYC. Maybe I’ll even march on over to SNL and personally make sure they see this.
December 6, 2011 at 6:51 am
http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/paypal-ruins-christmas-for-over-200-kids-2011126/
December 6, 2011 at 6:54 am
Contact Marketplace Money Report, April! They take call ins, and this would be a great story!!
Here is contact info – best of luck sorting this mess out!
http://www.marketplace.org/contact-and-connect
December 6, 2011 at 6:55 am
http://thegreengeeks.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/why-paypal-is-wrong-regarding-regretsy-according-to-their-own-policies/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/06/1042708/-Corporate-Greed-20:-PayPal-Shuts-Down-Regretsys-Attempt-to-Donate-to-Needy-Children
December 6, 2011 at 7:00 am
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/12/paypal_kills_christmas.php
http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/paypal-ruins-christmas-for-over-200-kids-2011126/
December 6, 2011 at 6:58 am
I submitted this story to Mashable, which often supplies links to CNN. You can submit it, too, here:
http://mashable.com/submit/
When I submitted, I was too fat and jealous to mention the Occupy Paypal stuff that’s happening on Facebook, so be sure to mention that, too.
December 6, 2011 at 7:02 am
Just being goofy, but this clip from a Gilbert & Sullivan operetta keeps running thru my head when I read over these comments….
Princess Ida
December 6, 2011 at 7:03 am
“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…’”
Bull pucky.
They’re interstate and in the banking realm. There are plenty of ways to go right over their heads. Don’t fall for this line, I’ve gotten that one several times. It’s a dodge where they’re hoping you buy it and go away.
Start at least with the FTC. Simple URL, “ftc.gov”. “I haven’t seen that PDF.” is one *big* admission of screwing up badly. Interstate, especially money movement, is big time federal jurisdiction. PayPal has had it’s pee-pee whacked more than once.
I beat the slats out of a giant California bank once using the federal bureaucracy. PayPal ain’t anywhere near so big. Certainly, file a complaint with your state’s AG and their state’s AG. They’re owned by eBay and that’s a CA based corp. The consumer protection of CA is way more active than many. Believe me.
December 6, 2011 at 7:04 am
I received a response from PayPal”
Thank you for contacting PayPal Ms Johnson regarding your PayPal account.
Can I firstly express my deepest apologies Ms Johnson on behalf of PayPal for any bad experience you may have received in the past from either our representatives or by correspondence.
I can advise that you don’t have to be a non-profit organization to add the donation button and receive donations on a website.
It is probably best Ms Johnson if possible if you could contact ourselves on the telephone and we will go through each issue one by one and get your queries rectified as soon as possible.
They then provided some contact information and requested that I create a pin.
Then stated the following:
I understand your frustration regarding this matter and regret any inconvenience this might have caused.
Yours sincerely,
Fiaz
PayPal
December 6, 2011 at 7:16 am
Don’t call them unless you want your head to explode when they tell you that you can’t do anything but raise money for cat butt-lifts.
December 6, 2011 at 7:04 am
http://consumerist.com/2011/12/paypal-continues-war-against-regretsy-freezes-all-accounts-halts-gift-exchange.html
December 6, 2011 at 7:05 am
(Believe me ’cause I lived in LA for a decade. I used it many times. You can really get a CA based corporation to sit up and listen using CA’s system. Wish we had it nationwide. At the least, you could cause PayPal/eBay enough of a headache they’ll give in and go bother somebody else.)
December 6, 2011 at 7:09 am
I just read through some of their Terms of Use and if you have a problem with them for under 10grand, you can go to arbitration….in Singapore. If you want to take them to Court, you can do it…ALSO IN SINGAPORE.
Shady, shady fuckers.
December 6, 2011 at 7:21 am
That IS shady, but where do you see that? All I can find is this:
Arbitration. Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement or the provision of Services shall be settled by binding arbitration in accordance with the commercial arbitration rules of the American Arbitration Association. Any such controversy or claim shall be arbitrated on an individual basis, and shall not be consolidated in any arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other party. The arbitration shall be conducted in Santa Clara County, California, USA, and judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof. Either you or PayPal may seek any interim or preliminary relief from a court of competent jurisdiction in Santa Clara County, California, USA necessary to protect the rights or property of you or PayPal, Inc. (or its agents, suppliers, and subcontractors) pending the completion of arbitration.
December 6, 2011 at 7:54 am
Uh…I *would* except that now when I try to go to paypal.com it is redirecting me to here: https://www.paypal-sverige.se/foretag/ every single time.
It was at the bottom – I think the link just said User Agreements or something. Let me see if I can scrape my history.
December 6, 2011 at 7:58 am
I apologize. Apparently on the main site of Paypal that users in the United States see, the link to their Legal Agreements does not go to the policies that actually apply to those US users. I had to click through 2 screens and a drop-down box to get to the policies for PayPal account holders in the United States.
https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=ua/Legal_Hub_full&locale.x=en_US
December 6, 2011 at 7:12 am
http://openmindedwitch.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/you-can-use-the-donate-button-to-raise-money-for-a-sick-cat-but-not-poor-people/
December 6, 2011 at 7:14 am
So, my Norwegian is really rusty (okay, nonexistent) but we appear to have made news of some kind in Norway:
http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/12/06/kultur/data_og_teknologi/tekno/nettsamfunn/facebook/19308088/
December 6, 2011 at 7:36 am
Okay, so I speak Swedish, not Norwegian, and I haven’t used my Swedish in about four years, but from what I can tell, this article is AWESOME. They are seriously NAILING Papal, and even titled the post “Paypal Steals Money from Impoverished Children”. God damn, they have even more balls than the American sites I’ve seen covering this!
Heja Norge!
December 6, 2011 at 7:47 am
I am norwegian, and you are right. It’s pretty much a description on what’s going on with a mention of how utterly stupid it is to annoy the internet.
December 6, 2011 at 7:15 am
I don’t know if anyone’s suggested this yet, but post about this to Fox. (Not a fan of them, but….)
Bill O’Reilly is *huge* on anything to do with Christmas and he may just put his own unique brand of pressure on Paypal.
December 6, 2011 at 7:17 am
Someone has updated the PayPal Wikipedia page:
Criticism and limitations
In December 2011, PayPal froze funds in an account held by April Winchell, the owner of Regretsy, used for charitable giving, requiring the account holder to refund the donations collected but keeping the fees charged. [91][92]
December 6, 2011 at 7:19 am
The PDF in question: https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/pdf/PP_Online_Donations.pdf
says: “So how do you get the donations for your nonprofit or worthy cause?” – clearly “worthy cause” is acceptable as you pointed out. I’ve posted this to their wall, emailed and used the contact form in my PayScam account to complain.
December 6, 2011 at 7:26 am
I followed the link to ALL the email addresses and sent them this while I was on the phone with “Bob” from New Delhi…
“I am on the phone closing my paypal account.
I had to call in to do it because your website wanted me to verify credit card numbers from expired cards no longer in my possession before it would let me. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
Almost. I think the way your company handled the Regretsy situation this Christmas tops it. That is the reason I am closing my account. I never did a lot of business with your company, you never made much money off of me. At the same time, the only way consumers have to police the companies that handle their money is by withdrawing their business. I’m speaking with my small voice. I doubt you will hear, but if enough small voices say something it will eventually be loud enough.”
December 6, 2011 at 7:27 am
December 6, 2011 at 7:27 am
saw the same item
i hope “regretsy grunnlegger” means “person in charge of website”
December 6, 2011 at 7:44 am
“Regretsy grunnlegger” means “Regretsy founder”, i.e. the person who created the website/company/whatever.
December 6, 2011 at 8:01 am
It means “Regretsy founder”.
December 6, 2011 at 7:30 am
Just sent a letter to the huffington post ” scoop.”
December 6, 2011 at 7:33 am
I found this absolutely ridiculous. If “poor people” isn’t a worthy cause then maybe PayPal should close down the accounts of all those poor internet reviewers who put DONATE buttons on their site so they waste the money on buying video games and other garbage.
December 6, 2011 at 7:38 am
I am being quite the asshole on their page. I am so pissed off I still can’t see straight.
December 6, 2011 at 7:38 am
I heard about a great Paypal alternative called DWOLLA- with no links to credit card companies, just your bank account, and a flat rate per transaction (they don’t take a flat fee PLUS percentages like Paypal- it is the same tiny fee for $2.00 or $2000.00). They look great right now in regards to this incident, with a strong emphasis on being people-friendly.
December 6, 2011 at 7:40 am
Can someone send this to BBC?
December 6, 2011 at 7:41 am
There was a story where Something Awful raised a large sum of cash to donate to the Red Cross for Katrina victims but PayPal seized it. It would appear that anyone who is not a legally-registered-in-the-USA non-profit/charity entity who is collecting money in a way that PayPal considers “charity” (including the case in this article and the Katrina case) is going to get those accounts frozen. In more broad terms, it seems like PayPal considers any case of someone receiving money from lots of people in a short space of time to be a “red flag” unless it can specifically be linked to something legit such as eBay auctions or donations to PayPal’s specific partner charity (United Way last I heard, dont know if that’s changed)
I for one have already had a long-standing blacklist of eBay and PayPal and this report just strengthens my resolve.
December 6, 2011 at 7:41 am
It sounds to me like Regretsy has grounds for a lawsuit; Paypal appears to be violating their own policies here. And wouldn’t we all love to see Paypal fucking raked over the coals for this? Greedy bastards, stealing money from needy children at Christmas. For shame.
December 6, 2011 at 7:42 am
I’m Norwegian and can confirm that it has indeed reached the third biggest newspaper in Norway. I’ve also sent mails to The Guardian and The Sun, so maybe we’ll get something there as well.
The last line in the Norwegian newspaper is translated to this:
“It’s probably not correct to claim that PayPal steals money from little children. But when the internet claims it, the PR fight is lost.”
I bet that with a bit more media pressure, the bosses in Paypal might have to come out and publicly apologise for this. No matter what happens, I think Paypal will suffer for this. Badly.
December 6, 2011 at 7:49 am
I hope that Paypal “CSR” Steps on a lego in the dark, every night for a year…if not more. Bunch of GRINCHES. THEY ARE THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS for a whole bunch of kids. >,< Assholes..the lot of em
December 6, 2011 at 7:51 am
I think we’re coming close to breaking Regretsy. So many people are looking at this page that I can hardly open it.
Whoo!
December 6, 2011 at 7:51 am
I just sent an e-mail to my bank. The money from the second donation appears to be frozen in my account, and I’m assuming it will be until the PayPal account is unfrozen. I’ve just asked about the legalities of this, and if it is illigal I’m making a complaint to the norwegian version of the BBB (they actually have some power to deal with something like this)
December 6, 2011 at 7:54 am
Really, this sounds like a powerful tool! Poopal managed to freeze too many people’s money right now!
December 6, 2011 at 8:48 am
I’m thinking my bank will cause a shitstorm as well. Finances are fairly heavily regulated here, and if you want to do business with the norwegians you’ll have to adapt to that.
December 6, 2011 at 10:24 am
I don’t suppose you’re open to immigrants who are jealous, fat and lazy? I could really use some government oversight of my banking institutions…
December 6, 2011 at 7:59 am
Here it is:
http://www.dca.ca.gov/
File a complaint. eBay is CA based and they own PayPal. The CA regulatory system is better than most.
I also read there’s a class action against PayPal so they’re probably not going to want a pile on of regulators on top of that.
Don’t forget to write (in plain old snail mail, paper trails work nicely with bureaucrats) your AG about that “I dunno that PDF” crap. Something smells pretty rotten about that one to me for some reason. It’s at least incompetence. But could be something more seedy.
December 6, 2011 at 8:02 am
It seems that Evil PayPal has forced me out of Lurkerville. PayPal account is closed with the following note:
While I respect that PayPal has an obligation to protect its users from charity scams, it seems absurd that an honest mistake will prevent me and so many others from providing a little holiday cheer for children in need. I think it can be argued that PayPal’s policies regarding the Donate button DO seem to allow the type of charitable activity Regretsy is undertaking. Even if they do not, blocking our efforts to send toys to needy children a second time does not seem like protecting the consumer. It seems like corporate bullying (while profiting off of our generosity). I am willing to believe this is an error made by an overly zealous Pay Pal employee that will be righted after subsequent review. Until then, however, I will be closing my account.
December 6, 2011 at 8:04 am
Double bad news- Ebay is the devil too. I have an unpaid seller (so I could Christmas shop!)and I can’t relist the item to sell for $ until the case is closed. WTF?
Now this? Freaking Freakity Freaks.
Can I mail a donation? Would that help?
December 6, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Unfortunately, mailing a donation causes a bit of a clusterfsk that winds up being returned…at least that’s what I’ve been reading.
December 6, 2011 at 8:09 am
If I knew where to send it I’d find the biggest postage box Royal Mail make, stuff it full of toys and other good stuff and send it straight to the US. Fuck shipping.
December 6, 2011 at 8:14 am
YES! Please, can we have an adress to ship toys to instead? It’s probably going to be an additional insane amount of work to distribute them but if I was near you, I’d volunteer to help repacking and labelling the boxes.
December 6, 2011 at 8:20 am
Just tweeted Michael Moore this link.
December 6, 2011 at 8:22 am
If it helps any, my mum’s dog just recently had surgery to remove a tumour from her anal gland(the butthurt jokes are flying around my house right now!)… I can get a letter from the vet quoting the cost of chemo(we’ve opted out due to the dog’s personality & age), and take some pics of the insision, fax them over to paypal and say the donations were for my sick dog… I know she’s not a sick cat, but she’s still someone’s sick personal pet, and that’s far more important than children at Christmas, right?
December 6, 2011 at 8:22 am
FLEDGLING QUADRUPED HAMSTERS IN A FRAMING DEVICE
Yeah, so I just spammed every PayPal e-mail on that page with a message about this and how shameful it is. Because it really is shameful behavior on their part. Completely pathetic, and they are definitely both completely ignoring their policies and singling you out.
Although, I will say, I tried to be polite and reasonable in my e-mail. Be the better woman, as it were. If they want to be jerky idiots, I won’t play that game.
December 6, 2011 at 8:24 am
Published in the San Francisco Chronicle via Business Insider about 25 minutes ago…
How PayPal Royally Screwed This Company And All The Kids It Was Trying To Help
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/12/06/businessinsiderpaypal-regretsy-2011.DTL
December 6, 2011 at 8:29 am
Paypal screwed me over. Long story (relatively) short, I sold a laptop on eBay. The buyer used a stolen credit card. The owner of the card reported the payment as unauthorised, and though I had evidence, PayPal declined my case. I ended up £500 and a laptop out of pocket.
Alternatives (for web people, anyway):
Stripe (http://stripe.com)
Moneybookers (http://moneybookers.com)
Pulley (http://pulleyapp.com/)
#fuckpaypal
December 6, 2011 at 8:30 am
on Jezebel:
December 6, 2011 at 8:30 am
on Jezebel: http://jezebel.com/5865408/paypal-grinch-shuts-down-toy-drive-for-needy-kids
December 6, 2011 at 9:05 am
for LA folks, this will be on kfi640 bill handel “handel on the news” segment wednesday (either 6 or 830 am)
for those outside LA, the website is kfi640.com; the show has a million-plus listeners, one of the top three local/regional talk shows in the country
December 6, 2011 at 8:34 am
I just got to this today since I’ve been busy, but here’s what I just wrote:
>>Yo PayPal,
You didn’t go after Tracey Egan Morrissey of Jezebel when she took money to give to those kids from TeenMom, so why are you going after April? It doesn’t seem fair. In fact, it seems like you have a personal vendetta against Regretsy and that’s just wrong. You need to make this right with them or you’re risking a huge, huge boycott.<<
December 6, 2011 at 8:36 am
Looks like a bunch of us posted to the Rachel Maddow facebook page to get some airtime on this too.
Maybe she’ll make up a drink for April when this is all resolved.
December 6, 2011 at 8:38 am
Just send mails to the list consumer provided. Feel my wrath!
December 6, 2011 at 8:39 am
How many other people have had their refund placed on “temporary hold” by Paypal?
December 6, 2011 at 8:40 am
December 6, 2011 at 8:41 am
Well, I called paypal and closed my account. When they asked why, I told them I was a member of the Regretsy community and no longer interested in doing business with them
They can kiss my ass!
December 6, 2011 at 8:52 am
Check out WePay https://www.wepay.com/
does the same thing as paypal without the fees and horrible customer service.
December 6, 2011 at 8:53 am
as of 17 minutes ago, the San Francisco Chronicle has posted the following : http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/12/06/businessinsiderpaypal-regretsy-2011.DTL
it’s in the media now
December 6, 2011 at 8:55 am
Don’t forget that paypal is owned by ebay, so boycott them and occupy their facebook wall too.
Here’s the new ebay-paypal theme song. (The Grinch)
http://youtu.be/o_w_lk3ca40
December 6, 2011 at 8:58 am
https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/
I filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission through this website.
December 6, 2011 at 9:03 am
…and I meant to say “April and everybody else can / should file one too” but I’m stupid with rage and hit post too quickly.
December 6, 2011 at 9:00 am
It might be worth it to gather a list of websites that use the paypal donate button for things other than a registered charity. Tons of blogs, youtubers, etc use it.
December 6, 2011 at 9:01 am
Just talked to a PayPal complaint department: They have to check for TERRORIST activity. I kid you not. They also told me to tell April to call them to settle this. The rules and regulations and terms that we can read on the web site are not those they are following.
I recommend people continue to call and VOICE your complaints to PayPal! This is disgusting!
December 6, 2011 at 9:20 am
Santa Claus:
Travels around the world ignoring border controls.
Breaks into private residences.
Conclusion-Terrorist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ISiTXehKLk
(Robot Chicken: NORAD shoots down Santa.)
December 6, 2011 at 9:28 am
Lol. That cracks me up.
December 6, 2011 at 11:29 am
Tell April to call them? Yeah, because that worked out so well the last time.
Bastards.
December 6, 2011 at 9:01 am
Almost forgot. Here are 2 more good places to get their attention at, their own forums.
http://forums.ebay.com/db2/forum/Paypal/97
https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/US-PayPal-Community/ct-p/US
December 6, 2011 at 9:03 am
Lurker here, hi. Tried to close my ten year old paypal account, they said no ’cause there’s a fund transfer from my bank still pending. Bullshit, that was December 3rd. My fight with them will get dirtier the more they resist.
Can’t stop the signal.
December 6, 2011 at 9:07 am
Would love to see if there is anything we can do to help. I work for http://www.HelpersUnite.com which can get you setup accepting donations very quickly. I won’t get into the similar issues we’ve had with PayPal but lets just say that we’re very happy to be using a different provider. Please visit our site and get in touch, thank you and good luck!
December 6, 2011 at 9:08 am
Did anyone issue a Press Release. The media would love PayPal Steals Christmas.
December 6, 2011 at 9:10 am
…well..gee whiz April…i feel bad for you and the fascist bs you had to go through with the neanderthals at pooppal….but, as they say in my country, and i assume Finland too,….
“no good deed goes unpunished “
December 6, 2011 at 9:12 am
BTW – apparently Wil Wheaton is retweeting the EFF outta this!
December 6, 2011 at 9:15 am
God this is disgusting. I have been sending this to all the news outlets I can think of. I hope it gets picked up so that at least some awareness about this company can come from this steaming pile of this shit.
December 6, 2011 at 9:25 am
I design websites, mostly for non-profit groups, and always encourage them to put a PayPal ‘donate’ button on their sites. Now I wish I could go back and make that unhappen. Bastards.
December 6, 2011 at 9:28 am
April…you should take down your advertisements for them… http://i.imgur.com/6fsVW.jpg
December 6, 2011 at 10:06 am
No way– if PayPal’s stupid enough to pay to advertise on this blog post, let ‘em.
December 6, 2011 at 10:47 am
She doesn’t control what gets put in the ad spaces. Besides, I find it hilarious to see ads for Paypal on a page where we’re talking about how evil Paypal is.
December 6, 2011 at 9:29 am
And Gawker just picked it up
December 6, 2011 at 9:30 am
Does anyone else feel like we’re those two little kids, our donations were the wagon, and PayPal are those bigger kids?
Sadly, a shed and a padlock aren’t enough to fix this situation. Guess we know what happens when the bigger kids get even bigger.
Fuck you PayPal for stomping the shit out of our little red wagon!
December 6, 2011 at 9:32 am
Probably just going to repeat the outrage above with this comment…What.The.Fuck???
Also, I went to close my account so they could go fuck themselves. Apparently I have “unsettled charges” and cannot close my account. Odd since I haven’t purchased anything in over a month. So….martial law going on over there at PayCuntery?
December 6, 2011 at 9:34 am
Maybe if they air their famous ads where they invade Santa’s home, brutalize, drug him, tie him up, bind and gag him, then kidnap him this will all go away?
http://www.visit4ads.com/advert/Santa-Kidnap-eBay-Online-Auctions/51821
December 6, 2011 at 9:35 am
I emailed the New Zealand herald.
I hope that helps in some way!
December 6, 2011 at 9:36 am
PayPal
We have released funds back to Regrestsy and will be making a donation. We are very sorry this occurred.
Regretsy Issue Resolution
http://www.thepaypalblog.com
Last night we became aware of an issue with one of our account holders, Regretsy.com. Though we can’t comment specifically on the account due to our privacy policy, we can confirm that the funds have been released and we are working directly with the account holder on this matter. Just like anyone e…
December 6, 2011 at 9:47 am
I am almost weeping in relief. Glitter tears, naturally. Seriously, when I saw the news I almost started crying.
We may be fat jealous losers, but we are also DAMN GOOD AND STRONG PEOPLE. Group hug!!!!!!
December 6, 2011 at 10:03 am
“For background, we have clear guidelines for any business that uses PayPal to accept donations.”
Bullshit.
But glad to hear that Paypal hasn’t killed Christmas. Yet, anyway.
December 6, 2011 at 10:13 am
Too little too late indeed, paypal. Remember at Christmas time “it’s the thought that counts”.
Your first thoughts were to seize your profits (three times), freeze the accounts, censor your facebook wall.
That’s what matters, not your fake conciliatory attitude and concern *after* you figured out that people have scruples, morals and hearts, and that you do not.
I urge everyone to continue to close your accounts, Boycott both ebay and paypal, and spread the word.
We all know it’s only a matter of time and the right victim to come along again for you to continue your proven, rotten path of internet thuggery.
Don’t even get me started about your unlawful 21 day money holds against faithful ebay users with perfect records. You know the ones which violate every state’s money transmitter license you operate under?
There needs to be real consequences for your actions. I hope everyone files complaints to proper legal authorities to have you i
December 6, 2011 at 10:16 am
oops, cut off…
as I was stating,
I hope everyone files complaints to proper legal authorities to have you investigated and prosecuted for your many, many crimes and misdeeds.
December 6, 2011 at 11:19 am
Ugh don’t even get my started about the 21 day holds. I’ve had both my paypal account and my eBay account for about 10 years and I sold an item for under $100. The funds were on hold for a couple weeks!
December 6, 2011 at 9:37 am
Paypal destroyed my business. I lost thousands of dollars because they froze my account without reason for 6 months. Unbelievable what they can do at will.
They are ran by eBay, another sham of a company. Most recently they started to support the sale of child porn. Check this out:
http://www.ebay.com/csc/huangsheng2010/m.html?LH_Complete=1&_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_since=15&_sop=15&_rdc=1
December 6, 2011 at 5:02 pm
WTF!?
December 6, 2011 at 9:38 am
The damage is done, but how sweet to see a bunch of fat jealous losers bring a multinational, multi-billion dollar to its knees. You are the best in the world.
NAMASTE, BITCHES!!!
December 6, 2011 at 9:42 am
Wil Wheaton got ahold of it on Twitter as well (almost 2 million followers)- do a mention search on Twitter for “Paypal” – it’s ALL about this. It seems the people monitoring their Twitter mentions are as incompetent and oblivious as their “Customer Service” people.
December 6, 2011 at 9:43 am
Paypal’s ongoing war against Regretsy made it to the first page of Fark. http://www.fark.com/comments/6791911/PayPal-continues-to-wage-its-ongoing-war-against-Regretsy
December 6, 2011 at 9:44 am
I said “Too little, too late. You should have addressed the issue before everyone got into an uproar. Because it was the right thing to do, not the convenient thing to do when your customers get angry.”
Assholes.
December 6, 2011 at 12:40 pm
Yes. And there’s no promise to change the policies that led to this, which means that they can screw over other people in the future, most of whom won’t have April’s Army to defend them.
December 6, 2011 at 9:50 am
The PayPal blog says they made a donation to Regretsy for the “cause”. Was it a full refund of all fees? Doubling what we raised? I’m still watching Colbert, Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow to see if this gets air.
December 6, 2011 at 9:56 am
That’s what I said – what about the double fees they charged? I’m not believing anything until April confirms. They made April go through all this horse shit because of THEIR error. They need to do a lot to make up for this and I doubt they will. Probably just a little courtesy donation for good PR.
December 6, 2011 at 9:53 am
Comment my work filter won’t let me leave there:
“Your regulations were very clear, and April followed them to the letter. When she asked for clarification, she was repeatedly told that “we know what you’re doing and you won’t get away with it” instead of being told what she needed to do to make things right.
Hiding behind regulations and security is a laugh. PayPal received TRIPLE processing fees on all of the donations made through this fundraiser, as well as earning interest on all of the frozen funds — including the donors whose refunds were frozen in their accounts. It wasn’t a “mistake”, it was an effort to terrify a small organization with legal threats so you could increase your profits from them. It happened before with the SomethingAwful Katrina fundraiser, and I’ve heard many stories yesterday and today about it happening to smaller groups who weren’t able to muster this amount of public support.
My account will remain closed.”
December 6, 2011 at 9:57 am
Left a message for the poor media relations girl, saying that she might want to do something to stem the tide of the shitstorm. *sigh* I’m hoping it’s actually resolved now, but this fat, jealous bastard is skeptical.
December 6, 2011 at 10:03 am
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December 6, 2011 at 10:07 am
PayPal – 0 Fat Jealous Losers – 1
According to PayPal’s facebook page they have resolved teh situation and refunded the money. Here is a link to their own blog concerning the incident:
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/12/regretsy-issue-resolution/
Not sure I’ll beleive it till April confirms but at least it looks like they are backpedalling as fast as they can on this.
December 6, 2011 at 10:42 am
Thanks for sharing that link. I went out and attempted to post a comment. Its awaiting moderation (quelle surprise!) and I wonder if it will ever show.
Basically I asked for a link to these “clear guidelines” since he couldn’t be bothered to include them and I can’t find them. Second I noted that you see these donate buttons all the time for things that aren’t charities. Thing Word Press plugins!
Grrr
December 6, 2011 at 11:00 am
I would advise against commenting on that site, even if they DO let any comments through. They seemed to have introduced a giant security hole into their WordPress engine that causes you to see the posting information (including email address) of the person who submitted a comment before you.
December 6, 2011 at 11:35 am
…I just noticed that when I left a comment. Fan-fucking-tastic.
December 6, 2011 at 12:42 pm
So that’s what that is. I’m glad I used my pseudonymous account then, but that does NOT reassure me that they are the people to trust with my money and financial info.
December 6, 2011 at 10:23 am
Look, one of the other PayPal Blog posts is on random money-giving…
PayPal’s vision is to be at the center of our customers’ financial lives and now nearly 80 percent of active PayPal users also actively use Facebook. So, today, we’re bringing the largest online payments company to the world’s largest social network to make it even easier to send money to your friends and family directly from Facebook. Our new Send Money application on Facebook allows users to turn those wall posts into actual gifts.
Facebook users can now send money to their friends and family whether it’s for a special occasion like a birthday or anniversary or just because along with an e-card, photos, videos and a message. With just a few clicks and a PayPal account, it’s so easy!
December 6, 2011 at 10:25 am
I’ve followed your story all night long.The audacity of this company never ceases to amaze me.(PP screwed me and some business friends of mine- although not to the extent you have endured) I have signed your petition,closed my PayPal Acct.,sent links/emails to Texas TV stations and posted this on every FB page/group I am a part of – in support.With your story gaining strength by the hour -I look forward to seeing you and your cause vindicated in the media,your accts unfrozen,the children to get their presents on time, your business prosper, PP to get that stiff shaft up the wazoo they so richly deserve for such treachery and that turdsicle that spoke to you so rudely – fired & denied unemployment benefits & have a firey hemorrhoid attack at the same time a sick cat takes a watery crap on his shoe. Merry Christmas Ya’ll.
December 6, 2011 at 10:31 am
Paypal says they are making a donation.
I think April should take the high road and respectfully decline the contribution as Paypal would not have contributed in the first place.
This is an example of a major corporation screwing a small business and trying to come out smelling like a rose because of the backlash.
The charity should be what it was…People helping People…not a corporation trying to look good!
December 6, 2011 at 3:32 pm
Fuck no. Stick it to Paypal. Take their money and give it away. That’s what they do with ours. Take it and give it to themselves!
December 6, 2011 at 10:33 am
I went through this with another organization. It was six months of hell, six months of fighting with PayPal CSRs, and in the end it was three phone calls where I screamed at people until they fixed the problem.
Here’s a list of PayPal alternatives, I suggest you offer them as options and make PayPal Regretsy *giggle* their actions.
December 6, 2011 at 10:35 am
Apparently PayPal has decided to release the funds AND make a donation! Check their blog at http://www.thepaypalblog.com.
Is it true, April? Please?
December 6, 2011 at 10:53 am
Where do you see that they’re making a donation?
From what I can see, their “apology” is the worst kind of spin-doctored, no-admission-of-wrongdoing corporate snowjob. What’s more, not only are all comments on that post going straight into the mod queue, but after I submitted a comment, the Paypal blog assumed that I was the previous commenter, “Sadie”, autopopulated her posting info into the form,, and informed “me” that “my” comment was under moderation. And Paypal uses WordPress just like Regretsy. Good lord.
December 6, 2011 at 10:55 am
It says so in the final line of the first paragraph:
We are working with Regretsy to make a donation to help their cause, and we’re truly sorry this occurred.
Translation: I am now pissing myself in fear. Maybe if I give them money, they’ll stop calling us dickbags.
Nice try, dickbags!
December 6, 2011 at 11:04 am
Ah – I missed that in the shitvalanche of the rest of the post. Do notice, though, that they are “sorry this occurred.” (It wasn’t us, it was Republican owlbears using the Northern Lights to brainwash our employees.) Which ranks a fraction of an inch of “I’m sorry you got upset” in terms of sincere apology quality. And the rest of the post defends their intention to keep doing exactly what they’ve been doing.
December 6, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Oh, I have no doubt that they’ll keep jerking people around about this shit. Hell, the TOS probably won’t even be changed (although a single rewritten sentence could stop this from happening again). But they’re placating, so we should forgive them.
Lucky for us, this is the Internet. Where boiling hatred goes to thrive.
December 6, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Yeah, their comments set up is a dead-end black hole. I got two kinds of error message, Sadie, a you’ve already posted that, and an awaiting moderation. It’s not surprising that their blog is as incompetent as they are.
December 6, 2011 at 10:44 am
The thing is they did this in 2005 when SomethingAwful tried raising money for the Red Cross for Hurricane Katrina. They lost money. Diaspora lost tons of money when PayPal froze their accounts. They keep doing this to businesses and individuals and they DON’T CARE! This is just a “I’m sorry we got caught” apology and nothing more! They will keep doing business the way they’ve always done it -shady!
December 6, 2011 at 10:47 am
Even better information. Think we could use this post too?
December 6, 2011 at 10:49 am
God I love this place. I’m broke as shit but I need to make a donation. If it’s too late for this specific mission, then to the general April’s Army fund. Someone please tell my fat lazy jealous loser ass how to do that?
December 6, 2011 at 10:54 am
I joined on the strength and the passion of this community. As the founding director of a NP that rebuilds broken computers and places them in the home of disadvantaged kids, I know only too well the greasy tactics of PayPutz. They froze 5 figures in assets for our NP and it cost me almost a quarter of that to get the account thawed.
Congratulations to a community that banded together to shine a light on this slimy organization. It looks like they drug out the greasiest of their PR people to smooth this over. And yeah, take their fucking money…I hope this incident is spread far and wide to show the world the fucktardary of PayWanker.
December 6, 2011 at 10:55 am
I’ll believe that PayPal released the funds when April says it. This would be good and all, but frankly, it seems like a “oh crap, people are mad” PR fix. They need to change their policies to be more responsible and ethical with other people’s money, and their policies need to be transparent and in simple language. There is no excuse to freeze accounts as frequently as they do. They freeze people’s real income for no reason, ruin people’s lives and hide behind “lolsecurity.” We should not let them continue to get away with this just because they’re fixing our particular problem.
December 6, 2011 at 2:02 pm
I just wanted to say that I’ve been literally saying your screen name (randomly) for YEARS in the hopes that SOMEONE would get the reference, but to no avail! I love you, nummymuffincocobutter!
December 6, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Aww, backatcha, ladychurch. Isn’t that special?
December 6, 2011 at 10:58 am
Surely the national press would be interested in this
December 6, 2011 at 11:02 am
Well it’s nice that they decided to change their mind on it, but large companies only cave in after too much noise on the issue has been buzzing around. It’s not as easy for these assholes to hide everything these days, with so many media outlets around. Back in the day, they could hide it by shooting the witness(es) and bury the dead hookers, but now with the internet, you can’t shoot and bury everyone. Too much red tape
December 6, 2011 at 11:06 am
I posted a response on their page, as well as a post in my blog (so you know all 6 of my readers are going to be outraged!!) and I leave it here for those of you too furious to put into words. Feel free to use mine, and to share with Paypal exactly how you feel about their policies.
http://operationcraft.blogspot.com/2011/12/yes-virginia-there-is-santa-claus-but.html
December 6, 2011 at 11:14 am
I’ve lurked Regretsy for a while but I’ve only registered today for the sole purpose of commenting this post.
This is the biggest pile of horseshit I have ever seen in my life. I’ve never personally had a problem with Paypal, but I’m closing my account as we speak. And with that blog post, which I completely doubt the truth of, they’re only saying that to cover their asses. Ugh. I’m so disgusted right now.
December 6, 2011 at 11:22 am
Closed my paypal account. What an evil piece of shit company.
December 6, 2011 at 11:29 am
Just closed my PayPal account down. I wonder how much business they’ve lost in the fallout?
December 6, 2011 at 11:32 am
“So, about those double (or was it triple or quadruple?) fees that PayPal collected over the course of this debacle… will your donation be in addition to refunding those, or are you going to just pocket those fees and donate something less in an effort to shut us up?
For now, I remain unconvinced and unimpressed. PayPal has a long and dirty reputation here, and whitewashing the tombs won’t do anything for the festering nastiness underneath.”
I love the frantic ass-covering that’s going on now. Dickbags.
December 6, 2011 at 11:32 am
Here’s a fascinating piece of marketing:
The image I saw when I first went to Paypal’s “Regrestsy Issue Resolution” page:
The image they had changed it to by the time I commented and left:
Also wierd comment glitch: When you comment it gives you the info (email, website, username) of the person who commented before. Pretty sure that email is supposed to be private. Oooops.
December 6, 2011 at 12:15 pm
I wish your screen shots were one line bigger because there is also a change in the last line from “We are working” to “We are making” and I’d be curious to see what edits they made there.
December 6, 2011 at 10:00 pm
Dang, I didn’t catch that. Now I want to know, too! I think it originally said something along the lines of ‘we are working on making a donation’… at least that’s how I remember it.
December 6, 2011 at 11:32 am
Just read the latest post by paypal on Facebook.
They are “apologising”?
Hell , people dont want their apologies , people want their money back.
December 6, 2011 at 11:33 am
Tried to post a comment on the Paypal blog (the regretsy post comes right after one saying that by 2016 no one will use actual money, it’ll all be Paypal) . There were 0 comments, and when I tried to post mine, got “You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down.”
December 6, 2011 at 11:35 am
I’m going to call this a sincere appology when April confirms she’s got ALL the money back. And when PayPal has changed their TOS to something more clear and consistent. There has to be a way to work something out for occasions/fundraisers like this.
December 6, 2011 at 11:42 am
I work two blocks from PayPal HQ. The temptation to print out the GreenGeek blog and many of these comments and march them over in person is overwhelming.
December 6, 2011 at 11:53 am
Maybe somebody who works at Paypal makes menstrual paintings and got offended that their holy wymyn art didn’t get the respect that it deserves.
As for that bullshit PR statement – I honestly can’t wait to see how they follow through on it with April. I’ve been reloading the site every ten minutes.
December 6, 2011 at 11:54 am
You know, an earlier poster pointed out that due to all the paypal discussion, the Paypal ad is in heavy rotation up on the ad-scroll at the top. Let’s keep clicking it. It’ll route cash from PayPal to Helen (y’know, in 0.0001 cent increments.)
December 6, 2011 at 3:45 pm
Really? My ads are for vibrators.
Strange.
December 6, 2011 at 12:03 pm
Thank you for sticking to your guns and not letting this pass without exposing the asshattery of PayPal.
I just closed my PP account and let them know the reason was the disgraceful and bizarrely arbitrary handling of the regretsy.com situation.
When given the opportunity to comment further, I sent this:
‘I greatly fear that if I ever encountered a similar situation, my accounts would be frozen without recourse. As I deal with financial arrangements “on the go” since my business is in tourism/travel, I cannot afford the possibility.’
I’m just a drop in the bucket, but I’m sure the deluge of support and activism shown here and throughout the Internet will be enough to drown those miserable wankers in a sea of “ohshit”.
I sincerely hope there is a fast resolution (in your favour!) and that the needy kiddos and families get the holiday cheer that you and your fans have busted butt to gather.
December 6, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Hrmmm…. seems like an “oops, we got caught” more than a “we are legitimately sorry for our actions” to me.
Wonder what their “donation to the cause” will be…
The funny thing is, they’ve probably already lost as much or more income/potential income from the pissed off Regretsians closing their accounts and all this bad publicity than they made in the three-times-over fees they took from the fundraiser to begin with.
December 6, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Closed my account anyway. Fuck ‘em.
December 6, 2011 at 12:30 pm
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December 6, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Why the low rating? Clearly it was sarcastic…
December 6, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Sarcasm on the internet is like winking on the phone.
December 6, 2011 at 1:07 pm
This really ticks me off!
December 6, 2011 at 1:08 pm
They had no idea who they were fucking with.
December 6, 2011 at 1:08 pm
I’ve been away from Regretsy for awhile (life getting in the way) but I logged in to say April, you are an amazeballs woman! Keep fighting the good fight!
And fuck PayPal.
December 6, 2011 at 2:46 pm
I have sat on the fringes of Regretsy for a year or so and enjoyed the site, facebook and CF4L. Until today I never felt the need to get involved but after the fuck up by Paypal I spent my lunchbreak emailing the press and most of the day bombarding the facebook page. I now feel proud to be a fat jealous loser!
December 6, 2011 at 2:54 pm
And let that be a lesson to anyone who would attempt to take on a bunch of big, fat jealous losers!
December 6, 2011 at 3:33 pm
I am a lurker, and thanks to a FB friend, found this story. I saw things are coming to a resolution, but still emailed/spammed/contacted everyone I could about this. As soon as I figure out if I can afford to launch my new shop on its own domain instead of Etsy, I am going to cancel my PP account – fuckers.
I also found this interesting, and just had to share: http://makeabimbo.com/misc/2011/issues-with-paypal/
I hope things are resolved to YOUR liking, April. Kudos to you for what you’re doing, and as soon as an option presents itself, I will donate to your cause!
December 6, 2011 at 3:50 pm
Paypal: “We know what you’re trying to do and it’s WRONG! Giving stuff to people who OBVIOUSLY don’t deserve it because they have no money is completely wrong. Giving things away is bad for the economy and only serves to make people dependant on the goodwill of others. Fuck you and Merry Holidays”
I hope paypal gets killed by the mighty hand of the internet users.
December 6, 2011 at 4:52 pm
That is so beyond fucked up. Has anyone posted this on reddit yet?
December 6, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Nevermind. You guys work way faster than I can.
December 6, 2011 at 5:00 pm
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December 6, 2011 at 7:22 pm
If this were the first, or even second or third time Paypal had treated charitable donations less than ethically, or frozen a person’s funds for no reason, then maybe I could buy the “one person fucked up” explanation. It isn’t. This is a pattern, and fixing this one particular instance of the problem does not fix the problem.
December 6, 2011 at 8:29 pm
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December 6, 2011 at 5:33 pm
What the hell is WRONG with these people?!
December 6, 2011 at 5:42 pm
I just posted the link to this entry to my local news station’s FB page. PayPal had better make a MASSIVE donation, this is just heartless!
December 6, 2011 at 5:46 pm
There is a new online payment service…check out dwolla.com. They are even cheaper than paypal and only charge you 25 cents regardless of the amount received. I haven’t used them to accept payments yet as i just signed up, but it may be worth checking out…
December 6, 2011 at 6:45 pm
Well Now!! Excerpt:
“Last night we became aware of an issue with one of our account holders, Regretsy.com. Though we can’t comment specifically on the account due to our privacy policy, we can confirm that the funds have been released and we are working directly with the account holder on this matter. Just like anyone else, we believe strongly in helping those in need, especially around the holiday season. We are working with Regretsy to make a donation to help their cause, and we’re truly sorry this occurred.”
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/12/regretsy-issue-resolution/
December 6, 2011 at 7:10 pm
It made it into the Canadian news: http://bit.ly/v2wHE5
Getting bigger every minute.
December 6, 2011 at 7:15 pm
I’ve never posted here before, but I just had to make a login ID in order to tell you all that 1. I just came from FARK.com (so yes, its still getting bigger and bigger!), 2. I first read about this asshattery on my lunch break at work (via CNN) and 3. April, I completely support your fight against this weapons-grade corporate stupidity. Keep on fighting the good fight and take ‘em to the cleaners! The ‘net is standing behind you!
December 6, 2011 at 7:19 pm
So, is paypal telling the truth here? https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/12/regretsy-issue-resolution/ We need an update.
And as I commented there, shouldn’t any review take place BEFORE they grant a button and start taking their cut…
December 6, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Then people would be angry over not getting their button immediatly sadly. Review is likely some ongoing thing thats partly automated and part real review, since I doubt they could manually review the hundreds of thousands of buttons all over the world. Maybe this charity somehow tripped an automated system because of usage or a donator. Then the person reviewing it made a further mistake and when calling some asshat got the call and behaved like a shit. Honestly theres no reason to target the whole company. (no, I don’t work for paypal, nor have I any affiliation with them. I have however used paypal for many things, been part of charities which wouldn’t have happened without paypal)
December 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
My current favorite Twitter post on the subject: http://twitter.com/#!/DeathStarPR/status/144147003251761152
December 6, 2011 at 9:05 pm
“Paypal is now claiming is only for nonprofit organizations to use. They froze the account,” – No, some asshat made that claim.
I am confused about one part, which doesn’t quite make sense.
“As you know, we have been trying to buy Christmas presents for kids in the Regretsy community.” -> “Since these toys are already purchased, I decided to offer them up for sale on this site, just like any other retailer would.”
If they were christmas presents, why sell them instead of giving them to the kids? (honest confusion here)
December 6, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Well damn- i thought my “I’m leaving you” message to Paypal was sort of clever, considering my level of sleep dep, but I don’t seem to have posted it here as I intended.
Still: not goin’ back, suckas.
December 6, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Ah sorry, disregard the last confusion. Read the section wrong. Shouldn’t reread things at 6 AM in the morning, sigh.
December 6, 2011 at 10:24 pm
You should put up a new paypal donate button and in place of “kids” write “cats.” So… essentially… this toy truck ISN’T going to li’l Timmy who can’t afford to have a visit from Santa…
it’s going to BOOTSIE, the terribly sick cat. Poor darling. Only just turned 12. So young. So noble.
December 6, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Also… this guy looks kinda like Mr. Bean. Just saying.
https://www.thepaypalblog.com/2011/12/regretsy-issue-resolution/
December 7, 2011 at 1:23 am
After a very enjoyable email sess yesterday I got this today from Customer services (though wierdly addressed to my paypal name rather than the name i sent or signed the email from
Please be advised that we cannot comment on any specific accounts because of customer confidentiality. However, we can confirm that the funds have been released and we are working directly with the account holder on this matter. We are also working with Regretsy to make a donation to help families in need this holiday season.
any confirmation?
December 7, 2011 at 11:55 am
My husband gave me this idea:
December 8, 2011 at 12:10 pm
I love that all of the hell the internet community raised has actually led to something. A drop in the bucket though PayPal’s response may be, at least the money got released and more people have woken up to their greed.
On a side note, while perusing the linked blogs/posts etc., I came across this on one of the sites. Don’t know if HKill has seen it or not so I thought I’d post the link here: http://fyre.it/DeW
December 9, 2011 at 8:31 am
unfucking believable
December 14, 2011 at 10:34 pm
Pffft, don’t know what the hell that idiot at Paypal was talking about regarding regular businesses not being to use the Paypal “donate” button.
Every fuckin webcomic I’ve ever read has a “donate” button, to help fund the thing. Most webcomic artista AFAIK do it for love and lols, not a paid job, so comics I read and adore get a bit of $ when I can manage. Every one I’ve donated to has gone thru Paypal. so WHAT THE FISH is PP even talking about. Bullshittery, all round.
Will post link to this issue on FB, I think my online friends who I met thru Ebay chat boards and have had their share of bullshittery to deal with from both Ebay and PP would be keen to spread the word and email some people!