Sooner or later you’ll pay, pal
I had an interesting conversation with Paypal today.
Apparently I got some misinformation, and so did you. So I’m going to take this opportunity to set things straight, and then we can all get on with the important business of drinking ourselves to death.
THE DONATION BUTTON
I was initially told that all of this was triggered by my incorrect use of the Paypal donation button. “Only a registered nonprofit can use the donation button,” they told me, and that’s what I told you.
Except that turns out to be false.
Anyone can use a donation button. For anything. That’s why you see them on blogs, raising money for bandwidth or medical bills, or even beer money.
According to the Paypal executive who called me today, “The information you were given about using the donation button was definitely incorrect, and at the end of the day, it was an error in judgment on the agent’s part.”
So… it’s just that one guy then. It’s his fault. Good enough. Let’s run with that, because I’ve got 19 Judge Judy episodes on my DVR and they aren’t going to watch themselves.
Except he’s not the only one I heard it from. I also got that information in two separate emails from Paypal. And that means that Paypal’s donation policies are so poorly worded and vague that even the people who work there don’t understand them.
That’s not just bad for me, it’s bad for anyone who uses Paypal. Because as long as policies are this ambiguous, people will come up against this kind of crap and see their assets frozen. How many of them are going to be able to ratchet up the public shaming that was handed out in the last 24 hours?
And I think we all know that Paypal’s apologies and reversals were motivated by the intense scrutiny they’ve been subjected to. If I were Sally’s Soap Shack, I would be waiting out that six month hold right now and wondering how to make Ramen noodles taste like Christmas ham.
WHAT TRIGGERED THIS EVENT
According to Paypal, the red flags started flying because of how fast the donations came in. It wasn’t that we did anything wrong – it was that we did it too well. As I told you in this post, we were overfunded very quickly – in a couple of hours – and that set off a review process at Paypal.
And you know what? I have no problem with that. I have a 10+ year record of fundraising through Paypal, including over $150,000 raised in just the last two years for various causes. So I should pass any review with flying colors.
But this is where it all went wrong. Because according to the Paypal executive, this part of the process is “subjective”. At this point, a representative makes a call based on very sophisticated and nuanced criteria they don’t have to disclose to you, and by that I mean, I had a big lunch and I’m tired.
So it’s a crapshoot. And anything can happen. And it did.
“The normal protocol would have been for the agent to tell you that once you reach a certain threshold, your account is triggered for a review. And when the agent looked at your account and made a subjective decision, he made a very, very incorrect one.”
No shit.
And really, not just because fucking with poor kids at Christmas is a really terrible idea from a PR standpoint, but because I am a good, solid customer. I do a lot of business with Paypal. But the days of a company rewarding you for your loyalty are just over. No one knows how to treat you anymore. No one cares.
I think this is why this whole thing has resonated so deeply with people. We are all working very hard in a bad economic climate, and every cent we spend really matters. And corporations continue to treat us like they’re the only ones who are hurting.
We see the erosion of customer care in every sector. No one knows your name. No one makes eye contact. No one thanks you. Even doctors are practicing a completely different kind of medicine now. They have to see so many people to make the same money they used to that they’ve become more like mechanics. They forget your cancer is attached to a person. And Paypal forgets your fees are attached to people who are trying to make a living, or facilitate something good for other people. It makes sense doesn’t it? No one in their right mind would crap on poor kids at Christmas, unless they just weren’t paying attention.
WHAT THEY DID
In addition to an apology, Paypal has unfrozen both my personal account and my business account. It’s a nice gesture, but I’ve already refunded thousands of dollars in donations, so they’ve basically just given me access to money that wasn’t in issue to begin with. And they’re refunded $77 without explanation, and I have no idea what that represents.
They have also offered me the opportunity of doing unlimited business without fees through the end of the year. It’s really the only way I’d use them at this point, since they won’t be getting anything from me.
Then there is the issue of the “donation.” They came out very early this morning and said they made one, but that hasn’t happened yet. We did discuss it on the phone today and they offered to make a donation to the charity of my choice, but that isn’t what I wanted.
Instead, I asked for a $100 gift card for each of the 200 families we’re helping. This was my original intention, and this is what I wanted to do with the money in the first place.
In perhaps the only part of all of this that has surprised me, they seem to like the idea.
I’ll let you know how that progresses.
Do I think all of this will make a difference? Do I think this will usher in a new era of accountability and raise the level of service Paypal provides their customers?
Hell no.
But I will say this: we got someone to pay attention.
December 6, 2011 at 7:44 pm
I think the object lesson is “avoid Paypal at all costs”.
December 6, 2011 at 7:54 pm
I cancelled my paypal long ago for different reasons (not terribly different, in the end…) but now I am 100% never. ever. ever. using them for anything. ever. Even if it means dusting off my checkbook and waiting an extra x amount of time to get something, I am boycotting them for life.
I applaud April and her win(so far?) against them, but the damage is done as far as I’m concerned.
December 6, 2011 at 8:29 pm
In the midst of all this, they lie again. The news reports are “Paypal backs down, donates to Secret Santa fund”, making it sound like they already donated, but apparently the truth is they haven’t donated anything and are offering to make a donation of an undisclosed amount to another charity.
I think Regretsy should form Regretsy FLJ and register that as an official charity.
December 7, 2011 at 2:24 am
I have a creeping suspicion of dread, that the $77 “refund” constitutes a “donation” at PayPal’s corporate HQ.
December 7, 2011 at 11:58 am
I was just thinking the same thing. Paypal is just a fucking waste at this point.
December 7, 2011 at 5:18 am
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 7, 2011 at 12:17 pm
hahahah bitcoin ahahahahahahaaahaha bitcoin yes. sick of paypal’s horseshit? swap to the only thing on the planet worse than it, a lolbertarian masturbatory e-ponzi scheme!
December 8, 2011 at 12:04 am
Amazon and Google each have PayPal competitor services that are a lot less weird and kind of shady.
December 7, 2011 at 6:43 am
Being a registered charity doesn’t help. I volunteer for a small dog rescue charity that takes payment for stuff like calendars and merchandise via paypal : they have frozen our account more than once.
Having an army of vocal supporters who all use Paypal seems to be a lot more use than completing the paperwork. :-/
December 7, 2011 at 12:29 pm
I made that point below. THey grab when there is enough money to make it worth their while.
January 2, 2012 at 8:46 pm
I’m having yet another issue with Paypal myself at the moment (they regularly screw me and many others over).
They are flat out lying about their actions to me, and are in the wrong, yet refuse to admit they’ve broken their own terms and conditions. In this case there is no ambiguity at all, just pure false statements and clear cut incompetence.
It’s one thing to make an honest mistake, but to be completely dishonest, and incompetent more often than not is completely disgraceful. To not admit their business practices/handling were mistaken, but continue to screw over their customers is only going to mean millions of people and businesses will boycott Paypal and move over to Google Checkout or some other alternative.
Not sure about your local regulations, but in Australia we have the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). I encourage anyone to contact them when having issues with Paypal or other financial institution. Good luck.
December 6, 2011 at 7:55 pm
or avoid it as much as possible. the sad truth is, they’re still the big dog even if they are shady. it would be hard not to use it for anything on etsy. it’s what almost everyone accepts.
December 6, 2011 at 8:07 pm
I’m not sure why you got a vote down, but I get what you’re saying. Have I cancelled my accounts? Fuck yes. Am I still going to have to deal with them in some shape or form? Yup. But, you know what? At least it’s not MY money they’re taking from me, so it’s something. Hopefully, we can all encourage a move in a different direction in the aftermath of this bullshit.
December 6, 2011 at 8:26 pm
I suggest informing sellers who sell something you want about some of the other options, like Google Checkout of Amazon Payments. So many sellers accept Paypal right now because they were pressured to by buyers, and for the longest time Paypal was the only option for sellers without merchant accounts was Paypal. But not anymore. I’m seeing more and more sellers on etsy taking Google and skipping Paypal.
December 6, 2011 at 11:57 pm
I wish these alternatives were available in other countries as well. I was using MoneyBookers.com before PayPal decided to allow my 2nd world country in, but hardly anyone uses it..
December 7, 2011 at 1:41 am
What makes you think Google Checkout is any better? Have you read ANYTHING of *their* practices? Random holds for no reason…10 day initial holds on new accounts? Most small merchants can’t handle having their funds tied up for that long, and of course the customer assumes that since the money has been taken from them, that they should get their order immediately.
Which I understand, but it still puts the average small merchant into a bind.
Before you go blindly waving the Google Checkout flag, you ought to do a little research on them. Just because they aren’t PayPal doesn’t mean they aren’t evil also.
There *are* some new providers trying to step up and compete, and hopefully they will prove to be everything PayPal is not. But until then, sometimes sticking with the devil you know is better.
December 7, 2011 at 8:16 am
On etsy, there is no simple way to accept anything *but* paypal. PaySantaPalGate has made me decide to sign up for a credit card merchant account. That’s 40 smackers a month, but I’ll pay that if only to punish those twats just a little. I’ll use the merchant account as a payment gateway on my own website, and offer it as an option on etsy.
The problem is, if an etsy buyer wants to use a credit card through that merchant account, they will have to email me or select “other” as a payment type, then I will have to create a special payment link on my site, email it to them, then they will have to go there to pay. I’m pretty sure carrier pigeons are involved somewhere too, and maybe a Cryptex.
That’s more complicated, and online shoppers get stabby and close their wallets in response to complicated.
Etsy needs to step up and give us a way to integrate our own payment options, which I think will happen as soon as they get those steampunk pigs flying.
December 7, 2011 at 8:57 am
“I’m pretty sure carrier pigeons are involved somewhere too”
giggle
December 6, 2011 at 8:38 pm
There was a discussion in the forums about this. Some sellers are restricted due to the higher volume of buyers who will only use, or only know about PayPal. I think that if buyers started using something else as well working with sellers, we could make a dent in the PayPal monopoly. All in all though, lets not penalize those sellers who don’t yet have the foundation to ditch PayPal entirely.
December 7, 2011 at 8:18 am
Yes! As soon as my credit card merchant account is set up, I’ll welcome payments through it. Right now, the bulk of customers demand paypal. Start demanding other options, and sellers will listen. Please, demand other options.
December 7, 2011 at 9:13 am
I cancelled my PayPal account over this whole fiasco, but I’m not a seller and I’ll use other methods of payment whenever possible. I’m not financially able to shop much online anyway, so in the grand scheme it only makes a very tiny dot of a difference.
I agree that many sellers just can’t just abandon PayPal, and I, for one, would never fault anyone for that. Many people will still not only want it as an option, they will use nothing else. If any of this is really going to make a difference in how PayPal operates and treats it’s customers, it’s going to take both buyers and sellers being willing to explore other options.
I’d encourage everyone to do just that, but sellers still need to do what’s best for their situation.
December 6, 2011 at 8:57 pm
You can use other forms of payment on Etsy, just fyi.
December 6, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Wait. When I pay by credit card, does that go through PayPal? Because I don’t remember ever opening a PayPal account to pay for anything.
December 6, 2011 at 9:13 pm
If I remember right, when you use a credit card on Etsy, you do it as a “guest” of Paypal. Don’t quote me though.
December 6, 2011 at 9:50 pm
That’s how I’ve always used PP when I’ve been too lazy to sign in. You can simply pay with your card, but if PP is the only option, it routes through their system. How much of your info they keep, I have no idea.
December 6, 2011 at 11:15 pm
Another issue with PayPal is that it’ll let you do 4 transactions with the same card with the same vendor before it forces you to make a login if you are using the “free” version that takes credit cards.
Absolutely nothing about it in the support pages, but clearly a restriction. I finally got a PayPall higher up support person to confirm it for me.
December 6, 2011 at 11:41 pm
Oh my god! How the hell many companies get a piece of these purchases? No freaking wonder handcrafted items on Etsy are more expensive than commercially available items, yet the crafters aren’t making much money!
December 6, 2011 at 11:55 pm
Krazy, I thought it was by a certain amount. My brother made a few purchases totaling about $500 and was blocked from using his card anymore. I didn’t ask how many purchases. Regardless, it means Paypal is keeping your personal information and tallying it against you even if you don’t give any consent.
I’ve made purchases with Google, and all I have to do is put in the shipping and billing address and card info, and that’s that. From a buyer’s standpoint, I love it. According to sellers I know who’ve used both, Google rocks the world, and it’s what I’ll be using. Only annoying thing is for the first 60 days you’ve got a seller’s account money will take 14 days to be paid out, and after that, it’s after 2 days and is automatic, no requesting a withdrawal and then waiting for Paypal to approve it, which can take up to a week.
December 7, 2011 at 8:23 am
@SteampunkOctopus: A LOT. Etsy gets a percentage bite out of the purchase price. My shopping cart nibbles on me every month. Paypal takes another hefty snack off the proceeds. The IRS sits down for lunch, and then the state gorges on dessert.
The crumbs I spend on packaging, supplies, tools, web hosting, graphic design, promotion, my customer service assistant, and occasionally my cat’s vet bills.
December 7, 2011 at 8:44 am
I haven’t shown a real profit in years, yet I make pretty good sales (not just etsy). Everybody gets a piece of the dobedobeaddo pie.
December 7, 2011 at 8:59 am
@Steampunk – I agree that fees suck, but we’re getting services for those fees, and I don’t see why we shouldn’t have to pay for them. Etsy’s servers aren’t free. Neither are eBay’s or PayPal’s or other sites like them. They have overhead costs, and they are for-profit businesses. If they (and every other company like them) weren’t making money, they wouldn’t be in business and we would not have a venue to sell our wares or anyone to process payments. Unless we paid to set up our own websites and have merchant accounts, which is much more expensive.
Do I cringe over the fees? Sure, but they’re not much different wherever you go. Every payment processor has to charge a fee to cover the CC company fees, and those that are “free” are generally pretty limited in terms of the number of free transactions you can do. Sure, it’s worth researching, but in the end, you’re always giving a portion of your profits to someone else.
December 7, 2011 at 9:02 am
But of course, we should definitely do our research to find the best deals. At least Etsy is lower than eBay – they charge to list and they charge 11% of final sales (INCLUDING SHIPPING CHARGES). However, there’s a trade-off; eBay advertises their site better and brings more traffic. But which is better depends on what you’re selling; for me, eBay’s been the better option so far.
(But you’d better believe I’d jump ship if I found a better option, because they have a way of pissing me off.)
December 7, 2011 at 1:46 pm
@Rush Girl
It simply amazed me to realize just how much of price of items goes elsewhere. It’s true that fees for services are reasonable; I just hadn’t realized how many companies have to be paid. It’s pretty eye-opening.
December 6, 2011 at 9:29 pm
I work as a freelancer via these ol’
Internets, and while I’ve found a PayPal alternative that I really like (Google Checkout), many clients prefer using PayPal just because it’s known and familiar. I’m not in a position to turn work away out of a sense of noble indignation, unfortunately, but I’m definitely stepping up my encouragement of shifts to other processors. in a few years, I think they’ll actually be facing some serious competition and might have to change the way they do business.December 7, 2011 at 12:03 am
I closed my PP account when I first read about this whole mess. Knowing that PP is the easiest way for me to be paid by certain companies, I did so with the caveat that if they fixed this, I would consider doing business with them again. Even in that case, however, I’ll only ever use it if it’s the only available option; I’ve signed up for a number of alternatives and plan to be spreading the word about them at every opportunity to chip away at this giant.
December 7, 2011 at 7:06 am
I like Google checkout as well – but you simply cannot use it to sell on eBay or half.com – you’re required to ONLY take PayPal. How’s that for anti-trust violation??
December 7, 2011 at 9:08 am
That’s not quite true, actually. You can’t use Google checkout (that I’m aware of) and you are required to accept at least one electronic option in most categories, but there ARE other options besides PayPal.
From eBay’s help pages (http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html):
For most categories, sellers need to offer one or more of the following electronic payment choices:
PayPal
ProPay
Moneybookers
Paymate
Credit card or debit card processed through the seller’s Internet merchant account
December 7, 2011 at 10:26 am
Oh shit – they changed it! There was a period of time where you COULD NOT accept anything BUT PayPal…..that’s when I stopped eBaying so much….apparently, the outcry finally won….fuckers, way to update your members of the changes that HELP them….
December 7, 2011 at 11:08 am
That must’ve been before my time – every change eBay’s made since then has generally been NEGATIVE. They stopped allowing us to advertise check/money order acceptance, and only recently started including shipping charges in their final value fees. That’s all very well and good if you’re selling lightweight items, but it SUCKS for items that have a higher charge.
Why should eBay get more money based on the freaking WEIGHT of the item and the amount the P.O. is charging? They say to pass it on to the customer by increasing the charge, but how is that fair to them either? Plus it increases the fees eBay collects too! It’s insane, but unfortunately it’s the only way for me to make money right now.
December 7, 2011 at 11:10 am
Oops – “higher charge” = “higher weight.”
December 7, 2011 at 2:49 pm
I love you all! Here’s my first ever Regretsy comment….
This is today: PayPal, Moneybookers, ProPay, and Paymate are available for U.S. purchases only and aren’t available for eBay Motors, Real Estate, Business & Industrial, or capital equipment purchases.
But it only changed recently. See:
http://www.screw-paypal.com/asshole_series/asshole.html
December 10, 2011 at 7:05 am
All sellers on eBay UK MUST accept PayPal. You can offer other payment options if you like, including credit cards if you’re able to process them, but you can’t opt out of PayPal.
December 6, 2011 at 8:37 pm
I’m leaving this up here hoping it gets noticed, my head hurts. HK, DO WE NEED TO RE-SEND YOU THE MONEY THEY REFUNDED TWICE? Because I will.
December 6, 2011 at 8:43 pm
I second this question.
December 7, 2011 at 4:56 am
I also would like to know when paypal is going to remove the gd hold they have on my “Refunded” transaction.
December 8, 2011 at 7:46 am
same boat here. My $20 refund still has a “temporary hold” placed on it.
December 8, 2011 at 10:00 am
I emailed them and they emailed me back with a list of reasons a “seller” like me could have her transaction frozen. Yep. Apparently I was the “seller” in this transaction. Idiots.
December 6, 2011 at 9:08 pm
“But I will say this: we got someone to pay attention.”
YES,~ yes we did!~
December 6, 2011 at 9:42 pm
December 7, 2011 at 4:21 am
Commemorative sampler material, right there.
December 6, 2011 at 9:51 pm
I think the lesson learned is that corporations (the 1%) have entered into a new way of interacting with the rest of us (the 99%).
They don’t hold us by the short hairs any longer.
Within a few hours, with a minimum of effort, we can make a multinational corp. look like dog shit. We can hit them where it hurts–in the wallet and in their well groomed public image (which ultimately diminishes their bottom line).
That’s the lesson learned here…
December 7, 2011 at 4:34 am
Yep. Someone on an earlier post was talking about enlisting Anonymous to help, and I said, “Anonymous isn’t April’s private army, but we are.” I’m so proud of this community for acting together decisively, persistently, and ultimately effectively. Anonymous couldn’t have done a better job, and we didn’t need to bring down servers to make our point.
Because here’s the thing: we are Anonymous. We are a large group of people, of fluidly shifting composition, who come together to act as one when we feel a need to. We have a diversity of talents and professions in our makeup, but we share an appreciation for creativity and an ability to solve problems creatively. There’s no reason for us not to be able to accomplish anything Anonymous could accomplish, even if we go about it differently. Give that a little thought. If we were activists, the world would… well, not tremble, but definitely twitch.
Not bad for a bunch of FJLs overly fond of vodka and cross-stitch.
December 7, 2011 at 4:35 am
*sigh* tag fail. Oh, look: NOW I notice the preview button is back!
December 7, 2011 at 6:36 am
yes yes yes. May I quote you at length?
December 7, 2011 at 7:19 am
They should just be glad we didn’t get to the part where we “organize” a campaign to mail tampon people to their home offices!
December 7, 2011 at 9:26 am
Now I want to make tampon people…just in case.
December 7, 2011 at 8:26 am
Anonymous already has it in for Paypal anyway since their (Paypal’s) embargo on Wikileaks.
I personally am starting to believe April/Helen/Ellen/Merril IS Anonymous but then again she would only be able to do the super hack(ing)jobs during her lucid moments which she has sort of made clear are few and far between.
December 7, 2011 at 8:51 am
@alia gee: Sure, if you’d like. *blush*
December 10, 2011 at 7:12 am
I was composing a poem in my head on this subject the other day, but it’s pretty nebulous. I wanted to base it loosely on “Ode” by Arthur O’Shaughnessy (“We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams…”).
The only line that’s stuck so far is “We are the fire-eyed hell-bitches”.
You do have to understand that, at the age of 18, I vowed never to write poetry again for as long as I lived.
December 12, 2011 at 6:42 pm
I adore it so far.
December 7, 2011 at 4:09 am
While I never comment in posts, this one really pissed me off! Now, here is how to fix you situation.
There is a new company out there called https://www.wepay.com/
This company allows you to take payments online as well as DONATIONS for whatever you need to do.
I am not affiliated with this company but you can be set up in a few minutes and ready to get back rolling
2 things will happen if you do.
1. You can help the children
2. Paypal cannot touch your money ever again!!!!!!!
December 10, 2011 at 7:18 am
The problem is that so many of these alternative payments companies are restricted to the US.
Dwolla is entirely US-restricted. WePay accounts can be set up only within the US, although at least it allows international payments.
I’m sure that any of these companies that survive and grow will eventually become international players, but until then they’re not particularly useful for US-based internet sellers — and no use at all for those of us in other countries.
December 7, 2011 at 8:22 am
As an Etsy, Ebay and PayPal user, I thought this was hilarious. I’m glad mainstream media is now aware of PayPal’s idiocy. PayPal sucks period! Use Google checkout or support the the new start up Dwolla.com
Good Job Regretsy
December 6, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Absolute power corrupts, absolutely.
December 6, 2011 at 7:45 pm
Well fuck, I guess that means I can’t send the giant box of flaming elephant shit to their headquarters anymore.
/firstworldproblems
December 6, 2011 at 7:48 pm
Hold that until we see if they make that donation.
December 6, 2011 at 7:50 pm
That “donation” was probably the mystery $77 dollar credit.
December 6, 2011 at 7:57 pm
Yeah, and I just figured out that they only gave her 25 days free from fees. WTF. Not good enough! SEND THE SHIT
December 6, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Just in time for AFTER the donation drive.
December 7, 2011 at 3:27 am
Yeah, as soon as I saw “until the end of the year” I laughed. Uh.. it is DECEMBER! They should have given it to her for a full year.
December 6, 2011 at 8:39 pm
That’s what I’m guessing too but there’s no way to be sure since supposedly there was zero explanation.
December 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm
I really hope they make that donation of $100 gift cards to each of the families. I can only imagine what a big difference that would be to each of them!
December 6, 2011 at 8:35 pm
I know it sure helped my boyfriend and I last year when we were waiting for a FoodShare application to finish processing.
Sure, we lived on $25 a week not knowing how long it would take to get that phone call (I swear I could feel my eyeballs sinking in) but I’m still so grateful to this day.
*cues a flock of eagles to start shedding glittery tears*
December 6, 2011 at 9:19 pm
December 6, 2011 at 9:25 pm
I love this so hard!
December 6, 2011 at 9:26 pm
Make this card and I’d buy them!!!! Maybe for next year, we could (those of us, not me, with design abilities) design Regretsy holiday cards. Hell, we could even make up some holidays!
December 6, 2011 at 9:31 pm
Ooh, I just clicked thruogh to your shop—you have prints of this and Hellephant in the tub! And Hellephant and Girlephant are the totesiest adorbs!!!
December 6, 2011 at 9:58 pm
This needs a comment of the day award. And it needs to go in the shop or on a sampler or something.
December 6, 2011 at 10:05 pm
Damn it, this needs to be an ornament, cards, and possibly a horrible Xmas sweater.
December 6, 2011 at 10:09 pm
I have a hellephant addiction. This is only a print because I can’t sell cards. (long story). If April wants to sell it on Zazzle, I’ll be happy to donate the image.
December 6, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Thanks for the sweet hellephant love BTW! Does zazzle make horrible christmas sweaters? There are a few hellephant threads in the forums, full of fan art fuckery.
December 6, 2011 at 10:25 pm
This made me cry tears of joy . . . . I want one!!! I have a helephant addiction as well
December 6, 2011 at 10:58 pm
So adorable! Totally purchased. Along with the Hellephant and Girlephant Music Times print.
And I’m totally on board with these being the Regretsy Christmas card next year.
December 7, 2011 at 12:05 am
This. is. awwwwsome.
December 7, 2011 at 3:27 am
I’ve been struck nearly speechless with the awesome of this!!!! OMG CUTE AWESOME OMG WIN AMAZING KJHASLDFHJDFJHJGHBVX
December 7, 2011 at 4:37 am
SQUEE!
I would actually send out Christmas cards for the first time in my life if this were a card. Way too fucking adorable for words.
December 7, 2011 at 4:43 am
I would TOTALLY buy those cards! Make them!
December 7, 2011 at 5:00 am
Every time I see your puffer fish I feel like I have to smile back. So I end up sitting at my laptop grinning at a fish drawing for like 5 minutes. (It really brightens my day.)
December 7, 2011 at 5:53 am
You are a fantastic person.
December 7, 2011 at 8:50 am
I am so cheered by this image! It’s been a rough few weeks for me, both personally and Regretsally, and this just made everything better. Much love to you.
December 7, 2011 at 9:14 am
Holy crap. Your shop is going in my faves so when we finally move I can plaster my boys’ room in your aquatic prints. I love them all, but the balloon fish and angler fish are my faves.
December 7, 2011 at 9:27 am
This is bloody fantastic…the little details! The thread where his ear should be! LOVE IT
December 7, 2011 at 9:42 am
Your shop is super awesome! If I weren’t a starving student trying to stay one step above noodles, I’d buy you out.
The ‘noodles term’ of last year was the worst of my life. It’s amazing the amount of hatred you can feel towards a foodstuff. Fucking noodles.
December 7, 2011 at 9:48 am
I don’t have time right now to read through all of the comments (I will later), but I just wanted to say that I think this community is beyond great. The response to PayPal makes me proud and gives me hope–we can (and did) make a difference. That’s huge!
Great blog post! Love April’s diamond sharp mind.
December 7, 2011 at 10:49 am
Tiny Tim Hellephant made my week. Without oversharing, it’s been a terrible year, I’m not feeling Christmassy at all, but for some reason, this struck a chord and totally ungrinchified me. So cute.
December 7, 2011 at 11:39 am
@HellYes You have crazy, mad talents! I add my squee to @Crease and Resists’s, and my long, happy Pufferfish gaze to @Agent of Chaos.
December 7, 2011 at 12:45 pm
I’m sorry but you are all being way too nice for regresty folk. No body’s called me a bitch or sprayed internet lysol. I’m fat and I am unemployed and you forgot to point that out.
“Santa” is bringing my little girl a Christmas present from your apartments in your parent’s basements. I am glad Tiny Hellephant has brought you a little joy, because you bring so much to me.
Now if you excuse me, I have must have some fucking fake snow in my eye.
December 7, 2011 at 1:57 pm
@Hell Yes
Hey bitch! When I said I bought those prints, I really meant it! Get those beauties shipped pronto, ’cause I’ve got some decorating to do! Now quit playing in the snow and get to work, dammit!
(Is that better? Because I seriously love this hellephant and want you to be happy.)
December 9, 2011 at 7:16 am
Dammit, Hell Yes, I was doing great on my fat, jealous loserdom. I was snarking and being cynical and chewing off Paypal’s head and refusing to spread cheer this season and then you go and ruin it by telling me that I’ve fucked it all up by ordering a print off you.
Bah, humbug, and pass the napkins, I’ve stubbed my toe on your good news, dammit.
December 6, 2011 at 7:48 pm
I see no reason why this means you can no longer ship the shit.
Throw a donate button up on your blog, and I’ll happily donate to shipping costs/elephant laxatives.
December 6, 2011 at 8:01 pm
I think ship the shit is a phrase that should be used more often. hehe
December 6, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Unfortunately, I think ‘ship the shit’ is already a trademarked slogan for Etsy.
December 6, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Watch out – UPS might try to sue for copyright infringement then! (that’s what “what can brown do for you” always translated to in my head anyways)
December 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
I’ll just say the fundraiser is for my “sick cat.” THEY’LL NEVER SUSPECT IT
December 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm
If they’ll allow fundraising for sick cats, then they should definitely allow it for elephants with explosive diarrhea.
December 6, 2011 at 8:59 pm
(I hope I did that right)
December 6, 2011 at 8:29 pm
December 7, 2011 at 4:15 am
Wait a minute…
*squints eyes and inspects
kittehcat* …That cat doesn’t look very sick to me.I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE UP TO!!
December 6, 2011 at 9:32 pm
What still sticks in my goatsee hole is the rep Helen spoke to on the phone. Sure PP said their rep made the wrong decision but what about:
“We know what you’re doing and we’re through playing games with you.” and he said I had to… write a letter saying you understood what you did WAS WRONG AND YOU WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN”
I’m sure this phone reps computer sign on would appear as accessing HK’s file, so identity can be determined. It is one thing to have to make an “executive decision” and make the wrong one, but lies and junior High school-level taunting from a customer service representative. UNPROFESSIONAL UNFORGIVABLE
December 6, 2011 at 11:00 pm
Perhaps someone is a teacher trying to make ends meet as a PayPal CSR?
December 7, 2011 at 12:21 am
I would suggest the phone call was recorded as well for “quality purposes”…so that individual responsible is going to be having a shithouse week working for PayPuke
December 7, 2011 at 12:41 am
If they are still working there. My husband works as a customer service agent in a call centre – if he had spoken to a customer like that, it would be instant sacking, no second chance. And these places always record phone calls, for that very reason (that’s what they mean by “training”).
December 7, 2011 at 3:31 am
They are arrogant fuckwads. They think that this monopoly will never end. They think they can treat their customers like shit because they can’t go anywhere else (at least not easily). But they need to look at history and realize that other companies that have made this mistake have fallen. Just ask Ma Bell. Or MySpace.
December 7, 2011 at 6:05 am
Unfortunately, I’ve worked in a LOT of different call centers over the years…
and sometimes if the rude careless CS rep is also one of the people who “takes the most calls” (mngmt reads as “most productive”) there will be no action taken.
the CS agent who Takes some time to actually FIX the customer’s problem… (but takes fewer calls since each customer is handled in 1 or 2 calls at 5 min each, not 10 calls at 1 min each) that agent is usually #1 on the layoff list.
December 7, 2011 at 6:06 am
This. Especially combined with Paypal’s ‘one guy makes a judgement call’ method of fiscal review. In both the Regretsy and the SA debacles it was suggested that the funds would be freed up if they were donated to other charities. Say the money did come from the Stolen Credt Card raffle at the Annual Whores and Methamphetamines Charity Gala-how would changing the recipient fix that? Why do multiple people with that kind of thinking have unilateral power over other people’s money?
December 7, 2011 at 6:08 am
addenda, I’m Sooooo glad I’m no longer working in call centers…
I’m no longer selling on Etsy (at least for now) but I don’t seem to have much choice about accepting Pay pal elsewhere, even though other payment processes are available, very few customers are aware of them, or willing to set up ANOTHER account somewhere if they already have paypal.
Remember United Hates Guitars?
If I ever have issues with an account frozen or funds held for no reason, I know who I’m going to ask for help.
December 7, 2011 at 8:52 am
this was the thing that the big time lawyers that I work with were stuck on. This and the “we know what you are doing…” crap. In layman’s terms: They don’t know shite.
December 6, 2011 at 7:48 pm
They haven’t made the donation yet, so I think you can go ahead and send it!
December 6, 2011 at 7:48 pm
Why not? They were still assholes.
December 6, 2011 at 7:48 pm
Send it anyway. I’m sure they’re still fucking with someone else’s money.
December 6, 2011 at 8:01 pm
I really thought you said that they were fucking someone else’s monkey.
December 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Hey, it’s PayPal. You never know.
December 6, 2011 at 7:48 pm
Wait, why not? They screwed me out of $500 a few years ago!
December 6, 2011 at 7:49 pm
I would anyway. Old school: in a bag, set on fire, on the front doorstep!
December 6, 2011 at 7:50 pm
You still can. They deserve it
December 6, 2011 at 7:52 pm
I think you should send it anyway. I’m sure they still deserve it for dastardly deeds that haven’t been made public.
December 7, 2011 at 12:43 am
For a moment your shirtless avatar made me think you were Bronc. Are you sure you’re qualified to wear his uniform?
December 7, 2011 at 11:35 am
I think all the guys should wear this uniform. I’ll judge if they are qualified or not.
December 6, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Why not? Stupid bastards need to completely understand how badly they fucked up.
December 6, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Wouldn’t that be a giant box of flaming hellephant shit?
December 6, 2011 at 8:45 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3w1_E1V46M
Not exactly relevant to the discussion at hand, but still awesome.
December 7, 2011 at 5:31 am
Wow, couldn’t watch that. The first few seconds almost gave me a seizure….
December 6, 2011 at 9:50 pm
I am totally sending a big pile of shit to several people. I WILL work wonders and find out the addresses of PayPal higher-ups. *evil maniacal giggle*
December 7, 2011 at 12:44 am
You’d be better to purchase a tirade from Sam Cornwell and email it to all of them. Just as effective, and less likely that some poor innocent janitor will end up bearing the brunt.
December 6, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Progress. Fuck yeah.
December 6, 2011 at 7:46 pm
That is (cautiously) good news. I only wish other worthy groups could have the same outpouring of anger. In any event, well done slags!
December 6, 2011 at 8:47 pm
December 6, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Careful…Yoko might call out her layers on you and she’s evil, to boot!
December 7, 2011 at 3:32 am
Yeah, even evil paypal representatives are skeered of Yoko!
December 8, 2011 at 9:28 am
I know someone who worked with her for a few years (not FOR her, which is why the person lasted so long). Likes to say, “All those stories you hear about her? Forget the. The truth is so much worse!”
December 6, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Could the $77 be refunded fees they screwed you out of?
December 6, 2011 at 7:50 pm
I seem to recall a much larger, three-digit number in collected fees from a previous post. Although my blinding anger and frustration could have just multiplied the number…
December 6, 2011 at 7:51 pm
And their lack of reading comprehension could have divided the number.
December 6, 2011 at 7:54 pm
…perhaps the fees from one of the screw-overs, instead of all three, then.
December 6, 2011 at 8:35 pm
Maybe part of, but each transaction was 30 cents PLUS a percentage. A thousand transactions would be $300 in fees, and there were more than that. That doesn’t count the percentage fee.
December 7, 2011 at 4:09 am
Paypal refunded the percentage fees when April did the refunds, they only kept the fixed fees.
$77 in fixed fees, divided by $0.30, makes 256 Donations, for $4000, makes an average donation of of $15.60, so about half of the people donating $10, the other half $20, and some a bit more (yes, I know, two halves and all that…).
So it could possibly work out to be the fixed fees from the first donation round that had to be refunded (and keep in mind that April already took some money out before the account was frozen, so possibly she didn’t have to refund everything).
December 7, 2011 at 1:13 am
It’s for the lube.
December 6, 2011 at 7:46 pm
God damn it HKpril, I love you and your gargantuan set of courageballs.
December 6, 2011 at 7:47 pm
Imagine my surprise when this story was covered on our local news here in St. Louis. Seems the Regretsy crowd is mighty indeed.
December 6, 2011 at 7:51 pm
It even made it on CNN. Kinda blew me away.
December 6, 2011 at 8:55 pm
Also MSNBC. It’s currently the top story in their tech section.
http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/06/9252348-paypal-says-our-bad-on-regretsy-charity-scandal
December 6, 2011 at 11:04 pm
I love the typo where they call them “PayPay.” Too true.
December 7, 2011 at 8:12 am
I’m sure that was intentional. The author of the story (Helen A.S. Popkin) is just as snarky as the people here, and her writing is almost always satirical.
December 7, 2011 at 12:53 am
Also CNET, Digitaltrends, Forbes, the Washington Post blog, International Business Times, Washington Times, CTV, Daily Mail (scurrilous but influential UK tabloid), Daily Telegraph, San Francisco Chronicle, Sydney Morning Herald, the Wired blog and many, many other less mainstream outlets. Also loads of non-English language results.
Damn that’s satisfying.
December 7, 2011 at 12:59 am
Oh, and more! Why is Google so reluctant to show all news results? Honestly I have had to click “show all results” or similar at least 5 times to get the full list of English language news results. Check it out – there are 3 Os in Gooogle!
http://news.google.com/news/story?pz=1&cf=all&ned=uk&hl=en&q=regretsy+paypal&ncl=dPzfRAlEFpUcadMikhllGUpxt9MKM&cf=all&channel=fs&scoring=d&start=0
December 6, 2011 at 7:57 pm
Another St. Louis regretsian! Hello thar!
December 6, 2011 at 11:04 pm
We need to get together sometime.
December 7, 2011 at 6:22 am
Me too!
December 7, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Me three. I emailed the link to Fox 2 news. They have an internet reporter in the morning. And they’re on from 4 am to 10 am. :O
December 6, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Shoot! I missed it! Which channel?!
December 6, 2011 at 8:16 pm
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/06/tech/web/regretsy-paypal-gifts/?hpt=hp_bn6
December 6, 2011 at 9:31 pm
It even made the Daily Mail!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2070786/PayPal-turns-Scrooge-shuts-blogs-Secret-Santa-program-poor-children.html
That’s a what all the classy fat jealous loser assholes read, I’m lead to believe. With pinky extended, natch.
December 6, 2011 at 9:49 pm
Love that article…they even put pics of some of the stuff Regretsy’s featured and a photo of April. Oh, and Regretsy is a “bitingly sarcastic” site.
December 6, 2011 at 10:04 pm
The only mistake in the article that I can see is that it says April is based in NYC. As if! That would be so cool, in a stalking-a-really-admired-person-by-lurking-around-the-corner-near-her-home-and-shyly-waving-”Hi!” way.
Can you imagine the ear-splitting SQUEEEEEs that would erupt if any Regretsian were walking down the street and came upon April and/or Bronc? Windows in highrises would shatter.
Signed,
A Proud but Sad NYC Regretsian
December 6, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Here again, when Regretsy is featured it brings direct exposure to etsy. Regretsy has done so much to promote etsy…and yet those cupcakes over there continue to whine… as etsy sends out an email to me saying “Come back to Etsy!” …yeah right douchecanoes.
December 7, 2011 at 12:55 am
Yeah, I got that too. Pre-Christmas sales must be down. Which is a bad thing, when you consider all the non-reseller sellers struggling to make sales at what should be the busiest time of the year.
However, maybe this will help. There are still lots of people out there who have never heard of Etsy, and no publicity is bad publicity, right?
December 7, 2011 at 9:47 pm
I shop etsy all the time, but never the resellers. Never any seller that looks even remotely like a reseller…and I only continue to buy from etsy because of my love for all the Etsy sellers that comment here on Regretsy’s site.
December 6, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Dammit! The one day my boyfriend doesn’t make me watch the news, something interesting is on it.
December 6, 2011 at 9:30 pm
yup – our local news (bay news 9 tampa) covered it as well
December 7, 2011 at 3:13 am
Howdy from Dunedin =P
December 7, 2011 at 10:03 am
You’re in Dunedin?! I am totally stalking you next time I’m there (my mom still owns my grandmother’s house in Dunedin, and I go visit occasionally). There are FJLs in St. Pete, too. RegretsiCon at Gram’s house is gonna happen, one of these days!!
December 7, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Oh sweet. Not sure if you’ll check these comments again, but just in case: You can contact me at my Regretsy username @gmail.com
December 7, 2011 at 5:48 am
Apparently our local news didn’t have time to mention it…what with all of the meth labs, robberies and suspicious fires. Dammit, man. That’s NOT news anymore!
December 7, 2011 at 7:55 am
Our regular news channel is the local NBC affiliate, but they haven’t had time to cover the PayPal Debacle: a dog ran away from its foster home and they’re providing 24-hour coverage of attempts to catch him. (I wish I were joking.)
December 6, 2011 at 7:47 pm
Maybe that $77 has to get split 200 ways …..
December 6, 2011 at 7:47 pm
I’m proud of everyone that came together to harass the hell out of Paypal to bring some sort of help in the end to the families. Hopefully Paypal will go through with their end of the bargain with the gift cards. Either way I’m pleased as spiked punch that Paypal’s shit was brought to light. I saw a bunch of my friends repost the link to the bullshit and I’m pretty sure most of them didn’t even know what Regretsy was. In the end, don’t fuck with a bunch of drunks trying to give charity at Christmas.
December 6, 2011 at 7:51 pm
And Im still closing my account of course. The mistake would have never been justified if we hadn’t taken the lengths to make it a PR nightmare.
December 6, 2011 at 7:47 pm
Helen Killer has finally made me cry. And they are good, good tears. If you’re a nasty, evil cuntbag, I hope I can be one when I grow up.
December 6, 2011 at 8:16 pm
It’s good to have a goal in life!
December 6, 2011 at 8:29 pm
And who said there were no role models anymore?
December 7, 2011 at 9:49 pm
Thank you for making my wordy thoughts a concise reality.
December 7, 2011 at 12:09 pm
My 10 year old announced last night that she wants to be a comedian when she grows up. I can only hope that she turns out to be a lot like Ms. Killer.
December 6, 2011 at 7:47 pm
I’ve seen it from the outside looking in, but this is the first time I’ve been part of a group of people who have made a company sit back and pay attention. Goddamn if this crazy internet thing isn’t good for something!
Paypal might be a bunch of fucks, but LOOK WHAT WE DID, LOSERS!
December 6, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Now we just need to make sure that PIPA and SOPA don’t go through so we can keep speakin freely on this internet we love so dearly!
December 6, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Funny you should mention SOPA. I received a letter from Rep. Peter King (one of the sponsors). Said that there has been a lot of misinformation circulating, including the idea that people like Justin Bieber (huh?) wouldn’t be able to post videos on YouTube. (I wonder if they trot out a female star for a male letter writer.) He says that the primary goal is to prevent illegal prescription drugs being sold (which could kill us) as well as poor-quality un-inspected electrical devices. That last one is a big concern of the firefighters, apparently. (And yes, poorly made electrical devices CAN cause fires.)
I’m not sure what to make of it. It certainly SOUNDS like it would be very helpful, but I’m rather cynical of anything concerning politicians…
December 6, 2011 at 10:06 pm
Wait, what? SOPA: the act to end all acts! Stop online piracy, illegal prescription drug sales, and distribution of uninspected electrical devices! It’s really a good deal for you! I think that Mr. King needs to retire, or stop mixing those illegally acquired pills he’s so fond of, he could start a fire!
December 6, 2011 at 11:11 pm
Bundling at it’s finest!
December 6, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Oh and Mugsy, I would love to read that letter! It sounds like a hoot!
December 6, 2011 at 10:33 pm
I’ll see what I can do. Once I read it, I started thinking about scanning and posting it.
December 19, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Justin Bieber started out singing karaoke on YouTube – that is how he was discovered; he hasn’t always been famous.
The problem with this passing is the ambiguous wording in it, which can be interpreted in such ways.
December 6, 2011 at 7:47 pm
THANK GOD! I have been waiting to find out what happened for hours- and the fact that they are still CLAIMING to have made a donation but have not yet even approved the one you asked for is still appalling!
Yes it may be a ‘subjective’ review, but it doesn’t actually make it the agent’s fault, because it is still PayPal’s policy which allowed this gross abuse of power to occur without oversight!
December 6, 2011 at 8:06 pm
Maybe they mailed a check…
December 6, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Even they don’t trust PayPal with their money!
December 7, 2011 at 1:10 am
A mistake you make is still your fault, even if the company you work for lets you make it. That just makes it their fault as well.
And the way that rep spoke on the phone is entirely their fault and completely unjustifiable.
December 6, 2011 at 7:48 pm
I’m glad things are starting to clear up.
December 6, 2011 at 8:06 pm
And getting slightly better than planned! I hope PP coughs up that 200 gift cards as an apology. Free business to year’s end is good although to the end of the Financial Year would have been better! I hope this is the end to Regretsy’s woes for the time being and the charity reaches its goal!
December 7, 2011 at 4:43 am
$20,000 is getting off lightly compared to the good will this fiasco could have cost them. PayPal’s only goal is to make sure that when the story hits other news outlets, it’s about PayPal making things right on Christmas instead of focusing on why they needed to in the first place.
December 7, 2011 at 10:55 am
Too late for that — it’s gone global, and the heavy emphasis in every story I’ve read has been on their ridiculous behavior.
As in “United Hates Guitars,” all it takes is one bad customer service rep to create a WORLD of butthurt for a company. Although I’m sure that the number of bad customer service reps at PayPal FAR exceeds one.
PayPal is in heavy recovery mode. I’m sure they’re praying that some other event will come along to take them off the front page.
December 6, 2011 at 7:48 pm
either this makes me feel warm and fuzzy or i just grew a penis. either way, yay
December 7, 2011 at 3:15 am
I don’t even– What? O_o
December 6, 2011 at 7:48 pm
Truly, I have never been prouder to be a member of this community than I was today. I know that there are probably a lot of people reading tonight that don’t normally read us, and that’s a good thing. Because, honestly, we’re a community to be proud of….we just got a chance to show that to the world (literally) today.
December 6, 2011 at 8:49 pm
I’ve made this comment other places before but it bears repeating: Together we can move mountains. Bravo, losers!
December 6, 2011 at 7:49 pm
And that means we’ve done more good than we intended to do. Not only are we helping some children have an awesome Christmas, we’re bringing attention to serious corporate flaws.
It has been a kick ass day, indeed.
December 6, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Yay let’s hear it for the power of the community voice! A community of fat jealous losers, but yes we made ourselves heard.
December 6, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Great post. I am obviously not completely satisfied but there’s only going to be so much we can do with these asshats. It’s nice to know that all our rage and effort did not go unrewarded.
December 6, 2011 at 7:49 pm
April, you recall that batch of Regretsy pin-back buttons I made and sent to you a little while back? I’m thinking, in future, that if you need any more of those, (say to list for “sale” when we need to raise money for whatever), just let me know. I can crank out about 1000 or so a day, even when the arthritis is acting up. And PayPal can’t say shit about it if some of your readers are willing to shell out $5 or $10 a piece for them, since it’s a tangible item being sold and delivered.
Fucktards can’t possibly screw that up, can they?
December 6, 2011 at 7:51 pm
You have no idea how bad those fucktards can screw things up…
December 6, 2011 at 7:57 pm
I’ve been a customer of theirs since 1999, shortly after they really got started, and have never had them screw me over as badly as they screwed Regretsy’s loyal fat slags over this. Kind of a shame, really, when I think back on all the promise they showed before eBay bought them out. *sigh*
December 6, 2011 at 8:44 pm
I was a customer of their starting when the company was still x.com, back when they were so new I got an e-mail thanking me for being one of the first customers and for having faith in them. My first transaction sending money ended up being a scam and I had to file a claim and got nothing. I was shocked. As a seller myself I thought people who were scammed got refunds no questions asked, and instead I was scammed and X/Paypal found in my favor but wouldn’t refund money because the seller did it to many people. I gave X/Paypal another chance, and had many problems throughout the year, finally closing my account earlier this year, then opening one again at the urging of family and friends who wanted to help me out of a tough spot after a customer scammed me in the last couple weeks. That account will be closed as soon as I can get the remaining money out of it. I don’t want Paypal making money off of fees. They don’t deserve it, and there are viable options now.
December 7, 2011 at 1:13 am
Maybe you can clear this up for me, as it has been bothering me since this whole fiasco started – why do people use PayPal to send money to friends or relatives? Can’t you just do an internet banking transfer? Or is that not available in the States?
I can send money to any bank account in the UK and it arrives within 2 hours. And that’s through a proper bank, no need for PayPal.
December 7, 2011 at 1:36 am
@Catt, most banks charge about $25 for an outgoing wire from your account and $10-$15 for an incoming wire. That’s just for DOMESTIC! If you’re looking at wiring funds to someone internationally, you’re facing a $50 outgoing wire fee. Western Union or other comparable services charge about 10% of the amount of funds being sent. Paypal’s service is free if funded through your bank account and around 3% if funded through a debit card domestically. International transfers funded with a debit card are about 4%.
I’ve learned this through a career in banking as well as through a friend that uses Paypal to send money to her family in Ukraine.
December 7, 2011 at 3:59 am
Catt, for some weird reason Americans don’t do banking transfers. I (expat European currently living in Australia) learned this the hard way when I was a freelance writer for an American magazine. Instead of transferring my remuneration into my bank account, as I requested, they would always send me cheques. I didn’t really like that, as cashing the cheques involved a fee which ate up a considerable part of my earnings, but they wouldn’t budge. Banking transfers were out of the question, I was told. I have no idea why America is so different from other countries in this regard. It’s weird.
Etsy just introduced banking transfers as a payment option for European sellers. Sadly, the option doesn’t yet seem to be available to sellers in other parts of the world…
December 7, 2011 at 6:17 am
OK re: internet or wire transfers in the US.
daughter and I use the same Credit Union. she can log into her account and transfer money TO my account (provided she has the number), I can transfer money TO her account (provided I have her number). Sometimes there has been a phone call asking “what’s up with this? You don’t usually do this?” but after the first time or two, No biggie. (Usually it’s been “my daughter lent me some cash” or “the kid wants to buy something online…” ) The Credit Union doesn’t charge any fee for this.
However, lets say I needed to borrow from my parents for an emergency, they use an actual Bank in another state. Even if it wouldn’t be a very complicated process to do so, they’d have to GO IN TO THE BANK, show ID, have one of my deposit slips… AND the Bank would charge them at least $25 for the service. (depending on the bank, sometimes it’s a percent of the transaction.)
December 7, 2011 at 7:56 am
catt – as i run a business out of my home, i use “banking transfers” to pay my employee. however, it’s not a true banking transfer. both of our banks (PNC and chase) have a feature where you can send money to someone else for free, it takes about a week to clear through, but it’s free.
when i need to pay him, i go into the popmoney feature, choose his email address and choose the amount i need to send. he gets an email saying i’ve sent him money and he needs to claim it. he clicks the link, logs in to his popmoney account and claims the money. his popmoney account is set up so that anything he accepts is then deposited into his bank account of his choice.
as soon as i’ve selected to send him money, it’s pulled from my account and held until he’s accepted it.
many banks don’t have this sort of feature though and if they do, they charge through the nose for it.
December 10, 2011 at 11:25 am
Was wondering the same thing… Up here in Canada we have Interac email transfer which costs $1.50 to send money. Nothing to receive it. Takes about 20 minutes to get funds. http://www.interac.ca/consumers/productsandservices_ol_eTransfer.php I use it to pay my rent… unfortunately not all banks support it, and apparently I do business with losers that can’t read (and a few Americans that live in Canada that don’t have real bank accounts).
December 7, 2011 at 6:19 am
I will jump in and mention that I’ve had them freeze my account with no good reason earlier this year. I was at a show in Atlanta – which is only a six hour drive from my home – and Sunday afternoon, they decided to freeze my account for accepting payments via a mobile app. Spent money on debit card on the way up to Atlanta without an issue, but suddenly someone sends -me- money and they decide to freeze my account.
To top things off, when I tried to un-freeze it online, I had to log in to submit ‘proof’ but I couldn’t log in until my account was unfrozen. Tell me how THAT is supposed to work. I had to Google their phone number (since it’s not readily available on their site) and finally got to a rep that could help.
All that because I had two people send me a total of $30. Yeah, something REAL fishy going on in my account.
December 6, 2011 at 7:59 pm
I think you underestimate the power of the fucktard.
December 6, 2011 at 8:19 pm
“Never underestimate the power of the fucktard”—edited slightly for a sampler.
December 6, 2011 at 8:23 pm
I would buy that if somebody cross-stitched one.
December 6, 2011 at 8:40 pm
I’d totally buy one too.
December 7, 2011 at 4:03 am
Oh, yes. I’m not the slightest bit into cross-stitch, but I might buy that!
December 7, 2011 at 5:42 am
Yes, I want one, too. Please.
December 7, 2011 at 9:49 am
in the works… stay tuned.
December 6, 2011 at 8:35 pm
Watch for asshats and cocknozzles too. Bastards have a tendency to come from behind.
December 6, 2011 at 9:22 pm
They sound like unused “Grinch Who Stole Christmas” lyrics!
December 6, 2011 at 10:01 pm
“Never mis-underestimate the power of the fucktard” – re-edited slightly for a steampunk leather coffee mug sleeve
December 7, 2011 at 3:17 am
“You don’t know the power of the fucktard” – Darth Vader
December 7, 2011 at 5:44 am
“The power of the fucktard is STRONG with this one…”
December 7, 2011 at 5:47 am
I’m on it. Give me a coupla days, it’s finals week.
December 6, 2011 at 8:51 pm
April, same with the pendants.
December 6, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Hundred dollar gift cards? And they’re down with that? Fabulous. Pump them for all they’re worth, then quit.
December 6, 2011 at 7:53 pm
Let’s see if it actually happens. I really REALLY hope it does because that would just be awesome.
December 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Oh, I still plan on getting Sam Cornwell to do a PayPal rant. I may take up contributions to bribe him into doing it shirtless. We need our thrills.
December 7, 2011 at 1:15 am
Do it! And email it to our friends at PayPal.
December 6, 2011 at 8:44 pm
It’s a cheap cost to try to make this all go away, and they sent word to the press they made a donation before even talking to April.
December 6, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Hmmm, well, it sounds like mostly good news. Congratulations on finally getting an explanation and some answers!
That said, they’re still the epitome of what is wrong with corporations today, and their lack of humanity and compassion is appalling. Customer service, indeed!
I really hope they pull through with the donation, though I was hoping for a donation plus a return of all processing fees. Too much to ask, I suppose! Anyways, nice job, fellow fat slags!
December 6, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Glad they are saying they will donate $100 to each family. That is only a drop in the bucket, though. They have been screwing people way too long, and I feel this is the beginning of the end for those cunt kazoos. I damn sure hope it is… Damn good job, Regretsians. You made sure those families get a little love this Christmas. CF4L!!!!
December 6, 2011 at 7:56 pm
of course, knowing paypal the 100 will only apply to paypal purchases
December 6, 2011 at 8:19 pm
I’ll believe it when it actually happens, doesn’t sound like they’ve agreed to the suggestion yet.
December 6, 2011 at 7:50 pm
I hope this gives them the kick in the face that they needed to get their policies completely overhauled. From my understanding, the whole fiasco could have been avoided if they hired someone to revamp the whole thing.
December 6, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Silly You! The $77 IS the donation.
December 6, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Look, I don’t comment often (though I stalk pretty much every day!) but I just have to say I’m very proud of what we accomplished! And, April – you just simply amaze me
Fat, ugly, jealous loses, unite! CF4L!!
December 6, 2011 at 7:54 pm
*losers (d’oh!)
December 6, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Those who live in glass internet shouldn’t throw stones – bitch.
December 6, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Paypal being the bitch in this instance. _,
December 6, 2011 at 7:52 pm
They’re rat bastards, through and through. They cannot do enough to rectify this, but please get whatever you can out of them for these families while you can. As others have said, PP isn’t sorry they did it, they’re sorry they got called on it. Pusswad wankers.
In the mean time, is there a way to still send a donation? Need never really goes away, it just changes locale.
December 6, 2011 at 7:53 pm
That was my question, too! I figured I could spare another couple of bucks if you’ll take it. Try to make up some of those fees you lost…
December 6, 2011 at 8:00 pm
On the down side, even if they go thru with the donation, they will simply spin this to make themselves look like the good guys, who were simply “misunderstood, thru no fault of their own”. And of course, they’ll get a nice write-off from this on the corporate taxes, deducted under “advertising” and “customer relations” expenses.
December 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm
I know and it makes my head like to fucking explode. No good deed goes unpunished and there will always be someone to unfairly profit off of others’ good will.
I try not to get cynical, but these smarmy shite-suckers make it too hard. Thankfully, that won’t stop the secret bits of me stop giving to causes I believe in. Eat it, corporate clones.
December 6, 2011 at 8:07 pm
*removes the extra ‘stop’*adds a ‘make’ in its place*sets the coffee cup out of reach*
December 6, 2011 at 10:36 pm
Eh, that’s something that’s been bothering me for the past several years. When I think about how fucked up both the public and private sectors are, how powerful lobbies and corporations are, and how small and insignificant I am by comparison, it all seems hopeless.
I was so happy to see the Occupy movement gather steam, but as much as I wish it turns out otherwise, I feel like in the end, not much will be accomplished.
… Sorry, I just realized that’s a really off-topic rant.
December 7, 2011 at 6:24 am
actually Grano, I have been thinking of this outcry as EXACTLY what the Occupy movement is about.
Corporations doing whatever the hell they feel like, and never mind the human cost to their customers, the people who rely on them, OR THE PEOPLE WHO WORK FOR THEM.
I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that when the account was flagged there was a note put on the account of what EXACTLY to tell the customer who called to complain/ask for explanation.
I am particularly disturbed that CS agents can’t find out how to fix the problem and call you back, AND that no one from a higher position will talk to CUSTOMERS apparently EVER unless the press gets involved.
Attention Corporations: this is not how you keep customers. We are learning ways to live Just Fine by relying on Each Other rather than YOU and Your products. Given the choice we’ll go to sources/services that treat us like HUMAN BEINGS rather than “botherations”.
“quick get her OFF the phone!” is not customer service!
December 6, 2011 at 8:47 pm
They already have. Before even contacting April they put word out to the press that they made a donation, even though they haven’t yet.
December 6, 2011 at 10:52 pm
I’m willing to let them have the tax deduction – I just want to be sure that they aren’t seen as spontaneously generous. Someone pulled their naughty bits out of a shitstorm and that person should be thanked, and only that person.
December 7, 2011 at 9:53 am
really, does it matter as long as the families are helped?
December 7, 2011 at 11:02 am
Maybe not for our situation, but what about all the other people who are in a world of hurt because of inexplicably frozen accounts? We need to figure out a way to continue to hold their corporate feet to the fire and ensure that they don’t use *only* the “oh my God, public firestorm, damage control NOW!” mode of resolving problems, but instead actually apply some actual customer SERVICE and HELP people instead of going out of their way to not only hurt them, but twist the knife and make them bleed a little more.
Okay, that was a helluva run-on sentence. I only hope it’s grammatically correct.
tl;dr version: It matters because the little guys with no ability to raise a massive outcry are still being hurt. We need to do it for THEM.
December 6, 2011 at 7:52 pm
Dammit. Maybe it’s because I was so upset about what PayPal did. Maybe it’s because I don’t trust them farther than I can spit a chicken. All I know is I want to throw more money at these kids and there is no donate button in sight. I’m thinking I will go visit an ATM and then stuff 20′s in the buckets of the bell-ringing santas while I do my errands tomorrow.
Thank you April for doing what you do. Bringing laughter to our snarky little hearts and letting us do good deeds. Thank you for having the brains to run what has to be a giant time suck. And thank you for standing up for the good that can be done.
I’m sure at times you’ve thought about just closing the whole thing down because it is too much trouble. But for some of us fat, jealous, losers, this bit of the internet means a lot.
Thank you.
And I have now used up my allotted niceness for not only this year, but also 2012. Hope you’re happy.
December 6, 2011 at 8:02 pm
If they’re Salvation Army Santas, you may want to reconsider (they use some of that money for anti-LGBT stuff).
http://www.charitynavigator.org/ can help you find good alternatives who won’t waste your money.
December 6, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Considering the organization is openly and proudly anti-LGBT, I think it’s safe to say that ALL of that money goes to anti-LGBT stuff. I personally stuff their kettles with fake $3 bills every year.
December 6, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Argh! How did I not know this?! Dammit. Fine. I’ll take my 20s and buy gifts to donate.
Anti-LGBT. Can’t even trust a bell-ringing santa anymore.
December 7, 2011 at 1:31 am
Hold your horses. I am not sure this is true.
Here is their position statement on homosexuality:
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf/0/B6F3F4DF3150F5B585257434004C177D?Opendocument
I realise you may not agree with their opinion that gay Christians should be celibate – I hold a different view myself – but it is just that, an opinion, and they make it quite clear that they are against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, and see any such discrimination as abuse.
The fact is, you can’t make everyone agree with you, and agreement is not necessary. The basis of a fair society is not conformity of opinion, but rejecting discrimination. They seem to be to be committed to that, and that’s good enough for me.
Of course this is not a guarantee that they stick to their position statement, but it is more solid than hearsay or Wikipedia. They do a lot of good. Don’t turn against them without hearing them denounced by a solid source.
December 7, 2011 at 6:33 am
Well that’s the thing of it though, isn’t it? Every dollar you spend, every cent you donate is a vote for the organization you’re purchasing from or donating to. As an LGBT person, I would never donate to a cause that does things like, say, tries to create anti-LGBT hiring policies so they can get more funding. Any company that considers literally selling me out, frankly, isn’t worth my money.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121498&page=1#.Tt94M7LNltM
It’s also an organization that would apparently rather see people go hungry than let them gays have equal rights.
http://chicago.gopride.com/news/article.cfm/ArticleID/1824489
There are plenty of other organizations out there I will donate to instead. It’s not like the Salvation Army has a monopoly on Christmas or charitable works. I just absolutely refuse to support bigots who use religion as an excuse for their own hatred.
December 7, 2011 at 9:26 am
Yeah, I always shoot daggers at the Salvation Army when they ask me for money. Occasionally I’ll even tell them why.
December 7, 2011 at 6:41 am
This is so OT regarding PayPal, Red Sox, sick cats and vodka but reading “The basis of a fair society is not conformity of opinion, but rejecting discrimination” has made me swoon a little.
Love.
Carry on.
December 7, 2011 at 7:24 am
That vague “love the sinner” shit may sound nice on their website, but when it comes down to brass tacks, the Salvation Army rescinded it’s medical benefits for the spouses/partners of it’s gay employees and their children. Yup, their children. When faced with potential NYC legislation that would have required them to provide those benefits, they threatened to close all their soup kitchens in the city. They have also lobbied to have the right to discriminate in hiring gay folks. That’s all real, practical, harmful discrimination, not just someone’s personal opinion not doing any harm to others.
Go read a little more about them on the internet than what they have chosen to put on their own site. You can find these stories from various news outlets, you don’t just have to rely on Wikipedia, though the claims there are also linked to news sources. I also remember personally when this shit went down in 2001.
So Sal’s Army can still go fuck itself, and April’s can have my money
December 7, 2011 at 8:28 am
They aren’t committed to that at all.
I would do more research than just what’s on their website. Obviously they put on a good face for the public.
December 7, 2011 at 11:03 am
I tried to research the Salvation Army on Charity Navigator and it has no info on them because they’re a religious organization. Which is a shame, if their policies are as bad as you say.
December 6, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Just wanted to mention that those bell ringing Santa’s aren’t friends to all people. You may want to read up on the Salvation Army and their rules for gay people.
December 7, 2011 at 1:32 am
I did. See the link above.
Read and form your own opinion. And NOT Wikipedia! You know how unreliable it is on any subject that is remotely controversial.
December 6, 2011 at 8:12 pm
I’m all for donating to charity, but the Salvation Army is not necessarily the one to give cash donations to. Their Angel Tree program is wonderful and should be encouraged since you’re giving an actual gift, but your cash might not go to people in need. The Salvation Army is against women’s rights to choose and homosexuality. They have lobbied in the past against laws that don’t agree with their view and such. I’m not saying Salvation Army doesn’t help people, it does. But your money might not be going where you want it to.
I’d personally suggest Doctors Without Borders or another worthy cause, since there are plentyyy!
December 6, 2011 at 8:21 pm
When my town was hit by tornadoes in April it was the Salvation Army, not the Red Cross, who came here and helped out. At this point I’ll donate GOODS to Salvation Army but not cash (because of their other policies that money is spent on).
Red Cross, though? They can lick my anus.
December 7, 2011 at 5:53 am
I agree that the unlikeliest heroes appear in the midst of crisis. For my family in NOLA after Katrina, it wasn’t FEMA or Red Cross who saved them, it was the Mormons and WalMart. Still, when choosing to donate my (tiny bit of) cash, I choose not to send to folks who make bigotry an official policy.
December 7, 2011 at 6:52 am
Completely OT while not 100% volunteers (they get a “living allowance” plus an education award) AmeriCorps workers are some of the coolest bunch of people I’ve met recently.
December 6, 2011 at 8:21 pm
One of my friends was once denied shelter by Salvation Army because she looked goth. They’re not exactly “good people” in my book.
December 6, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Doctors Without Borders and Heifer International are my two go to charities if I don’t have some cause like regretsy getting kids christmas presents to take up my charitable contributions.
December 6, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Yes. Those two are my go-to, along with Mercy Corps (which doesn’t waste the money on unneeded overhead).
December 6, 2011 at 8:50 pm
I haven’t heard of that one. I’ll look into it!
December 6, 2011 at 8:48 pm
Seva Foundation is also a good one. I use them and Heifer International.
December 7, 2011 at 2:29 am
I raise money for our local hospice every year… those people do amazing work and help families during their most difficult times. They kept me from going completely off the rails during the last few months of my father’s illness.
December 6, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Don’t forget local food banks, both food and cash. They especially need it this time of year.
December 6, 2011 at 8:59 pm
Yeah, after consideration, I think this is what I will do instead. Thanks for the heads up, guys!
December 6, 2011 at 9:01 pm
Yes, absolutely this!
A lot of people remember the big-name organizations, when the groups that need the money and goods more than anyone else are local food banks, shelters, and so on that really help on a community level, but often get next to no funding and are very much needed these days.
December 6, 2011 at 9:52 pm
Our food bank has so many programs in place with stores and suppliers, that they can stretch a dollar to provide something like $5-$7 worth of food.
December 6, 2011 at 11:17 pm
Our local grocery stores have an opportunity to donate to a food bank at each cash register. There’s little pads of coupons that you can choose to donate $1, $5, or $10. You pick one (or more) and the cashier rings it up with your groceries.
It’s so hard to pass up donating $1 when you’re about to pay a $100 weekly bill. I mean, at that point, what’s $1?
December 6, 2011 at 11:47 pm
@catherder, yours is very lucky and I’m so glad they have the ability to do that, and bring help to that many more people. But many simply do not have that kind of support, or can no longer keep up the level of provision with the number of people who truly need assistance, and I’m constantly hearing about shelters that need toiletries and other basic necessities.
December 6, 2011 at 10:59 pm
I’m partial to Habitat for Humanity myself. (And on the selfish/enlightened self-interest side, their ReStores are great places to look for house items that a lot of thrift stores won’t carry, such as tiles, sinks, light fixtures, countertops…)
December 7, 2011 at 1:35 am
I did voluntary work for Habitat for Humanity in Romania while I was at University. Very interesting, what they do.
December 7, 2011 at 8:09 am
a solid half of my (soon to be) renovated bathroom was purchased at a habitat restore.
when you’re going for a legit vintage look to match the 100 year old house, it’s the best place to shop. they’ve got the ACTUAL stuff, not the disgustingly overpriced knockoffs for sale currently.
December 7, 2011 at 10:16 am
LOVE shopping at ReStore, especially for tile, because I’m getting ready to mosaic basically my whole back yard, and their tile is usually $1-2/sf, even for really cool stuff like this, which would cost a freaking fortune retail.
December 7, 2011 at 6:54 am
That’s the thing, always dig into what the lobbying/activist arm of your favorite charity/community organization is doing. Sometimes it might surprise you.
Some charities allow you to earmark your donated funds for specific purposes, some don’t. Not sure about the Salvation Army. I’ve never donated cash to them.
There’s an animal shelter here that works a little too closely with PETA activity for my liking, but their spay and neuter clinic is the best thing on wheels. They enable people to mark their donations specifically for those services so I don’t have to worry that it’s going to pay to support an agenda I’m not 100% in agreement with.
December 7, 2011 at 11:00 am
Personally, I would be wary of donating even tangible goods through the Salvation Army. I once worked for a church in a city where the local SA was infamous for running food and clothing drives and then selling what it received “for the poor” in its thrift store. Just saying.
December 7, 2011 at 6:30 am
In addition to the discrimination against the LGBT community….
years ago, when my ex abandoned me (with a small child) and had be intercepting the checks to the Utility company, so that I was suddenly stuck with a nearly $500 bill and a cut off notice… and no way to pay it…
SA told me to try to get my husband to come back…
never mind that we were in the fix we were because he’d rather take his friends out for lunch every day, than to make sure his child had a heated home, or enough food to eat. Their #3 concern was: “So how will you pay the bill NEXT month.” never mind small child and a stay at home mom because the ex had declared that i was NOT to work outside the home… (after “Have you been going to church?” )
thanks a lot SA…
United Way and Catholic Charities helped me out. (and No, I’m not only not Catholic, I’m not even Christian, and CC was “How can we help you?” not “Are you going to church?” )
December 6, 2011 at 7:52 pm
How the fuck can they now what you’re doing if you don’t?
December 6, 2011 at 7:52 pm
I think the moral is “Don’t fuck with the huddled masses.”
December 7, 2011 at 6:32 am
If I could vote this up 100 times I would!
December 6, 2011 at 7:53 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 6, 2011 at 10:47 pm
I live for the day some special snowflake draws a parallel between their shitty crafts and a cancerous growth.
December 7, 2011 at 1:36 am
Do you have the response already prepared, or will draughting it for the specific situation be part of the joy?
December 7, 2011 at 6:35 am
*I* have a resonse prepared…
I would squee with excitement if my body randomy made shitty crafts instead of the big fat tumor that tried to kill me.
But, hey, one person’s deadly illness is another person’s Etsy store.
December 7, 2011 at 6:37 am
*randomly (shit on a stick!)
December 7, 2011 at 6:39 am
*response (holy fuck, what is wrong with me today?)
December 7, 2011 at 8:24 am
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 7, 2011 at 9:30 am
Quiet, everyone. Buffalo Bill is saying something important here.
December 7, 2011 at 3:32 am
I’m pretty sure Regretsy posts lots of things that are attached to people… literally >_>
December 7, 2011 at 4:43 am
Yeah, because laughing at all those scat loving, reselling, craftards who monopolise on tragedy is totally the same as stealing Christmas from hundreds of needy families.
Totes!
December 6, 2011 at 7:53 pm
Hello community… Received secret Santa gift for my daughter today… Imagine how surprised I was when UPS dude knocked on my door!
December 6, 2011 at 8:01 pm
This is excellent news!
December 6, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Your avatar makes me happy! Hooray for Denmark!
December 6, 2011 at 8:10 pm
YAY!
December 6, 2011 at 8:51 pm
I’m so happy to hear that!! Hugs for you all!
December 6, 2011 at 8:52 pm
Have fun wrapping and if you ever feel comfortable with it, I for one would love to see pics of the unwrapping joy! My donation was one of those refunded, so sadly I can’t take any credit in your joy, but I’m pleased anyway because what this community does for its members is unbelievably wonderful in so many ways.
December 6, 2011 at 9:34 pm
Fabulous! I’m so glad. And yes, if you’re willing, an unwrapping photo would probably make us all start crying (with joy, of course!).
And I really, really hope you get your PayPal-provided
blood moneygift card, too!December 7, 2011 at 3:34 am
I just want to echo the other comments; That is freakin awesome. It’s nice to hear some good news amidst all this bullshit going on.
December 6, 2011 at 7:53 pm
I say, what?
Indeed.
December 6, 2011 at 7:53 pm
So, I don’t comment here often, but I’ve been here every day from the very beginning. Just want to say that I’m very proud to be part of the Regretsy Nation, and last night was super hella fun.
December 6, 2011 at 7:53 pm
I am cautiously optimistic (I know, not heard often here) but we’ll see what they really do. Glad to hear something is happening, yay for the power of the internet! Boo for piss ass customer service. Some desk jockey had a power rush and I sure as hell hope is regretting it now
December 6, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Oh, this caused enough of a corporate PR problem that Phone Boy is -gone-. Someone’s gonna pay and pay dearly for this, and it’s gonna be whoever instigated it, anyone directly or indirectly involved, anyone standing in the general vicinity, and anybody who LOOKS like them. That way, in the future, they’ll be able to say “See!? See!? It was the EMPLOYEE! Not the PayPal corporate culture! He’s gone and it’s ALL BETTER now! We love you! Give us your money again, please?”
December 6, 2011 at 7:53 pm
i think this deserves a slow clap.
December 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
You mean I get to use this .gif again?
December 6, 2011 at 8:23 pm
He really should be standing, but OW never listened to anyone else’s direction.
December 6, 2011 at 8:53 pm
I love this .gif
December 7, 2011 at 5:53 am
Well, I’m standing and I’m clapping. Good work, one and all. GODDAM, PayPal is terrible. I did what I could by writing to the Daily Show and flipping my small, sad little bird at PPal by taking out 99% of my money (I never trusted them and this sorta seals the deal). It was only $225, but if everyone did that – took out 99% of what they had in their balance…BAZINGA PayPal Bitches.
December 7, 2011 at 2:37 pm
Just shows how fucking powerful we, the people, are! Love it……
December 10, 2011 at 7:36 am
In Britain, a slow handclap is a sign of MAJOR derision. You slow-clap someone when you want them to get off the stage and, preferably, die in a ditch somewhere.
Lately I’ve been getting the idea that it means something different in the US.
Or was the first definition what you meant in the first place?
December 6, 2011 at 7:54 pm
No shit. Truer words were never typed.
I was wondering if you were flagged for review because of the speed of the donations.
I’m still fucking baffled that they lied in their statement,about donating. Unless that $77 is the ‘donation’.
If their donation is anything less then the gift cards you’ve asked for I say lets raise the Regretsy army up and make them feel the shame again.
It is too bad that it takes large amounts of public shaming but in this case, the kids are more valuable then how the backpedal by PayPal was achieved.
December 6, 2011 at 9:30 pm
Reading PayPal plead that they are only trying to keep everyone safe just pissed me right the hell off. They didn’t seems to catch any “red flags” when non-existent thousands flew out of my dormant account due to fraudulent charges from an iTunes hacker. I’m on Social security and my bank still has not refunded the almost $400 I had saved to move several states away that month.
Fuckers.
December 7, 2011 at 1:39 am
There is nothing “safe” about letting a decision on potential fraud be decided by a single employee, without oversight or recourse.
I just can’t get over that.
December 7, 2011 at 5:56 am
Me either…especially given what must have been a pretty substantial amount of money. That.is.just.scary.
December 6, 2011 at 7:54 pm
I know you (hopefully!) didn’t mean to apply the non-caring label to literally every doctor, but I would like to remind people that there are still doctors who give a shit out there. My mom cries every time a patient dies.
December 6, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Your mom is a good person. It’s nice that you’re proud of her.
December 6, 2011 at 8:11 pm
You know, I know a lot of people from street sweepers to corporate presidents who take pride in their work, and who believe in treating their paying customers with respect.
However, these days, these wonderful people are the exception, and not the rule. Years ago, I worked in a cheapass restaurant, and EVERYONE from the cleaning crew to the line cooks to the managers to the dishwashers were cordial and friendly to everyone who walked through the door as a matter of course. Why? Because that was good business. now, it’s a pleasant, but jarringlly surprising rarity to have a friendly, helpful clerk/salesperson/attendant/doctor/technician. They’re all surly and sullen. I’ve told every employee I’ve ever trained, in EVERY field I’ve ever worked in that if the customer doesn’t believe you’re his best friend by the time they’ve left the store, you’re not doing it right, and if you MUST tell them no, make it seem like the best idea they ever heard.
December 6, 2011 at 8:31 pm
The sad thing is, I can’t even blame them for being surly and sullen. They get crap pay and no benefits, and people who are frustrated with their own crap jobs take out their frustrations on them.
Meanwhile the dudes at the top are living it up in gated communities, while those of us at the bottom struggle and snarl. It’s nasty.
December 6, 2011 at 8:49 pm
Trust me – I get it. But even when I was a kid working at the family business, the general rule of thumb was (is) that even if you’re standing there bleeding with an arm lopped off listening to a drunken, belligerent customer yowl at you about something that will NEVER be your fault, you nod, and sympathize and be their friend. It’s part of your JOB. And if EVERYONE made the effort to be pleasant, then maybe everyone would be in a better mood, making everyone more pleasant, putting everyone in a better mood… {loop_detected=.T.}
December 6, 2011 at 8:35 pm
Seconding Rana – years ago, people were paid a living wage, and could afford to get by with just *one* job the cleaning crew or the cooking line. Now most of those people have to work 2 or 3 jobs just to put food on the table.
Wages have stagnated for a few decades now for everyone but the very tippy top. It’s baffling why so few people can see it happening right in front of their faces. :-/
December 6, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Your mother sounds like the kind of doctor I’d like.
December 6, 2011 at 10:39 pm
I think I’m scarred for life. Any sentence that starts with “your mother” immediately sounds dirty to me.
December 6, 2011 at 8:55 pm
I wish doctors like your mom were the rule, not the exception to it. It was so many doctors ago since I last had one who I thought cared about me or respected me that I’ve stopped going unless it’s an emergency. I got tired of being treated like a number and being told to do what’s in a doctor’s best financial interest instead of my own because it’s easier to think about themselves than to take the time to actually read my chart and give me advice in my own best interest. It’s been eight years since I had a doctor who gave a man about me as a person.
December 6, 2011 at 11:25 pm
My doctor is one of the good ones. I’ve been seeing her since I was about 11 or 12 and I’ll be 33 Saturday. I live in terror of the day she retires. She treats the whole person, not just the symptoms. She listens to the hundred thousand questions her patients asks and answers them truthfully and fully explains everything she’d done, doing and is going to do with them, along with anything they don’t understand. She reassures her patients when they’re scared. She hand picked the doctors she share an office with and they’re all of the same ilk as she is. She’s banned from one of the (many) healthcare systems in my town because she stood up for her patients and demanded they get GOOD treatment, not cheap treatment. In short, she’s amazaballs. So yeah, good doctors are out there. They’re just hellaciously hard to find. :/
I hope everyone can find a doctor like her. And frankly, I’m more than a little pissed there aren’t more like her out there.
December 6, 2011 at 11:58 pm
She sounds like my midwife, and it was amazing. Being cared for as a whole person instead of a body part and chart number does wonders for health.
Sadly moe doctors are more concerned with making a lot of money rather than in treating people.
December 7, 2011 at 4:12 am
‘Hellacious’ might be my new favourite word. Thank you.
Also, congratulations on having such an amazing doctor. You’re lucky!
December 7, 2011 at 6:39 am
my current doctor is awesome, I love her!
she’s so young though, I feel like I’m on an episode of Doogie…
(though maybe that’s partly because I AM old enough to be a Doctor’s mom.)
December 6, 2011 at 9:23 pm
I sincerely wish you mother (or even doctors like her) worked in my area and in the specialties I need. I currently have 5 doctors, and I only feel like one of them treats me like a person (and my god that woman is a life saver in more ways than one). I’m told that once upon a time all doctors were that way, but I’ve never seen it. Now they are more often than not like the other 4 I have telling me “Nope, nope, the MRI and CT scans don’t show any problems, these look very good. You must be imagining your symptoms. I fixed you…. Why aren’t you happy? I said I fixed you.” then they shove you out the door as fast as possible so they can get the next customer in.
And y’all are right, it seems like more and more it is like that from the tip-top down to the very bottom. Move along so that I can get the next customer in here.
December 7, 2011 at 12:40 am
I’m not going to defend every terrible doctor out there, because they do exist. And I’m certain that those who have family members in the medical field know how exhausting it is. And, in my honest opinion, I feel like any doctor you see (if you, you know, aren’t in the ER or ICU) should take the time to answer any of your questions.
However: I had a wonderful month shadowing some of these people. I saw how it took a good thirty minutes to fill out paperwork after asking even the most basic questions. I’ve seen people refuse to see the obvious (for example, “Your meth addiction will kill you”) I know many people have had bad experiences with physicians, but:
Just…keep in mind some doctors have to see 20 other people after you, not because they want to, but because there aren’t enough doctors. And that these people are going to have to deal with a huge emotional burden at the end of the day. Doctors experience so much burnout…point being:
December 7, 2011 at 12:44 am
Unless you’re seeing a private practitioner, doctors are just more human beings trying to deal with human issues. Yes, there are doctors who became doctors to earn more money. But there are many more who spend all their work hours and stay late and come in early to do the best they can to help their patients. Their many, many patients (one doctor I shadowed had 17 cases to deal with. To call their families for background information or compile records or even just talk to the patients. Apparently there was very little sleep or time to eat or even just breathe).
December 7, 2011 at 12:45 am
Oh dammit, I meant to put, “who has time to schedule their own patients” after the private practitioner bit. Sorry. Private practitioners are also human, I promise.
December 7, 2011 at 6:32 am
I’ve had nothing but bad experiences going to specialists at my local hospital, so much so that I drive to the next town over for certain things just to not deal with that hospital.
Last week, on my birthday no less, I had to see a cardiologist for heart flutters. I’d just gotten blood drawn the day before, and an hour earlier had a heart monitor taken off, but before he even saw the results of those, this guy ordered more tests, told me to stop drinking so much water and more gatorade despite my sodium levels being okay, AND told me to quit taking supplements to manage my cholesterol because my “numbers are fine” for someone my age, despite the fact that the numbers were what they were after 2 years of taking the supplements.
This from the same hospital as the ob/gyn’s nurse practitioner that told me I didn’t have to worry about cancer (which runs in the family) because I was “too young.”
December 7, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Am a burnt-out Dr, I am. Cared TOO much. Having to deal with insurance company fucktards, medical board fucktards, government fucktards, fucktard fucktards… and 3 kids, husband dr, dying mother… got sick, bye-bye medicine… got to be mostly “call the idiot, fill out the form”. Now, watching my wonderful compassionate child shrink hubby work more & harder for less and less $ & only 2 weeks of vacation a yr. Community mental health is almost all dependent on medicaid/medicare, already 20% less than 10 yrs ago….the next 20% medicare cut comes in January.
Most Drs aren’t uncaring zombies. Admittedly, some are stupider than shit and/or pricks. But most are just worried, exhausted disillusioned people, trying to do their best to earn a living, not kill anyone or get sued. Sometimes their best, is, well, lacking…
But they’re still not as evil as PP…
December 6, 2011 at 7:54 pm
We shouldn’t be satisfied till the face for the blog “apology” shows up at each of those families house with a Christmas dinner ala Ebeneezer Scrooge. And he has to say “I will keep Christmas in my heart all the year long” Every. Fucking. Time.
December 6, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Great job!! I absolutely cannot believe you got the far with them!
December 6, 2011 at 7:55 pm
If this is the kind of outpouring of support we the people are capable of when provoked over human kindness, imagine the good people could do if more of them actually used their brains (I like to think most people are bestowed with at least a couple of functionally firing neurons) and organized for even bigger problems. It just seems silly that there are so many issues and so few of them get solved because no one can agree to just solve shit. Not that a bunch of fat jealous losers chewing out political issues would change things on that level, but you see what I’m getting at.
And, regardless of the bullshit PayPal has to deal with, I am so, so happy that these families and children will get a truly remarkable Christmas this year. You fuckers make me feel a little better about humanity, sometimes.
December 6, 2011 at 7:55 pm
I hate to say it, but I think if this had been the middle of August and the kids were were, oh, say, diabetes patients or something, we probably still wouldn’t have made a dent.
I think this is all because a company billing itself as THE way to pay for online Christmas purchases (and making more money than it will in the other 11 months combined) simply can’t afford the PR of defecating all over children on Christmas.
It’s the right combination; firstly of Regretsians being loud enough (to be sure) but it may have failed if we weren’t armed with the combo of the company needing yuletide business, and the silver bullet of April having tried to help children at Christmas when she was treated so poorly.
December 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm
And of course, dedicated Twitter monkeys like Neil Gaimon and his 1 MILLION + followers tweeting like mad about it all day and night. That sort of activity is what leads the masses to our doorstep, lending their voices to ours.
Thank you to every single person who tweeted or shared this story across the internet.
December 6, 2011 at 8:12 pm
The most shocking thing of that was when I found out some people (who should) didn’t know who Neil Gaiman was.
It was like being in one of those M Night Shayamalamayamalanayanayamanan movies.
“And then… THE TWIST!”
December 6, 2011 at 8:45 pm
What a TWEEEST!
December 10, 2011 at 7:47 am
Well, I don’t know who Neal Gaiman is. (And yes, I could google the name, but haven’t bothered. There are a lot of people in the world I don’t know, and one more or less is no big deal.)
Nor Wil Wheaton, though I have heard his name mentioned on “Family Guy”. Some sort of TV/radio/newspaper pundit?
December 7, 2011 at 5:49 am
O_O
Neil Gaiman tweeted about Regretsy. I think I just had a nerdgasm.
December 7, 2011 at 12:16 pm
So did Wil Wheaton. SWOOON
December 6, 2011 at 8:12 pm
And the fact that it went worldwide SO fast just shows how much bad PR this caused them. I say the $100 gift cards are still them getting off DAMN cheap considering how much it would cost them via normal means to try to repair the damage they’ve done!
December 7, 2011 at 1:45 am
It was a wonderful story, I’m not surprised the media jumped on it. Evil corporate giant cancels Christmas charity gift drive for needy children. It’s Dickens for the modern age, and that quote about the cats – you couldn’t make it up, even if you’re a journalist.
PayPal totally should have seen it coming.
December 6, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 6, 2011 at 8:01 pm
H1B1 visas, FTW! Just kidding – fucking Fannie & Freddie pull this shit, too. They hire them as contract employees and string them along for 6 months at a time, then ship ‘em back when they’re done. I got nothing against the workers, they’re just trying to make a better life for their families back home. But their exploitation and the loss of really good jobs that could go to out of work citizens chaps my ass!
December 6, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
December 6, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Eh, I don’t think this is racism. I think this is being a cheap-ass and taking advantage of the vulnerability of workers who are in a strange country on a work visa. It’s like the people who only hire undocumented workers; they know that they’ll never call the cops on them, so they get away with treating them like shit.
December 6, 2011 at 10:31 pm
Hiring offshore workers for American jobs isn’t racism. Hiring only Indians or Asians because you think European- or African-Americans are intellectually inferior and/or because you prefer to hire your own race is racism.
If a company as large as ebay or PayPal has a population heavily skewed by one race/ethnicity (in this case, Indians), and is statistically out of sync with American demographics, I guarantee you there is racism going on.
ebay’s/PayPals employee demographics (in San Jose, CA) speak for themselves. I’ll pay you $10 for every blue-eyed blonde you can find at their San Jose headquarters, and I’ll pay you $100 if you can find a single black person. I’ve got a 10′er in my pocket, so I can afford any takers on this bet.
December 6, 2011 at 10:44 pm
Just because I haven’t had a chance to be pedantic in a few days: Aren’t Indians technically Asians too? >_>
December 6, 2011 at 11:19 pm
Yes, in some circles. Indians usually refer to themselves as Indians though, not Asians. At least the Indians I’ve lived and worked with.
December 6, 2011 at 11:21 pm
Naw. They don’t get to be Asian because they aren’t entirely on the continent, just the sub-continent.
December 7, 2011 at 3:48 am
Sub-continent? They live underground, like dwarves? O_O
December 10, 2011 at 7:52 am
In the UK, the word “Asian” usually refers to Indians and Pakistanis. Presumably because they’re more prominent in British life than people from the Far East.
December 6, 2011 at 7:56 pm
BRAVA, Helen!! You are the most amazing fat, jealous loser I “know”!!!
December 8, 2011 at 11:42 am
My thoughts exactly. A big standing ovation for that wonderfully written diatribe about modern corporations. Love, love, love it!
December 6, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Wait, they only offered you unlimited business without fees for like the next 25 days? What a “compromise.”
December 6, 2011 at 8:06 pm
My thoughts, exactly.
December 6, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Does this mean if our donations were refunded that we can go ahead and send them again now?
December 6, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Mine is still under a “temporary hold”
December 6, 2011 at 8:34 pm
Maybe HK should have put that in her list of demands. “And another thing, remove the tempofuckinary hold on Aaron’s money!”
December 7, 2011 at 4:51 am
Also, will they give back all the fees they took for doing nothing?
December 7, 2011 at 5:10 am
mine too
December 7, 2011 at 11:14 am
As is mine. Well, I think it’s because of this. All I know is that I have a “hold.”
December 7, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Went back and looked, It’s finally free and available.
Do you still want it April?
December 6, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Seriously, good job guys! We really are good for something besides drinking, drugging and snarking!
Now, can we get back to normal? Cause I feel the need to announce:
I GOT MY TAROT CARDS TODAY!!! And they are AMAZING!!!
December 6, 2011 at 8:23 pm
*is jelly*
December 6, 2011 at 9:20 pm
*totally jelly*
And can anyone explain to me how to access the .pdf instructions for the Tarot cards? I end up in a loop that says I have to log in to access it, and when I click the link, I end up back at the tarot card page. And I can’t leave a comment over there because I can’t figure out how to log in. (I realize how stupid that sounds. I really do.)
December 6, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Whereas I can’t figure out how to get the damn PHP file open, and also can’t figure out how to download it as a PDF that I *can* open. Help?
December 6, 2011 at 9:57 pm
Oh, is it a .php and not a .pdf? I haven’t been there for a couple of days. (I got a little too frustrated.) You know…the Kickstarter just got an update about the decks being mailed out. I think I’ll post my question over there, and I’ll let you know what I find out.
December 7, 2011 at 2:11 pm
@Whawhawhatsis: I found out!!!
The log-in link is way at the bottom on the right-hand side. You have to sign up, and you’ll get your user name and password in your email.
After you’ve clicked back to caboosterkit.com from the link in your email, you end up at your profile page. Change your password at the bottom, and then scroll back up to click on the caboosterkit.com link at the top left to get to the site.
Now you can go download the .pdf. So click the “Right Now” link and then LEFT-CLICK the “Regretsy Tarot Book” link. When you right-click, you get a .php, which my computer doesn’t understand either. But left-clicking gets you a .pdf. Save that to your computer and you’re done!
It may help to do the hokey pokey or some other luck dance, but it’s not necessary. Good luck!
December 7, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Wow, thanks! Now I can have the booklet to go with the Tarot cards….if I ever get the cards. Grr. Hurry up, USPS, dammit!
December 6, 2011 at 7:56 pm
I feel fatter and more loser-ish from all this goodwill.
I hope they give the families gift cards.
December 6, 2011 at 7:56 pm
i’m so proud to have been a part of raising awareness of what a shitty shitty company paypal is and making them own up at least somewhat to their indefensible actions. way to kick ass, regretsy community!
December 6, 2011 at 7:57 pm
If someone didn’t pay attention after that lambasting, there would have to be something terribly, *terribly* wrong. I hope the families get the gift cards! It’s the absolute least PayPal could do.
And you can bet they’ll be on ice for a while, knowing that another one of these large mistakes will trigger hell all over again.
December 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
The problem is, though, what happens when it’s not Regretsy, but “Bob’s house of 1952 Studebaker Alternators?”
December 6, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Don’t underestimate car lovers!
December 6, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Hahah! So true.
December 6, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Actually, I think what we can take away from this is to never underestimate a pissed-off bunch of people with an internet connection and several social networking sites at their disposal.
December 6, 2011 at 9:36 pm
The cynic in me keeps rearing its ugly head. All I can think is that a large portion of the people that learned about all of this last night or this morning saw PayPal’s apology and think it is all over. My husband is. He came home smiling saying “Aren’t you happy? Didn’t you hear what happened? PayPal apologized!” Poor thing didn’t even know what hit him when I started ranting and yelling.
Anyway, Paypal knows very well how short the public’s attention span is and if the general population thinks that it is resolved and that all is right with the world, then they will forget all about it and PayPal will go right back to their old ways before the after Christmas sales get going. They just might be more cautious about this particular account and/or about big, long-term accounts in general. At least until Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Maybe.
December 6, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Argh – this makes my head spin.
December 6, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Just when I think I can’t love this Clusterfuck of Fat Jealous Losers anymore then I do….BAM!….I’m nun-chucked in the girl-nuts by Cupid!
December 7, 2011 at 9:39 am
that’s a sampler right there.
December 6, 2011 at 7:58 pm
I was very proud to be a FJL today. Incredible job, HKpril.
December 6, 2011 at 7:58 pm
The sad thing is that this is happening to other companies and individuals and nothing is being done about it. I still suggest people take their business elsewhere because of their shady practices.
They make money by freezing your funds, using your money. Then freezing another customer’s funds, using their money. This is why they never give you a clear answer as to why any of your accounts are frozen. Mine was frozen 3 times this year because of “fear of suspicious activity” but they couldn’t tell me what the hell happened.
Here’s a nifty read: http://www.screw-paypal.com/did_you_know.html#two
December 7, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Here’s another screw-paypal link – the one on the class action lawsuit against PP FOR FREEZING PEOPLE’S FUNDS!!!!
http://www.screw-paypal.com/index.html
You’d think they’d get a clue? I dumped my PP merchant account when I stopped selling on evilBay several years ago. Google checkout has been nothing but good to me in my Bonanza stores.
December 6, 2011 at 7:59 pm
I think the thing about yesterday’s social media shitstorm that affected me the most was the number of people who were at the ready to condemn the Regretsy dilemma in favor of Paypal A)purely because the they hate us Fat Jealous Losers and B)that they were truly ready to do it WITHOUT FULLY READING THE (admittedly SHORT AND SPARSE and actually quite easy to read) Paypal disclaimer pages. The level of fucking SPLEEN pissed me off almost as much as what Paypal did. Really, KEEP AN OPEN MIND and MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS from Fat Jealous Losers everywhere. I noted also that one snotty tweeter has now made her page PRIVATE. Oops on that person!
December 6, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Yeah there were two tweeters in specific that I started dragging it out with but realized it wasn’t worth it. My favorite was the woman though. “The owners of Regretsy aren’t nice people.” Really? What are you doing for needy kids for Christmas? They didn’t read ANY of the articles or resources, they just wanted to bitch in the opposite direction for the sake of bitching.
December 6, 2011 at 8:06 pm
I think we are thinking about the same person. Frankly her comments led me to believe she was BORN butthurt.
December 6, 2011 at 10:50 pm
I was talking it up on my blog today and got my own private little flounce from someone who told me that April and her followers deserved what happened because “she talks so bad about people and she’s just mean. I suspect that Paypal and Etsy have people reading her blog all the time to keep an eye on her and this is just retaliation for the mean things she’s said”. I quietly read her comment and murmured softly, “Aw, based on that level of butthurt, I’m going to guess that you’ve been featured on Regretsy, haven’t you hun” while inside I was giggling like a school girl because I felt like I’d reached a right of passage and can now truly claim my place as a fat, jealous loser. *tossing back two vicodin and raising my wine glass in a toast* Here’s to April and her Army; the nicest bunch of mean bitches on the internet.
December 6, 2011 at 11:05 pm
Isn’t that great? We all deserve to have our efforts to help needy children at Christmas shut down… because we’re mean.
Fucking simpleton.
December 6, 2011 at 11:25 pm
HK: I bet the Etsy cupcakes have reported you to the FBI. They’re watching you!
December 7, 2011 at 5:02 am
If we were such a threat that PayPal and Etsy had people on the payroll just to keep an eye on us, I’d be twice as proud as I am already.
I try not to live in an egocentric fantasy world, though, which precludes thinking large corporations care so much about my opinion that they’d risk their reputations (and potential litigation) to punish me for saying mean things — or to punish the people I think ought to be punished for saying mean things, either.
December 7, 2011 at 7:30 am
Wilkommen! You sound like our kinda fat slag! *throws Xanax like confetti*
December 7, 2011 at 9:22 am
I stopped following her word barf pretty quickly, but it seemed the brunt of her Regretsy hate was because “Regretsy makes fun of fat people.”
I LOL’ed.
December 7, 2011 at 10:16 am
long time reader, first time posting.
When I saw that tweet, I thought it was a (not very smart) move to become more popular.
December 6, 2011 at 8:18 pm
If April and Bronc aren’t nice people, then I don’t want to be around that weirdo’s idea of “nice” people.
I picture overly-proper goody-goody types who are so passive-aggressively judgmental, that they participate in Church collection drives to spite everyone else there, and whose farts sound like a hummingbird sneezing because their arseholes are so tight you couldn’t extricate a sewing needle with a winch and a tractor.
December 6, 2011 at 8:29 pm
I she seemed of the self-righteous politically correct variety of judgemental, but that is essentially full-circle to the starting point of “asshole”.
December 6, 2011 at 8:34 pm
I like nice people, but I can’t stand “nice” people. Y’know the ones that make a show about how well they’re treating you because that’s what “nice” people do, despite the fact that you obviously don’t DESERVE their niceness, but they’re being “nice” to you anyway because that’s what “nice” people do, and they’re “nice” people, even though they OBVIOUSLY don’t think you are. Ugh.
December 6, 2011 at 8:35 pm
April and Bronc are good people, and anyone who says otherwise can fuck right off.
December 6, 2011 at 10:03 pm
As Little Red Riding Hood said: “Nice is different than good.”
December 6, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Way too long to put on a sampler, but I must commit this to memory!
“they participate in Church collection drives to spite everyone else there, and whose farts sound like a hummingbird sneezing because their arseholes are so tight you couldn’t extricate a sewing needle with a winch and a tractor”
December 6, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Ever since the books came out, I’ve always thought of Delores Umbridge from the Harry Potter series as that goody-goody, passive-aggressive type you describe. Who has the strength and endurance to spend any amount of time with people like that? It’s exhausting trying to be polite around them.
December 6, 2011 at 8:21 pm
I am also glad we have established that the problem was never using the “Donate” button. I was tired of seeing the ill-informed “she broke the rules, and now she’s whining” arguments from people who couldn’t be bothered to actually read the information out there.
December 6, 2011 at 9:04 pm
I got that several times over the past night or so… I got into a tiff with 2 or 3 people who were convinced that April had done something wrong and she was just marshaling her “crybaby fans” to beat PayPal into folding. I love how there was a good portion of people who admittedly were unaware of the specifics and decided to pass judgement… No wonder Fox News has so many blind followers!
December 6, 2011 at 9:18 pm
I recently heard of a survey that showed people who watch Fox News are LESS informed of reality than those who don’t watch the channel. That’s so very sad, because so many of them vote…but so very amusing at the same time. I think it was on NPR, but who can believe those liberal democrats?
December 6, 2011 at 9:49 pm
A friend of mine, her dad said to her fairly recently, that he isn’t watching Fox News anymore because…They LIED TO HIM. He had been a devoted viewer, so we really want to know what the tipping point was, but imagine that. LIES?
December 6, 2011 at 9:57 pm
And apparently, “Daily Show” viewers are among the best-informed.
December 7, 2011 at 5:06 am
I love that Daily Show fact.
Jon Stewart has repeatedly answered accusations that his show has a liberal bias by pointing out that his is a comedy show — its sole bias is mocking those who have already made themselves ridiculous. He’s also noted that this “entertainment bias” results in a better approximation of “fair and balanced” reporting than most actual news outlets, and he finds that very sad and scary.
December 7, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Under Politics, on my facebook page, it simply says: Jon Stewart.
December 6, 2011 at 9:51 pm
I kept running in to those sorts too. I was aghast at the number of people arguing (or at least attempting to) in favor of the giant corporation simply because it was a giant corporation.
The only thing I can figure as to why is that people don’t want to admit that they are doing something wrong (or admit to doing something that will make them feel bad, even a little) even by association, so they don’t want to admit that giving PayPal money by way of fees could make them feel guilty if PayPal did end up being the corrupt, power-mad giant it was showing itsself to be. So it is easier to just assume that the *person* in all this is a whiny crybaby and that the Bank-but-not-a-bank is the victim. It’s even easier to assume all of this if you don’t read anything but headlines of articles people post of Facebook.
December 6, 2011 at 7:59 pm
FREE UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR!! WOOHOO!! hang on, that’s a whole 24 days …. erm…
December 6, 2011 at 9:30 pm
I know, right? It was at the moment I read that sentence that I laughed out loud and my boyfriend realized I wasn’t really listening to him. Whoops!
December 6, 2011 at 7:59 pm
By the by, does anyone know of a VIABLE alternative to PayPal? I know everyone’s dumping it like an old man without oven mitts pulling a shit casserole out of a 400 degree oven, but some of us can’t just credibly switch our websites over to “Ed’s Credit Cards, Bait, ‘n’ Tackle.”
It needs to be something that can take major credit cards at a reasonable percentage, without being a major pain in the rectal orifice to code into your HTML/SQL. Bank Online transfers should be quick.
December 6, 2011 at 8:07 pm
Right now I’m wondering that same thing, as I do freelance work and want my clients to have the option of paying with a credit card without signing up with whatever service I use.
I’m looking into WePay (they do have amazingly responsive customer service people) and Moneybooker/Skrill (apparently the service of choice for online casinos, who you probably do NOT want to screw up with – though it’s based in the UK so I’m not sure if it can be used here). The Google service and the Amazon ones also take credit cards, but they (I believe) require the user to sign up with them (which isn’t something I want to require of my clients).
December 7, 2011 at 9:45 am
I’ma customer at a large European online game store that uses Moneybooker/Skrill for payments; it takes my credit card without requiring me to create an account with them, so in that respect it works the same as paypal credit card payments would. The game store offers items from the 0.90€ to 50€ range.
December 6, 2011 at 8:08 pm
google checkout is probably the largest alternative. Do a google search; articles and blogs on this issue have included lists of alternatives in their writing.
December 6, 2011 at 8:33 pm
Right now, Google Checkout is US only. And that can be an issue.
December 6, 2011 at 8:39 pm
Yeah. I (as well as many others) need the following:
-International payments. Even/especially China/Europe/South America. (We want their money, they want our software.)
-Most/All Major Credit Cards
-Direct x-fer from/to bank acct.
-Encrypted AND non-encrypted, programatically generatable HTML form object for PHP/SQL database items.
-Reasonable percentages from each purchase
-No monthly rates (else, I’d just lose money by getting a merchant services account from a bank who doesn’t understand what e-commerce means, despite the fact that the term ALREADY died out 4 years ago).
December 7, 2011 at 6:07 am
Google Checkout can only be accepted by US sellers, but international customers can PAY on it, as far as I know. Fees are equal to PayPal. It’s the closest approximation to PayPal. Customers can pay without a (free) account, but then get no buyer/seller protections, IIRC. Plus, people have heard of Google, and although WePay and others seem just fine, I wonder if customers will be comfortable with them.
Head over to the forums. We’re all contrasting/comparing alternatives there. There are WAY more than I thought there’d be.
December 7, 2011 at 9:37 am
Do have a link to a specific forum?
I know that my business is a bit different than most of the Regretsians’, in that I’m billing for services, not product. So my need for buyer/seller protection is less than the ability to allow one-time clients to use a company charge card to pay for my work. Frustratingly, most of the seller-oriented alternatives assume that I want a shopping-cart type system, and I don’t.
December 7, 2011 at 9:41 am
Link to the forum thread:
http://forums.regretsy.com/topic.php?id=14088
December 7, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Thanks!
December 7, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Google checkout is exceedingly easy to use – I’ve walked buyers through the 5 minute set-up just so they could pay by credit card in my on-line store. (on Bonanza) You still have the buyer’s protection your CC issuer gives. Money deposits directly into your bank account.
December 6, 2011 at 8:19 pm
What she said – I have had zero issues with Google Checkout when it’s come up as a payment option.
December 6, 2011 at 8:35 pm
Do you have to have a Google account to use it?
December 6, 2011 at 8:41 pm
My only issue is that 90% or more of our sales are international, so Google is a no-go. We make (among many other things) ANSI z1.4 standards sampling software for people to ship stuff TO the U.S.
December 6, 2011 at 9:53 pm
I’ve used Google Checkout to pay for things from Australia and it’s worked fine – all you need is a credit card or something like Visa/Mastercard Debit.
December 7, 2011 at 5:19 am
Good to know. Thanks! = )
December 10, 2011 at 7:58 am
I’ve only had a cursory look at WePay. It’s available only to US sellers, but they claim they can take payments from overseas buyers.
Amazon Payments seems to be pretty much worldwide, and the Amazon name is trusted (probably more trusted than Google), but I don’t know about their fees or anything.
December 6, 2011 at 7:59 pm
So, are you going to still use Paypal in the new year? Myself and a lot of other Regretsy users have deleted their accounts. I would still like to donate in the future but I refuse to use these Paypal bastards.
December 6, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I wonder if there are any statistics available regarding how many paypal users have closed their accounts due to this fiasco. I’d be interested to her if it was tens, or hundreds, or thousands, maybe.
December 6, 2011 at 8:35 pm
PayPal won’t say. They will rightly claim business confidentiality.
From what I’ve seen, I’d estimate a few hundred. Most of those are small fry who have had little or no activity. They won’t be missed, and many will go back now that it’s “resolved”.
There was a second wave of more active users who were unable to close their accounts because of pending transactions. Suspiciously, these transactions were not always visible to the account holders.
Finally, storekeepers who use only PayPal cannot afford to change to a new system right now. Come the new year, PayPal might see a drop in business accounts. But this has all happened many times before and PayPal has sailed through every time without changing anything about their practices or culture. Maybe this time their competitors will be aggressive about recruiting customers.
December 6, 2011 at 9:35 pm
I had a ‘pending transaction’ on my account. I sent a note through their email system asking them WTF it was… apparently it was from 2010 when I put something through from Adobe? I have no clue. They removed it right away – but there was still a 12 hr delay in closing my a/c.
December 7, 2011 at 6:17 am
A couple of years ago I went to remove my debit card and it wouldn’t let me. So I called and the woman on the phone said there was a ‘pending transaction’ on my account. Since I hadn’t used it for months, she removed the ‘pending transaction’ and I took the card off. I will say that particular CS rep was nice.
It’s interesting to learn that I’m not the only one who has ran into this. There’s obviously something wrong with the automatic system, and since my incident was a couple years ago, this hasn’t been fixed. Hmm.
December 7, 2011 at 5:03 am
I had/have this mysterious pending transaction and was unable to close my account. So I just poked around online voting up for bad press for a few hours yesterday instead. That very likely hurt more than closing my barely used account anyway.
December 6, 2011 at 9:33 pm
I’ve cancelled mine – was a paypal user for — geesh – years and years and years. Probably since 2002. The reason I put for closing my account was “Regretsy”.
December 7, 2011 at 5:08 am
They probably won’t and can’t tell us that — but it will be interesting to watch what happens to their stock price.
December 6, 2011 at 8:00 pm
just show me where the buy,donate,sell,stick’em up button is…I’m ready to unleash the contents of my coinpurse.
December 6, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Heheheh, I like it!
December 7, 2011 at 8:12 am
Marry Me.
December 6, 2011 at 8:00 pm
I’m guessing you’re still out some money, April. How do we make sure you don’t get stuck covering whatever was refunded?
December 7, 2011 at 5:02 am
Yeah, will PayPal refund all of the fees they took because of their repeated mistakes??
December 6, 2011 at 8:01 pm
This was pretty invigorating to read. I mean.. sticking it to The Man: check. Standing up for poor kids: check. Serving up a hot dish of Paypal social media ass: check. This is one fight that really mattered and makes people proud to be involved with a strong voice leading the way. Cheers, April.
December 6, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Considering that their statement this morning basically laid all the blame on you and claimed that they were making a “significant donation” (when it’s clear that they are mainly interested in only making donations that they can use for tax deductions– at least that’s what I assume the “favorite charity” thing is coming from), I’m still waiting for them to do more than the absolute bare minimum before I stop farting in their general direction. A better public statement of how the fault was all on their side and the gift card thing would be a nice start.
December 7, 2011 at 1:10 pm
I love you for the Monty Python reference.
December 6, 2011 at 8:02 pm
You know, staying up late last night and watching this all develop, seeing hundreds of posts on the paypal facebook wall, and hearing my brother shout “Wil Wheaton tweeted about this!” from his room at midnight. . . this made me feel like a kid at Christmas.
And it gave me a big, hairy, yodeling girl-boner.
I’m glad they de-fucked your shit, HKpril, and I hope they come through on those gift cards.
December 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
God, I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed this site. HKpril, you remain my hero!
December 6, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Where’ve you been?? Doing something fun, I hope.
December 6, 2011 at 10:33 pm
My most adorable Leigh!!! I mean . . . smartwentcrazy! I’ve been off for a long time as well: end of term and end of year festivities that I attend with ‘regresty’ and only pretend to like my relatives even though I’m seething with anger on the inside. Um . . . point being, I’ve missed you and all of the other fat jealous losers. Fuckery!!!
December 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
I spent the day refreshing my Google news page and couldn’t believe how the list of news sources covering the story grew. Congratulations to you all.
December 6, 2011 at 8:03 pm
My mother runs a legitimate 501(c) Not-for-profit organization; you know, the kind that douchebag said were the only ones who could use the holy Donate button.
She uses PayPal as an easy method to get donations from people and also process payments.
She’s coming over this weekend for a conference. However, because of all this, we’ll be discussing other options. I won’t let PayPal get away with another cent.
December 6, 2011 at 8:42 pm
As for my own personal account…
“This account cannot be closed until the funds transfer from your bank account is completed.”
Grr. Why did I have to buy that crap from dailysteals.com the other day?
Oh well, as soon as I can, I’m done with PayPal. Permanently.
December 6, 2011 at 8:04 pm
April, you need a big fucking hug. And I swear, if I ever run into you around town I am buying you the biggest margarita I can find.
December 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm
I actually have never had a problem with ebay myself. I am, however, completely disgusted with this behavior and will be paying off my line of credit through them and closing out my accounts in protest. I cannot in good faith support a company whose policy seems to clearly state that they will fuck you over until they get enough bad publicity that they have to issue a half-assed apology.
December 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm
Let me guess they were thinking of sending $100 cards usable as paypal money and therefore will seize the opportunity to collect yet again…
December 6, 2011 at 8:09 pm
Yeah, that was my thought, too.
Does one have to have a PayPal account in order to use such gift cards?
December 6, 2011 at 8:19 pm
There is that, but then there is the fact that if they do donate them, these families still get a good chunk of money out of the deal and I am all for that. $95 is still a very good thing when you are struggling, even if it isn’t quite $100.
December 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm
So the statement by the sometimes smiling, sometimes serious guy at the Paypal blog was a total lie, too? The whole part about “we have regulations for who can use the donate button and we’re required by law to have them”? Sounds like in fact there are no restrictions whatsoever on who can use the donate button.
Paypal: GET YOUR STORY STRAIGHT.
December 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm
It was amazing last night…friends and FJL’s launching out into the twilight like those little plague bees from the mouth of John Coffey in The Green Mile….BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…and we spread darkness across the face of paypal like a biblical curse….*fighting the urge not to laugh maniacally*
December 6, 2011 at 8:39 pm
And the mouse lived!!! (There’s a metaphor in there somewhere, but I’m too tired to work it out.)
December 6, 2011 at 8:05 pm
But I will say this: we got someone to pay attention.
Pretty incredible… adds a new spin to the whole ‘April’s Army’ thing, you know?
And this has people talking. And it has people bringing up the shit with Katrina and Something Awful and WikiLeaks and all the other times PayPal has messed with charitable/fundraising efforts.
People are paying attention, and that’s a GOOD thing. I wonder what other ripples this will cast.
December 6, 2011 at 8:43 pm
Whoops, read ‘ripples’ as ‘nipples’ and thought, “WHAT”.
This hayfever and the happy tears are messing with my vision.
December 6, 2011 at 8:56 pm
For me, this was the last straw. As you’ve mentioned, PayPal has a horrendous track record with this shit. Time and time again, they prove they are inept. No one at PayPal seems to actually know what the hell their policies are.
This isn’t something that PayPal can “fix.” Regardless of their future actions, I’m done doing business with them. Forever. Their shitty service was a moderate convenience 10 years ago. Now it’s irrelevant.
December 6, 2011 at 8:07 pm
I feel like we came together to do something good in this world the last few days and fight back against a corporation for taking advantage of innocent people, the little guy. It’s a pretty rare feeling anymore… to actually feel as though you helped do something really important. I’m going to savor this moment and enjoy having a warm feeling in my cold, little, fat jealous loser heart! Great job everyone. For once, I feel like the dozen or so emails I sent out to PayPal and it’s minions were actually read and might have helped make a difference.
I’ve only been a member here for 6 months or so, but you have a supporter for life now. CF4L BITCHES!!!!!!!!
December 6, 2011 at 8:57 pm
#OccupyPayPal
December 6, 2011 at 9:37 pm
And we did it all without illegally camping out in a cold park. Go us!
December 6, 2011 at 10:04 pm
AND none of us got pepper-sprayed! That’s like a double win. Or a triple win! Or like… A grand slam! The baseball kind, not the Denny’s kind. Although, Denny’s sounds pretty good right about now.
… Wait, what was I talking about?
December 6, 2011 at 11:30 pm
mmmmmmmm…..pumpkin pancakes….
December 6, 2011 at 8:07 pm
maybe i’m hormonal, or maybe my grinchly i-hate-the-holidays heart is growing three sizes today, but i’ll be damned if i’m not sitting here all teary-eyed.
god bless you, april, for not only thinking of the unfortunate in the first place, but for going to bat for us, and more importantly, the kids and your ideals. you are what the holidays are all about.
*sniffle*… now excuse me…. i… i’ve got something in my eye…
December 6, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Dahoo fucking dores, PayPal.
December 6, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Welcome Christmas!
December 6, 2011 at 10:21 pm
Christmas day is in our grasp, as long as we have hands to clasp.
December 6, 2011 at 11:25 pm
Welcome Christmas while we stand heart to heart and hand in hand.
And thanks for the earworm, by the way.
December 6, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Call me underwhelmed. Does anyone else find their resolution completely unsatisfying? I want them to buy a pony for every kid they screwed over.
December 6, 2011 at 8:14 pm
No meaningful apology, no acknowledgement that their policies are opaque/arbitrary/nonexistent, and no indications of what they will do to make their policies more transparent/evenhanded/existent. Truly a PR fail.
December 6, 2011 at 8:15 pm
I’m with you. They need to basically bring a Muppets Christmas Carol-style feast and celebration to every one of those 200 families.
December 6, 2011 at 8:16 pm
But a pony is so much responsibility. If it gets sick, how will they pay the vet bills? I mean, I know a place, but I hear it only helps raise money for cats…
December 6, 2011 at 8:42 pm
You had me going for a bit…but I see what you did there!
December 6, 2011 at 8:20 pm
I feel the same way. this shit isn’t over, I’ll keep up the negative PR if I must.
December 6, 2011 at 8:28 pm
And a WAGON, damnit!
December 6, 2011 at 10:43 pm
for God’s sake give the kids a wagon to go with the pony. All ponies should automatically come with a shiny red wagon.
December 6, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Stayed up all night watching this story blow up, so proud to be a FJL!
December 6, 2011 at 8:14 pm
Fat Jealous Losers, 1. Paypal, 0.
Regretsy isn’t the only victim. Reposted from Amy Havens Hines:
“We are totally shut down right now due to the same thing. We launched a new product line where a portion of all products enable us to donate to various charities on a monthly basis. We were right in the middle of collecting donations to provide the children who were spending their holiday in the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters our coloring books when PayPal shut down BOTH our incoming orders with a 21 day hold (we are now unable to pay our vendors) and our donations. Do you have any media contacts who might be able to help us? I AM DESPERATE! This has devastated our business. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE if you know anyone who might be able to help us, please have them email info@nawtydawgbigheart.com. Thanks for your help:) Amy & Ecco D’Oro”
This woman, and others, don’t have our power. Can we take them under our wing and cause the same outcry for them?
December 6, 2011 at 8:21 pm
Do you have a good link for this? I’m up for more hatred towards Paypal.
December 6, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Just their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ecco-DOro/169898309731244?sk=wall
They run everything through that.
December 6, 2011 at 8:40 pm
A friend of mine who uses her PayPal account told me that as of yesterday, any money coming in to her is going to be put on hold for some unknown amount of time before she can access it. So that means she can’t print postage or send the money to her checking account. She’s not even a regular seller- this is money she gets from de-stashing her craft supplies. They won’t tell her why they’ve suddenly thrust this hold on her.
December 6, 2011 at 8:51 pm
That needs to be posted on Paypal’s FB wall. We need to blow them up for the small vendors as well as for April/Helen.
December 6, 2011 at 9:25 pm
Yeah, my account is frozen too, and the only activity is the refunded donation to April. No word on why it’s been frozen, or when the freeze will come off. They may have made their public ball-grabbing attempt to salvage their ass, but I wonder how many people they are taking it out on with freezes? This ain’t over yet.
December 6, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Send a random email to paypal through their website – but under some bunk ‘reason’ that will allow you to send them an email… they should come back w/ their reason for you & fix it (they actually were quite responsive when I did it that way…they even tried to call me)
December 6, 2011 at 9:02 pm
Really, the best thing anyone can do is to drop PayPal ASAP and move on to a competing service, like Google Checkout. Regardless of what they do to “solve” these things, they’ve gone too far, too often.
( Wait, why do I suddenly feel like Picard? “Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far and no further! And I will make them pay for what they’ve done!” )
December 6, 2011 at 9:40 pm
First Contact, FTW! “you broke your little toys”
December 6, 2011 at 9:03 pm
I don’t want to wrongly cast aspersions, but these folks seem to be a little less transparent than Regretsy. They want people to donate $7 to buy one of their coloring books for a kid in the hospital. They’ll give $2 per book to the hospital and keep $5. I know there are material costs and everything, but still. I don’t think anyone would go for the idea of sending me $7 and me giving $2 for charity.
December 7, 2011 at 4:10 pm
I think you misunderstood – the $5 is for the books & crayons, and the extra $2 goes as a cash gift.
December 6, 2011 at 9:51 pm
The Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters?
What an AWFUL name! It sounds like a gender-segregated ward for all the female offspring of the Sultan of Brunei’s harem.
December 6, 2011 at 8:15 pm
You know, I hesitated to put my shiny new CF4L sticker on my shiny new post-accident bumper. I’ll be honest.
“Is it just a fad?” I thought. “Will I be explaining this to people in three years and sounding completely insane, like someone who thought ‘Where’s The Beef’ stickers were the height of hilarity but am now stuck driving my 87 Datsun, explaining my retarded meme sticker to my grandkids?”
But you know what? Screw my grandkids if they don’t like it. And I don’t even have any. I fucking love you April, and all of you fat, jealous losers, and I’m damn proud to be part of such an amazingly dedicated, loyal, ever-so-slightly-vindictive-when-provoked community. DAMN proud. This is a group that has come together to make amazing things happen again and again, and which has not stood still in the face of assholes. I am ashamed to have hesitated. To the bumper!
CF4L!
December 6, 2011 at 8:26 pm
WTF there are bumper stickers? I missed that!
December 6, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Me, too. And now I fucking WANT ONE.
December 6, 2011 at 11:26 pm
You can find them on Etsy. Just saying.
December 6, 2011 at 8:28 pm
I refuse to put my “cf4l euro” sticker or my “cf4l jesus fish” sticker on my car til I wash it. I don’t want to risk them not adhering permanently to my automobile!
December 6, 2011 at 8:15 pm
I’m pretty proud to say that I’m associated with this group. (Not that I ever wasn’t, but you know what I mean)
CF4L
December 6, 2011 at 8:15 pm
This warms my cockles.
Seriously. Well done nerds. I’m proud.
December 6, 2011 at 8:46 pm
heh heh. you said cockles.
December 6, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Sometimes the cockles just need a good warming.
December 6, 2011 at 8:15 pm
The $77 is your fees refunded. I punched it into a percentage calculator and it came to abut 1.9% of just over 4000k… so I’m assuming you got somewhere between 3 and 4k in donations and that’s the fee chip they got. Which they’ve now returned to you.
December 7, 2011 at 5:16 am
I think it’s more complicated than that. There’s a flat-fee portion and a variable-fee portion, which I think differentiates between the amount they have to pay the credit card companies or banks and the amount they actually profit on. If that’s the case, then what they initially told April might have been as reasonable as “we will be keeping the money that reimburses us for the bank and card fees we’ve had to pay on moving the money around”, rather than saying “we’re going to profit on the money coming and going each time you raise it”.
But I didn’t feel like following that line of thought earlier, because I really didn’t feel like their customer service quality deserved the effort it would take for me to be reasonable in the face of their complete lack of doing the same.
December 6, 2011 at 8:16 pm
I told you somebody was fucking a craftard.
December 6, 2011 at 8:16 pm
I do hope paypal comes through with the gift cards for the families, however, they screwed me over on a (much smaller scale) personal level yesterday as well-stupidly i thought the moto “paypal protects your purchases” actually ment that paypal protects your purchases. Turns out paypal protects dodgy sellers, who claim that they havent ‘recieved, in a reasonable amount of time’ the items you are returning because they are faulty, on the day you sent them…strangely enough i would have thought that recieving something in china on the day it was sent from australia was pretty unreasonable. Game over, case closed, you lose. Goodbye paypal!
December 6, 2011 at 11:18 pm
Turns out paypal protects dodgy sellers…
To go full cynic on you– they’re owned by eBay. Think about it.
December 6, 2011 at 8:17 pm
I would hate to be the guy on the firing end of this stupidity. Some 90% of employees are fired because their managers could give two shits less if the they are trained right or not. Don’t quote me, it’s a % echoing in my head from stoner studying for finals.
this “fix” is just their PR band-aid.
December 6, 2011 at 8:18 pm
Oh and due to personal reasons that that kept me away from my interwebz fuckery, I haven’t donated yet.
Are there still kids that need me or can we start a sick cat fund?
December 6, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Thank you for the update with this. I’m sure in light of it all it was hard to find the time and the words, and for this, I am truly appreciative. I’ve been watching this story like a hawk all day long.
I’m still not convinced we’ve won, per se, but it feels like we actually accomplished something and moved forward. Wow.
December 6, 2011 at 8:20 pm
Are they refunding the fees they took from your bank account, April? :/
December 6, 2011 at 8:41 pm
That might be the $77.
7700/30=256.67
Nope, not enough.
December 6, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Actually, assuming that we’re looking at over 7K of $2 donations, it’s closer to (7700/2)*.30 which comes to about 1155 if i did my math right (no guarantee!). And that would be just for the first round right?? Oh my god! That shit’s expensive!!!
December 6, 2011 at 9:49 pm
It wasn’t all $2 donations, though. There were at least a couple of people who donated $100, and probably a bunch of people who donated $10 or $20.
Please note that I am NOT defending Paypal, just pointing out that there probably weren’t nearly as many individual transactions as some people think. Or else Bronc’s fingers would have fallen off trying to issue all the refunds.
December 6, 2011 at 10:09 pm
I hear ya whawhawhatsis. It’s still a monumental amount of money and was a major ass pain for HKapril and Bronc… Certainly unfair if that $77 is their only compensation.
December 7, 2011 at 3:58 pm
they deserve the $77 just to pay for the Icy-Hot needed for their poor fingers
December 6, 2011 at 8:25 pm
“Enjoy it, but please don’t get used to real writing. We don’t do that here.”
Be careful. You’re getting dangerously close to writing a timely, concise, and meaningful editorial on the state of customer service in the vein of Olbermann
December 6, 2011 at 8:50 pm
A Special Comment. Can I get a “You, Sir!!!”?
December 6, 2011 at 8:28 pm
For those interested in alternatives, there’s a thread running on forum with alternatives list here Most of them there’s relatively few people with direct experience with them, so if you’ve actually USED any of the ones listed there, make a comment as to whether it was a good, bad, confusing, had a steep learning curve, or you love it and want to have its babies.
December 6, 2011 at 8:28 pm
We heard the call. We unfurled the banners and waved the flags. We chanted, we sang, we marched. We made our voices HEARD. And it wasn’t just for ourselves. It was so some poor kids could have a fun Christmas. And maybe, hopefully, some families could have a small boost in these trying times.
Yes, we’re snarky, mean, fat jealous losers. But when it actually matters, we are good. We are strong. We are unified. And by fuck, we’re LOUD. And PERSISTENT.
I was once told that everyone should try to make a difference in this world, no matter how small. Today, we did that.
OK, I’ll stop being all sincere and shit. But remember: We are Regretsies. (Or is that Regretsians?) We are a force to be reckoned with. We saw that in the last 24 hours. Never forget what we accomplished today, because we may have to do it again….or even do more.
December 6, 2011 at 8:29 pm
See, this is why customers are generally defensive as soon as they come in the door, I think. Now, speaking for myself here, nine times out of ten, I will go above and beyond for a customer, especially if it involves trying to find a product I don’t have, or clarifying poor information from the corporate side of customer service. Those guys seriously haven’t got a clue a lot of the time. It is in my nature to be polite and helpful, it is also in my nature to detest people and not be in the least bit sociable, so how I manage to get grateful customers, hell knows, but it’s worked for eight years. My customers know me by name, and I, woo big head, even have a reputation for handling people well amongst my co-workers as well as knowing my product way too well.
This guys customer service was beyond appalling. It makes everyone who deals in customer service look bad. His ass needs some punishment. No excuse for his accusatory tone or anything. However, power of the people, I like it.
December 6, 2011 at 8:43 pm
But the accusatory tone is SOP for many, many businesses. Particularly large ones.
Customers are thieving scum.
Haven’t you ever noticed the warning on DVDs, for example, that only paying customers ever see?
December 6, 2011 at 8:59 pm
It is, which is sad, and as a customer, I don’t appreciate it, nor do I as a representative of a company. Where I work, we are borderline obsequious, because nobody wants a customer complaint.
I do have a lot of theft in my store, mind you, but all I can really do is watch the person and let them know, hey, I’m on to you, please don’t do that. I have never out right said you stole this or you did that or whatever, just not done.
I pay little attention to anything involving DVDs except the movie.
December 6, 2011 at 8:31 pm
What do I think?
I think the world is lucky that we use our powers for good and not evil.
I think OWS should take note, because we know how to get shit done.
I think the issue is not over until PayPal makes their “subjective” review process a whole lot more objective, and their guidelines crystal clear.
Not everyone is in a position to walk away from their PayPal account and not have it hurt their business. those who want to close their accounts should, but how long until another payment agent does the same thing? Can we really trust any of them again? And where’s my slippers, damn it?
I say we keep on their asses a little more, until things actually change. Otherwise, this is going to happen again. It happened before (Something Awful’s Katrina Drive), and clearing that up did not stop this from happening. Next time it may be for travel expenses for the family of someone with a sick loved one or some such, and the solution will come too late.
December 6, 2011 at 8:36 pm
Okay, it’s late, and everyone’s already on here, and I gave myself brain freeze trying to multiply $100 x 200. But since they’ve lied through their teeth about everything, including talking to you before they had, and “making a donation,” I’m not holding my breath. So, do we need to RE-SEND you the money?!
December 6, 2011 at 8:36 pm
Well done you fat, jealous, loser, slag bastards.
My niece is one of the kids getting help this year.
I was in tears of gratitude when you overfunded so fast.
The shit this community gets done when it needs to blow my fucking mind. We’re all strangers, brought together by shit talking and yet there has been more generosity and love shown by you than I’ve seen in groups that are only about charity. You fuckers remind me why I put my feet on the ground in the morning. I only hope that someday, I can do something that makes one of you cry in joy, like you’ve done for me – with a $2 donation.
April – you’re kind of my hero. You get to be both super-villain to the idiots and matriarch to the snarkers.
December 6, 2011 at 8:42 pm
Years ago, I got to sit and talk with some murder mystery authors, who praised the mystery-writer community as overflowing with good, supportive, good-humored people. At conventions, you were shocked to hear a rude comment but took it for granted that everyone was around you plotting murder. The prevailing theory was that they all work out their aggressions in their books. And a couple of authors who’d started out doing romance novels, then switched to mysteries, said they preferred the mystery community. According to them, the romance-novelist community is a snake pit of backbiting, backstabbing, twisted human beings. (And considering some of the squabbles and feuds I’ve heard about, from a former roommate’s aunt who I can’t name but is an icon of romance writers, I’ll easily believe it.)
I guess we here are kinda similar. We have an outlet for snark, but when the good cause calls, we rally.
December 6, 2011 at 8:59 pm
I remember a discussion of an actor (I think it was Roger Delgado, the first Master in Doctor Who), where they were all saying what a kind, genuinely nice person he was, yet playing all these villains. It was like he was doing the same thing as the mystery writers.
December 6, 2011 at 10:13 pm
And near terminally shy. Poor fellow would also take off running when startled by loud noises or explosions.
December 7, 2011 at 5:20 am
…which just underscores what a stunning actor he was. His face is still my mental touchstone for “villainous”.
December 7, 2011 at 6:01 am
Oh yeah…many of the great villain actors were/are kind, gentle people in real life. Anton Diffring, who played evil Nazis in countless war movies (and on Dr. Who, in “Silver Nemesis”), as well as numerous mad scientists and murderers in horror films, was an almost legendarily kind and nice guy, a gay man who fled Germany one step ahead of Hitler.
A friend who was involved for a while in pro wrestling talks about how the “heroes” are almost invariably swaggering macho oafs in private, but the “heels” are frequently good-humored nice guys who just enjoy hamming it up.
December 7, 2011 at 8:54 am
Niska from Firefly? Total sweetheart in person. When I met him the first time, I told him he unnerved me because of the character he played, and he hugged me.
December 7, 2011 at 1:49 pm
Vincent Price was patient enough to stay around a good hour plus after a talk on the Great Mouse Detective to say hi and sign things for (and be photographed with) random young fans. He didn’t have to stay (and given that his health issues would worsen significantly over the next few years, no one would have held it against him if he had to leave right away), but we sure appreciated him being there.
December 6, 2011 at 8:38 pm
No idea if anybody has posted this yet, but found this article through another website. You people impress the hell out of me.
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2011/12/06/paypal-is-latest-case-study-of-dont-piss-off-the-internet/
December 6, 2011 at 8:39 pm
$20K in donations ($100 x 200) would be CHEAP compared to a major stock hit to eBay. Don’t stop at just not using PayPal, but let’s boycott eBay too. Their stock today is at 30.90 on NASDAQ. Enough negative publicity and a drop in sales would help a LOT in pushing through the message: crappy customer service costs you WAY MORE $$$ in the long run.
December 7, 2011 at 5:57 am
A boycott of Paypal is a de facto boycott of eBay, because their payment systems are tied together so closely. eBay requires sellers to offer electronic payment options, and guess what, they don’t allow Google Checkout, Dwolla, Amazon Payments, Serve, or any other reasonable competitor.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html
And they don’t allow sellers to state that they accept checks and money orders.
So if you want to boycott Paypal, you basically have to stop selling on eBay. And as a buyer on eBay you’d have to message your seller in advance to ask if they’ll accept a money order and hope they respond before the auction ends.
December 6, 2011 at 8:41 pm
So, does this mean I can/should make my donation again? At this point I’m only willing to make the donation if Paypal isn’t getting any money out of it, I’m planning to cancel my account once I don’t have any pending transactions. I’ve been disgusted with them for a long time and this just pushed me over the edge to not wanting to give them any business regardless of the possible inconvenience.
December 6, 2011 at 8:46 pm
PayPal assumes that 99% of the time, they’ll get away with this kind of nonsense, so they just keep doing it.
December 6, 2011 at 9:00 pm
Yep. It’s the logic used by insurance companies and companies offering mail in rebates. If nine times out of ten the claims get denied, or people fail to send in the form properly, it doesn’t matter when they have to pay the one time out of ten when the customer is aggressive, persistent, and lucky. They’re still making a healthy profit off of those who weren’t so lucky.
December 6, 2011 at 8:46 pm
SOMEBODY at Paypal isn’t going to get to use the Champagne Jacuzzi for the rest of the year!
December 6, 2011 at 8:49 pm
I’m loving the new “WePay” ad on the right hand side
GO CF4L FTW. Well, minor win. In the big picture of Paypal fuckery. But, a minor win is still a win.