PayPal Sucks

After having to create a new personal PayPal account, I ran another auction for some home automation equipment and used my new PayPal account as the payment account (hoping it would not be a credit card transaction). It wasn't and everything went smoothly...until later in the day I received a phone call from a PayPal support person. He was trying to check if I had indeed set up the auction and the new PayPal account. The problem is, he was a complete ass about it. He had a very antagonistic tone and kept asking if am I planning on shipping the items. He also kept asking where I'm getting the items from, practically accusing me of setting up a fake auction and PayPal account to scam someone. I asked him was this really necessary? Does he need to know where my items are from? But he was very insistent. Obviously, I'm shipping something as I had already purchased and printed out a UPS shipping label using my PayPal account. I appreciate they are trying to prevent fraud, but learn some customer service skills if you don't want to alienate more customers. He didn't even bother asking me to verify any account information to determine if I was really the owner of the eBay and PayPal accounts.

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eBay Really Does Suck

A BusinessWeek article pretty much summarizes how I feel about eBay, after recently selling stuff there for the first time in two years.

eBay Sucks

I've been selling some items on eBay for the first time in a couple years. I have always said in my auctions that if you are paying by PayPal and funding with a credit card, the buyer should contact me for a different PayPal account. Why? Because the only PayPal accounts that can accept credit cards are Business and Premier and if you have those accounts, they will take 2.9% out of the total for EVERY transaction. So, I maintained a personal account and a premier account for credit cards. Now, if someone doesn't know how to read and pays for my auction with a credit card, I cannot decline their payment. I HAVE to convert my account to a premier account. My guess is PayPal wants to eventually get rid of all those personal accounts so they can take 2.9% out of every transaction, even if I'm just sending cash to my friend who paid for lunch the day before. Sure I can create another personal PayPal account, but it's a pain in the ass. I'd rather sell stuff on Craigslist and get paid less for it than to get continuously nickel & dimed by eBay.