To PayPal or NOT to PayPal

Before I start this post, I want to say that I tried to post it as a 'note" The editor kept throwing an error saying I needed more than 100 characters which i most assuredly had. I could not get past the error so i am posting it here.

Nathan, make a Ticket!

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For about a week now (and off and on for months and years before this week), I have been marching on about PayPal. This all started a couple years ago with a friend who had a very large sum of money 'locked out'. Of course, in my desire to help him, I turned to the web for information.

My out of control rant over the last couple weeks started because PayPal recently changed it's payment page. You used to be able to select to not pay through PayPal and because I was a member of the PayPal haters club, that was the selection I always used. In retrospect, I was probably only fooling myself as it was PayPal's page and they are most likley storing my information anyway, even without a password protected account.

I have spent many hours reading site after site created by the PayPal haters group. Man, it's easy to get sucked in by all that especially when you already have a leg in the fight when you show up. When you start, you think "There are a lot of these sites! Where there's smoke, there MUST be fire!" After a while though, I started to see a pattern. The reality was, there were probably only a couple hundred people complaining and it took some serious digging to find that many. All their complaints were essentially the same. Something went wrong with their transaction, either as a merchant or a buyer and PayPal held their money.

Then I found this site for an online zine called "Web Marketing Today" This article is probably the best answer I came  across for the entire hoopla surrounding PayPal. It is well written, well researched and from a well respected source, Dr. Ralph F Wilson:

http://www.wilsonweb.com/wct5/paypal_assess.htm

I consider this a must read for every Merchant or person that regularly uses PayPal. He does not pull his punches about PayPal and the fact that payPal has many hurdles to overcome, especially in the customer service department isn't overlooked in his assessment. After reading this article though, I am forced to change my stance, I now have a much better understanding of the difficulties PayPal faces daily just managing what has become the worlds largest credit card processing company.

It's a very long article but well worth the time.

You can make your own ticket. I have cats to feed.

Edit: I'll make it easier for you by writing the title and description here.

Title: Notes: Editor displays character count error when text is pasted in

Description: The editor doesn't recognize text that is pasted in and displays an error saying that you need to enter more characters. Have a nice day!

I use PP, because its whats available and easy.

But, I am one of the many who have had their accounts 'locked' before while containing thousands of pounds... All of which I lost.

The PP system made it impossible to 'unlock' my account as I was presented with hurdle after hurdle to jump, each time more difficult than the last. Eventually, I was being asked to provide invoices for hundreds of items that I had sold on ebay, which I simply did not have as I was purchasing by the pallet! 

This was explained to PP, who just chose to ignore me via all communication channels.

This was a number of years ago.

I still use PP...

I would prefer better options though, Google checkout being one of them - to be integrated in Dolphin.

unfortunately until something better comes along. paypal is the most widely used payment processor. you must also understand that just as we have seen many times discussed in here, regarding refunds, and payment disputes, with paypals presence, can you imagine the processing that takes place daily on legitimate and bogus complaints. 

not only that, but the phishing and scam attempts that are attempted. 

paypal is paypal, ebay is ebay, dolphin is dolphin, they all have traits and personalities. much like we as humans do. and scientifically we are not all compatible with each other, and not all environments, virtual or real are compatible with us. 

i use paypal, and i use google checkout. i like google checkout, and from a busisness perspective, i consider google checkout to be more fluid. and i love the fact that they auto deposit my funds, and i dont have to spend 15 minutes asking for my money, then be told it could take 3-5 days for the funds to transfer.

alternatively, google checkout does not have a debit card, and guess they dont really need one. but consider why paypal has a debit card? they are capitalizing on your money. 

so its not that they are doing you a favor, they are using your money and charging you a fee to do so. brilliant.

How come no one here has undertaken the task of integrating Google checkout into a mod?

 its coming. i spoke to martinboi the other day about it again. 

Google Payments use Paypal.

 thats funny. why do you think google checkout uses paypal? 

Google Payments ( google checkout ) absolutely is not using paypal....

possibly will be integrated in some module in the future but it would be a good thing to be integrated directly on dolphin ... without having to purchase more modules ... but if nobody is interested in this will never happen ...

http://www.boonex.com/n/google-checkout

The last time I used Google Payment the process went through Paypal.

i will start to work on a google checkout integration module in the next days ...

sry, i cant access google checkout as merchant out of my country so i cant start the developing of the integration for dolphin ...

if anyone could create a dummy merchant account for me i would be very thankfull!