Paypal is evil
I hate Paypal with the white-hot fury of a thousand fiery suns. They screwed me on an eBay auction once. I was selling my old 4GB first gen iPhone and selling it as-is. The dude who bought it Jailbreaked and Unlocked to use on T-Mobile. He didn’t like it and sent it back saying it didn’t work. I could PROVE to Paypal that it worked just fine and was working before I sent it, but they ruled in his favor. He never sent me the iPhone accessories (headphones, dock, charger, cases, etc) back AND Paypal took the money right out of my account. I will NEVER use them again and warn other people constantly. Google Checkout FTW!We recently relaunched tweet hopper, as it is now owned and operated by four bean soup. The relaunch is part of our effort to build a profitable company that can sustain our family (my four beans…) while offering a great product with solid customer service.
As some of you may have noticed if you tried to sign up in the last week or so, it wasn’t working. I have one reason why: Paypal. We initially signed up for their Website Payments Pro offering, the same one we used while running my previous business, Handcrafted. After two weeks of testing, we launched and everything was going smoothly after we worked out a few bugs.
An ominous fore-warning
A friend of mine happen to IM me on the 18th and we chatted about getting tweet hopper launched, the Paypal setup process, and some other business related stuff. He sent me this link about a Paypal horror story and warned me to be careful about relying on Paypal. Low and behold, the very next morning I received an email at 7am from Paypal saying they suspended the account and they need more business details, on a Saturday to boot.
A startup’s worst fear, realized
Not sure what to do, I logged in immediately and started sending them the docs they requested. They wanted silly things like my list of suppliers, even thought it is a purely digital service I offer. They asked for:
- Driver’s licenses
- Social security cards
- Bank statements
- Sales policies
- Refund policies
The timing couldn’t have been worse, we were rushing around that morning to head out to an all day Nutcracker event for my oldest daughter. I quickly got them all the docs before we left and spent the 45 minute car ride on the phone with customer service. They finally said they needed time to review all the documents, I should hear back in 24 hours.
The 24 hours came and went, so I called customer service back. They reviewed the documents on the phone with me and lifted the restrictions on the spot! I was so happy that I could put it all behind me. Then I logged in and saw the Website Payments Pro was still gone. I called customer service back again and asked about my payment processing, they said I needed to reapply for it and they got the ball rolling, but it would take another 24 hours. I waited patiently, actually thinking it would all be ok because we used Website Payments Pro at Handcrafted with no issues.
23 hours later I received an email informing me I was too high risk and my previous approval was being denied. When I called customer service they informed me the virtual terminal department doesn’t take phone calls, I would have to email them. I did, a half hour later I got the same denial letter sent back to me. When I emailed a third time they added a note saying there was nothing that could be done before parroting the denial again.
Spreedly FTW!
A mere two days before Christmas, we were left with no options for a gateway and we weren’t sure how to proceed. Luckily we made the decision to use Spreedly before launch and we had some options for a new gateway - namely First Data. Nathaniel from Spreedly had recommended First Data, so I gave them a call. They sent over paperwork for me to fill out, but they couldn’t start processing it until the Monday after Christmas, what a bummer!
I sent them all the info right away and waited to hear back. The whole process was slow and tedious compared to Paypal, but we finally got the approval and account setup after two weeks.
Whoops, wrong account type
After I was up and running, I realized I need their API not their virtual terminal product. After a bunch of emails back and forth and a couple more calls to customer service, we finally had what we needed! I quickly plugged it into Spreedly and gave my credit card a live test - it worked!
The moral of this story: Steer clear of Paypal!
I think there are three important lessons that we learned as a business:
- Never be stuck relying on PayPal without a backup plan
- Ask for personal recommendations
- Use Spreedly to get gateway flexibility
I really can’t say enough about #3, to make the change, we didn’t modify any code. We just logged into Spreedly and added a gateway and switched all the card types to use it. Previously charged cards that were handled under paypal will now be handled under First Data for next months charges!
