LowEndTalk

@rguy said: I have heard quite a few bad things about Paypal

Having used PayPal for years myself, as well as taking care of the tens of thousands of incoming payments we get via PayPal, I can honestly sum up the service for you with one line: Don't try to rip them off or do anything shady, and you have nothing to really worry about.

@rguy said: a few MUDs

WOOT! :)

To be honest, I would contact the provider(s) that you're looking at and ask them if they have an alternative method of payment. No provider with a clue is going to turn away a possible client. Heck, I do shared hosting and we have a couple dozen folks who send in checks once a year.

I signed up when I was about 12 and they didn't badger me once..

@DimeCadmium said: I've always wondered how many people actually do that.

Probably less than 5% if that. We also deal with a couple clients who use purchase orders. Those suck as all it does is add another layer to the work load, just to get a check out of them.

@drmike said: Probably less than 5% if that.

Yeah. In working at HostGator for 2 months (3-6 chats at once for 40 hours/week adds up to... a lot of chats) I saw a lot of PayPal and CC. Never once did I see check, money order, etc. But they accept it anyway! :p

@DimeCadmium said: Never once did I see check, money order, etc. But they accept it anyway!

I accept Check/Money Order and have 1 woman in NC who sends me a money order every few months to restock her account.

sigh

@qenox said: You should be able to pay by CC via paypal without signing up for an account, or have they completely disabled that?

This has already been covered. Please review the first post in the thread.

The poster doesn't trust Paypal to Delete the credit card information.

@qenox said: so if you did a 1 time invoice payment there shouldn't be anything stored long term.

Again, this has already been covered. Please review the original post in this thread. The poster doesn't trust them to delete the card information. Doesn't matter if they actually do or not.

@Aldryic I swear I'm trying to give @qenox the benefit of the doubt but....

@drmike said: @Aldryic I swear I'm trying to give @qenox the benefit of the doubt but....

Well, in his favor he just asked me for some tips... maybe he's actually trying? \o

@DimeCadmium said: I got marked for "need verification" when I got one just after I turned 18 earlier this year (presumably because I had no history, dunno). No good reason

The real reasonings behind those is often not you, but the person you're purchasing from. I deal with maybe 5-10 of these a month, and in 99% of them the client never has to get involved. Maybe 1 in 10 is actually something with the client (using a proxy without realizing, etc)... the rest are just selections from a rather complex ruleset PayPal uses for their spot checks.

...what Ald? No no, this was when I tried to get a PayPal debitcard and they ran whatever checks. i.e. I failed some check.

I say go for American Legal tender only! IDC if you do not operate or live in America. American cash only is accepted at the going rate of exchange at the time of the transaction. Mail it in.

@Aldryic said: Aaah, I gotcha. I thought you meant that "We are holding this transaction pending review" business.

That just means we are keeping your money until we can figure out a way to screw you out of it.

@KuJoe said: As a provider, Google CO is a much better option for us with much better security checks and fraud screening.

+1 on that. Paypal's fraud checks are too slow (days later, they tell us "hey! that ended up being fraud! we'll take your money back!") while Google's is pretty much within a few minutes, if it even passes into our system at all. I also wish that we could drop Paypal, but everyone still uses it...

I suppose we hadn't thought of how much market penetration Google Wallet has. Thanks for the input!

@Aldryic said: Yeah, that's an automatic no-go in my eyes. If someone doesn't want to be held accountable for their actions, they can take their business elsewhere

So you don't pay anywhere by cash? ;)

@Aldryic said: I'm looking the person in the eye, and I know exactly where I'm spending the money.

So you're more afraid of the seller (ie VPS provider) then. Because for the seller PaySafeCard is quite secure because you get the money without the ability for the payer to revoke. The argument for the buyer using PSC would be to be sure that his CC-info can't be stolen by someone. In this sense I guess PSC is quite good.

PSC acts like cash. Once you have it in your hand its yours.

It seems like a good system for one-off payments, or playing it safe for a provider you're unsure about turning over your CC information to. Sadly, since there's no accountability, it wouldn't be an option for us though. I frequently use gateway logs in my audits for tracking down duplicate accounts, people trying to sign back up after being banned, etc.

@japon said: that's the downside of cash

Cash is king, for a physical product or settle a debt, but for a service like a VPS, you are not coming into my house as an anonymous person. Be as anonymous over the net as you wish, but when the door knocks and someone in authority wants to know about you, with proper warrants in hand, you are being handed over to the man.

@japon said: But how do you know that the person using Mail In Payment is really the person pretending it is?

I've met them.

We have accepted Western Union in the past, under the circumstance that the client is willing to provide proof of identity. WU payments are a bit of a pain to work into Fran's schedule, though, so we discontinued that some time ago.

Well, so I guess distance payments always need a man-in-the-middle to handle and verify the payment.

@japon said: Well, I can fully understand that. But how do you know that the person using Mail In Payment is really the person pretending it is? (Apart from the fact that I'd never send cash via mail.)

Well, I've done it before. Simple really, when I sent £25 to @jtodd which was a one off and all I did was put a piece of paper in with my email address, phone number etc. :)

Ok, let's say someone pays by cash, by mail; what if they spam or host illegal material. How are you going to track down the individual and proof it's their account?

@qenox said: Ok, let's say someone pays by cash, by mail; what if they spam or host illegal material. How are you going to track down the individual and proof it's their account?

You still have to pass the fraud checks and what not. If the address you give is to a convenience store or the middle of the desert you will not pass. Or if no one with a name remotely like yours lives at the address you give you will not pass. I am sure the provider will check the information before they say yes you can send the payment in. Unless the provider is a rip off but then you need to research your host.