[TriLUG] (OT) Paypal/eBay Payment Thoughts

[M. Mueller (bhu5nji)]

On Monday 18 March 2002 05:29 pm, you wrote:

> www.paypalsucks.com

It certainly gets you thinking about the downside.  paypal might really suck 
and I think more because of #1 than any other reason.  #4 is defensible in my 
opinion because what better way to run a scam than to set up a PayPal account 
and then have your cronies steal cards and start racking up charges to the 
account?  I would still dislike being the innocent victim of #4, however, and 
I won't try to discount the possibility of that happening.

Dealing with credit cards and bank accounts and not having a customer service 
line is a recipe for frustration.  Not having a phone number violates my #1 
rule of ecommerce - vendor must answer the phone. (I have one exception, my 
webhost provider Averdata has no phone, but at $2.50/mn, I can live with 
that.)

Now that we know more about the risks, thanks to the website, the risk 
assessment can evolve.  What is the max balance in the TriLUG account?  I've 
heard that it's not that great a sum.  Let's estimate $200 average daily 
balance.  Let's say that some M$ operative steals a credit card and makes a 
donation to TriLUG using PayPal.  TriLUG's assets are frozen.  Loss = $200.  
Donation operations are suspended for 3 months.  There is some benefit to 
using a convenience like PayPal and there is the chance that donations 
increase.  What is the value of the benefit from using PayPal (even though it 
may suck as document)?  Let's say donations increase by $50/mn for 12 months. 
That's a $600 benefit reduced by a $200 loss for a net of $400.  Even with 
low expectations a benefit can be derived.

-- 
Mike  M.

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