paypal as a payment system - is it efficient?

[daniel santos]

hi everyone

i'm thinking of following FQ members' advice and using paypal on my site. i know zero about zero but after 4 months struggling on my site i still have a pulse! do people respond well to paypal? does anyone have any experiences to share?

thnx

daniel

[hobbes]

Search these forums for paypal and you'll get an earful. FQ's own experiences were less than delightful (perhaps bordering on illegal witholding of funds?, but oh yeah, paypal isn't a bank.)

[daniel santos]

thnx hobbes

actually the search feature is a goldmine

saved me heaps of stupid qs and made me one thousand times more confused!!

on another server i would have sunk i reckon

daniel

[Deb]

FQ's own experiences were less than delightful (perhaps bordering on illegal witholding of funds?, but oh yeah, paypal isn't a bank.) Yes, we had a horrible experience with PayPal, and yes they held funds, without reason, and never returned them.

They are under new ownership now so I don't know that our past experience with them 'still counts' however I have continued to hear stories like ours even after the sale.

Deb
- :QTpacman:

[Thomas B. Keaney, Sr.]

I've found that PayPal doesn't play well with shopping carts. When my cart goes out to PayPal to process payment, it never sends the appropriate response to my cart, it just takes the money out of my customer's accounts and tells me "You've received $____ from Joe Schmoe. Doesn't say what they ordered or where to ship.

It results in two or three e-mails being exchanged before I can get enough details to ship their orders. In my new shopping cart, I'm not even going to use PayPal as an option.

[Nancjo]

I use paypal currently and in one week received a phone call from a potential customer and and email from another about paypal charging $1.95 for them to use their cc and of course they were not even able to continue with the order since they have to receive a member number or some kind of number from their next statement. Just having those 2 in one week makes me wonder how many potential customers I had who reached that point and just said BS and went somewhere else...so for this reason, we are wanting to go with an actual Merchant account.

Now I need to know numbers...how much does a merchant account normally cost? I have seen so many out there and am very confused about a merchant account and what exactly is Verisign?

What I want is an account where customers can pay by debit card or cc or check online, or where they can call in and give me the order and then I run the card number.

Anyone have any ideas on where I need to start?

Thanks in advance for any information on this subject.
Nancy

[Thomas B. Keaney, Sr.]

First of all, don't be as stupid as I was. (Probably sounds like a father talking!) Our company is in its third year as an online merchant.

Start of with whichever bank has your company checking account. I would have saved about 40% of what I'm currently paying because I went with a large shady company. (Details offline).

Don't be intimidated by credit requirements. Getting a merchant account is entirely different than qualifying for a credit card.

Of the online services look at the overall costs and keep an eye out on which shopping cart you may someday use. Every choice forecloses future options.

Feel free to write me if you'd like to discuss particulars.

[daniel santos]

well

i was warned in this forum about paypal!!

shoulda listened!!

am trying to raise the fee to transfer to iBill [any horror stories waiting for me there?] - after just one week with paypal i'm outta here fast as possible

every email to service gets a different reply!! yes members can ...but no members can't...yes non-members can...but no, non-members can't

they have managed to get EVERYTHING wrong, alienate a bunch of potential clients who sure won't be back - and let's see if the trickle that got through ever appears in my account. and yes a client can wait ONE MONTH to close a purchase! fantastic service, right

i will keep you posted there!

giving it away free is probably more profitable than paypal....

daniel

[RobK60]

I have never had a problem with paypal.

[rayguy]

Originally posted by Thomas B. Keaney, Sr.:
I've found that PayPal doesn't play well with shopping carts. When my cart goes out to PayPal to process payment, it never sends the appropriate response to my cart, it just takes the money out of my customer's accounts and tells me "You've received $____ from Joe Schmoe. Doesn't say what they ordered or where to ship.

It results in two or three e-mails being exchanged before I can get enough details to ship their orders. In my new shopping cart, I'm not even going to use PayPal as an option. looks like the shopping cart you are using isnt so good try cartsupport.com, works without a problem with paypal and merchant to accept credit cards.

[rayguy]

Originally posted by Nancjo:
I use paypal currently and in one week received a phone call from a potential customer and and email from another about paypal charging $1.95 for them to use their cc and of course they were not even able to continue with the order since they have to receive a member number or some kind of number from their next statement. Just having those 2 in one week makes me wonder how many potential customers I had who reached that point and just said BS and went somewhere else...so for this reason, we are wanting to go with an actual Merchant account.

Now I need to know numbers...how much does a merchant account normally cost? I have seen so many out there and am very confused about a merchant account and what exactly is Verisign?

What I want is an account where customers can pay by debit card or cc or check online, or where they can call in and give me the order and then I run the card number.

Anyone have any ideas on where I need to start?

Thanks in advance for any information on this subject.
Nancy
visit amerimerchant.com or charge.com the first site will let you accept credit cards within 48hours charge.com takes 2 weeks.