Paypal abandons UK Airsofters

cpb

Just saw this message on www.airsoftscotland.com is it just for the UK or worldwide anyone any info.

gandalf

I think it effects UK accounts because of the VCRA coming into effect on the 1st of October. Then again given the manner they introduced it to their customers (the etailers) it wouldn't surprise me if it is worldwide. Very ignorant of them to cut off accounts with no communication thou.

Boston

Is there no alternative to Paypal these days. They seem sickenly bad.

kdouglas

it _should_ only affect the UK, but that's if paypal recognises the distinction between ROI and the UK... hopefully we should be ok


Boston: never had problems with paypal myself, how are they bad?

Boston

Never used them but I've read a lot of complaints about customer service and charges.

Hivemind187

kdouglas wrote:

it _should_ only affect the UK, but that's if paypal recognises the distinction between ROI and the UK... hopefully we should be ok


Boston: never had problems with paypal myself, how are they bad?

Paypal have one of the worst reputations for web-based companies. They arent regulated by any financial regulator so they dont have to adhere to any rules, they have a bad habit of locking accounts and freezing funds, they have lousy customer service ... just generally bad all round.

Shiva

Hivemind187 wrote:

Paypal have one of the worst reputations for web-based companies. They arent regulated by any financial regulator so they dont have to adhere to any rules, they have a bad habit of locking accounts and freezing funds, they have lousy customer service ... just generally bad all round.

I'd heard that too, and I believe it, so when I had occasion to use their "customer service" recently I was worried I'd have an uphill battle.

In fairness to them though, they accepted there was a misunderstanding, and fixed it immediately with no fuss, so I can only say i was happy with the service.

That aside though, their charges are ridiculously high. I'm going to be accepting Visa, Mastercard and Laser payments on eirsoft.ie in the next few weeks purely because of their overcharging.

kdouglas

meh... never had any problems with them, then again i hear complaints about NTL broadband all the time and i've never had a problem with mine either, guess im just lucky

Edit: although as Shiva says, their charges are ridiculous if your receiving money

bullets

It certainly sucks I like to pay via paypal.

Never had any issues with paypal before.
(I was always a buyer but not a seller though
and never saw all these evil charges)

Back in the early days of online shopping and
money transfer there were lots of different companys out
there with similar services to pay pal. Out of all of them
paypal was the best. The others were nightmare!
and expecially the american ones they would lock and freeze
accounts often by mistake and often blanket locking
due to government investigations, piricy,
money laundering and other reasons.

If anyone remembers a place called
nochex it was a total nightmare of a place and
even though sellers were selling world wide it would
only allow UK bank accounts to sign up.

Most of those places have a disclaimer or something in their TOS
that says they may be required to freeze accounts for various reasons.

~B

CrazyRabbit

kdouglas wrote:

meh... never had any problems with them, then again i hear complaints about NTL broadband all the time and i've never had a problem with mine either, guess im just lucky

Edit: although as Shiva says, their charges are ridiculous if your receiving money

Don't mention that evil company please. It instantly puts me in a bad mood.

IRISH RAIL

Just put your order in and ring in with the card number thats what i always do
they will be very helpful when you say you want to pay and you can find out shipping dates aswell

Shiva

At the end of the day, if you dont put something stupid in the comments field like "gun", "rifle" etc it should be ok. The actual transaction details aren't transmitted to Paypal, just the amount and the buyer and seller name.

The fact that they havent made any blanket announcement would seem to imply they're only going to be applying it to UK retailers.

And when you think about it, I cant see them turning their noses up at what must be millions of dollers in transaction fees from all the major airsoft suppliers who accept Paypal if they apply this worldwide.

tonyj_mc

Shiva wrote:

I'd heard that too, and I believe it, so when I had occasion to use their "customer service" recently I was worried I'd have an uphill battle.

In fairness to them though, they accepted there was a misunderstanding, and fixed it immediately with no fuss, so I can only say i was happy with the service.

That aside though, their charges are ridiculously high. I'm going to be accepting Visa, Mastercard and Laser payments on eirsoft.ie in the next few weeks purely because of their overcharging.

ah you can't do that, i've been hanging trying to get the credit card down and now you gonna accept laser noo!!!!!

Winters

Maybe people will start looking at the alternatives like Google Checkout etc. and give paypal a run for its money.

Paypals biggest advantage is it being tied into/owed by eBay.

Gatling

apparently its not just the uk and the vcr act causing the problems ,paypal wont allow the sale of weapons suppost to be in there small print ,airsoft or real steel is going to be a big no no ,but if there informed the goods are coming here they should except the sale, as long as a description dosent mention weapon, this is covered in the ASI forum 2 weeks ago worth checking it out

Shiva

Gatling wrote:

apparently its not just the uk and the vcr act causing the problems ,paypal wont allow the sale of weapons suppost to be in there small print ,airsoft or real steel is going to be a big no no ,but if there informed the goods are coming here they should except the sale, as long as a description dosent mention weapon, this is covered in the ASI forum 2 weeks ago worth checking it out

They have an exception allowing airsoft guns in the terms and conditions, but apparently it has been or will be removed from their UK terms and conditions.

I haven't really been following it much to be honest, because I'd much rather accept cash, credit card or Laser than Paypal - it just takes time to set up a card-acceptance merchant account with a bank.

Fiach Dubh

I'm more partial to direct credit card payment too, as you say many places don't seem to want to take the time to set it up. Fair play to you for going the extra mile

Hivemind187

Nice one Shiva, I much prefer that to dealing with Pay-pants anyway.

Gatling

going to using a 3v card on eirsoft when u have ur credit up payments set up,
also paypal are distanceing themself from anything weapons related not just airsoft ,knives ,swords ,collectors stuff ,are all being targeted for some reason or another, mate of mine had problems trying to to use pp for buying a divers knife kept refusing him due to a divers knife being a weapon ,