In the middle of raising the funds for Annie’s iPad, unbeknown to me, Paypal limited my account. That is why some of you were unable to donate.
Luckily for us and for Annie, Paypals actions didn’t affect our outcome as the gorgeous Nathalie had teed up a discounted iPad from her local Apple Store.
Marita went ahead and purchased Annie’s iPad on her credit card, knowing that the funds that you had generously donated would be available.
Mission accomplished internet. Annie has her iPad.
Can you imagine my dismay that same afternoon, when I went to send Marita the money and I saw this message.
Basking in the happy afterglow of our achievement, I should have been skipping around the house saluting the generostity of my lovely internetz. Instead I was left with an administrative headache that I didn’t want to talk about online, in case it put a downer on the collective happiness we were all feeling.
I was presented with a series of hoops I was required to jump through in order to get my account up and running again.
I managed to confirm my identity without any problems. I then had to upload a recent bank statement which I was loathe to do. Giving paypal that sort of information about my recent financial history made me very, very uncomfortable, but I did it.
Then I really hit a stumbling block, as I had used a donate button I had to explain my charity’s mission statement. Oh dear. I am not a charity I am just a person who wanted to harness the power of the internet to give a little girl an iPad. This is when I rang Paypal and began the five day process of lifting the limitations on my account.
Luckily for me, Marita was happy to wait until the Paypal funds were cleared and she refused my offer of paying her the cash myself.
Five days from start to finish, three phonecalls and various administrative hoops later, your money internet, is in Marita’s bank.
And I am sitting here trying to work out all the reasons why I am grumpy with paypal.
I am grumpy because paypal took $27.00 in charges.
I wasn’t aware of these sort of fees being applied. When I have donated in the past using paypal I just assumed that all of my donation would go through. So I am grumpy with my own naivety as well as Paypals business practice.
When I was talking to one of Paypals customer service representatives he told me that blogs were in a regulatory grey area and that the sort of limitations that were put on my account were quite common. He gave me the usual spiel about terrorism and money laundering and financial laws, etc. etc.
As I went higher up the corporate food chain the attitude of the employees wasn’t exactly condescending but it was tinged with a subtle arrogance. There was an undertone in the conversation that suggested that I was swimming in murky financial waters.
I am writing this blog post as a warning to other bloggers to be careful when using Paypal to raise money. Because even though a Paypal donate button with the tracker widget is a lovely and convenient way to raise money. It is also quite a headache trying to get your account up and running again if Paypal decide to limit your account.
All in all 32 lovely people donated $725 minus the $27 in fees and I was able to transfer $698 to Marita last night.
Now the question I ask myself is, “Would I do it again?” Yes I would, but I would have to think of a better way to collect the money raised rather than being at the mercy of Paypal. I think the fact that I presented myself as “high profile” Australian blogger helped to hurry along the procedure. As once I started to google Paypal complaints I found that some people have been waiting a long time to sort out these sorts of issues.
Anyhow internet, once again thankyou so very very much for helping to make this Christmas so very special for one little girl.
And as for you Paypal, I havent quite decided what to do about you just yet.
