PayPal...not my pal.

Occasionally a customer will ask if I accept PayPal (I do not). I know many people use the service, and have never had an issue. I once was one of those people, but that was over a decade ago. Perhaps buyers are treated better than sellers. 

Anyway, I've talked about what happened before, so I don't want to get into it. But the gist of what turned me off of them was their horrendous customer treatment, and their Terms of Service stating one thing yet doing another. That's why I DO NOT TRUST THEM. So I steered clear of them for many years. I got my own merchant account, which was better in the long run because I escaped from PayPal's high fees. Yet, over the years I've wondered if they've changed, even had weak moments of thinking about giving them another shot. Then last year I made a purchase, and even though I didn't have or use PayPal myself, the merchant used his PayPal account to charge my credit card. Ended up getting ripped off to the tune of $10,000. I know, it wasn't PayPal that did the ripping off, I understand these things happen. But, while my own credit card company investigated and cleared the fraudulent charges, PayPal was of absolutely no help at all, it's as if they couldn't be bothered. So to the dismay of a few potential customers who only shop online under the guise of PayPal protection, I have reconfirmed my decisions to never employ their service. Sorry. 

It surprises me that some companies ONLY offer PayPal as a form of payment. I recently encountered one of those artist sites that allows the artist to upload his work while they print it, market it, and sell it on all sorts of products. The companies only method of paying the artists is through PayPal. WTF? 

Like I said, many people use it, many people have never had a problem, but many others have. The Better Business Bureau only gives PayPal 3½ out of 5 stars. I don't usually buy stuff on Amazon unless it has at least 4 stars, and that's for a pair of socks...which I can return. But PayPal is handling your money with access to your bank account and they only have 3½ stars, that's 70%...a C minus.