Disappointed with PayPal!

[cmlm]

I am extremely disappointed and upset with PayPal!!  My friend in Japan, XXXX, XXXX, was trying to do a "good deed" doing humanitarian work in the wake of the Japan disaster. Unaware of donation "policies" many of his friends and acquaintances joined in his efforts and transferred money to him through Paypal (thinking this was a great way to help the hurting).  However, in the midst of all his efforts, PayPal **bleep**ed him BIG TIME by keeping service fees and forcing him to return all money received and causing HIM to lose out the difference of those service fees.  PayPal also forced him to return all payments made toward his business that was in existence BEFORE the Japan tragedy!  I am ashamed of PayPal's treatment of Mr. XXXXX and your company's seeming lack of concern for his selfless work to help the people in Japan who are in need right now.  Instead of HELPING MANY of us help the victim's of the Japan tragedy, you have only made it MORE DIFFICULT for us to help those in need!!!!!

[MichaeLori]

Sorry to hear about this

As you probably know PayPal is a private company, it tries to make profit to shareholders first (and some bonuses for management of course), then to service customers.

[cindil]

There are many well-established and valuable humanitarian aid/relief organizations that are on the ground and easy to find and support.  Supporting one guy doing it "his way" without going through the proper channels to do it properly was probably not the best choice he could make.  Medical Teams International is a fantastic non-profit that has something like a 4% overhead margin (last I checked) so you know that what you are sending goes to those who need it.  Red Cross is another and you shouldn't even have to think hard to get that one.  Or better yet, Google "japan relief orgnizations" and do as much or as little research as you with to find the one you like the best.  It really isn't hard at all.

[PayPal_Olivia]

Hi cmlm,

cindil is definitely on target here. In the wake of a tragedy, a million charities pop up. The large majority of them are very likely legitimate, but there are always some that are not. It is PayPal's responsibility, both from the standpoint of protecting the donors from fraud and from the standpoint of remaining in legal compliance, to ensure that all charities using PayPal are operating correctly, legally, and legitimately.

It's certainly frustrating when people want to do some good and find themselves confronted with guidelines and requirements they did not realize they would need to consider. It's important that anyone whose intention is to collect others' money on behalf of a charity does the necessary research to ensure they're doing it correctly. Otherwise, like cindil said, there are existing charities that would be happy to take your contributions and the contributions of people that you refer to them. In many ways, this is more advantageous simply because established charities already have the pathways in place to move the funds where they're needed cheaply and quickly, giving a donor the opportunity to make a bigger impact with the same amount of money.

We're definitely strongly in favor of giving, and applaud your desire to make a difference. I recommend checking out the PayPal NonProfit Directory. It is not by any means a full list of approved charities, but there are a lot of opportunities there to make a difference!

I hope this helps!

Olivia