djpretzel Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 I just sent this email... Dear PayPal - Usually your emails include a disclaimer indicating that I should not respond to them because the email account you're sending them from is unmonitored; the email below did not, and so I am responding to it. Please do try to be consistent about this, it's very confusing and easily one of the worst aspects of interacting with you. "Don't call me, I'll call you..." is far more appropriate as a polite dismissal at a singles bar than it is a customer service policy. Registration on our website is free at http://ocremix.org/forums/register.php. I'm sorry, but you're going to need to register an account yourselves... I know you're capable of this, because your own website is designed with more hoops for your customers to jump through than a three-ring circus, and I think you'll find our website refreshingly simple, by comparison. I can additionally promise that I'll never email you from an account that you can't directly respond to, and that I'll never ask you to provide me with a guest account to your own website so that I can monitor its content - hopefully you appreciate this unrequited benevolence on my part. The reason you're going to need to register an account yourselves - as opposed to me doing it for you - is because the registration process involves agreeing to our terms of service. As a company that - let's be honest now - has some fairly onerous & complex terms of service yourselves, I know that you'll understand how important it is that I don't bypass this process by providing you with a "guest account" as you have requested, and instead ask that you take the 5 minutes to create one for yourselves. It's easy and free! Seeing as our website has a demographic that includes a good number of teenage boys, who have successfully registered their own accounts all by themselves, I'd be both surprised and disappointed if this task was somehow beyond your capabilities as a Fortune 500 organization. I truly hope you will read this email, but based on past precedent, I will also be forced to submit this response using your online "Resolution Center". Because the "Resolution Center" only accepts JPGs, BMPs, GIFs, and PDFs, I will be forced to either take a screen shot of this text or convert it to PDF. The last time I tried PDF, actually, one of your employees informed me that my "fax" came through "blank", so it's probably safer to take a screen shot, I'm guessing. Sincerely, -- David W. Lloyd President & Founder, OverClocked ReMix www.ocremix.org- Hide quoted text - On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 2:26 PM, <support@paypal.com> wrote: Dear David Lloyd, We thank you for your previous response to our request for information about your business. However, as part of an effort to ensure compliance with PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy, we require that you provide us with additional information concerning your use of PayPal. 1. Merchant will provide PayPal with free access to its service to allow PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy Department to monitor the content available through its service, including a guest login and password to access the website. Please provide this information or refer any additional questions to the Acceptable Use Policy Department at aup@paypal.com. Sincerely, PayPal, Acceptable Use Policy Department PayPal, an eBay Company Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OceansAndrew Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 this seems appropriate. for those who don't know the reference: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brushfire Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 So basically they are saying that you can't use the Paypal donate service, unless you provide them with an account of their own? That sounds very forceful in my opinion. When did Paypal get so intrusive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted July 24, 2010 Author Share Posted July 24, 2010 So basically they are saying that you can't use the Paypal donate service, unless you provide them with an account of their own?That sounds very forceful in my opinion. When did Paypal get so intrusive? I believe the INTENT is to enable a higher level of scrutiny on customers that MIGHT be using PayPal accounts for donations to support file-sharing services that MIGHT host illegal content, but I already explained that we review submissions, that it's all fan-made video game mixes, etc. The real problem isn't necessarily the policy itself, but the ineptness & brute force approach in attempting to enforce it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BardicKnowledge Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 I've gotta say, PayPal seems to cause as many nuisances as it helps to solve. Considering that they function in many ways as an online bank account of sorts, their customer service isn't close to meeting the level I would demand of my personal bank, for instance. Hopefully you get everything worked out alright, djp -- thanks for all the hard work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abadoss Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 I have to say, that e-mail seems a bit on the scammy side. I'd check the full header info before doing much of anything with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arek the Absolute Posted July 24, 2010 Share Posted July 24, 2010 What puzzles me the most at the moment, is the "resolution center" not accepting text submissions. What kind of piss poor customer service is that? Doesn't that make it very hard for people that have issues with things that happen that are not very computer literate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted July 24, 2010 Author Share Posted July 24, 2010 What puzzles me the most at the moment, is the "resolution center" not accepting text submissions.What kind of piss poor customer service is that? Doesn't that make it very hard for people that have issues with things that happen that are not very computer literate? It's downright asinine. I've had to write up paragraphs of text and then take a SCREENSHOT of notepad and send that to them, just to make them happy. I thought about this a bit, and I have only one theory that would explain it - everything on their backend must go through some sort of OCR/watermarking process before it hits support staff, to ensure confidentiality, allow for uniform searching and archiving, and prevent fraud. The problem is that they're taking a one-size-fits-all approach to document upload, basically - I've no doubt they actually NEED all those protections for things like contracts, voided checks, etc., but when all I'm doing is answering a question they asked, in writing, and I can't do it via email, it basically puts me in the ridiculous position of having to make a JPG out of a notepad doc. Also, yes, I sent them a perfectly fine PDF, and whatever process they have mangled it completely, and it came out blank on their end, and they referred to it as a fax. And when I talked to someone on the phone, he said they just recently added PDF support (welcome to the 21st century!) and that it still wasn't working right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mustin Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 This shit had me rolling. I've hated having to deal with customer service at PayPal because it is very much not customer service at all. Sorry to hear about the troubles. Wish there was something we could do but really with PayPal, there isn't. It's like the ex-girlfriend that will only do things on her terms on her time and her rules and those rules will change at any moment and if you couldn't read her mind then fuck you. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emunator Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 Your email reminded me a lot of this guy's work: http://www.27bslash6.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SotSS Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 Your email reminded me a lot of this guy's work: http://www.27bslash6.com/ Thankfully, dj isn't as big of a moron/douche bag. But otherwise, yes, it is rather similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 hot damn, how have i missed that guy's stuff? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dj Mokram Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 Mustin summed it up best: It's like the ex-girlfriend that will only do things on her terms on her time and her rules and those rules will change at any moment and if you couldn't read her mind then fuck you. Although sadly in this case, you kinda have to bear with it for the sake of a greater good. Hang in there Mr Lloyd! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulinEther Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 djp i know it's your birthday and all but damn http://www.27bslash6.com/ is funny as hell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dafydd Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 I was with him all the way on "Simon's Pie Charts", but I don't really get why he had to be such an asshole about "Missing Sissy". Sounds like the guy might like this comic (which I can really recommend to anyone): http://theoatmeal.com/comics/computers Anyway... Yeah, PayPal are incredibly difficult to get in touch with for whatever reason. At least payments work like they should. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prophetik music Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 I was with him all the way on "Simon's Pie Charts", but I don't really get why he had to be such an asshole about "Missing Sissy". Sounds like the guy might like this comic (which I can really recommend to anyone): http://theoatmeal.com/comics/computersAnyway... Yeah, PayPal are incredibly difficult to get in touch with for whatever reason. At least payments work like they should. my wife got me the semicolon poster for my birthday. awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mutericator Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 Yeah, Simon on that site is a bit of an asshole. Some of the people he deals with are annoying and deserve it, yeah, but only some of them. Anyways, DJP, that really sucks. I guess I'm lucky I haven't really used them much recently... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theophany Posted July 25, 2010 Share Posted July 25, 2010 It's downright asinine. I've had to write up paragraphs of text and then take a SCREENSHOT of notepad and send that to them, just to make them happy. I suggest taking screenshots of winamp to prove that our remixes are remixes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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