Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Reseller Hosting : PayPal.com Pros/Cons

[Soph]

Ok - my question to ask this has overcome me. ...

Compared to Instabill and Revecom, I'm curious about the usage of PayPal.com versus them. Anyone had experience with using them? They seem to be very popular for small businesses.

Or is there something I'm not seeing with PayPal.com that is disadvantages to using them versus Instabill?

I'm looking at different methods for my clients to offer online shopping on their website without getting killed on the fees.

Thanks for the feedback.

Soph

[Ericd]

Hi,

First of all, PayPal don't do recurring billing so if you want to sell webhosting or a monthly membership to a site, that might be a problem.

Also, not everyone have a paypal account, so you may lose a sale if one of your client don't have one and don't want to get one.


To start, you could use instabill since there is no setup fee but if your prices are over $15 you're better with revecom.

Good Luck,

[Martie]

Ive been a member of paypal for quite awhile now.
I started off using it just to purchase for myself.
I WISH they had been around when I first went into business.
Either way though, I can say Im definitely satisfied with their services! Flawless transactions!
I did add the service so clients can pay for their hosting via paypal IF they choose.
Good Luck

[CrazyHostGuy]

One problem with Pay Pal is that it is not as supportive with non-US customers.... either the buyer or the seller.

Seller
They have (what sounds like) a great system called Web Accept whereby you can build a shopping cart system into your site. I'd love to try it out, but they do not offer the Web Accept service to non-US clients (I'm in Canada, eh!). Therefore, if I were to use PayPal, I would require all my customers to setup their own PayPal accounts.... which brings me to problem #2.

Buyer
If you want to buy something using PayPal, you must sign up for a PayPal account and link it to either your bank account or credit card. That's no problem if you're in the US, but for us outside the US it means having to confirm your credit information back to PayPal. They do this by charging you $1 on your credit card, then putting a confirmation number in the transaction. Once you get your statement in the mail, you will see this confirmation number and will be able to give it to PayPal to complete your setup. This is how they know you are who you say you are! So therefore, it could take up to a month to be able to complete your purchase if you are not a US citizen.

Summary: If you plan on offering your services to more than just US customers, PayPal may not be your best choice. Otherwise, they're probably worth trying.

I hope this helps out!

Cheers!
Rob.

[Jaiem]

Also, with PP's buyer protection rules all it takes is one complaint for your account to be frozen. You can't receive payments nor can you withdraw the money in your account.

And good luck trying to get it unfrozen!

[cperciva]

Jaiem, that only applies to non-verified accounts. If Paypal knows who you are (ie, if you're verified) and especially if you've had a large number of transactions already without problems, they won't freeze your account.

[Jaiem]

Originally posted by cperciva
Jaiem, that only applies to non-verified accounts. If Paypal knows who you are (ie, if you're verified) and especially if you've had a large number of transactions already without problems, they won't freeze your account.

Not from what I have heard/read.

I do a lot of ebaying and am active on several auction community forums. You can count on having at least 2 or 3 complaints a week about PP freezing a sellers account because of a complaint from a buyer.

I haven't had that happen to me but that's what I've been told occurs, inspite of what their policies say.

Just raising a yello flag.

[Dave Bean]

Paypal seems to be the cheapest, but my clients all hate that Paypal forces purchasers to signup with Paypal to process a transaction. I hope they change this policy. We are going with Verza, which I think is more expensive, but they either don't make purchasers signup or they don't make such a big deal out of it.

Verza was quick and easy with no setup fees, but the transactions costs are high for low dollar items and if you have a lot of transactions.

The reason I'm here is to find alternatives to Paypal and Verza without incurring high setup fees and monthly fixed charges. There has to be something in the middle.

Dave

[paypaldamon]

I just wanted to advise you that account restrictions are rare and that one transaction is not likely to have your account restricted. Should an account restriction occur, which is not likely, we can clear them quickly with the proper documentation.

This is a common fear thread through message forums and they don't happen frequently.