Paypal's Employee Policy on Bitcoin

[bitbybit2]

Wonderful memorandum from the people behind freezing accounts without explanation or reason. IMHO Paypal should be considered high risk online repository.

[1714248988]

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[CompNsci]

I have been stating that I prefer BTC payments in all my sales on eBay for over two years now. I've never had a single buyer use it, despite recently offering a 5% discount.

[RodeoX]

Please note – All PayPal-related e-commerce should be considered high risk.

Any one else notice their typo. I fixed it for them. 

[Beans]

They permanently banned my account for selling mining hardware. They also put a 180 day hold on my funds. Talk about assholes, I have a perfect ebay record.

[Cyberdyne]

I have a perfect ebay record.

Me too, I've never shopped there.

[data_teks]

dont think ebay can outright ban bitcoins as payment for auctions... would have antitrust written all over it since they own paypal... but they can discourage it as they've discouraged check/MO payments

Uhh, they've had strict accepted payment policies in place for years. You can view them here: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html

It's not an anti-trust issue.

[Trongersoll]

I wonder what they think of Butterfly Labs accepting Paypal.

[illpoet]

lol if you tell a paypal customer service guy you can't wait to see bitcoin destroy their company your account gets suspended for suspicious activity. at least mine did about 10 minutes after i hung up the call.  im pretty sure ebay won't let you use money orders as a payment option, i've had several auctions pulled because they contained a reference to money orders.  never sold anything for bitcoin tho, i've tried to avoid paypal ebay anymore since there is cheaper/better options.
i wondered about bfl too, since i saw where it said a vendor needed to have a product ready to ship. bfl isn't the only asic company accepting paypal

[Kruniac]

What's interesting about this information is that it isn't "canned". Someone at PayPal bothered to make a PowerPoint presentation about the Bitcoin situation. Specifically, verifying that a merchant isn't "pre-selling" shows that they are aware of the evolving technology involved with Bitcoins. I think that's pretty nifty.

[chsados]

Sorry to necro this thread... but it seems like paypal may have changed their stance in regards to mining hardware...

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1iyzkg/if_you_get_caught_selling_bitcoin_hardware_on/

[Pangia]

Merchants with a business model that is related to Bitcoin but does not sell Bitcoins may be acceptable. For example: Merchants offering Bitcoin education packages Merchants selling computer hardware designed specifically for mining Bitcoins. In this case, kindly ensure that the merchant isn’t pre-selling and actually has the equipment ready to deliver.
Please note – All Bitcoin-related e-commerce should be considered high risk.

Any thoughts?
[/quote]

Were they referring to BFL there? LoL

[TheFootMan]

Rules and regulations are only existing to protect the existing state and business systems. It's made to make it harder for the mom and pop stores and small businesses to enter the market. Everybody should be aware of this, and loudly voice their opinion to Paypal and other evil companies.

[Trongersoll]

Rules and regulations are only existing to protect the existing state and business systems. It's made to make it harder for the mom and pop stores and small businesses to enter the market. Everybody should be aware of this, and loudly voice their opinion to Paypal and other evil companies.

Not true. In this case it is to help cut their losses while providing the customer protection they promise.

[TheFootMan]

Rules and regulations are only existing to protect the existing state and business systems. It's made to make it harder for the mom and pop stores and small businesses to enter the market. Everybody should be aware of this, and loudly voice their opinion to Paypal and other evil companies.

Not true. In this case it is to help cut their losses while providing the customer protection they promise.

I was more aiming at the larger picture. And Paypal and customer protection? It seems they screw people over far too often.

But the fact they're concerned with bitcoin is good. It means that they're legitimately looking at bitcoin as a competitor/threat.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

[Trongersoll]

Rules and regulations are only existing to protect the existing state and business systems. It's made to make it harder for the mom and pop stores and small businesses to enter the market. Everybody should be aware of this, and loudly voice their opinion to Paypal and other evil companies.

Not true. In this case it is to help cut their losses while providing the customer protection they promise.

I was more aiming at the larger picture. And Paypal and customer protection? It seems they screw people over far too often.

But the fact they're concerned with bitcoin is good. It means that they're legitimately looking at bitcoin as a competitor/threat.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

Yes protect customers. I bought 10 ASICminers at once on ebay. I paid immediately. I eventually received a bogus shipping number. The seller didn't respond. Eventually, Paypal refunded my money. Say what you like, they did right by me.

[leopard2]

sorry but if you get scammed on Ebay it would be Ebays job to remedy that, not Painpals. But Ebay never does, they just blah-blah and make you fill out forms. Freezing the scammers Ebay account would be enough to force a refund in most cases, even if you paid cash or bank transfer or whatever. But Ebay does not help victims at all, instead they force them to use (their own affiliate!) Painpal if you want protection. In the EU, there are court rulings that prohibit Ebay from forcing people to use a specific payment service (antitrust legislation)!!

You don't understand Bitcoin, or cash, if you believe that payment providers are responsible for proper business transactions by making payments reversible.

Painpal is absolute rubbish. I got a Painpal policy, too: the "prefer a rusty nail in the knee before I deal with them" policy 

[LiteCoinGuy]

paypal sucks all the time.

[atomium]

everyone should just start selling on coingig.com

[mo_mo]

That means we can't sell miners on ebay?

[notme]

That means we can't sell miners on ebay?

Saw this on reddit:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1g23w2/paypal_email_to_employees_policy_regarding_bitcoin/

From a friend in Paypal, got this in an email today:
Clarification on Bitcoin merchants using PayPal 6/10/2013 8:58 AM (-05:00) Impacted market: EMEA
We’ve received a number of escalations regarding Bitcoin merchants using PayPal. Any merchant seeking to sell or buy Bitcoins with PayPal is operating as a financial exchange. Please be aware that Financial Exchange merchants are prohibited unless pre-approved by PayPal. This process involves getting VP approvals from both Risk and Compliance, and only licensed financial institutions are considered.
Merchant contacts
If we receive contacts on Bitcoin sales, instead of escalating further, kindly advise customers that they need to be licensed financial institutions to be considered for approval. However, there are some acceptable cases, as outlined below.
Acceptable Bitcoin business models for PayPal
Merchants with a business model that is related to Bitcoin but does not sell Bitcoins may be acceptable. For example: Merchants offering Bitcoin education packages Merchants selling computer hardware designed specifically for mining Bitcoins. In this case, kindly ensure that the merchant isn’t pre-selling and actually has the equipment ready to deliver.
Please note – All Bitcoin-related e-commerce should be considered high risk.

Any thoughts?