A business that exists for the sole purpose of accepting and distributing money on behalf of people, companies and organizations the world over is making a huge mistake.
PayPal [owned by eBay] is so anti-gun that they’ve shut down ALL Soldier’s Angels contributions simply because SA was accepting donations on behalf of a gun blogger fund raising effort!
Coincident with the Gun Blogger Rendezvous Raffle, Soldiers’ Angels had also started a fund drive for other projects that same weekend. PayPal put a stop to that. Here’s Patti Patton-Bader’s official statement:
Online donations through PayPal are a huge part of our fundraising. They shut down our entire account-not just the raffle button—for twelve hours right in the middle of an email fundraising push. Looking at the Terms of Use, we couldn’t understand where we’d gone wrong, but we had to immediately remove the raffle so we could get back online ASAP. This just breaks our hearts because we were so excited about the tremendous fundraising impact the Gun Blogger Rendezvous raffle was already having.
Visit The Smallest Minority to read the entire thing. I will tell you that PayPal’s Customer Service phone number is (402) 935-2050.
Via Blackfive
July 30th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
That ain’t right!
July 30th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
That’s for damn sure!
July 30th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Not excusing them, ’cause their interpretation is pretty aggressive (i.e., bullshit in most cases), but the policy is the result of them being a California-based company, and ebay/PayPal MUST therefore adhere to stringent Kalifornia laws barring firearms and firearms component “trafficking”.
I’ve run into their policies in the past – I shop frequently on Gunbroker.com (think ebay for 2nd Amendment folk) – and have looked for a solid alternative to using PayPal at all… I end up either wiring the money or using my credit card. I’m still reluctant to just drop a money order in the mail. I’d even pay a premium transaction fee for some company to step in and handle gun-friendly transactions. (I would give just about anything to be the one with the wherewithal to capture that market!)
Ebay is aware of our concerns, but 1.) They are licensed, registered, card-carrying Gun Fearing Wussies (GFWs), and 2.) Their hands are very conveniently tied by California law, and so they can’t change their policies where a verified gun transaction might occur (e.g., ANY case where they can be linked in the remotest way with the transfer of a firearm, firearm component or ammunition).
I’m of the mind that it’s not my place to FORCE a private business to conduct themselves in any particular way. That, as we’ve seen, is Obama’s job! It’s also not my place to force a GFW to like or even accept my guns. But by the same token, I expect not to be pressured into liking or accepting others’ immoral behavior, either. I have no problem with someone not wanting to share responsibility for my gun acquisitions, but don’t you dare deny me my RIGHT to acquire arms! Paypal isn’t denying anything, I’m afraid. They’re just GFWs in a petrified CYA stance.
Did PayPal “act stupidly” with regard to the Soldier’s Angels raffle? They were probably a little too “letter of the law,” but I suspect that is their lawyers’ default position. And, in a state where the potential for aggressively applied multi-million dollar penalties may be awarded in the dubious effort to control guns, the company is all but guaranteed to be unwavering and adhere stringently to those policies.
July 30th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I’ve seen your argument at other sites… and it’s a good one. But it was still, officially, SA doing the collecting, not the gun bloggers.
I don’t want to make a private company do anything it doesn’t want to do…or anything illegal, for that matter… but to just cut off all SA donations because a gun was involved somewhere down the line… Well, it sucks, but there it is.
July 30th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
It was a ridiculous decision, but yes, based on California law, there’s a stupid reason behind it.
Now, Paypal/eBay can be really inconsistent with their policies and suspension of accounts. There was a period of a couple years where I had a Paypal “Donate” button on my site. Didn’t get used a whole lot, but there it was. Just like 5million other bloggers had. But Paypal, in their infinite wisdom, demanded to see my charity/not-for-profit paperwork and suspended my account until they received proof of my charity status. Say what?? It took me two or three weeks to get my account active again. I removed the “Donate” button from my site and created a “tip jar” button instead, making sure I didn’t use Paypal’s donation code in the link. Other bloggers still have donation buttons and don’t get hassled. I’ve only heard of two other bloggers (who don’t blog any longer) getting this sort of treatment.
The company is very inconsistent and I told them that in plain English. But, it’s their company and they run it as they see fit.
Sucks for SA, though. My guess is that someone anti-SA/America saw the word “gun” associated with a fundraiser and made a big stink.
July 30th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Wow, they really are turds. Unfortunately they’re pretty much the only game in town.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
There’s Google Pay and a couple others, but nothing quite compares to Paypal. They just suck ass at customer relations.
July 31st, 2009 at 8:35 am
Yeah, they’re connected and easy. Doesn’t mean they have to act like assholes.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
We’ve managed to bypass PayPal! Another sponsor of the Rendezvous, LuckyGunner.com, an ammo site, is doing the on-line ticket sales for us with all proceeds (minus the 3% credit card fee) going to Soldiers’ Angels. Soldiers’ Angels is still taking phone orders for those who don’t want to purchase on-line. Details here.
And thanks again for linking!
August 8th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Great news!!