PDA

View Full Version : Paypal freezes Katrina relief donations, WTF???


15th Warlock
09-04-2005, 08:52 AM
I've heard of lots of ppl not caring at all about the situation going right now on in Louisiana, Alabama, or Mississippi, but going a step ahead and even trying to stop the efforts of ppl that actually is trying to help relief the situation is way too much IMO... :mad:

Such is the case of a company many of you may have heard of: Paypal. They have frozen more than $20,000.00 in donations to the American Red Cross that were acumulated by "Something Awful (http://www.somethingawful.com/)" a website that perhaps many of us visit daily, and whose owners set a relief effort a day ago and collected the donations sum mentioned before in less than a day from ppl all over the net.
Something Awful, is itself a victim of Katrina, having lost their servers located in the New Orleans area, so they setup a temporary webpage where ppl would rant about what's going on in that area, and, a day ago, they even set up a fund raising effort for victims of Katrina.
Their error, it seems, was using the "trusted" services of Paypal.
The reason Paypal froze the funds: "We have received more than one report of suspicious behavior from your buyers."
Please note that Something Awful isn't selling a single thing, so, how the hell are they supposed to comply to something like that? What do Paypal want? in SA's own words:

They are asking me to provide a shipping number FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. How they hell am I supposed to comply with this? What do they want? Oh, well you see, here's proof I shipped NOTHING via NO COMPANY to NO ADDRESS. Is this good enough? I can't even enter a fictional shipping number for the fictional item that never shipped to the fictional customer because THERE IS NOTHING THERE TO CLICK

Personally, I'm sick and tired of hearing of ppl not caring, or taking advantage of the precarious situation going on right now in Lousiana, Alabama and Mississippi :mad:

If you want to help relief the hurricane victims of Katrina directly, please use the following link:

https://give.redcross.org/?http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html

And if you want to help SA, please visit them at

http://www.somethingawful.com/

Anarion
09-04-2005, 09:02 AM
!!!

OceanSeasforMe
09-04-2005, 02:03 PM
Tragic.

Rock on for Something Awful
bugger off for Paypal


Talked about New Orleans this morning.

One kid 19?, bless him, stole a city bus and drove to the shelter and grabbed all his family and his homies and hauled them all over to Texas. New Orleans wanted to charge him with Grand Theft. I say pin a medal on him.

Running when they say its time to is 100% of my policy as I live 12 miles off a beach myself.

D_o_S
09-04-2005, 02:14 PM
Go figure! :mad:

15th Warlock
09-05-2005, 06:47 PM
Update: Paypal said they would release the donations fund, but only to a shady charity organization called "United Way (http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm/bay/search.summary/orgid/4626.htm)". Paypal insists they cannot send the funds to the American Red Cross...

Check this September, 1994 news post:

Three top former executives at United Way of America, including the longtime president, will stand trial together in February on charges they looted more than $1.5 million from the charity, a federal judge ruled Monday.

Source (http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp940927/09270294.htm)

Why wouldn't Paypal deliver the money to the American Red Cross, isn't the 2.35% service charge enough for them to deliver the funds to a respectable organization?

Needless to say, many of the donators complained about having their money delivered to United Way, so in the end, Rich Kyanka, owner of SA, (and donor of $3,000.00 himself) decided to refound all donations (a whopping $27,695.41 raised in just one day!)

To quote Kyanka:

This whole thing has been a colossal pain in the butt. All I tried to do was raise money and personally reward people for donating in a time of need, and it turned into a smoldering, twisted, burning car wreck along the highway. I'm beyond apologetic this did not work out the way I planned, but the pure hassle Paypal has given me trying to raise money just isn't worth it, especially when it could take over a week for the money to be unfrozen, and once this ever happens, the cash will be shipped to a corrupt, bloated overhead organization. Please donate using the Red Cross link up top. I can't send you guys any free stuff, but I promise I'll sit here in my basement with the lights off, drinking a beer by myself and thinking of you

Way to go Paypal!! :mad:

wazzledoozle
09-05-2005, 07:10 PM
PayPal sucks. Ebay does too.

Anarion
09-05-2005, 07:13 PM
!!!

:mad: