Hate on PayPal all you like, but next time, try opening a merchant account to charge credit cards directly. You'll need...
1. to incorporate and file an LLC agreement
2. to go in person to open a corporate bank account
3. display photo ID, in person
4. show proof of residency
5. show proof of business address
6. get checks for that biz acct
7. fax/paper mail all sorts of notarized stuff to ANOTHER company to open a merchant bank account
8. rinse and repeat to open a credit card processing account, fax/paper mail
9. talk with reps on the phone because something inevitably goes wrong
10. Pay a total of about $1200 for all the above services,
11. not to mention at least 2-3 hours of traveling around, even if you live in a city where it's all available nearby.
You will also likely be subject to a personal credit check since your business is brand-spankin-new.
So, yes, PayPal didn't treat you all that nicely... they treated you exactly like you'd be treated if you set up to open your own CC processing.
FTR, we've had no problems selling tickets to all our events, but we didn't open a brand new PayPal account to do it - we used our longstanding one. Sounds like you opened a brand new PayPal account, right? I assume that since you mentioned that you had another, longstanding account. That's like saying "I have good credit, but my friend Joe doesn't, so we applied for the credit in Joe's name." It doesn't transfer.
Also, just in case you think you should use Google Checkout instead - if you think PayPal is bad, brace yourself, since Checkout is 100x worse:
1. to incorporate and file an LLC agreement
2. to go in person to open a corporate bank account
3. display photo ID, in person
4. show proof of residency
5. show proof of business address
6. get checks for that biz acct
7. fax/paper mail all sorts of notarized stuff to ANOTHER company to open a merchant bank account
8. rinse and repeat to open a credit card processing account, fax/paper mail
9. talk with reps on the phone because something inevitably goes wrong
10. Pay a total of about $1200 for all the above services,
11. not to mention at least 2-3 hours of traveling around, even if you live in a city where it's all available nearby.
You will also likely be subject to a personal credit check since your business is brand-spankin-new.
So, yes, PayPal didn't treat you all that nicely... they treated you exactly like you'd be treated if you set up to open your own CC processing.
FTR, we've had no problems selling tickets to all our events, but we didn't open a brand new PayPal account to do it - we used our longstanding one. Sounds like you opened a brand new PayPal account, right? I assume that since you mentioned that you had another, longstanding account. That's like saying "I have good credit, but my friend Joe doesn't, so we applied for the credit in Joe's name." It doesn't transfer.
Also, just in case you think you should use Google Checkout instead - if you think PayPal is bad, brace yourself, since Checkout is 100x worse:
http://slash7.com/2009/03/26/google-is-evil-worse-than-paypa...