10 replies to this topic

[alan]

FYI - If you purchase an intangible item through PayPal and you don't get what you paid for, PayPal will NOT make the vendor give you your money back.

Moral of the story: Refuse to purchase intangibles like services, ebooks, or downloadable software if the only way to pay a vendor is through PayPal.

This relates to a website that is selling the use of automatic article writing software that resides on the vendor's site. I paid $127.00 for the use of this software and it absolutely does not work as advertised or demonstrated in their on-site video.

After a week and a half of trying to make the software work, I asked for a refund under their 90 day money back guarantee. They ignored me for a week, so I put in a complaint at PayPal.

After the complaint to PayPal the vendor emailed me to say that the person who makes the refund decisions is out of town for another week. Tired of being stalled, I wrote to PayPal who gave me the news about their policy on intangibles.

If anyone wants to know who the software vendor is, send me an email on this site.

[1fast72nova]

yup, i've been had for more than that, almost had a conniption fit.

[Randy]

Hopefully you used a credit card and didn't pay from your bank account that is tied to your Paypal account Alan.

If you did you can always go directly to your CC company to dispute the charges and make the other guys fight it. You can do the same with your bank, but it may adversely affect your Paypal account.

[1fast72nova]

I almost had another fit about that to. If my bank account has money in it (DUH!) they will take the money from the bank account even if the CC is marked as the primary form of payment. That was last week.
I never got my $15 refund either.

http://www.highranki...h...9&hl=paypal

[Betty]

You probably shouldn't be using automatic article writing software anyway. If they are trying to game the search engines, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine them gaming their customers too.

[alan]

You probably shouldn't be using automatic article writing software anyway. If they are trying to game the search engines, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine them gaming their customers too.

The point of the article writing software is not to actually write the finished article. It is to create an article by taking one or two sentences from dozens of article on the topic. Then you have to modify that article to make it your own. Then you spin it.

Unfortunately either they don't have enough articles in their database (it's supposed to have 500,000 articles in it) or they don't have enough on my topics. Be that as it may, the output was erratic, redundant, and gibberish.

Secondly, if a vendor has a money back guarantee, it shouldn't matter what the complaint is. The purchaser didn't find the product useful, period. And he should get his refund.

As far as using a credit card at PayPal, that's the point, you had to have a PayPal account to make the purchase. And being a merchant who uses PayPal for his merchant account, the purchases are funded first by the balance on hand, and then by the bank account tied to the account, and then to any credit card tied to the account should there be insufficient funds in the first two sources.

So again I post my warning: Beware, PayPal does not protect a buyer when he/she is purchasing intangible goods.

[Randy]

As far as using a credit card at PayPal, that's the point, you had to have a PayPal account to make the purchase.

Not exactly true Alan.

You can pay via Paypal now using a credit card without setting up or using your Paypal account. I do it all the time. You just have to make sure you use an email address that isn't tied to your registered Paypal account when you make the purchase. That way you always get two bites at the apple if things go to hell in a handbasket.

That's not to knock your original argument. Just to point out that there are alternatives.

[alan]

Not exactly true Alan.

You can pay via Paypal now using a credit card without setting up or using your Paypal account. I do it all the time.

Randy, what you say is true but . . .

The vendor can set his preferences so that you don't get an option to use a credit card and you must pay using a PayPal account. And that is what this #$%@#$ guy did.

Check it out!

[alan]

The vendor can set his preferences so that you don't get an option to use a credit card and you must pay using a PayPal account. And that is what this #$%@#$ guy did.

Actually, I stand corrected. The pay page does have a small link to let you use a credit card. PayPal used to make that very clear with large text and icons of the credit cards and a large [Continue} button. They changed that again and I didn't notice the link because it was all changed.

That's why I got a 3rd party shopping card and a regular merchant account (PayPal Pro), because PayPal continues to pull these low life changes designed to confuse the buyer (even me) into thinking they have to have or purchase with a PayPal account.

[Randy]

I can't say that I disagree at all Alan.

Which is why I don't use any 3rd party merchant services anymore. Many of them seem to change things without making it known to their vendors prior to the change. But by having my own merchant account I control exactly what they customer sees every time, as well as what they have to do to make a purchase.

[Jill]

Offtopic

You probably shouldn't be using automatic article writing software anyway. If they are trying to game the search engines, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine them gaming their customers too.

Yeah I was gonna say the same thing.

The point of the article writing software is not to actually write the finished article. It is to create an article by taking one or two sentences from dozens of article on the topic. Then you have to modify that article to make it your own. Then you spin it.

So you steal sentences from other people and turn it into your own article. Disgusting. Shame on you Alan for buying something like that.