PayPal, GunPal, GPal, who's yer Pal? Aaaarrrggghhh! Not again?!

Jarrettknives

Well-Known Member
Hi Gang -

Wayno here. Got up this morning at 4AM and like usual, checked emails first thing. I shouldn't do that before grabbing my coffee. I was greeted with an email from PayPal telling me that they had frozen a transaction and that I "may have" violated their sales policy. You see where this is headed, don't ya?

Yep, my customer added a comment to his payment of, "I can't wait to get the new knife" and the word "knife" flagged PayPal. They said they would freeze it for review and they would either release it or refund my customer within 24 hours after determination. Well, it took them only about three hours and I had my money in my account, so I wasn't too beefed except for all my wasted energy during the three hour wait. Huh?

I got all P.O.'d at PayPal and figured I'd do like several of you folks have done and go over to GunPal where they are friendly with us weapon making folks. I filled out their little forms and set up an account. Then I remembered that in order to withdraw funds I needed to link it with my bank account. So I "Googled" GunPal again to find the website, and up it popped with about two dozen headers reading - "GunPal Problems", or "GunPal stinks" and others. So I started reading. GunPal, or now as it's called, GPal, is up to their navel in problems processing money transfers out of peoples GPal accounts into their bank accounts. Even their CEO admitted the seriousness of the situation but he blamed it on "third parties" hired to do the processing. There were tons of examples on multiple firearms forums and such. And trust me, I was looking for recent examples and their were bunches dated just last Friday! There were other comments about GPal and their lack of security with credit card numbers. One person cited that he had fraudulent charges on his card within a couple of hours of adding it to his GPal account. Personally, I think that is just coincidence and circumstantial at best.

Meanwhile, I went back to PayPal and re-read the fine print - aside from raffle problems, they are very clear about what knives are prohibited and what aren't. Since I don't make or sell brass knuckles, cane swords or belt buckle knives, I'm pretty much in the clear. So for now until something strikingly better comes along, I'm sticking with the old standard considering it's embedded in my website and on all my printed material. It would take a ton of time just to make changes to the website. Sheeesh!

SO.............
Where do you guys stand on this whole mess?
Anyone here had problems with GPal?
Anyone try to transfer funds out of GPal into their bank account and not have it happen?
Or like they said, did it take several weeks,months?

My ears are open....let it rip!!!
 
I have both PayPal and Gpal accounts. GPal is relativley new and I am sure they are experiencing some growing pains. I hope they get things sorted out. I would like to see GPal become the favored processor.

I don't like PayPal or Ebay's (they are one in the same) big brother attitude and their banning of perfectly legal items because they don't fit their politically correct model. However they are the big players in the game at this time.
 
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I don't like PayPal or Ebay's (they are one in the same) big brother attitude and their bannng of perfectly legal items because they don't fit their politically correct model. However they are the big players in the game at this time.

I agree. But without coughing up the money to accept credit cards directly (merchant accounts can get pretty pricy), paying $10-20 for direct bank transfers (depending on your/the customer's bank) or waiting weeks for money orders/checks to arrive and/or clear, PayPal is pretty much the way to go. I love it when sellers scream bloody murder over the couple-percent fees PP charges, and try to sneakily add in charges to folks who use it to pay... look into processing CC's yourself and you'll see PP is a pretty good deal. PP isn't there to be your buddy, they're running a business like anyone else.

I'll be watching to see how the GPal thing pans out.

One thing I can say in PayPal's favor, they do seem to be fairly well on top of things if a deal goes sideways, as long as you have your transaction/tracking numbers etc in order. Twice I bought stuff off Ebay and it wasn't sent, couldn't get an answer from the seller, etc. (I'm talking $1000 guitars, not something I can afford to go "oh, well stuff happens") Within 48 hours of filing a complait with PP it was squared away. YMMV.
 
I only use them to make payments, so far so good. I have heard horror stories of sellers getting transactions reversed.
 
I don't do much knife business through my Paypal account; but I find them invaluable for other product sales. Some of my sales are overseas and the paypal makes the transactions very convenient. I also like the ease of record keeping, this really helps when it comes tax time.

I wish I had enough money to open up my own on line banking system; Fredpal now thats got a nice ring to it.:biggrin:

Fred
 
I have tried to set up an account with Gpal. I have sent emails back and forth with there support department. They still have not linked to my bank account and I have no idea why. They just said they were having problems and they would get to it when they could. It has been months.
 
I will not be using Gpal until they get all their problems figured out. It took me almost two months to get a withdrawl into my bank account.
When sending emails back and fourth it seemed very disorganized and really messed up.

I am sure it is because they have hundreds of other people emailing them.
The one thing that I couldn't figure out is that their support phone number never lets you talk to a human, it will just hang up on you.

All that aside, When and if they get things worked out I will use them again. They seem like a good company that does not
discriminate against us who choose to buy and sell what some call weapons. Plus they say that they donate a certain amount to
pro gun and knife organizations.
 
I had no problems getting my GPal account set up a few months ago. I have a little money in my GPal accound and after reading about the problems they are having I just transferred all but a few dollars to my bank account. It appeared to work fine. I'll let you all know if/when the money shows up in my bank account.

I have stopped accepting GPal on my website until I feel comfortable that things are working as they should with GPal.
 
As long as this doesn't turn into a bash fest, I'll keep this open.

PayPal has a more restrictive Acceptable Use policy than Gunpal (gpal) and make a consistent effort to enforce it. We've seen people lose their account over raffles. I had to drop Auto knives from my supply site. It's their policy and their decision. They aren't hiding anything.

Gpal was apparently inspired as a "remedy" for the PayPal restriction against weapons, raffles, etc. They have had some delays in processing withdrawals that I have seen myself. I have recently "tested" them a couple times and both times the withdrawal was completed in 7 days. Paypal takes 2 or 3 to process a withdrawal. I think Gpal got bigger faster then they were ready for. I hope they make through this as there is a need for them in our community. We continue to use them here on Knifedogs for raffles but you have to be patient for withdrawals.
 
I don't want a bash fest either. I am giving them the benefit of doubt. If my money shows up in a reasonable amount of time, I'm cool with it. I really do want to see a viable alternative to PayPal.

I do think it is relevant and a service to other knifemakers to flag something that may affect several of us. It appears that GPal did have a lot of documented problems and that is enough to cause me some worry.

I don't like to leave much money in either account anyway. PayPal can freeze your account at will for a month or more.
 
Update: On 9/13/2010 I transferred $150 from my GPal account to my bank account. I immediately received confirmation of the transaction from GPal. As of today, 9/29/2010, the money has not shown up in my bank accout after more than 2 weeks. Not good.
 
Update: On 9/13/2010 I transferred $150 from my GPal account to my bank account. I immediately received confirmation of the transaction from GPal. As of today, 9/29/2010, the money has not shown up in my bank accout after more than 2 weeks. Not good.

Wow Mike, you're right - not good. Like James said right above your post, I'm waiting to see if they get it all straightened out before I put too much investment into them.
Thanks so much for the update!

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Best regards and God Bless,
Wayne

Full Time Maker
Member of the Professional Knifemakers Association
www.jarrettknives.com
Are you a Dawg yet?


Be sure to check out the new Jarrett Knives Forum
 
I canceled my GPal account. Just too much uproar and too many questions to deal with in a financial institution, regardless of whether it is a question of integrity or ineptness.
 
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I had to wait a long time to get a payment. I warned a few people about this.
I feel that gpal has a good thing going but they really need to get their act together, its not right to mess with peoples money.
With all the problems they have been having in the last 4 months you would think they would stop allowing
payments until everything is figured out and they have a solid way of doing business.
I like there idea and the fact that they stand up for the weapons businesses!
I hope they figure out the problems soon!
 
I don't like any of them. I buy using Paypal if I have to. But I quit selling anything on line where I have to accept those things.
 
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