"What's the latest on PayPal from your perspective? There are still websites
that are campaigning against PayPal. Since the last court proceeding do you
think PayPal has improved to be a good online processing company?" -- Bal Bhagat,
Exotic Leaf Paintings
A year ago I wrote "Assessing
Criticism of PayPal,"Web Commerce Today, 3/15/02, examining various
charges against PayPal (www.wilsonweb.com/wct5/paypal_assess.htm). I stand by
my conclusions. PayPal made some enemies, though I know they're working to improve
customer service.
I see them improving service for merchants with their Instant
Payment Notification (IPN) feature, by providing fraud protection, and by
rapidly increasing the number
of countries from which merchants may withdraw PayPal revenues to a local
bank account. Where else can a merchant receive payments in multiple
currencies for this price?
PayPal payment is a bit more difficult for the customer than the average online
credit card payment -- unless the customer is already a PayPal member; then
it's a snap. But PayPal has reduced the up-front costs of starting an e-commerce
site to practically nothing. They've done us all a service by lowering the barriers
to online business. I increasingly use PayPal both to send and receive payments
and recommend it to others.
