dealmac forum archive

This donation thread [forums.dealmac.com] was going great until.....


My account was red flagged by Paypal for key words in the hurricane disaster relief fund.

On the phone they said that unless I was a non profit group then I could not collect for Ralph (zoidberg) and Rain.

The option was to have the assets frozen or refund the money and start again.

No way am I going to let them keep the $. The request has been put in to refund the money to all donators. You should see the refunds soon.

Let's avoid paypal altogether and write checks or money orders.
I wanted to use PP for transparency but it now looks like it will be an exercise in trust.

Danny La
Salt Lake Tribune Photo Dept.
Suite 700
90 South 400 West
Salt Lake City UT
84101

We were doing great, I hope everyone can re-donate the same amount again.

Thanks for the understanding and sorry for the inconvenience.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry Zoidberg, they stole the name fair and square.

The DealMac Project [homepage.mac.com] MacSwap-Buy/Sell/Trade/Give [www.macswap.org]
---iLove The Leader!---
Join the Dealmac Team! Team folding stats [vspx27.stanford.edu] Download the client here [folding.stanford.edu]



Edited 7 times. Last edit at 09/08/05 01:31PM by Pam.

Curses to you Paypal!!!!



------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

. . .welcome to my Cube World. . .
-Major A. Noyance

Somewhere, The Lope is laughing.

fscking paypal...

I'm mailing a letter to them at the same time I mail you my check!





Paul F.
-----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.

lol, $tevie.

Kinda glad I sent a check last night, just wish USPS could be quicker.

While PayPal's action has certainly provided an inconvenience and a frustration for us, I am in agreement with PayPal on this one. I expect that they are working overtime to prevent criminals out there from taking advantage of compassionate folks. We are a bit of collateral damage, but in the balance, and with the limited info on the situation that I have, I think they are doing more good than harm.

If PayPal turned a blind eye to the hinky fund raising, they would be subject to much criticism and possible legal action. They are certainly looking out for themselves in this too.

If we were able to stay under PayPal's RADAR and have a successful fund raising effort, I'd have been very happy with that. But I can't find fault with PayPal for taking reasonable steps to reduce the number of victims (dupes) that would arise from widespread fraud.

All that being said, I do feel bad that we can't take advantage of the instant payment (and fuel savings) of the Internet.

I'll mail my check as soon as I see my refund appear. I may do it before.





Edited 1 times. Last edit at 09/02/05 06:10PM by TheTominator.

Ditto on the refund I will mail a check by tomorrow morning.

Paypal being Paypal is still unable to stop a good thing. They have slowed us down a little . Obviously they are not aware of who we are *(:>*

How much are they charging you to process the refunds? We should try to help make that money up too. Spread out over several people, it won't be as painful.

I would guess they are not charging for the refunds. At least, I would hope not. . .

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

. . .welcome to my Cube World. . .
-Major A. Noyance

So do I make the check to "Danny La"?

NewtonMP2100 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would guess they are not charging for the
> refunds. At least, I would hope not. . .


In my personal experience, when they do refunds, they refund everything including any fees.

I have a business account with PayPal and I collect payment for my products online. With this account I can collect money from customers who pay by credit card and do not have a PayPal account. Normally PayPal takes a percentage of the transaction to process the credit cards. When I refund a payment (all done easily using the PayPal account web page), everything is refunded including all of the associated transaction fees. I fully expect that 100% of the payment and all transaction fees will be refunded. And I don't expect that they would charge anything to process the refund.

Note that the only time I have needed to issue a refund of payment is when I am making test purchases to debug the post-payment handling system on my website. So far my customers have been 100% satisfied and have never asked for a refund. (Knock on silicon.)



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 09/02/05 06:43PM by TheTominator.

I am just wondering. Are these donations limited to Ralph and Rain, or will the funds be distributed equally to all Dealchatters who are from N.O.?

Also why not just have somebody else set up a paypal account and tell everyone to leave out keywords like: New Orleans, hurricane, Katrina, flood, relief, and donation.

I haven't been around much lately, I saw the first thread you started on the hot topics in the newsletter, then after reading it I went to the top of the forum and saw the sticky.

Rain & Zoidberg, I sincerely wish you and your families the best, I'm not a praying kind of person but my hopes & thoughts are with you, and I'm sending some Dealmac love through pRon to you guys. If there are immediate needs that you are your family need help with, that someone here may be able to help with, pass the word if you can, or make a post, perhaps one or more of us can help some more

The other day I had been thinking that I didn't know anybody that would have been in Katrina's path, only to find out that I was indeed wrong.
I was on another forum to find that a friends family (that I met this summer) is from Slidel, LA (across the lake from New Orleans), all of their houses but one are totally gone, and it's in bad shape, some of the kids are coming up here to live for now, and are being enrolled in school here.

Then I come to Dealmac and find more people I know (even if it is only on the forum) have been affected.
It's definitly a smaller world than I thought.

Jerry O'Connell <aka Monster>


••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Edited 69 times. Last edit at 7/6/25 13:69BM by Monster.

såmmy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am just wondering. Are these donations limited
> to Ralph and Rain, or will the funds be
> distributed equally to all Dealchatters who are
> from N.O.?

My understanding from last night was that it would be for any Dealchatter affected by Katrina (wherever --- NO, Mississippi etc.) but that Rain and Zoid (and maybe Stoney) in NO were the only names that came to mind quickly.

Yes? No?

> Also why not just have somebody else set up a
> paypal account and tell everyone to leave out
> keywords like: New Orleans, hurricane, Katrina,
> flood, relief, and donation.

Not a bad suggestion. Maybe just put your Dealchat username in there and that's all.

I tried to edit my post, but I wasn't allowed, so here it is.



Okay, so I go to the next sticky only to find out that there are other Dealmac citizens from the area, I hope and wish the best for all of you and your families, I can only imagine what you all have been through.


••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Edited 69 times. Last edit at 7/6/25 13:69BM by Monster.

We are focused on Rain and Ralph, but they are known and established. If there are other confirmed DM people then we would like to help.

Doreme has a paypal account if he wants to post it that is fine. I am feeling very gunshy about it now and working on getting everyone's money refunded.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry Zoidberg, they stole the name fair and square.

The DealMac Project [homepage.mac.com] MacSwap-Buy/Sell/Trade/Give [www.macswap.org]
---iLove The Leader!---
Join the Dealmac Team! Team folding stats [vspx27.stanford.edu] Download the client here [folding.stanford.edu]

Chileater, make it out to me, Danny La and I will make sure these folks get the money.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry Zoidberg, they stole the name fair and square.

The DealMac Project [homepage.mac.com] MacSwap-Buy/Sell/Trade/Give [www.macswap.org]
---iLove The Leader!---
Join the Dealmac Team! Team folding stats [vspx27.stanford.edu] Download the client here [folding.stanford.edu]

I am working on the refunds, I just got this from Paypal, don't know why they are dragging their feet. Sorry for the mess everyone, I have my head in my hands at this point.



Dear Danny La,

We're sorry, but your account access limitation cannot be lifted at this
time.

Your account is currently being reviewed. Once the review is complete, you
will receive an updated status on your account.

If you are faxing information, you must use the cover page provided by
PayPal. The cover page contains information specific to you and using it
ensures that your documents are routed and handled in a timely manner. To
print the cover page, log into your account and click on the fax documents
link on the "Limited Account Access Details" page.

Sincerely,
Lisa
PayPal Account Review Department

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry Zoidberg, they stole the name fair and square.

The DealMac Project [homepage.mac.com] MacSwap-Buy/Sell/Trade/Give [www.macswap.org]
---iLove The Leader!---
Join the Dealmac Team! Team folding stats [vspx27.stanford.edu] Download the client here [folding.stanford.edu]

OK, here is my paypal address:

acs@ mebtel.net (remove the space!)

It is a premier Business account and should not attract attention as long as nobody mentions relief, charity or the like. I also get 1.5% cash back which I will plow back into the fund.

I still think mailing is the best first option, but if you want to make credit card payments or use existing Paypal funds, I will be happy to take the payments and then forward them to pRON.

Just for oversight, I will forward each Paypal amount and corresponding email address. pRON will acknowledge receipt of each donation that goes through me as I send him the money in the form of a check.

Andrew Stewart
Mebane, NC

aka Doreme Fasolatedo

Just finally getting a chance to log on again after another long work day. I am not here much lately.

pRON, I PM'd you late last night as I had no time to read the whole thread and wasn't about to use paypal (now I'm glad I stayed away from them). I now see the address to send a check to and your answer to ChileEater gave me the info I needed.

I will post a check to you tomorrow AM.

Please give my best wishes and prayers to Rain and Ralph if you contact them.

JoeM (and Amber too)

----------------
JoeM

Has anyone talked about something other than money? I'm a poor college student and want to help them in any way I can.

Good thoughts, blusubaru. Send good thoughts. Don't feel guilty because you don't have cash to send. Care packages are pretty much impossible because they even if they could get parcels into the cities affected, how do they deliver them? There are very few people at their addresses to accept them.

Perhaps you could put in a couple of volunteer hours at a local church or soup kitchen, making up some time for volunteers who have gone to the Gulf Coast to help out? Or if you have a neighbor who can't get out and needs an errand run, help out there. We all need to be more attentive to our neighbors and friends in times like this.



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 09/02/05 09:27PM by Mergenthaler.

blusubaru Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Has anyone talked about something other than
> money? I'm a poor college student and want to
> help them in any way I can.

I think both Rain and Zoidberg would tell you that you can help by staying in school and studying and absorbing.
So that twenty years from now should anything like this ever happen in your lifetime you might have means to do that which you desire now.

Rain and Zoidberg are in financial straits at least temporarily.

Some of us that can are helping to make sure they eat and stay healthy in the interim.
At least that's my motivation.
There are so many more in the same situation.

They'd probably be happy to see you volunteer an hour or two of your time locally loading trucks with stuff southbound. There's gotta be something happening nearby, maybe even on campus, a young strong back could help out with.

I know I'd be proud of you if you volunteered somewhere for even just an hour of sweat equity.
It all adds up.

Edit: Just promise me you won't stand out in front of a Target or Wal-mart with a bucket. You can do better. :-)



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 09/02/05 09:32PM by billb.

blusubaru Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Has anyone talked about something other than
> money? I'm a poor college student and want to
> help them in any way I can.


I am glad you want to help. We should all try and think of ways to see what we can do.

The problem we have right now is that I don;t think they have a semi-permanent place to stay right now.

I will ask both of them in PM if they need anything.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry Zoidberg, they stole the name fair and square.

The DealMac Project [homepage.mac.com] MacSwap-Buy/Sell/Trade/Give [www.macswap.org]
---iLove The Leader!---
Join the Dealmac Team! Team folding stats [vspx27.stanford.edu] Download the client here [folding.stanford.edu]

Ok guys, you've completely inspired me! I'll report back in 24 hours.

OK, I'm getting donations to my Business Premiere Paypal account. Each donation will be forwarded to pRON by mail, where he will confirm receipt by email.

Thanks to everyone here. This forum is truly without peer!

Remember not to use hurricane keywords on Doreme's account or we might get the same Paypal vigilance again.

Thanks for helping everyone

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry Zoidberg, they stole the name fair and square.

The DealMac Project [homepage.mac.com] MacSwap-Buy/Sell/Trade/Give [www.macswap.org]
---iLove The Leader!---
Join the Dealmac Team! Team folding stats [vspx27.stanford.edu] Download the client here [folding.stanford.edu]

Does anyone know if they have any kids? If so, are the age(s)/gender(s) known? If it is discovered that they have a way to receive mail, packages, etc., it would be great to send something to the kids.

New donation is sent. It's important that we take care of these two families.

dave

Macmom,

Zoid has kids, two of whom I believe are elementary school age. At this point, I don't know wheer packages can be sent. Hopefully, Zoid and Rain (and anyone else in the area who needs assistance) will let us know where we can send care packages.

Rbobert