Update 2009-05-31 PayPal have now restored access to payment processing. All should hopefully be normal now.
As anyone who has tried to buy Base since Friday (28 May 2009) has noticed, I'm currently unable to accept payments and hence process any sales. This is because PayPal has noticed that I had not fully verified my details with their system to prove I'm not some sort of international fraudster. Which I'm not.
It’s good that they do check people out. Their system as a whole would collapse without a decent level of scrutiny. However in my case, I don’t feel they’ve applied much common sense to the matter. Example:
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I need to prove I own the bank account linked to my PayPal account. To do this they send two small amounts of money to you. You verify the amounts from your statement, they are happy.
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Something in their system hates my account number and refuses to send the mini-transactions. I cannot verify because they cannot send. Impasse.
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I navigate the treacherous pathways of the godawful telephone tree helpline. A very helpful guy says “no problem, just upload a scan of some photo ID and a recent account statement. It’ll take 24-48 hours to process”. I do this.
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Their system accepts the scans after 24 hours and sends out an automated email saying I still have to verify my bank account. Grrrrr. Back to the telephone system. The helpline person tells me that the scans were not an alternative to verifying my account, but an addition. She promises to escalate this to the account verification people but refuses to put me through to them on the grounds that “they have no phones”. Whisky Tango Foxtrot?
Anyway. That leaves us here. It’s the weekend, and I’m waiting for the paperwork for a new bank account and for the people at PayPal to get in touch and am still unable to process payments. I am sorry to anyone who wants to buy Base, but if you fill in the form on the product page I’ll email you (one message, no more ever) when this saga is over with a link to buy it at 80% normal price.