PayPal Questions, Woes

Answering some questions. Skip this unless you have questions.

1. I'm told that PayPal won't let some transactions go through. I checked, and it happened to me too. But from another server one went through okay.

There seems to be some glitch with PayPal at the moment, some transactions go through, some don't. It might just mean that trying from home rather than from the office (or vice versa) will work.

2. The easiest way to do this is to click on the PayPal button in the sidebar. If you just go to PayPal, the email associated with this site for PayPal purposes is aceofspadeshq-AT-yahoo.com, not gmail.com. I haven't switched to the gmail account for PayPal, and I'm not really sure if I even can.

3. You don't need a PayPal account to do this. Click on the button at left sidebar, right under the BlogAds. You just need a credit or debit card.

On the first couple of screens it's going to ask you for your PayPal account. If you don't have one, just click the button that follows "If you don't currently have a PayPal account." That won't take you to an account creation-screen, just a credit-card entry screen. But two successive pages ask for it, so you have to click that twice.

4. People want to know about what information comes through on a transaction. Here's the scoop:

After clicking how much you want to donate, it will ask you for your billing/sending information. Don't enter anything there. That asks you about your name, address, etc. That's so if (were this the usual sort of thing) I could send you your homemade afghan or porcelain cat or whatever. As I'm not sending you anything, none of that has to be entered. Click the button at the top that says "No shipping required" and skip entering your name and address.

BUT... eventually, when you're entering your credit card information, it asks you for your number, name, address, etc. I don't see your credit card number or your address off of this screen-- that information PayPal keeps private and just gives me a transaction number, which is a number they generate and has nothing to do with your information. But your name will come through on my receipt for the donation.

I don't know how to turn that off; I don't see a button for anonymous payments. And I don't think you can avoid this, because the name as it appears on the receipt is the name from your credit card entry.

So that's the deal-- I will see your name, but not your credit card number, address, telephone number, etc. I wish I knew of some way to leave that name field blank and have the transaction go through, but I don't see how that's possible.

Here's what comes through when I'm notified of a payment. Note I've deleted the name, but it does appear on the actual receipt. I've also deleted parts of the transaction and receipt numbers.

You've Got Cash!

Dear Ace of Spades HQ,

This email confirms that you have received a payment for $5.00 USD from [name and email deleted].

Receipt ID: 4546-4421-XXXX-XXXX

The number above is the buyer's receipt ID for this transaction. Please retain it for your records so that you will be able to reference this transaction for customer service.

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View the details of this transaction online

Payment Details

Total Amount: $5.00 USD
Currency: U.S. Dollars
Transaction ID: 8HD60836TUXXXXXXX
Sales Tax: $0.00 USD
Item/Product Name: Ace of Spades HQ
Buyer: [name deleted]

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Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team

If you enter your shipping information, I think that comes through too, so don't do that. There's no need to enter that.

But, just so you know, I erase these receipts after I write a thank you and I'm not going to blackmail you or stalk you.

5. Offline donations through checks or money orders. This is a tough one, as I'm anonymous, and don't want to deposit a check into my account, and I don't want to give out my address.

For a really sweet donation, I can ask a friend to receive a postal money order for me, or even cash right in an envelope, but if it's just a small donation, just keep the money and I'll know you wanted to send something, but we couldn't work around the hassles in this system to get the donation through.

Again, thanks for donating, and thanks to those who want to donate but are having problems for one reason or another.

posted by Ace at 12:10 PM

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