what happened to the paypal option??

[gimai]

is there a way i can pay orchid bids through pay pal or do i have to submit my card info?

[LJA]

Gimai, I had to change from the paypal option to our authorize.net account. As it turns out, paypal doesn't provide the kind of verification we need. In other words, anybody at all can get a paypal account without having it verified through a bank. All anybody has to do is apply online and it's activated a few minutes later with just an email address check. That's not enough. It's unfortunate too because authorize net is a lot more expensive for us to use than paypal, but that's the way it goes.

Of course, using paypal to send and receive payments for things you're buying and selling once you're iinside orchidBids is fine; I just can't use it as a verification gateway. So yes, you'll need your card info for any transactions with the orchidBids site itself.

[Diane]

I'm a little confused Louis - does this mean that if I list items for sale I can not accept PayPal?

[LJA]

Diane, sorry, I was unclear. You can absolutely accept paypal. I'm accepting paypal for the things I've got up for bid.

The orchidBids site, however, cannot accept paypal. Authorize.net verifies through a credit card check which is extremely stringent. Once all of that is confirmed and you're an orchidBids member, you and anyone else who's an orchidBids member can accept paypal or any of the other payment methods.

Hope that's clearer? Maybe?

[Diane]

Thanks Louis. (Besides, I was hoping to use paypal when I win those Phrags that I am winning at a ridiculous price!)

[LJA]

Ooh. It is getting close, isn't it! (I can't believe you're winning those at that price either, but hey, maybe someone will come in at the last moment.)


Yeah, I've got nothing against paypal at all, so hope no one gets me wrong about that. It's just that paypal doesn't apply the kinds of stringent checks on their account holders that authorize.net does. You can get a premium or business paypal account online in 5 minutes, and other people can start funding it with their own paypal accounts or credit cards immediately. On the other hand, approval for an authorize.net account through Wells Fargo (where we got ours) took 2 weeks, and they had to do all kinds of background checks, credit had to be impeccable, yada yada.

So as long as someone has a valid credit card, their name and billing address matches what's on file for them at their credit card bank, and their shipping address matches the name and shipping address on their orchidBids account, everything's all good. Authorize.net can check that. A regular "business" paypal account cannot. Since those checks are the whole point of the orchidBids system in the first place, bypassing them by using paypal would just make no sense. Once you're in though, then absolutely: go with the paypal to do all your buying and selling.