Creating Community Environments

Dec. 6, 2011 at 1:43pm with 880 notes

Reblogged from thedailywhat

make it work again all I want for Christmas

thedailywhat:

This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: Etsy spoof site Regretsy thought it was doing a fairly straightforwardly nice thing when it decided to accept donations from readers in order to fund presents for the less-fortunate children of other readers.
And it was!
Except, instead of using a PayPal “buy” button for the donations, it used the seemingly better-suited “donate” button, which is actually reserved for the exclusive use of nonprofit orgs. Regretsy is a for-profit site.
So what, right? Wrong: PayPal shut down Regretsy’s Christmas-for-Poor-Children fund, forcing it to return everyone’s money. Worse still, PayPal kept a portion of the transaction fees for themselves. I know!
Needless to say, the Internet is pissed.
What now? Says Regretsy’s Helen Killer: “I am very sorry to say that at this point, I am not able to make a monetary gift to the families. They have frozen everything that was not already spent or donated, and I have no more funds to make a gift of that size.”
tl;dr: PayPal canceled Christmas.
For those who want to read more, Green Geek Girl has a really long write-up on why PayPal is even more wrong than you think.
[regretsy.]
UPDATE: Following a massive outpouring of Internet rage, PayPal’s heart miraculously grew three sizes and it has agreed to release the funds donated by Regretsy readers.
“Just like anyone else, we believe strongly in helping those in need, especially around the holiday season,” writes PayPal Director of Communications Anuj Nayar in a blog post. “We are working with Regretsy to make a donation to help their cause, and we’re truly sorry this occurred.”

I love it when the Internet gets mad and takes names and kicks it into gear for good causes.

This Is All Kinds Of Wrong of the Day: Etsy spoof site Regretsy thought it was doing a fairly straightforwardly nice thing when it decided to accept donations from readers in order to fund presents for the less-fortunate children of other readers.

And it was!

Except, instead of using a PayPal “buy” button for the donations, it used the seemingly better-suited “donate” button, which is actually reserved for the exclusive use of nonprofit orgs. Regretsy is a for-profit site.

So what, right? Wrong: PayPal shut down Regretsy’s Christmas-for-Poor-Children fund, forcing it to return everyone’s money. Worse still, PayPal kept a portion of the transaction fees for themselves. I know!

Needless to say, the Internet is pissed.

What now? Says Regretsy’s Helen Killer: “I am very sorry to say that at this point, I am not able to make a monetary gift to the families. They have frozen everything that was not already spent or donated, and I have no more funds to make a gift of that size.”

tl;dr: PayPal canceled Christmas.

For those who want to read more, Green Geek Girl has a really long write-up on why PayPal is even more wrong than you think.

[regretsy.]

UPDATE: Following a massive outpouring of Internet rage, PayPal’s heart miraculously grew three sizes and it has agreed to release the funds donated by Regretsy readers.

“Just like anyone else, we believe strongly in helping those in need, especially around the holiday season,” writes PayPal Director of Communications Anuj Nayar in a blog post. “We are working with Regretsy to make a donation to help their cause, and we’re truly sorry this occurred.”