I am a DBO buyer too and a big fan, it has been nice to hear from you so much lately, shame it has been under these circumstances. I hope to hear of your happy outcome soon.

I’m still carefully investigating my options. I don’t just want to plunge into something new, without performing due diligence.

So far on my short list is:
2Checkout (http://www.2checkout.com) Google Checkout, and of course Clickbank.

My problem with Clickbank is their refund policy. But I’m still giving it some thought.

I don’t know if I want to use a single payment system for each e-book I have. But I can space it out because a lot of my products aren’t sold through affiliates.

I’ll be posting my ultimate results in the blog.

Also, I’m very much willing to take refunds/chargebacks on the chin. I fully realize that it’s a part of the business. What I can’t take is this random witch hunt. I’m still not 100% sure why my account is restricted. And every rep I talk is obviously guessing at what it is.

THis is an interesting topic. Also being an infoproduct seller using Paypal and living overseas (in Thailand) this series has been a real eye opener for me. I’m certainly not making xx,xxx per month and paypal freezing my account would really ruin my day.

What other options, in terms of paypal aternatives, are you considering?

What about if you’re overseas? How are you going to be able to keep up with sending printed material, receipts, etc? That would require a third party and outsource the paperwork follow up to them. I don’t know about you, but my buyers are from the world over. We’re not talking “just a little” postage. I had one buyer this week, wanted a refund, which I will also happily give, but he was in South Africa and Paypal won’t send money or refund money to South Africa. I still don’t know how this is going to work out. You’ve got me paranoid now.

I believe one of your first e-books was How to Get Out of Chex System Hell. Maybe a new topic might be “How to Get Out of Paypal Slavery.”

But You’re right, there seems to be no give and take with paypal. I lot of things they do. while so far it has been in the interest of my own security, has been taken way over board. I’d be very interested in hearing your solution to this.

One thing, though. I buy lots of info online, and if you sent me something and required a signature, I’d be pretty pissed. I work out of my home office, and travel quite a bit. The UPS/DHL/USPS folks just leave a little sticker, requiring me to come to their depot to pick it up. That means travel, standing in line, and extra work. If it turned out that it was for something I really hadn’t asked for, I’d be very unhappy.

When I used to run retail stores, I just assumed that X% of our sales would be NSF checks or noncollectable. It made the day much easier.

You know what… I’d rather pay a few extra dollars for the long-term peace of mind.

1) You’re right. 100% right.

2) You’re only supposed to have one Paypal account per person. I know people who have more than one, and they haven’t had any problems. But I’ve always been too nervous to dip my toe in that water.

And after this fiasco – definitely not.

Thanks for the feedback on DBO. I appreciate it!

Alexis

It’s sounds from your prior post that this was an isolated issue or at least hasn’t been re-occuring.

Trying to mail something would just drive up your cost (US Postage) and time so it were me I would avoid that — it ends up costing more in time and money than an occasional refund.

A couple of things I would try if this happened to me:

1) Make sure my sales materials (pre-sell email, sales letter, follow-up download instructions, etc) was really clear about what they were getting.

2) If this product was outside of my normal market or higher potential for problems I would open up a second paypal account. I know that’s a hassle but at least you wouldn’t be shutdown entirely.

By the way, I pruchased DBG a couple of years back and still refer to it once in a while. It’s a great e-book!

Tyler

Upon thinking about recent transactions, I’m realizing that quite a few of my “No More Smelly House” readers thought they were buying a print book, even though I clearly state in the sales letter that it’s an e-book.

It’s the audience though. Lots of grandma’s who don’t know what the heck an e-book is. I don’t blame them. I think of how my mother calls me because she doesn’t know the difference between the address bar on the browser, and the address bar at Google.

But now that I understand what I’m dealing with, I can make changes accordingly.

BTW, that was excellent advice on the restricted delivery thing. I’ve never even heard of it. But trust me, I’d rather do that, and lose a couple of dollars on each sale, just to keep my payment processing in good standing.

I appreciate your advice,
Alexis

With your new plan, are you only letting them download after they receive the mailed instructions? Or is the mail just a backup protection? Seems like not getting the download immediately would simply occasion more complaints.

One other thing you should know, especially if you ever ship high ticket items, is that you can also pay the post office for restricted delivery, which means only the person it is actually addressed to can sign for it.

I learned that one by losing a chargeback through my merchant bankcard provider for about $2000 to a longtime client. He claimed not to have received my jewelry shipment. He had someone else sign for it and I could not prove he himself had received it, so I lost the money. Restricted delivery would have prevented my loss.

Good luck with your rearranging!

Lexi