PayPal Flips then Flops

Perhaps taking their cue from the Office of Homeland Security, on March 27th PayPal closed my account, protesting that their fraud investigation office found that my International Terrorist design contravened PayPal's "Faces, Names and Signatures Policy":

You may not sell an item containing the image, likeness, name, or signature of another person unless the product was made or authorized by that person.

I telephoned PayPal and spoke to "Joe" at their Resolution Department. He explained that i could not sell anything with somebody's face on it, not even public figures like Emperor Dubya. He said the account had been closed, and there was no appeals process.

In my opinion, this decision smacked of political censorship, for while it is true that my shirt had Bush's face on it, PayPal allows many other websites to sell pro-war merchandise with Saddam Hussein's face on it, "Wanted" posters with Osama Bin Ladin's face on it, and other similar items. In other words, their policy seem to be enforced selectively.

I let people know about this, and protest emails and phone calls were sent to PayPal by hundreds of people. Then, on April 3rd, exactly one week after my account had been closed "with no appeal possible", i received the following email from PayPal:

Dear Kersplebedeb,

We have completed our review and have restored your account.  
Thank you for your patience during this process and for helping 
to make PayPal the safest and most trusted online payment solution. 


Sincerely,

The PayPal Account Review Department 

Now, not only had PayPal changed their "un-appealable" decision to close my account into a "review", they had interpreted all of these people protesting to them as a sign of "patience"! Somebody had better buy them a dictionary...

Needless to say, i phoned them to see what was what. I spoke to Daryl and Michelle at the Resolution Department this time, and they both confirmed that my account had been re-instated. I asked why the decision had been made to restore my account, given that i sold a t-shirt with Bush's face and would not be removing it from my site or changing my site content in any other way. Daryl apologetically explained that the decision was made by the Review Department, a "higher authority" which does nor explain how it makes its decisions to the folks in the Resolution Department. So i asked to speak to the aforementioned "Review Department" and was told that, alas,  they do not take incoming calls.

There is no doubt in my mind that PayPal's backing down is a direct result of the wonderful support i received from so many people around the world, many of whom had used the service to purchase my t-shirt in the first place. To everyone who contacted them about this matter, i say THANK YOU!

While i can now accept PayPal payments, i am also in the process of getting an alternate method of online payments on my site, so that i can process credit cards. While some people will still prefer to use PayPal, at least people will hopefully soon have a choice.

Not that PayPal is the only e-commerce company to take exception to my shirt. While i was looking for alternate payment systems, companies who brag a "99% approval rate", who accept various high-risk businesses like online casinos, nevertheless turned me down. For example, i applied to WorldPay and although they initially seemed impressed by my sales record, when the topic of what i sell came up they said they had to phone me back. A few hours later somebody phoned back (sorry for not having gotten a name, but i was on my cell phone; likewise the following is from memory written down when i got home, it is not verbatim but is pretty close) and the following surreal exchange took place:

WORLDPAY: "We cannot work with your International Terrorist website, though we could work with the other one. "[www.kersplebedeb.com]
YOURS TRULY: "How come?"
WP: "Because of the nature of the products you sell." [note that all the International Terrorist stuff is also sold on Kersplebedeb, as well as many more
far more radical products]YT: "Which products?"
WP: "The t-shirt, what it says on it."
YT: "What do you mean?"
WP: "It says that the president of the United States is a terrorist."
YT: "I see... is this WorldPay official policy, that you cannot sell items saying the president of the United States is a terrorist?!?"
WP: "Yes, that is correct."

Of course, if you prefer not to use an online payment system at all, you can order anything from me by sending a check (US or Canadian are fine), or else if you are located in Europe to send an international money order or US bank draft - in either case you should email me to let me know what you are interested in first, so that i can confirm availability and put it aside for you.