Indeed, PayPal closed my account some time ago. Actually it happened on August 9, so I've been without a credit card billing service for about 2 and a half months now. I can still accept cash, money order and check orders, no problem there, but considering consumer habits in today's market, it's hard to do decent business without a credit card option.
I'm actually not the only one who's been treated this way by PayPal. Some others tickling vendors have been penalized as well, including totally harmless ones. Other types of vendors too. It's something PayPal started doing back in March or May 2003, not sure exactly when. They just decided not to do business with any site that has any type of adult content anymore. At the time I didn't feel too threatened, though I was a bit nervous for a while. 18 months without anything bad happening later I figured I was home free. I was wrong.
They closed my account without warning. Didn't give me a chance to find an alternative. Just kicked me out. They sent me a generic explanation email about inappropriate content, but didn't provide specific reasons why their criteria included my material. I mean, as was mentioned earlier in this thread, my videos only feature ordinary, everyday life girls, no nudity whatsoever (I don't even use lingerie or other skimpy outfits), and no sexual activities, at least nothing kinkier than occasional tickling with tongue (the models usually do this in a spontaneous, funny way, giggling at what they see as a silly, amusing situation, like any ordinary person would do, and not like they're getting off on it). Granted, there is bondage, but it's not hardcore, dungeon-like stuff. Pretty harmless in nature, more amusing than anything else. But PayPal still judged my content inappropriate.
I tried to get more info on several occasions. I emailed them three times at the email address they provided in their "expalnation" message. They never replied. I called four times, the first three times talking to fairly sympathetic people who tried to help but who were powerless. Nothing happened. One even told me she was sending an email to the people in charge so they could call me (as one can't call them). Never heard from them. I finally got to talk to someone that was somewhere in between. All he told me was "no appeal" There was absolutely nothing I could do, as I suspected. Couldn't talk to the people who made the decision, and I never got any answers to my polite and perfectly reasonable requests for more details. I mean, why is my material seen as "adult", to the point that I should be refused service? While they never said they thought I did porn, I do strongly resent being blindly dumped in the same category. Maybe they see a difference, but it doesn't change the fact that they closed my account like all the others.
To make things even worse, they froze the money I had left in the account for 180 days (period ending in February 2005). It's one of their policies. Why would they do that? I'm sure they have reasons, but I still don't see how they can justify something like this. There was only $170 left, but it's my money and I want it now. They didn't even bother to tell me why they canned me, so I don't think I deserve to be "punished" like that. Same for the other businesses that suffered my fate.
As for why they're doing this.... Well, the way I understand it (and I may be wrong), it's basically VISA's fault. They don't want to deal with "adult" (what a joke) businesses anymore. I don't know how much it has to do with "decency", but I hear it has something to do with the amount of fraud associated with adult sites as a whole, especially when recurring memberships are involved. That's all fine and well, but they're totally overgeneralizing here. It's not like most adult sites are indecent or risky. But everyone is tossed in the same pile of indesirables.
Now since eBay wants to keep using VISA, they have to enforce the same rules. And since eBay bought PayPal some time ago, PayPal also has to do the same. So in a way it's not entirely PayPal's fault, but I do hate the way they enforce these policies. It's really scary to know that a business as harmless as The Last Laugh is considered indecent or a risk. It,s certainly not indecent, and how can it possibly be a risk? I only sell physical goods. One-shot transactions. A customer pays, the money ends up in my account, that's it. Simple process, no risk. But they don't care. Its too much trouble to study each site and sort us out, so they just close all of our accounts. Much simpler that way.
Anyway, this has got me in some trouble. Now, I'm not saying that the situation is catastrophic. People still order through the mail. But it's not the same thing. The tickling video market isn't a large one by any means, and I'm a very minor producer. I need the extra sales that a credit card payment option gets me. Not only have overall sales dropped, my last few videos also haven't sold very much at all. It's enough to make me wonder if producing more videos is really worth it.
Now, I'll probably have a new system very soon. Not ideal by any means, not for me anyway. I'll lose a significant percentage because of it (I have to hand it to PayPal, as terrible as their policies are, they take a very small percentage on each transaction). But it's better than nothing. I hope it gets my business back on its feet real soon.
I tell you, besides PayPal there aren't that many billing companies that I could use. Many don't accept adult material. Many don't deal in tangible goods. Others involve very high fees. And others are just too much of a hassle for the customers. CCBill is one of the more reputable companies, but they have many of the above disadvantages. They're fairly tolerant of "adult" stuff, but they don't deal in tangible goods and they take a high percentage. Also, to use VISA you have to pay something like $750, then $350 a year, or something like that, not quite sure anymore. It's a lot, anyway. Damn VISA. I didn't have more luck with almost all of the other companies. Just not appropriate for a business like
The Last Laugh. I have to say that I kinda miss PayPal. Oh, I hate PayPal now, but the small percentage, the ease of use and the popularity are huge advantages. They're just not very fair, especially to sellers.
Anyway, I want to thank Ghost_Host_999 for bringing up this issue. The situation isn't desperate, at least not right now, but I do appreciate the gesture. I also thank all the people who've posted replies. All positive comments, I see. I'm very grateful for the support. You can be sure that I'll do everything I can to remain in business. I do have a lot of material in reserve for the future, enough for many more videos. I can only hope that it will pay off. It's not always easy to run such a business, but I do draw a lot of satisfaction from the positive feedback I get. It really helps me go on.
