Subject: Warning! Paypal banning kava, comfrey, St. John's Wort

[Guest guest]

I closed my account with Paypal when they shut down a friend's website over

the sale of kava. It just felt a little too " big brother " to me, and my only

real recourse was to say " thanks, but no thanks " .

It really irks me that not so many years ago Paypal was a very small

struggling business, and now....

Anyway. There is a small article in the Spring issue of Herb Quarterly that

states Germany has repealed their ban on Kava.

 

 

 

Tina

_The Essential Herbal Magazine_ (http://www.essentialherbal.com/)

_Essential Herbal Blog_ (http://theessentialherbal.blogspot.com/)

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

 

It was my site that PayPal shut down over the Kava Kava. Downloaded

e-mail one morning

to read a missive from them telling me in was in violation of my

agreement with PayPal. I could

not take my money out of my PayPal account nor could I receive any

orders from my site.

 

Not even a warning, please fix this or your site will be shut down -

JUST shut down by them!

 

I was one of the lucky ones. My web mistress fixed (deleted) the

*offending* items and I was

up and running again within 24 hours.....but not after I had screamed,

yelled and jumped up

and down at some guy named Neal at their office in California at 4am

their time!

 

I am looking at other merchant accounts for my website but right now I

must stick with PayPal

as changing over and using a new shopping cart costs $$$$$ which I don't

have at the moment.

So I leave a token amount in the PayPal account and everything else goes

directly to my checking.

But as soon as I can, PayPal is gone. They are losing customers like

crazy over this and other

high handed Big Brother tactics. I have noticed that a lot of eBay

sellers have notes on their

auctions about PayPal and the strong arm tactics they use.

 

Sandi

BlackKat Herbs

http://www.blackkatherbs.com

 

 

> Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.15.2/253 - Release 2/7/2006

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Sandi,

 

That sux in plain English!

 

So, how does PayPal know which money you have brought in is directly

related to sales of a particular item? Is this only affecting folks who

use their cart (or have herbs on auction over at e-bay)?

 

Good luck with getting yourself switched over. Obviously PayPal can

choose to have whatever TOS they desire, but this sounds a bit

ridiculous!

 

Just FYI - Mals has an easy to use, good quality, free shopping cart.

http://www.mals-e.com/

 

Also, you can use ProPay in a similar manner to PayPal (people can

either pay you with a CC # they give you, or they can put $$$ into their

own ProPay account and pay you that way).

http://www.propay.com/

 

 

*Smile*

Chris (list mom)

 

New Items And A Fantastic Pre Buy

To Be Unveiled On The Site This Week!

<http://www.alittleolfactory.com> http://www.alittleolfactory.com

 

 

 

On Behalf Of Blackkat

 

 

Hi everyone,

 

It was my site that PayPal shut down over the Kava Kava. Downloaded

e-mail one morning

to read a missive from them telling me in was in violation of my

agreement with PayPal. I could

not take my money out of my PayPal account nor could I receive any

orders from my site.

 

Not even a warning, please fix this or your site will be shut down -

JUST shut down by them!

 

I was one of the lucky ones. My web mistress fixed (deleted) the

*offending* items and I was

up and running again within 24 hours.....but not after I had screamed,

yelled and jumped up

and down at some guy named Neal at their office in California at 4am

their time!

 

I am looking at other merchant accounts for my website but right now I

must stick with PayPal

as changing over and using a new shopping cart costs $$$$$ which I don't

 

have at the moment.

So I leave a token amount in the PayPal account and everything else goes

 

directly to my checking.

But as soon as I can, PayPal is gone. They are losing customers like

crazy over this and other

high handed Big Brother tactics. I have noticed that a lot of eBay

sellers have notes on their

auctions about PayPal and the strong arm tactics they use.

 

Sandi

BlackKat Herbs

http://www.blackkatherbs.com

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Christine,

 

PayPal does not differentiate between monies for what item.....seems

that if PayPal is

used, everything is at risk! None of the monies in my account were from

Kava Kava sales!

On a gut instinct just days before, I emptied almost $2000 out of my

account, leaving

$500 in there (their money market does pay good interest!). But now, I

leave $15 bucks

in there and the rest comes out! Still doesn't address the problem of

receiving payments

from my website should PayPal take it into their pea brains to shut me

down again for

something as illegal as *green tea* or the like, but I am working on

getting a new

merchant account and shopping cart...the accounts and cart I have been

looking at are

free...it's just the total re-do of the site that is expensive!

 

Big Brother is not only PayPal.....just listen to the evening news....

: - (

 

Sandi

BlackKat Herbs

http://www.blackkatherbs.com

[Guest guest]

Hi Sandi,

 

I am sorry to hear you had to go through such an ordeal, but I can assure

you, you will be much much happier when PayPal is no longer your sole

payment processor. Getting a merchant account and being able to either dump

PayPal completely or relegate them to second-class payment choice is a most

liberating experience. In addition to the options that Chris mentioned, I

use osCommerce for my own site and my customers' which is free and extremely

robust. You do need a web developer to help you install it, but it sounds

like you've already got that. (www.oscommerce.com)

 

I looked up PayPal's user policy, which was just updated on January 20,

2006, and did find the section where they link to the FDA's list of

" supplement alerts " that includes comfrey, St. Johns Wort and Kava. For

anyone else who read this thread first thing in the morning and swore it had

to be a hoax, here is the PayPal policy link:

 

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/ua/use/index_frame & ed=prescri\

pt_drugs

(I am not sure if you need to be logged in to view the above link)

 

-Under the Supplements section of that policy is the link to the FDA " Alert

List " http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/ds-warn.html which they are using to

base their restricted items policy.

 

Linking through there, I also found an article on warnings that one company

was required to put on all products containing comfrey *for topical use*:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2001/07/westbot.htm (this is not related to PayPal,

but may be of interest to anyone who uses comfrey in a salve or other

topical product)

 

The part that's bogus about St. John's Wort is that the alert is about a

possible drug interaction and NOT a ban on St. John's Wort itself.

 

I also think PayPal is going too far with this, but I also think that both

eBay and PayPal have outgrown their usefullness and are really starting to

shoot themselves in the feet. eBay's last stunt about not allowing

transfer-only PayPal payments (from personal PayPal accounts) just about

shot off their legs. Now they're getting dangerously close to their

privates ; )

 

~Bonnie

 

 

-

" Blackkat " <blackkat

 

Wednesday, February 08, 2006 8:35 AM

Re: Warning! Paypal banning kava,

comfrey, St. John's Wort

 

 

Christine,

 

PayPal does not differentiate between monies for what item.....seems

that if PayPal is

used, everything is at risk! None of the monies in my account were from

Kava Kava sales!

On a gut instinct just days before, I emptied almost $2000 out of my

account, leaving

$500 in there (their money market does pay good interest!). But now, I

leave $15 bucks

in there and the rest comes out! Still doesn't address the problem of

receiving payments

from my website should PayPal take it into their pea brains to shut me

down again for

something as illegal as *green tea* or the like, but I am working on

getting a new

merchant account and shopping cart...the accounts and cart I have been

looking at are

free...it's just the total re-do of the site that is expensive!

 

Big Brother is not only PayPal.....just listen to the evening news....

: - (

 

Sandi

BlackKat Herbs

http://www.blackkatherbs.com