Two little things...

[Photon]

Firstly, its starting to look a lot like fishmen^H^H^H^H^H^H^HChaosmas, and as such (possibly due to moaning in the forums, possibly not) we have the traditional Chaosmas threads up in Irrelevant Corner, so get over there and start an unholy war nominating each other!

Secondly, its kinda fund raising time again - not to worry, we are safe for a bit yet, so if you are strapped for Chaosmas (and lets face it most of us are...) then fret not, we will fleece you rotten in the new year! Unfortunately, we appear to have upset Paypal, who have once AGAIN locked our account, and this time do not appear to want to talk to us about it. As a warning to other people in this situation, it would appear that in Paypal's eyes you are either an individual with a paypal account to buy or sell things, or you are a charity. Seeing as we don't really fit into the first definition, then we are a charity, and our account has been locked until we provide official documentation of being a charity. Which we can't, not being a charity and all...

I wouldn't mind, but this is like the third time this has happened, and now I either have to make an hour+ international phone call to try and sort this out, or dispatch even more emails into the ether to get ignored.

So, whilst Paypal do not want to take the rediculous amount of money they usually take off us, we have a bank account with BACS and IBAN numbers, so feel free to pester me for this (I don't think its the wisest plan to publish these on t'intertubes)

In the meantime, Happy Chaosmas!

[InvisiblePaint]

As annoying as PayPal are, they are a convenient way to send money.

Is there any other service you could use? Google Checkout or something?

If there's any hardware you need, maybe you could set up an Amazon Wish List?

[Photon]

I'm still chasing paypal, but I'm not going to spend an hour on hold paying premium rates to do so. So far though, they really do not want to speak to me, unfortunately. I'll keep you all informed, but there really may not be a resolution here, as they seem to think I am either a charity or some kind of money launderer (there is obviously no ground between the two)

The main need for money is for software and the cost of the hosting, so unfortunately I don't believe there is another method, unless someone knows otherwise.

[MrCranky]

Oh, this isn't the same thing that the TortoiseSVN guy got hit with is it? Certain branches of Paypal governed by Singaporean financial rules which preclude gathering donations unless you're a charity?

[Xajin]

Originally Posted by Photon

I'm still chasing paypal, but I'm not going to spend an hour on hold paying premium rates to do so. So far though, they really do not want to speak to me, unfortunately. I'll keep you all informed, but there really may not be a resolution here, as they seem to think I am either a charity or some kind of money launderer (there is obviously no ground between the two)The main need for money is for software and the cost of the hosting, so unfortunately I don't believe there is another method, unless someone knows otherwise.

Completely unregulated 'bank' seizes money and doesn't want to let it go... I am shocked.

I've heard this happening a lot - you'd be better off saying you run the Chaos Engine as a members only site and the monies are membership fees and put on the site here that people should donate/pay $5,$10,$20,$50 amounts and tell Paypal they are different levels of membership. You'll probably find it much easier to explain this not-for-profit thing to the UK taxman.

Random values arriving in your account probably does look a little suspect.

[Robert Swan]

I've heard so many bad things about paypal over the past few months that I will never ever use it to receive money. Google checkout ftw

[lutas]

I realise this doesn't help OP but for software/games I used to use ShareIt

http://www.shareit.com/

[Brian Beuken]

Send me the bank details Photon, I'll stick 20p in the meter