I don't usually blather on about internet gossip but as a mom with two kids and an avid internet shopper, this one hit home. I always hate to see big companies kicking the little man when he's down and what's worse than kicking a needy kid on Christmas? Some people could care less and blow things like this off but I prefer to do what I can to stand up and say "hang on a minute!"

Many of you many have read the big stink over at Regretsy regarding their charity for needy children for Christmas. If you haven't, you can check out the big, awful scoop at Regretsy. Weather you like Regretsy or not, it's a pretty awful situation.

What's the Big Deal?
 Basically, Regretsy set up a donate button for readers to give money for kids presents for Christmas.Paypal got in a tizzy over it and suspended their accounts, telling them that what they did was wrong. Like I said, hop over and read the whole story

 Now, some will argue that there's a right and wrong way to run a charity but according to this compelling blog post, paypal's policies supported the donations.

A Lame Fix
This morning, the PayPal Blog released a statement to readers that "the funds have been released and we are working directly with the account holder on this matter. Just like anyone else, we believe strongly in helping those in need, especially around the holiday season. We are working with Regretsy to make a donation to help their cause, and we’re truly sorry this occurred." and "we require certain documentation to prevent misuse of the donated funds"

 Misuse of donated funds? According to Regretsy, paypal made money on all of these transactions, both donations, returned donations and everything in between. Now, if that's not misuse of donated funds, I don't know what is! If there were a doubt about the use of the funds, it could have been handled in a much more professional, less damaging way.
  What We Can Do About It

PayPal quickly patched this one up since they saw that a lot of people were angry but what's to stop them from taking advantage of someone else? If you're not happy with Paypal, tell the people that matter! Tell your favorite shopping sites like Ebay and Etsy that you'd prefer to have a second online payment option like Goggle Checkout, Dwolla or any of the other online payment services. One person doesn't make a difference but there is great power in numbers. There's talk on etsy about adding Google Checkout, which would be awesome. You can join in the discussion here and here and ask sites like Etsy to give us more options. Not everyone will convert from Paypal but it would be nice to be able to choose which services to support and which to avoid.