tberry7403 | 26 Dec 2013 7:50 a.m. PST |
Just received the following from the Peter Pig RFCM Yahoo! Group: Boxing Day 2014 - just received an email from Paypal suspending our account due to sale of prohibited items. We think they mean AK47's and T55's etc ! Have emailed required documents to them this morning but have been forced to shut up shop in order to avoid calls about paypal not working. Shop will reopen as soon as Paypal see sense
. :( I guess this is what happens when you send Prohibited items to Bongolesia! Tim |
Cardinal Ximenez | 26 Dec 2013 8:06 a.m. PST |
All I can say is that the movie "Idiocracy" is a frightening reality. DM |
chriskrum | 26 Dec 2013 8:23 a.m. PST |
Arbitrary and preemptive action taken on the basis of a keyword search without even the most basic and rudimentary investigation such as actually going to Peter Pig's website and looking at the catalog. Of course the later would involve 2 or 3 man minutes. This, from a company that makes a large portion of its income off the sale of grey market and counterfeit goods that it only grudgingly "investigates" and then often only shuts down on a per sale basis as opposed to shutting an actual merchant down. |
Dave Jackson | 26 Dec 2013 8:30 a.m. PST |
Maybe the ghost of Kalashnikov interfering with things? |
GeoffQRF | 26 Dec 2013 8:34 a.m. PST |
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79thPA | 26 Dec 2013 8:34 a.m. PST |
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Alcibiades | 26 Dec 2013 8:38 a.m. PST |
I have recently gone through something similar with the paranoid Paypal police. I made the mistake of trying to send one of my painters payment for "The Sudan Project". As a result of the reference to Sudan, my account was suspended for about 10 days while I bit my tongue and explained that this was a hobby project and dealt with the Sudan in 1885. It took 6 letters to finally clear the matter up. Apparently, they thought my 100.00 Cdn. was destined for some terrorist group. Chris's comments are well taken. In my rather measured responses, I reiterated that this was a hobby project, that I was a citizen of a foreign country and that I would be contacting my solicitors, my MLA and my MP. I included a picture of the toys in action. Finally, I received the all clear. Would be nice to see a little competition for Paypal. I was tempted to just tell them to go %$&@ themselves but realized how difficult my hobby life would be without the service. Bring on the competition. |
Murphy | 26 Dec 2013 8:44 a.m. PST |
The National African Republic of Bongolesia expresses it's regret to Mr.Pig and wishes to assure him that in no way whatsoever did our requests for "farm equipment", lend to the issues at hand. We hope that this matter is cleared up soon as we have need for a couple of more "tractors", and some "weed choppers and other farming tools"
. |
evilcartoonist | 26 Dec 2013 9:03 a.m. PST |
Reminds me of when Steve Jackson Games was raided by the Secret Service over data piracy, due to discussions in the "computer underground" (which was all related to GURPS Cyberpunk.) Granted, the internet was in its infancy back then. sjgames.com/SS |
Wellspring | 26 Dec 2013 9:28 a.m. PST |
Nice to see that the thought police are ensuring that no BadThink makes it to the pleb sector. Fight the power! |
vtsaogames | 26 Dec 2013 9:29 a.m. PST |
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War Panda | 26 Dec 2013 9:32 a.m. PST |
I can't believe no one has at least some sympathy for paypal in the circumstances; I mean with a name like "Peter Pig" it could be easily mistaken for a Super Villain. It's about time someone stood up to the likes of Dr Octopus, Mole Man and the Penguin. Well done paypal
you're real hero's! |
Zargon | 26 Dec 2013 10:17 a.m. PST |
"Farm equipment"that's the product word to use for all our gaming products with a PP in a circle added as accreditation in the customs label (I'm sure paypal (un pal) would appreciate our thoughtfulness, not! 8>D ah! the fascists in charge of the playpark, got ta luv em. |
Tony58 | 26 Dec 2013 10:20 a.m. PST |
Well along with the 'Paints in the post' fiasco, tinyurl.com/lmoyhla It would seem that there is a world wide conspiracy against the 'gaming' hobby Whilst back in the real world, all sorts of things are slipping past the security services |
Who asked this joker | 26 Dec 2013 10:21 a.m. PST |
So PayPal made a mistake. Happens from time to time. I hope Peter Pig gets it sorted with them soon and gets their business rolling again! |
tberry7403 | 26 Dec 2013 10:41 a.m. PST |
So PayPal made a mistake. Happens from time to time. How many years have people been buying "
AK47's and T55's
" from Peter Pig? It would have taken about 5 minutes to investigate and determine there was nothing wrong going on. |
morrigan | 26 Dec 2013 11:16 a.m. PST |
I wonder if a lot of people buy real T55's using paypal. Especially at the prices charged for a 15mm one
.. |
javelin98 | 26 Dec 2013 11:32 a.m. PST |
Man, if I could buy a T55 at Peter Pig prices
|
martin goddard | 26 Dec 2013 11:56 a.m. PST |
Thank you for the sympathy. Better not say "it's tough on the front line" or your order is "incoming". Have a good new year martin |
Phillius | 26 Dec 2013 12:32 p.m. PST |
Not a practical joke then? Boxing Day 2014 hasn't actually occurred yet
. |
jowady | 26 Dec 2013 12:56 p.m. PST |
I wish that PayPal had a competitor on its same level i.e. for individuals and very small businesses for whom taking credit cards through conventional banks is too expensive. Competition would probably improve things. Still while far from ideal PayPal is better than the old days of checks and money orders. My guess is that the mention of AKs set off some sort of automatic response. Most likely the shut down was done without any human intervention. The ability for transactions to be monitored appears to have greatly outstripped common sense. Where I live in the US our local Sheriff is trying to acquire software that will monitor local Facebook and Twitter accounts for certain words that are evidently key in online prostitution. So if I post that I gave my mom roses and a kiss for Mothers Day it will trigger some sort of extra monitoring of my posts. Of course there will be too many posts using this to allow human monitoring. It's ridiculous but it's the age we live in, the ability to gather and store intel has greatly outstripped our ability to study and analyze the data. So instead they shut the business down and wait for a complaint and for the business to prove that the transaction is innocent. What do they care if they inconvenience someone?
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David Manley | 26 Dec 2013 1:08 p.m. PST |
Lucky you don't sell any packs with nuclear weapons else I fear we'd be seeing a Reaper over Weymouth :D |
flooglestreet | 26 Dec 2013 1:09 p.m. PST |
A little common sense would go a long way. I recall working security when one of my fellow guards found a reciept on the ground for "$4.95 Guns & Ammo". People got hysterical, I am not kidding, untill I pointed out that $4.95 USD would not buy a gun or much ammo but it was the going rate for magazines at the time and Guns & Ammo was a popular magazine with the outdoor set. Fortunately, ammo magazines were no big deal then or someone would have suspected I meant a pistol magazine and really gone bonkers. |
John the OFM | 26 Dec 2013 2:03 p.m. PST |
I buy my Peter Pig from Brookhurst Hobbies. Oddly enough (or maybe not so oddly
) Brookhurst does not take PayPal. Coincidence??? Hmmmmm
.. |
GeoffQRF | 26 Dec 2013 2:26 p.m. PST |
"Peter Pig sues Paypal for lost business due to stupidity of Paypal employees"? |
jowady | 26 Dec 2013 4:12 p.m. PST |
Suing PayPal is probably not an option as this sort of thing is probably covered under the Terms of Use. I'm not surprised that Brookhurst doesn't use PayPal. PayPal exists for individuals and small (okay very small) businesses to take credit cards. Most Miniatures Companies are basically little more than individuals. Most processing companies don't want to deal with small outfits so they charge a fee for their use and a higher percentage of the sale. PayPal's fees are lower or nonexistent. They make their money off holding up remuneration to you by several days (essentially giving them an interest free loan for a few days) or by getting you to use their "debit card" for which the receive fees from the issuer. Most online shops, like Brookurst or Squadron do more than enough daily business that they don't have to put up with PayPal's time lag (also known as "float) in payments. It's the principle of the "Time Factor of money", a dollar or pound or whatever today is worth more than getting that dollar tomorrow. Financial institutions are operating under all sorts of new regulations post 9/11 and in the drug war environment. Several large banks have been discovered actively laundering money for international criminal and terrorist organizations. This isn't paranoia or hyperbole, you can Google the articles. However these are often banks deemed "too big to fail", banks that could but and sell PayPal and eBay without a second thought. Here in the US we are dealing with an intelligence environment that has employed operatives to play World of Warcraft on the off chance that nefarious people are using it to plot plan and communicate and recruit. This can be googled as well. What happened to Peter Pig isn't right not is it understandable, I'm just trying to explain why it happened. |
Allen57 | 26 Dec 2013 5:28 p.m. PST |
I have wondered at times how many posts in the forums of the wargaming community have come under the scrutiny of the national intelligence community. Lots that could on first blush could seem questionable. Paranoia runs deep these days. |
jowady | 26 Dec 2013 7:34 p.m. PST |
As they say just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. |
mandt2 | 26 Dec 2013 8:29 p.m. PST |
It may not be originating with PayPal. I imagine they get hundreds maybe thousands of transactions a day with the term AK 47 in it. So why PP? It's possible that someone, a competitor, or disgruntled customer, or x-wife maybe, filed a complaint with PayPal. It happened to me. Some years ago, I put a WWII NAZI parade dagger up for sale on eBay. I was careful to blur-out all of the swastikas and went easy on the use of descriptive copy in what I believed to be compliance with eBays rules on such items. The next day I received an email from eBay saying that they had removed the item because it had violated eBay's rule concerning desciptive copy. I had said in the descriptive text that "the insignias were blurred out in order to comply, blah, blah, and I guess just mentioning it was against the rules. So I started searching eBay and found all sorts of items with NAZI swastikas including other daggers, model kits, and dozens of editions of Mein Kampf with the big swastika on the cover to name a few. I was about to complain to eBay when I received two emails from bidders who were quick enough to get my contact info before the dagger was pulled. One of them told me that he sees this sort of thing quite frequently. A competitor will file a complaint against another to knock them out of the market so to speak. Sure enough, there were two other guys selling the same dagger, niether in as nice condition as mine. Coulda been one of them. My point is that eBay/PayPal probably can't afford to bounce everyone who violates one of their rules, unless someone files a complaint. |
Gabriel Landowski | 26 Dec 2013 9:17 p.m. PST |
I had no problems buying that SA-7 from them
And burying it in my potato patch
. |
GarrisonMiniatures | 27 Dec 2013 2:59 a.m. PST |
Sure enough, there were two other guys selling the same dagger, niether in as nice condition as mine. Coulda been one of them. I assume that you naturally complained about them? |
altfritz | 27 Dec 2013 7:17 a.m. PST |
Remember that ebay seller who was trying to copyright basic adobe house designs? He managed to get ebay to pull the auction of somebody else selling an adobe building by claiming it violated his copyright. I remember there being a huge uproar and the obnoxious seller (ie. the copyrighter) seems to have disappeared since. |
Jimlad48 | 27 Dec 2013 7:31 a.m. PST |
At the risk of sounding slightly harsh, could Peter Pig use this enforced downtime to redesign their website? I love their product, but the website is in my view utterly awful, and doesnt do their wonderful range justice. I've been put off several orders with them simply due to it being too difficult to find what I want, and get easy photos of it. Please guys, update it so I can spend even more money with you! |
Guntruck | 27 Dec 2013 2:50 p.m. PST |
I cannot look at the Peter Pig website on my company's web browser because the net nanny software they use thinks PP is selling weapons. Come to that, most traders can't be accessed because they are "gaming" websites apparently
It got so bad I went and bought a tablet to use at lunchtime. |
Tumbleweed | 27 Dec 2013 4:14 p.m. PST |
The means of repression have seen a quantum leap in development, extent of deployment and efficiency Stalin and Hitler couldn't have even dreamed of. God help us the next time someone like that takes power. |
martin goddard | 29 Dec 2013 6:36 a.m. PST |
We have reopened the webstore today but without the option of paying through Paypal. There has been no response from our emails to Paypal and we saw no reason to inconvenience everyone any longer. Their helpline is unmanned. The staff here return from their break on Friday when all orders will be dealt with promptly. Many thanks for your support. |
Henry Martini | 29 Dec 2013 6:31 p.m. PST |
Next time? Corporate tyrants are much more subtle and sophisticated. |
CorpCommander | 30 Dec 2013 10:58 a.m. PST |
Ebay has (or at least had) a zero tolerance on swastikas. I had an item up for sale that had one on it. It was a poster from WWII showing the destruction of the Nazi party and the swastika was being hit by a bomb. So their policy actually targeted an strong, anti-hate message. All zero tolerance policies are stupid IMHO. Hope they fix it soon! |