Solifugae

There are thirteen families belonging to the order Solifugae:. Since PayPal only works in certain countries, Ebay's policy limits participation to the countries that PayPal supports. While one species, Rhagodes nigrocinctus, does appear to possess venom, its bite is not known to be dangerous to humans. Ebay's new policy states that accepting a non-PayPal online payment system could result in the user's account being banned. There is no chance of death directly caused by the bite, but, due to the strong muscles of their chelicerae, they can produce a proportionately large, ragged wound which is prone to infection. EBay specifically prohibits E-gold, a PayPal competitor with high fraud history. However, the greatest threat they pose to humans is their bite in self-defense when one tries to handle them. Questions of illegality and antitrust have been raised over this new rule, mostly by merchants who believe they shouldn't have to pay for a legitmate service and abused the personal account status on PayPal.

Due to their bizarre appearance and the fact that they produce a hissing sound when they feel threatened, many people are startled or even afraid of them. EBay lists Bidpay.com as the only alternative, but that company's demise predates this policy. Solifugae, however, do not produce such an anesthetic, and, like most creatures with any sort of survival instinct, they do not attack prey larger than themselves unless they feel they must, such as situations of defense or protection of young. This is due to the wide numbers of fraudulant online payment methods. The story goes that the creature will inject some anesthetizing venom into the exposed skin of its sleeping victim, then feed voraciously, leaving the victim to awaken with a gaping wound. [8] Beginning in January 2006, eBay now prohibits any online payment system other than Paypal, as stated here[9]. In the Middle East, it is common belief among American soldiers stationed there that Solifugae will feed on living human flesh. In August 2005 eBay required that sellers who accept PayPal not refuse credit card payments, which result in transaction fees.

Members of this order of Arachnidae have no venom and do not spin webs. This has brought criticism from people from within these countries.[7]. They are not especially large, the biggest having a legspan of perhaps 5 inches, and although they are fast on land compared to other invertebrates, the fastest can run perhaps 10 miles per hour, a common running speed for many humans. PayPal does not allow people from certain countries to use its services, and in some occasions where it does, it only allows the participants to send and not receive. Solifugae are the subject of many myths and exaggerations about their size, speed, behavior, appetite, and lethality. PayPal's Seller Protection policies do not cover intangible goods or goods that are "not as described". The absence of shade sends them away. [4] [5] [6].

In reality, they were merely moving toward the newly available shade provided by the soldiers' presence. It's unclear whether simply waiting for PayPal to reach a decision in regards to the account would have resulted in PayPal allowing the money to eventually reach the Red Cross. It is this behavior which led coalition soldiers in the 2003 invasion of Iraq to think these arachnids were attacking them. Kyanka originally agreed to this, but after learning of the United Way's prior legal troubles, he asked PayPal to refund all the donations. As indicated by their name, Solifugae are mostly nocturnal, and seek shade during the day. Kyanka asked PayPal to transfer the funds to the Red Cross; PayPal said they couldn't do this, but could give the money to United Way (a rival charity collecting for the same cause, that had an undisclosed agreement with PayPal). Reproduction can involve direct or indirect sperm transfer; when indirect, the male emits a spermatophore on the ground and then inserts it with his chelicerae in the female's genital pore. To re-activate the account, PayPal demanded "proof of delivery", even though no products were being sold.

The prey is then liquified and the liquid ingested through the pharynx. After receiving over $30,000 USD in donations in 9 hours, PayPal locked-down the account. Prey is located with the pedipalps and killed and cut into pieces by the chelicerae. In September 2005, PayPal suspended an account (opened by Something Awful owner Richard Kyanka) used to collect donations for the American Red Cross to help Hurricane Katrina victims. Solifugae are carnivorous or omnivorous, with most species feeding on termites, darkling beetles, and other small arthropods. PayPal denies any wrongdoing. Pedipalps terminate in eversible adhesive organs. The settlement requires that PayPal change its business practices (including changing its dispute resolution procedures to make them EFTA-compliant), as well as making a $9.25 million USD payment to members of the class.

Solifugae also have long pedipalps, which function as sense organs similar to insects' antennae. An informal settlement was reached in November 2003, and a formal settlement was signed on June 11, 2004. Males in all families but Eremobatidae possess a flagellum on the basal article of the chelicera. The two lawsuits were merged into one class action lawsuit (In re PayPal litigation). Each of the two chelicerae are composed of two articles forming a powerful pincer; each article bears a variable number of teeth. Most of the allegations concerned PayPal's dispute resolution procedures. The most distinctive feature of solifugae is their large chelicerae. In March 2002, two PayPal account holders separately sued the company for alleged violations of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) and California law.

Most solifugae live in tropical or semitropical regions where they inhabit warm and arid habitats, but some species have been known to live in grassland or forest habitats. PayPal's account access limitations prevent the movement of funds until discrepencies, or terms of the limitation, are resolved. The order includes 900 known species, whose common names include "windscorpion", "sun spider", and "camel spider". Banks and financial institutions provide chargeback rights for a specified period of time that varies by the institution. The order is also known by the names Solpugida, Solifugae, Solpugides, Solpugae, Galeodea, and Mycetophorae. This policy appears to protect PayPal from financial loss in the event of chargebacks or disputes. A Solifugid (plural form Solifugae) is an arachnid belonging to the order Solifugae, latin for They flee from the sun. According to the PayPal user agreement, users agree to give PayPal the power to limit access to funds in the account for 180 days.

Solpugidae. Controversial aspects of PayPal include the terms of its User Agreement; particularly, for limiting account access and user access to funds. Rhagodidae. Because it considers itself to be an 'electronic money transmitter', user rights and safeguards vary. Mummuciidae. PayPal is not subject to regular banking regulations. Melanoblossidae. As long as seller provides confirmation of delivery available online, they are protected from chargebacks and fraudulent item-not-recieved claims.

Karschiidae. PayPal also protects sellers by offering the Seller Protection Policy. Karschiidae. If the buyer used a credit card, they are ensured a refund via chargeback. Hexisopodidae. If this doesn't happen, PayPal will try to take the money back from the seller and refund the buyer. Gylippidae. Buyers are ensured that they recieve the item they buy as it is described.

Galeodidae. PayPal's business model involves providing safety to buyers and merchants/sellers. Eremobatidae. PayPal's European subsidiary PayPal (Europe) is licensed as an electronic money institution and regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority. Daesiidae. Like Western Union, PayPal is considered a money transmitter in many states in the United States and is licensed as such where required. Ceromidae. Therefore it is not required to abide by the legislation that governs banks.

Ammotrechidae. Due to the manner in which it operates, PayPal is not considered a bank. PayPal also operates a large customer-service center in La Vista, Nebraska, just outside Omaha. PayPal operates locally in 13 markets, including: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland and China. Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Australian Dollars, Euros, Pounds Sterling and Japanese Yen.

PayPal supports payments in U.S. Every second PayPal processes an average of $823 in total payment volume. As of the end of Q2 2005, PayPal operates in 57 countries (including China) and it manages over 86.6 million accounts. In January of 2005 PayPal announced plans to pursue the Merchant Services opportunity, the online payments business 'off of eBay'.

In 2004, the total value of transactions through the PayPal system was $18.9 billion, up 55% year over year. BidPay itself ceased payment operations on the 31st December 2005 but the site remains to carry out any remaining customer service issues . PayPal's only substantially similar competitor is now BidPay, after Citibank's c2it service closed in late 2003 and Yahoo!'s PayDirect service closed in late 2004. eBay has phased out its BillPoint service in favor of retaining the PayPal brand.

(See GAMEY) PayPal had previously been the payment method of choice by over fifty percent of eBay users, and the service competed with eBay's subsidiary BillPoint. In October 2002 PayPal was acquired by eBay. [2] [3]. This paved the way for the company to eventually reconcile with its former rival, eBay.

Yet the company was able to turn the corner and become the first dot-com to IPO after the September 11 attacks — an accomplishment that ironically backfired when PayPal's new high profile status helped prompt a slew of class action lawsuits and regulatory probes, including one by NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. And worst of all, eBay launched a payments service named Billpoint to compete with PayPal. Foreign Mafia rings found ways to steal millions from the young company. Though growing rapidly, PayPal was losing $10 million a month and was fraught with internal turmoil that led to three CEO changes in its first year of operations.

[1]. This name was acquired by PayPal in early 2000, when x.com merged with PayPal. As of Jan 2006, this URL still resolves to the PayPal home page. Unknown to many people is the fact that PayPal is one of the few Internet companies which has a single letter domain name, (http://www.x.com) in use.

Coupled with aggressive marketing campaigns offering $10 (and later $5) for new users to sign up, the firm grew at a meteoric rate of 7–10 percent per day between January and March 2000. The PDA software was later discarded in favor of a web-based system that became popular with eBay's millions of buyers and sellers. In its initial incarnation, PayPal was a service for users to send money via PDAs, with actor James Doohan, Star Trek's "Scotty," as its spokesman. Most of the early engineers hailed from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, recruited by Max Levchin.

On the business side, many of its initial recruits were alumni of The Stanford Review, which was also founded by Peter Thiel. One of its first premises was the 165 University Avenue office in Palo Alto, California, home of a number of other noted Silicon Valley startups. PayPal was founded in December 1998 by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. .

Corporate headquarters are in San Jose, California; it is now an eBay company. PayPal also performs payment processing for e-commerce vendors, auction sites, and other corporate users, for which they charge a fee. PayPal is an Internet business which allows the transfer of money between email users and merchants, avoiding traditional paper methods such as checks/cheques and money orders. PayPal Acquires Verisign's Payment Gateway.

PayPal Releases Direct Payment API.