Update: Paypal have said that they will refund all donations by noon tomorrow.
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We feel deeply for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and have been heartened by the robust response of the web community, including (read here for more information).
Unfortunately, Paypal has managed to paint itself as a bad guy. Quoting from The Inquirer:
PAYPAL HAS frozen a relief effort set up by popular web site Something Awful.
This brilliant wheeze will delay payments to poor people from hurricane Katrina. The good folks at Something Awful, themselves victims of the hurricane, decided to put their mouths where the money is and set up an account to take donations for the Red Cross.
This has been made worse because there seems to be no way for Something Awful to respond to the allegation that "We have received more than one report of suspicious behaviour from your buyers" which in itself is wierd for a donation drive. It might be that this is simply an automated mechanism, particularly since this is a weekend, but Paypal should make it right, apologize, and match donations. That'll be good PR. ;)
[Ed: Personally, I've used paypal in the past, with as-expected results. I suppose the problem is that there is no serious alternative (Yet?), particularly because one of it's primary uses is eBay, and eBay owns paypal.]
[Oh, and click here to donate to the Red Cross.]
