Archive for Paypal

It’s Happening Again…. I Can’t Buy Parallels Desktop Using Paypal [UPDATED]

Posted in Commentary with tags , on October 13, 2011 by itnerd

I don’t get it. After my last rants about not being able to buy Parallels Desktop using PayPal, you’d think that Parallels would make sure that their launch of Parallels Desktop would include a check to see that purchasing via PayPal works. I suspect that they didn’t and as a result I’m running into exactly the same issue as I did the last time.

Now, the fact that I have to write about this again is really sad. Given the recent results of terms that are used in search engines that refer traffic to my blog, I’d say that others are having the same issue. I really want Parallels to explain and fix their issues with PayPal. That would show that Parallels really cares about their customers.

Honestly, I don’t want to write about this a third time.

UPDATE: I got an e-mail from someone who had has a similar problem. Here’s what they said:

“I came across your posts via Google after running into the same problems that you did. I sent them a Tweet to their Twitter account looking for help and have received no feedback from them. This is pitiful customer service. I seriously doubt that I will buy another product from this company.”

Parallels clearly has an issue that they need to address. The question is, why won’t they? It’s clear that I’m not the only one out there who is having problems purchasing from them. But their silence shows that they aren’t interested in having happy customers.

LulzSec Posts Facebook, PayPal, Xbox Live and Twitter Account Info

Posted in Commentary with tags , , , , on June 17, 2011 by itnerd

LulzSec strikes again.

The CBC is reporting that the notorious hacker group has posted the account info from 62,000 accounts including ones from Facebook, PayPal, Xbox Live, and Twitter:

On its Twitter account, LulzSec said it uploaded the file to a file-sharing site Thursday morning. The site took it down, but it was uploaded again Thursday evening and taken down once more. LulzSec reported thousands of downloads before it was removed.

The group’s Twitter feed contains bragging from people who claim to have taken the information and logged on to people’s personal sites: taking money from PayPal accounts, replacing dating site profile pictures with pornographic images, and engaging in chats on other people’s Facebook.

“Envelope yourself in the sickening realization that you secretly love f–king someone’s Facebook life beyond repair,” says one tweet from LulzSec.

My advice, you need to change your passwords RIGHT NOW if you value your security. In the meantime, all of these sites really need to step up their security so that groups like LulzSec stay out of the news.

Google Gets Sued By PayPal

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on May 28, 2011 by itnerd

Fresh off of announcing Google Wallet, Google has a new problem. A lawsuit. Paypal decided that they need to sue Google as well as two former employees [Warning: PDF] for violating contractual obligations and theft of trade secrets in the case of the two individuals, and it charges Google with interfering with PayPal’s contractual relations. Here’s what Paypal’s mouthpiece senior director of global communications Amanda Pires had to say via a blog entry:

We spend a lot of time and energy creating the things that make PayPal unique and a preferred way to pay for almost 100 million people around the world. We treat PayPal’s “secrets” seriously, and take it personally when someone else doesn’t. So we made a decision today. We filed a lawsuit against Google and two former colleagues who now work there, Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius.

You can read the entire lawsuit for yourself, but here’s the highlights:

  • Stephanie Tilenius gets hired by Google in June 2010 and became Google VP of commerce and payments. According to PayPal, she agrees not to steal solicit PayPal employees until March 2011
  • PayPal then claims that Tilenius contacted Osama Bedier in July 2010 and tried to convince him to join Google. Bedier after meeting with top Google execs ultimately resigned from PayPal in January 2011.

Paypal then wants you to connect the dots when it comes to the rest. Both these individuals then supposedly used what they learned at PayPal to help create Google Wallet. Thus, faster than you can say “Charlie Sheen loves goddesses,” you have a lawsuit being filed by PayPal.

My only thought on this is as follows. How much of this is about PayPal being wronged, and how much is about PayPal potentially being put out to pasture by the titan known as Google? Sure the fact that the way the two individuals ended up at Google is a bit questionable at best. But everything past that can be argued six ways from Sunday.

As usual, expect this to take years and expect to have the lawyers coming out on top.