INFORMATION ABOUT THE USE OF PAYPAL

 

 

PayPal is a service that processes credit card purchases for the GSSB. This is accomplished either by the purchaser checking out as a “Guest” or from the purchaser’s pre-existing PayPal account to buy a GSSB membership, make a donation, or purchase from a GSSB online store.

 

The GSSB pays a fee to PayPal for each of these transactions, regardless of whether it is made by a person as a “Guest” or from their personal PayPal account. PayPal then credits the GSSB account with the purchase amount, less the transaction fee. 

 

The GSSB does NOT directly process credit card transactions, and so has no control over PayPal procedures or business practices. The GSSB simply receives a deposit from the PayPal transaction.

 

USE OF COOKIES BY PAYPAL:

 

Cookies are small text files (usually of letters and numbers) placed in the memory of your computer browser when you visit a website or view a message. Cookies allow a website to recognize a particular device or browser and provides various sorts of data back to that system, depending on the type of cookie and its purpose.

 

During the checkout process, PayPal places cookies on a purchaser’s browser as part of their business practice. PayPal makes an effort to use the data collected from these cookies to increase their business by acquiring additional accounts from users.

 

To increase accounts, PayPal uses their cookies to check if a purchaser has used the “Guest” checkout multiple times. If so, they may remove the "Guest" checkout option and require the purchaser to create a PayPal account before completing the transaction. If the buyer does not want an account, PayPal does NOT currently offer an alternative purchase method and will not allow a purchase.   

 

If a buyer already has one or creates a new account, they can enable Guest Checkout within their PayPal account settings, and will have the option to check out using a debit or credit card, without the need for a PayPal account login. However, using this feature this still requires an account to have been created.

 

GSSB has no control over these practices, or any other business procedures of PayPal. We of course accept personal checks and cash for membership dues. The option for online purchases is provided by the GSSB as a convenience to members or prospective members and purchasers. 

 

 

Clearing/Deleting Cookies:  If a purchaser deletes Cookies from their browser, it will prevent PayPal from using the cookies to track information such as whether a buyer has used PayPal multiple times. However, deleting all browser cookies may also delete saved login information or account data from other online sites or businesses the user may want to retain in their browser on their device.  

 

Failed Payments using PayPal:  Our GSSB website vendor shares that PayPal has said online that "Guest checkout is not guaranteed for every transaction."  This means under some circumstances a guest checkout will fail and the GSSB/ENS website will not be notified. PayPal does not say when they won't honor a guest checkout, but generally the reason this might happen is for fraud protection. 

 

Renewal Payment Not Credited to GSSB:  Occasionally we see someone pay in PayPal but their transaction with the GSSB/ENS website was not updated. This appears to happen if a member goes directly to PayPal rather than logging into the GSSB website to renew. Some members go directly to PayPal by mistake, and choose "Send Money," and then choose the GSSB email, which appears on their list of people previously paid.  They can send you money directly with no problem as PayPal will accept the money, and it will be deposited in the GSSB account.  The problem is that because the purchaser didn't start from inside the GSSB website, there are no transaction codes, and so PayPal cannot notify the GSSB system (IPN program) that there was a successful payment transaction and our program can not update the membership account. It is important to start any membership payment or renewal from within the GSSB website so PayPal can properly credit the membership account with the GSSB.

 

Subscriptions:  PayPal may provide information to the purchaser that their "subscription" purchase was successful or it may be noted similarly on an invoice/receipt. In the case of GSSB, PayPal's use of the term "subscription" means the same as a Membership Fee. The GSSB does not sell subscriptions to a service. We instead charge an annual "Membership Fee" to our not-for-profit Society. Membership is renewed by the member annually, which provides access to certain benefits not usually available to non-members. Subscriptions are sometimes also thought to denote a RECURRING FEE. The GSSB does NOT charge auto-recurring fees or subscriptions of any kind.