Was the site down today?

[70 Cam Guy]

All this time I thought red names meant moderator...

As soon as I get my windshield seal fixed, I'll install the mylar banner too

[26th-Z]

Don't let the red fool you. Her Majesty the 26th has been supporting the site for a long time. Princess Ziesta is a slacker, though.

[SoCalJDM240z]

Hate to see good things go bad.Payment sent

[SteveJ]

Considering the amount of information I get from here, it's about time I chipped in again.

[zKars]

An excellent reminder to contribute to a worthy cause. Thanks for all you guys do.

Jim

[pwd]

This site, with its highly knowledgeable members and archive of useful information, eventually saves Z owners time and money. Pitching in a few $$ whenever you benefit from it is appropriate. Posting useful tips and information is equally beneficial.

[Arne]

Don't let the red fool you. Her Majesty the 26th has been supporting the site for a long time. Princess Ziesta is a slacker, though.

Chris makes a good point. There are members who have been supporting the site regularly using an old (but recurring) method that the forum software can't see. So those members names don't turn red. Doesn't mean they are supporting. The numbers I quoted above (15 at the time) were only the members that the forum software knows about. There are others...

[JohnnyO]

Arne, That is good to know. I not saying we should look down on blue members at all. I am very well aware that a lot of members contribute with knowledge and patience which is worth far more than any monetary contribution I could make.

What I am trying to do is a little fund raiser to get those who have benefitted from this site over time and have not contributed. I myself chose a small monthly contribution that my wallet won't notice.

In the end, if we end up raising a few hundred for the site with this post I think we all will benefit.

Thanks to all who have "kicked in".

John

[Mike]

Yes, the site was down, but all is well again now. And while more funds are always welcome, the issue was not lack of money. I'll let Mike explain it if he wishes and has the time.

Hi guys. Yes, I'm SO sorry the site went down yesterday. Godaddy tried to renew the domain, but, our Paypal account appeared to have been locked. They weren't able to process the payment, thus, our domain name expired.

This was a total shock to me, so, I decided to check it out. After logging into the Paypal website and a few phone calls, I discovered they locked the account because of a paperwork issue. Not knowing why they needed paperwork, I asked for the reason. Apparently, they thought we were a public non-profit organization. I'm really not sure how they determined this, but, subsequently they locked all access to the account.

Needless to say, this royally pissed me off. I contacted Paypal, again, and had a stern conversation with someone in the customer service department. I told them we were simply a car club and donations were used to pay for our server dues, internet fees, and software subscriptions. I told the lady that our club was at their mercy because of our domain expiration. She was actually very helpful and pushed the issue through the Paypal review committee within 3-4 hours. Apparently they committee actually looked at our website and determined that we are a real car club.

Why didn't they do this before locking the account? That was my question. Not sure, but, all is clear. Godaddy actually called me and a lady helped us get back online within just a few minutes.

Paypal? Can't live with 'em... can't live without 'em. They are the only real game in town providing this kind of service. If there was another service like Paypal, I'd consider moving over. They do have great services, but, on the other hand I've NEVER had a bank lock an account like they did. I literally had no way to access the money due to the paperwork issue -- no transfers, no withdrawals, no debit card purchases, nothing... Scary, huh?

Anyway, the domain is fine and we are completely back online. I don't know for sure, but, I think we were only offline from 8am to 2pm PST. Again, I'm sorry this happened, just something we had to go through.

[Mike]

Also, THANK YOU for the recent donations to the club. I'm putting together some pretty cool upgrades and we'll use the money to improve the site.

[Inf]

I wish there was a way to donate aside from Paypal. I refuse to use Paypal because of a previous incident I had with them on another forum. When Katrina hit, we started taking in donations to submit to the American Red Cross. We had gathered together several thousand dollars (~8K IIRC) when Paypal abruptly locked the account.

The owner of the account explained to them what we were doing - their response: (paraphrasing) "you can donate YOUR money to OUR chosen charity (United Way), but under no circumstances will we allow that money to go to the ARC." Aside from the corruption and embezzlement going on within United Way, we did not like being strong armed like that. We chose the alternative and everyone was painstakingly refunded their part of the donated funds.

The biggest problem with Paypal is that they act like a bank, but they are not, in fact, a bank. Thus they are not subject to all the consumer protection regulations that apply to banking institutions, so they are free to abuse customers any way they see fit. This is how people are crippled by Paypal arbitrarily locking their funds up when they need it, as we saw here yesterday.

There are PayPal alternatives out there. I quickly Googled, and this looks promising (haven't actually ever used it before):

https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/index.htm

[SteveJ]

Mike will take a check, Andrew. I've donated that way before.