I’ve got a huge queue of music (15 artists) that I’ve heard on podcasts and want to buy an album from. Tonight I decided to get that rolling, and I had planned to document the experience in a blog entry because I anticipated buying that much independant music from Australia was going to hit some bumps. Well the post is still in progress, but I hit a brick wall on the very first purchase.
Kevin Reeves is offering his album for pre-order. Very cool deal, 4 tracks in advance and a bonus live track. Except it’s through Paypal.
Paypal and I have a morbid history. 3 years ago (fark time flies) I wanted to donate some money to Penny Arcade back when they were using copies of the Cardboard Tube Samurai comic as a bribe to get donations. I dutifully signed up to Paypal, since PA reported Amazon scraping a higher % off the top. Unfortunately, after I’d let them take US$2 to verify the card, when I went to pay the system decided to restrict my account.
They had rejected my credit card, and requested a photocopy of my drivers license. I thought that was a bit weird, but eventually managed to get that and faxed it (to an international number I might add, and it took 2 tries as they told me the first was too dark). However once they had that, they asked for a photocopy of my credit card statement. I told them where to shove that request, no way in hell I’m faxing that internationally.
(in case you were wondering, yes I have a very good memory ;))
But 3 years later I decide that purchasing fantastic music from independant artists was worth giving it another shot. Unfortunately, all that got me was The credit card you entered cannot be used for this payment. Please enter a different credit card number. It’s not even the same card. I really hate this s^$t, but I’m going to try and resolve it for the sake of getting decent music. I’m fairly sure there will be other artists (such as bill) who only accept paypal too.
As a last resort I have flatmates, friends or family with credit cards I and can almost certainly ask for a favour to make purchases; I really hope it doesn’t come to that though.
UPDATE:
I emailed Kevin to let him know that I wanted to buy his album – and he decided to send me a copy for free! I love podsafe artists, after years of commercial music it’s amazing how accessible and responsive they are.
Please, please go support this fantastic artist. And if you’re a DSC listener, wait and see if the pissed off audio feedback he submitted to Adam Curry is played anytime soon 😉
Andy's blog 
Hey Andy,
Just saw that you picked up my CD’s via CDBaby. First of all: thanks! I really appreciate the support.
Secondly, that really sucks what PayPal did to you. For most of us indie artists, PayPal is about our only recourse. I haven’t heard anyone go through what you went through though, UGH.
So, e-mail me at your convenience, would love to hear about what you think of the CD’s and where in Australia you’re from.
When I was 13, I had the distinct honor of going to Australia for 6 weeks. We hung out in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and a few other places. Absolutely love the country and can’t wait to one day get back.
Talk to you soon!
Chance
Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Luckily most of the music I want is now available via places like CD Baby, which is a nice change from even a few months ago.
I’ll certainly drop you a line once the CDs arrive, be sure to check back in a couple of days once I put up the posts I mentioned in my CD Baby message.
When you make it back to Australia, set up a show in Brisbane and I’ll be there for sure 😀
I receive this message when trying to pay directly with a credit card:
“The credit card you entered cannot be used for this payment. Please enter a different credit card number.”
I called paypal who told me there was a limit of $500 using direct payment, and once this limit is reached, the customer should use a Paypal account and transfer money to it.
The limit was controlled by the e-mail used and not the credit card. Well thats what they said,I think it sounds weird.I had nothing but trouble with PP and I trying to not use it any more.
Peace…out.
I’ve had such an experience, but not with paypal. It was with moneybookers instead. They wanted to verify my identity. Several times I had to scan and send my bank account, bank verification for last transfer from moneybookers, my driver’s license, citizen’s id and latest month of credit card billing statements. Then I dug out my old documents and found out they had verified me by letters a year ago, so I wrote them the verification code on that letter and offer them a scan of that letter, if the want to. In the end they just changed their explanation that it is my name that need verification instead of my credit card or address. On the other hand, my paypal works smoothly and swiftly from the start.
Just had a client with the same problem. Turned out PayPal didn’t like his Hotmail address. When we changed the e-mail addy, it went through no problem.
Thanks for the tip, unfortunately I don’t use hotmail so that can’t be my problem 🙂