lowprofile
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posted on October 24, 2001 11:03:15 AM
Wow,
Paypal called today....they said I was one of their best customers and they wanted to sell me some shares in Paypal.
I cut them off before they could finish and told them I was not interested.
Anyone else get this call and if you listened to the whole pitch ...what was it.
Did I miss out on something?
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yadda36
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posted on October 24, 2001 11:05:39 AM
I got that call to and hung up on the guy. At the time I got the call it all just sounded too wierd........they wanted to verify all kinds of information before they would get too far into their proposal.......
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yisgood
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posted on October 24, 2001 11:08:45 AM
I would buy Paypal stock if I could pay via Paypal using a credit card. If the stock went down, I would do a charge back claiming "quality of goods." Seller has no protection against this. Of course if the seller has no funds in his account, I'm SOL.
http://www.ygoodman.com
[email protected]
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lowprofile
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posted on October 24, 2001 11:09:47 AM
Thats when I decided I was not interested...when they wanted to check a bunch of info about me..
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outoftheblue
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posted on October 24, 2001 11:13:05 AM
Why would anyone in their right mind buy stock in PayPal?
This is the first time I've heard of a company doing telephone solicitations attempting to get people to purchase stock in their company. Is this a common practice?
[ edited by outoftheblue on Oct 24, 2001 11:18 AM ]
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amy
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posted on October 24, 2001 11:14:56 AM
They haven't offered me stock but they have called about 4 times in the last several months. Three times to ask me if everything is ok...did I have any problems.
Last time was to tell me that in reviewing my "file" they noticed my bank account was unverified and that they needed me to verify my bank account...and that they had deposited a small amount to my account and I needed to tell them how much so I could be verified. I told him that since they had just deposited several deposits into my bank account and that I didn't complain about not getting the money it was obvious they had the right account. I told him I didn't care to be verified.
I found it a sneaky way to get me to be verified.
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barbkeith
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posted on October 24, 2001 11:24:07 AM
I received a call from them about a month ago. Just asked me how I liked the service and was I having any problems. They didn't ask for any info or off me any stock. They must know I don't have any money. ;}
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commentary
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posted on October 24, 2001 11:52:53 AM
Not sure if legal for PayPal to call and offer you stock. Are there not regulations concerning this?
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toolhound
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posted on October 24, 2001 12:12:52 PM
Called me yesterday to offer me stock also. I was not interested.
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computerboy
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posted on October 24, 2001 12:17:13 PM
I received the call and will buy shares if given the opportunity.
Say what you want about Paypal, but their idea has revolutionized person to person/business online payments. Yes, they are losing money, yes, there are improvements to be made, so on so forth. They're are an unknown. I know this. Despite these realities, I'm also aware of the fact that they have 10 million registered users to derive future revenue from and are also the leader in this newly found business catagory. Financial institutions worldwide lick their chops at the idea of having access to an account holder list of this magnitude.
A few years back, I took a substantial early position on a company named eBay. My friends and family said it might not be a good idea and my broker strongly dissaproved of the maverick move. My wife complained. They all felt that there were more conservative areas of investment and that my move was ill-advised. I had a gut feeling the company was going to do well and I told folks about it. I took the position, despite these heeds of warning and the outcome was greater than I ever imagined. Since then, I like others, have taken and continue to take my share of beatings in the market, but the eBay move turned out to be my once in a lifetime score.
Initial public offerings on quality companies are often oversubscribed. The shares are usually made available to only the most elite of brokerage company clientele. I'm not saying that Paypal will be a home run or that it will even survive as an ongoing entity at all. But I do know that the only way to find out is to step up to the plate and give opportunity a chance.
If you are given an opportunity to purchase shares on the above basis, it might not be a bad idea to place a modest amount of investment with this company. Regard it as gambling money, funds that can be lost without causing hardship. The downside is that you will lose 100% of your investment. The upside is the unknown...
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jrome
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posted on October 24, 2001 12:38:17 PM
Uhh, that wasn't PayPal calling. It's a bunch of scammers. Call the SEC.
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kolonel22
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posted on October 24, 2001 12:50:32 PM
I have received several calls from PayPal over the past few months. Like many of you a few were just asking how I felt about their service and if there were any questions they could help with. There was no sales pitch, no one asked me for personal information and no one tried to offer me anything.
A few weeks ago I also receievd a call from someone asking if I had heard PayPal was going public. They were nice enough to give me additional information.
PayPal didn't offer anyone stock over the phone. A company their size is not stupid and is not about to get in trouble with the authorities before they go public.
They are calling and advising people of the Initial stock offering and if interested they would send a prospectus in the mail.
They made it very clear that once you read the prospectus you would have to call a broker that was handling the offer and buy through them and that they were not making any offer at the time of the call.
They did nothing illegal on their call. They were only asking if you were interested and if so they would send more information. This is done all the time by companies.
Health & happiness
"The Colonel"
[ edited by kolonel22 on Oct 24, 2001 12:51 PM ]
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computerboy
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posted on October 24, 2001 12:51:15 PM
The phone call didn't seem like scammers to me, as they didn't ask for any information that was questionable. No compromising personal information was exchanged and everything asked seemed above board to me. They just wanted to know if the IPO would be of interest.
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wowwow85
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posted on October 24, 2001 01:03:50 PM
i agree with you,computerboy,one way to find out is to step up to the plate.
the dotcom bubbles have burst,there will be plenty of opportunity to buy paypal stock after it has gone public.
some of us are in a good position to know how well some of these internet companies are doing-ebay,amzn,yahoo and paypal.
i dont believe ebay profit will surge,as a seller i know my share of revenue and profit on ebay has declined.
i know many ebay bidders use paypal and i know amzn is not an attractive investment even though they are collecting 15% commission in marketplace.
if i have some money to invest in internet stocks,i would buy some paypal and yahoo,not ebay or amzn.
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ecomputeremporium
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posted on October 24, 2001 02:06:38 PM
I got the phone call as well. They were Pay Pal or had stolen info from Pay Pal because I had changed my address recently and gave them the wrong address and they corrected me. They just said that they were going to send me info on their IPO. I guess they called everybody. Man I hope it is not a scam.
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bburd51
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posted on October 24, 2001 09:34:17 PM
I plan on taking a short position. Feel that there is money to be made on PayPal.
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loggia
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posted on October 24, 2001 10:50:55 PM
The IPO phone calls are tacky. As are many of the emails they've sent on other topics.
I found it a sneaky way to get me to be verified.
I had a similar situation with a bank account I added. Even though I specifically went out of my way not to verify it, they deposited the verification money anyway, and kept emailing me over-and-over-and-over saying I "needed to be verified."
This even though I already had a verified bank account. It was incredibly annoying and misleading.
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dpent
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posted on October 24, 2001 10:57:20 PM
We will be buying stock with Paypal one man's garbage is another man's treasure
I too received the call, didnt consider it "tacky" one iota - They made it very clear that once you read the prospectus that we would have to call Smith Barnay, set up a account with them
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wranglers
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posted on October 24, 2001 11:49:50 PM
they called me about 3 weeks ago for the IPO
they also had an account specialist call me about giving them more info to be "qualified" as business and they would drop their rate, I don't care what they do I'm not giving them my social security number, I'll close the account first.
eBay fees are like being slowly pecked to death by chickens!!!
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eSeller004
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posted on October 25, 2001 05:47:25 AM
That sounds pretty pathetic! What kind of company tries to drum up support for their IPO from retail investors??? It's the deep pocketed institutions they should be after. Apparently the institutions must not be buying their sales pitch. All they likely see is another money losing dot-bomb in the making.  I'd wager they'll have to price down their opening price prior to the IPO and maybe more than once due to lackluster institutional demand. The Internet landscape is littered with former high flyers that are now near pennystocks. How long before PayPal joins their ranks? Hope they don't or no telling what eBay's BillPoint would do with newfound monopoly power. 
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wowwow85
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posted on October 25, 2001 07:43:58 AM
i received a phone call last nite from a lady who claimed to work for paypal.
she sounds like someone recruited off the street,to prove she is from paypal -she said she is looking at my account and noted that i have 5 BANK ACCOUNTS??
she keeps stating i have 5 bank accounts,i have registered two of my banks with paypal and they have both been bot out by other banks so i have gone into paypal to add the new bank id and routing number.
then she wants my street address instead of the post office box i have on paypal as federal express does not deliver to post office box.
i asked her if the packet she is sending me the same as the prospectus on edgar online and she said she does not know what i am referring to.
i gave her my street addreess.
the whole thing sounds fishy-this woman ovviously is not knowledgible about paypal or IPO,she keeps stating i have 5 bank accounts and keep asking for my street address.
she did not say she is sending me info of stock purchase,just keep saying she wants to send me some info.
i finally hanged up on her,is this for real?
it does fit into paypal MO,recruiting unqualified people and ask them to make tacky phone calls??
i will keep you folks informed if fed express deliver anything?
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mrspock
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posted on October 25, 2001 08:40:01 AM
they may have tried to call but if the caller id box says Private,unknown name or not available I don't answer.
spock here......
Live long and Prosper
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sonsie
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posted on October 25, 2001 08:44:26 AM
WOWWOW65 - your call sounds suspicious to me. My experience in the past with telephone solicitors (and also what the consumer fraud dept's warnings say) is that anytime they want to send you something via FedEx, they probably also want you to buy or sign before you have time to think about what you are doing or check it out. I suspect your call in particular is "piggybacking" on legitimate calls and is probably a scam.
As for the calls others have mentioned, I don't see that PayPal is doing anything illegal, misleading, etc., if indeed all they are doing is offering you a prospectus. Just open your paper to the business section virtually any day of the week, and there are ads for similar offerings. Who would be more interested in PayPal's success than the customers who depend on them?
I haven't gotten a call, and don't expect to, since my volume of sales is so low, but neither would I think it was tacky or offensive if I did.
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computerboy
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posted on October 25, 2001 09:08:31 AM
Sounds to me like many of you are not in the market and do not commonly buy individual stocks.
Paypal's phonecall served as an introduction to one of the main underwriters of the IPO. The phone call was a courtesy, regarless of how of each of you individually took it. Paypal does not have to offer IPO shares to its users, it's something they decided they wanted to do. A benefit to take part in their public introduction, if desired. It was not inteded to turn non-paying users into paying customers or to steal your personal information, much to the disagreement of the consipracy theororist on this board.
There's no need to panic, no need to call the SEC, FBI, local police or swat teams. If you decide you want to explore the idea of Paypal's IPO take the phone call. If you decide you want to pass, politely tell the Paypal representative that you are not interested.
Pretty simple.
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wowwow85
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posted on October 25, 2001 10:01:42 AM
if the lady who called me last nite handled herself better,meaning professionally and knowledgibly about the subject matter she is calling about,i have no problem.
it is that she does not know enough to answer my question,would not answer my questions and insist on my home addr and would not say what she is sending via federal express.
i told her she does not have to be secretive as anyone who wants to buy paypal stock can call a broker and get the prospectus.
the fact that she wants to assure me she is from paypal is that she is staring at my account right now and that i have 5 bank accounts made me feel uncomfortable.
yes,now i recall some company which peddles betty boop stamps from some carribean country send me a package via fed exp and once i signed for it,the charge showed up on my cc statement/
when i called them,they are always busy,so i finally dispute the item and have to return the stupid betty boop stamps with return receipt to show my credit card issuer to get off the hooks.
anyway,my point is paypal does a lot of things halfbaked,it makes me very uncomfortable when someone said she is staring at paypal screen and saw 5 bank accounts and want my home addr.
for those who are paypal fans,i would say there will be plenty of chances to buy paypal stock rationally with a cool head after IPO.
dotcom mania is over,paypal loses money,so would the stock goes up after initial ipo,??
you tell me!!!!!!!!
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wowwow85
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posted on October 25, 2001 10:05:37 AM
do i have 5 bank accounts registered with paypal??
well,one of the so called bank account is master charge credit card,the other two are my banks before they were bot out,remaining two are the same two banks after bot out with new names and new routing numbers.
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computerboy
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posted on October 25, 2001 10:43:40 AM
Doesn't your broker call you while he is looking at your account on the computer screen?
You've entrusted Paypal to facilitate your banking transactions. As such, it would seem only appropriate that they would have access to your account information.
What's the problem?
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bburd51
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posted on October 25, 2001 03:18:20 PM
PayPal is not a Bank, they can not facilitate banking transactions.
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wowwow85
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posted on October 25, 2001 03:26:58 PM
true i have registered my bank accounts with paypal but i dont like to hear some stranger calling to tell me she is staring at the screen and see 5 bank accounts-
fist-one of them is not a bank account,it is a master charge credit card.
second-there are only 2 banks involved,the older bank accounts are no longer valid as they have been bot by other banks.
it tells me she does not know what she is looking at,also she cannot convince me she works for paypal just because she is staring at 5 bank accounts.
she wants to send me info via fed exp but wont say what she is sending.
be a pro,act like a pro and talk like a pro,paypal recruits anyone every one and tell them to get on the phone,this is not the first time i get calls from paypal.
getting someone to invest in your company is serious business,some folks just dont project that image.
how would you like your surgeon to walk into the room snapping fingers,chewing gum and half drunk??
i still have no idea what she is going to send me via fed exp??
most businesses do not operate this way,period
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jeanbee62
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posted on October 25, 2001 05:40:23 PM
Have any of you, who got phone calls from Paypal, called Paypal home office to check whether they know about the phone calls? Someone, maybe a former employee, has a lot of info on us and it could be a major scam.
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