honest question ...i only used them maybe 5 times, but never had a problem.
they've been around awhile.
If you're a buyer you probably won't have much issue with them but if you sell things through paypal you can get ****ed over by them a lot. I've heard of instances where they'll put a hold on your account and not allow you to withdraw any money from it for 90 days or some ****. I can definitely see why they get a lot of hate.
You're attacking Walmart because they're good at free enterprise, something that the country was built on. As much as the "mom & pops" are a example of that, too, Walmart came and did it better. It's no different than Amazon putting brick-and-mortar retailers out of business with their cheap online prices and free shipping. Is that "sickening," too? It stinks for smaller businesses (like the "mom & pops"), but the times have to be allowed to change. You can't just have only "mom & pops" or else you're going back to the 1800s, before Sears and Macy's. Heck, even the General Stores of the 1800s were probably attacked for putting specialty shops out of business. It's an old argument. You can't drag your feet in the mud and resist change or things will never get better. An argument could even be made that the increase in the quality of living in the US in recent decades and the increase in the popularity of Walmart are not entirely coincidental. Cheaper items means more items and more luxuries.
Really is having a company that can afford to put all competition out of business better? It is not that Walmart has better products, it is the ethics of selling items for a loss until all competition is gone. No companies in history have had that kind of power; that is to destroy entire areas of the USA.
In large, even medium metro areas it works, but to drive around some of the less populated areas and see what has happened before and after Walmart is sad. And even worse when those areas lose nearly every "mom&pop" store and the employment that went with them, Walmart does not see that area as viable, closes shop and leaves the bankrupt "mom&poppers" and unemployed. This has been happening all across America for the last 10 years as the US economy tanks. An argument can be made that the decline of the American economy in the last 10+ years is a direct result in the ability of Walmart to bankrupt small business across entire areas of the country leaving the unemployed and bankrupt in their wake.
Freemarket? fine - lets go back to slave and child labor... wait nearly all of Walmarts products are a product of those 3rd world type systems.
I am not going to say that companies like Walmart cannot exist or should not exist, but I am going to say their business practices border on criminal.
EA have released Syndicate, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, SSX, and Mass Effect 3 already this year. Last year they released Dead Space 2, Alice: Madness Returns, Bulletstorm, Dragon Age 2, Shadows of the Damned, Need for Speed: The Run, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Battlefield 3.
Activision haven't released anything this year. Last year they released Call of Duty 8, Spider-Man 8 and Skylanders.
Say what you want about the qualities of each game, but at least EA wins that comparison.
EA has released more, sure. I was wrong.
However, I just want to play Advocate here...
Syndicate - Pseudo-new IP
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - New IP
SSX - Update/Sequel
Mass Effect 3 - Update/Sequel
Dead Space 2 - Update/Sequel
Alice: Madness Returns - Update/Sequel
Bulletstorm - New IP
Dragon Age 2 - Update/Sequel
Shadows of the Damned - New IP
Need for Speed: The Run - Update/Sequel
Star Wars: The Old Republic - Grey area
Battlefield 3 - Update/Sequel
Really is having a company that can afford to put all competition out of business better? It is not that Walmart has better products, it is the ethics of selling items for a loss until all competition is gone. No companies in history have had that kind of power; that is to destroy entire areas of the USA.
In large, even medium metro areas it works, but to drive around some of the less populated areas and see what has happened before and after Walmart is sad. And even worse when those areas lose nearly every "mom&pop" store and the employment that went with them, Walmart does not see that area as viable, closes shop and leaves the bankrupt "mom&poppers" and unemployed. This has been happening all across America for the last 10 years as the US economy tanks. An argument can be made that the decline of the American economy in the last 10+ years is a direct result in the ability of Walmart to bankrupt small business across entire areas of the country leaving the unemployed and bankrupt in their wake.
Freemarket? fine - lets go back to slave and child labor... wait nearly all of Walmarts products are a product of those 3rd world type systems.
I am not going to say that companies like Walmart cannot exist or should not exist, but I am going to say their business practices border on criminal.
City living, where Walmart can't build stores, ftw.
I have to drive 30+ min to get to the nearest Walmart. Good riddance.
While we're at it, support local restaurants and real chefs. Screw the corporate and large nation-wide chains. Bring back real food and real ingredients without an ingredient list that reads more like my lab reagents.
Syndicate - Pseudo-new IP
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning - New IP
SSX - Update/Sequel
Mass Effect 3 - Update/Sequel
Dead Space 2 - Update/Sequel
Alice: Madness Returns - Update/Sequel
Bulletstorm - New IP
Dragon Age 2 - Update/Sequel
Shadows of the Damned - New IP
Need for Speed: The Run - Update/Sequel
Star Wars: The Old Republic - Grey area
Battlefield 3 - Update/Sequel
The sticking part is he said 'minor updates'. Dead Space 2 might be a sequel, but it's incredible in its own right. BF3 is maybe iterative, and Dragon Age and The Run were less than their predecessors (to their credit, Origins and Hot Pursuit were INCREDIBLE). It's really hard to say that Alice is 'just a sequel' or has 'minor updates'.
At very least, EA is in the business of making video games, just like Ubi or Bethesda or the Japanese publishers. Activision, I'm not really sure anymore. In the last couple years they've cancelled more games than they've released. It's actually kind of mindboggling that Activision is still #1 with just CoD, Skylanders and bad Marvel games. Which will probably get ground into dirt like Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero.
The sticking part is he said 'minor updates'. Dead Space 2 might be a sequel, but it's incredible in its own right. BF3 is maybe iterative, and Dragon Age and The Run were less than their predecessors (to their credit, Origins and Hot Pursuit were INCREDIBLE). It's really hard to say that Alice is 'just a sequel' or has 'minor updates'.
At very least, EA is in the business of making video games, just like Ubi or Bethesda or the Japanese publishers. Activision, I'm not really sure anymore. In the last couple years they've cancelled more games than they've released. It's actually kind of mindboggling that Activision is still #1 with just CoD, Skylanders and bad Marvel games. Which will probably get ground into dirt like Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero.
Fair enough. I was honestly only thinking of EA's sports titles when I made the initial comment anyway.
And yeah, Activision...I don't get it. There's a company that's been around forever but just stays stagnant, like EA [Sports].
Really, you are defending Walmart? You live in the States I see. Did you not see what happened to small town America while Walmart boomed? I am not commenting on what the other poster because I have not looked into that, but during the that time (late 80s-mid90s and beyond) they absolutely crushed entire areas of the USA. They would enter a smallish population town, open a Walmart and put nearly every "mom&pop" business out of business within 100 miles.
Sure, the argument can be made that the "mom&pop" stores needed to compete, that is impossible when Walmart comes into your area and is willing to loose millions upon millions of dollars (by selling items at a loss, and paying minimum wages) until all their competition has gone bankrupt. That is sicking business practices and it happened all throughout small town America.
Whatever damage you blame Walmart for to the "small town america" you can also blame the internet for now with online sales taking away money from local retailers. This is a silly argument to want to purposely take away people's options because of what you perceive to bet the better alternative. It's called progress and so what if local yokels arent forced to shop on the "ma and pa" shop where they have next to no selection and prices are jacked up all in the idea that it's supposedly cute to some who cherish that ideals that it brings. It's been the cool thing to rip on Walmart but its largely done by people who enjoy the fruits of what a place like walmart brings them whether it's that or the many other competitors Walmart has that basically employ the same business strategies. I don't know about you but I enjoy being able to shop around and get the lowest possible price for the product I want to purchase. I won't frown one bit on a company that has been largely a driving force towards trending the prices of items downwards and shifting to a quantity based approach to revenues rather than what Ma and Pa's do where they try to shaft each customer to the largest extent because they have very few sales and can't grasp the concept that raising their prices only further cements the reason they have few sales.
Whatever damage you blame Walmart for to the "small town america" you can also blame the internet for now with online sales taking away money from local retailers. This is a silly argument to want to purposely take away people's options because of what you perceive to bet the better alternative. It's called progress and so what if local yokels arent forced to shop on the "ma and pa" shop where they have next to no selection and prices are jacked up all in the idea that it's supposedly cute to some who cherish that ideals that it brings. It's been the cool thing to rip on Walmart but its largely done by people who enjoy the fruits of what a place like walmart brings them whether it's that or the many other competitors Walmart has that basically employ the same business strategies. I don't know about you but I enjoy being able to shop around and get the lowest possible price for the product I want to purchase. I won't frown one bit on a company that has been largely a driving force towards trending the prices of items downwards and shifting to a quantity based approach to revenues rather than what Ma and Pa's do where they try to shaft each customer to the largest extent because they have very few sales and can't grasp the concept that raising their prices only further cements the reason they have few sales.
It's because Walmart is anti-competitive and forces the lowest common denominator on their customers. Look at the quality of the produce versus the junk food ratios at Walmart. Compare that to a store like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. While WF and TJs are still nation-wide chains, at least they provide outlets for local farmers and regional (eg. Food Should Taste Good, Cabot Dairy) non-huge corporations to provide less processed, less pesticide ridden, and less hormones than the big corporations who couldn't care less about that kind of thing (eg. Nabisco, Kraft).
Walmart produce sections also pale in comparison to the produce sections at Whole Foods in the quantity and quality, as well. Whole Foods attempts to push a lot of the more nutritious foods that Walmart has no interest in selling. And I think everyone would agree, we could strive to eat more fruits and vegetables that Walmart doesn't seem interested in selling to us.
EA for ME3 ending, lol. EA also has ruined countless small gaming companies, now forces PC gamers to use Origin for all of their games, and shoves worthless DLCs down their customer's throats.
I've never had an issue with paypal, then again I never leave money in a PP account and always use my Amex for purchases.
Last edited by WhipNash27: 03-30-2012 at 11:05 AM.
Paypal should probably win this. If you just use it every now and then, you might be asking why. Google all the horror stories of merchants who get screwed over by them. Like Ticketmaster, they are the big dogs in their respective areas, so they abuse the power they have.
Quite surprised and disappointed Dell didnt make it. They are just awful to deal with and have outsourced pretty much everything to 3rd world countries.
I REFUSE to call them on the phone. I will only use the chat feature, atleast that way they can(hopefully) understand what you are trying to say.
easily walmart. there was a story where walmart was built on a small towns land it was an agreement that after a certain amount of time being there walmart would give the town 1 million $ that would help a long way. instead months before walmart had to pay they just moved a few KM down and avoided paying the money. pathetic. even though the average walmart profits a million bucks a day.....
Paypal does a lot of horrible things including freezing charity paypal accounts and similar things where the person/charity cannot access their money anymore. I'd link you something relevant but I can't remember the name of the last one that was big.
Was it that scam they pulled where they'd send random people what looked like a completely legit Paypal invoice via email saying "you owe *insert amount of cash here*? Meanwhile the thing was completely fraudulent and meant to swindle people outta cash.
Had a friend get that. Fortunately he knew enough to know it was fake.
Nevermind, the last time I used Paypal on Ebay. I go to pay via E-Cheque (Paypal through my debit) and the thing tells me that my E-cheque will clear between December 25th 1969 - January 1st, 1970.
Obviously the email I got had a mistake for a check clear date and I did get my item (after contacting the seller just to be safe and let him know what was up) no problem. But after seeing that (and wondering "WTF just happened" when I initially got that incorrectly dated invoice) I've never used Ebay or Paypal again.
Whatever damage you blame Walmart for to the "small town america" you can also blame the internet for now with online sales taking away money from local retailers. This is a silly argument to want to purposely take away people's options because of what you perceive to bet the better alternative. It's called progress and so what if local yokels arent forced to shop on the "ma and pa" shop where they have next to no selection and prices are jacked up all in the idea that it's supposedly cute to some who cherish that ideals that it brings. It's been the cool thing to rip on Walmart but its largely done by people who enjoy the fruits of what a place like walmart brings them whether it's that or the many other competitors Walmart has that basically employ the same business strategies. I don't know about you but I enjoy being able to shop around and get the lowest possible price for the product I want to purchase. I won't frown one bit on a company that has been largely a driving force towards trending the prices of items downwards and shifting to a quantity based approach to revenues rather than what Ma and Pa's do where they try to shaft each customer to the largest extent because they have very few sales and can't grasp the concept that raising their prices only further cements the reason they have few sales.
Obviously we are not going to come to any agreement, but I think there is more to life then saving a few dollars. When I look at entire towns with boarded up downtowns because Walmart came to town and drove nearly everyone else out of business it is rather depressing. I dont think "good on Walmart now I can buy all my items at one store and am saving a bit of money."
As well they are able to offer those super low prices because there is no thought as to where the products came from. Slave/child labor? fine by Mr.Walton as long as it is cheaper. There is nothing ethical in what Walmart does, it is all about making as many profits as possible.
As a success, sure there is no argument that Walmart is successful at what they do; that is to make huge profits with no thought of the communities and lives they destroy to achieve their goal.
Amount of people Walmart "helps" by offering lower prices(even if the "quality" of said products is lower, the poor people can still OBTAIN said products) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The amount of people who are "screwed over" when walmart comes to town.
Honestly, if a poor family only have $100 to their name, they are going to get a helluva lot more "bang for their buck" at Walmart than at "OrganicStore2k12". Walmart also has very large staff, giving a lot of people jobs(and opprotunities to move up if you have even a reasonable work ethic).
Why are the people poor? because they have no jobs - they have no jobs because the jobs went away when Walmart came, Walmart offers minimum wage jobs therefore people still have little money and are still poor. As well, most Walmart products are produced in countries like China meaning even the once decent paying domestic production jobs are disappearing. Is it any coincidence that with the boom of huge box stores the unemployment rate of USA has skyrocketed? The once low skilled, but good paying jobs (production jobs), are nearly gone with places like Walmart buying nearly all their products from overseas and bankrupting anyone who tries to compete. When companies get as huge as Walmart, that they can in essence shut down entire towns/communities, the ripple runs deep throughout the entire economy.
