Bah. Humbug.
If I were to paint a portrait of my inbox, it would portray piles and piles and piles of papers stacked haphazardly from the floor all the way to the ceiling. That is to say, I'm way behind. I have big dreams of catching up over the Thanksgiving break, but for now, I'm just treading water.
Somehow as I was doggy paddling through email today, I happened to notice a new message purporting to be from PayPal. I gave it a quick once over and thought it to be a phishing scam, but a few words from the email tugged at my soul. I figured it wouldn't hurt to log into the PayPal account in question, just in case.
What I found was that the email was real. I won't bother to copy and paste the whole thing here, but if you read between the lines, basically it says, "Somebody reported that Christmas Crazy is a scam, so now you are going to have to jump through 23523 flaming hoops. If you don't, we're going to shut down your account in six days."
I've had a few hours to stop being angry that someone would be so ridiculous as to potentially keep kids from having the Christmas we've worked to put together. Perhaps it was someone who desperately needs attention. Perhaps it is someone who hates the sparkle and joy of the holidays. Perhaps it's someone who has something against me. Perhaps it's somebody who just has too much time on their hands.
Whatever.
Regardless, there isn't anything I can do to fix whatever it is that person needs. I've posted plenty of photos showing piles of gift cards that were sent to Alle-Kiski HOPE Center and The Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, as well as photos of the mountains of toys which made their way to Toys for Tots. Literally millions of people have heard mention of me showing up for Stuff-a-Bus with enough toys to fill half a bus. Plenty of people were generous enough to help with the shopping and delivery and saw it all with their own eyes.
Whatever.
To keep PayPal from cancelling the account, I'll be photocopying receipts and getting letters and filling out forms and generally wasting valuable time. I have absolutely everything--I kept every receipt for every toy and gift card last year. I have receipts for everything that has been accomplished so far this year. I'll provide the copies. I'll fill out the forms. I will waste the time of everyone involved at the various agencies. I'll jump through whatever flaming hoops are thrown in front of me because it's for the kids.
But I will absolutely be grumpy while I do it.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Reader Comments (28)
oh my gosh.
OH M.
DAmn.
I'm so sorry.
Man, people are such douche holes.
Karma baby. You'll get yours and they'll get theirs. Hopefully in the form of a gorilla shitting on their head.
Assholes: They are everywhere.
Sometimes people suck. Sorry.
What kind of douche nugget does such a thing? I am SO angry on your behalf right now. And sad. And back to angry.
I'm sorry, friend.
That is absolutely ridiculous. Do people really have nothing better to do with their time? I'm so sorry this happened to you. :(
Wow, people are MEAN. That just blows my mind. I'm so sorry they did this to you, but you know what, it doesn't matter because Christmas Crazy is for REAL and they're not going to stop this beautiful thing you're doing. Rock on.
Dude. DUDE. NOT COOL. Who does that?
And I just got paid and figured out my bills and everything, too -- are there alternative means of donating, or is everything just going to be stuck in PayPal limbo for a while? (I could go all old-school and write you a check if you don't think I'm some sort of creeper.)
@Amy--PayPal is still cool, just not for long.
That really sucks. I'm sorry.
As I said on Twitter, some people need a giant kick into the crotch. At least the pain will distract them from effing up everyone else's good works.
I'd hug you, but I know how that would go over. And it sounds like you've had a rough enough day. You should ask PayPal for the name of the person who reported you so we can publicly flog him/her for their disregard for the children Christmas Crazy supports.
I know of appropriate names for people like that, but I generally won't use them on my blog, let alone yours.
Is there anything we can do to give you a hand?
@Uncle Crappy--Not yet, other than to finish what we've started and get that little goal number down to zero. :-)
I cannot believe someone did that. I didn't even know you COULD do that, without actual evidence. How are YOU the one who has to prove you're NOT a scam? Why isn't it the other way around, that if someone tries to report an account as a scam, THEY have to have evidence? GAH.
So sorry you have to go through the hoops. You already do so much work for this project!
People SUCK.
Wow. I cannot believe someone would do that! I'm really sorry you have to waste time doing all those things, but I'm sure it will all still be worth it in the end.
Seriously?! I get so sick over people who have nothing better to do than make trouble for others. I love you for making their efforts public. And I'm sorry that you'll end up becoming a professional jumper through flaming hoops.
I wrote this song called "Christmas Crazy" last year and finished the video last weekend. In trying to find places to market it, I googled "Christmas Crazy" and found your site... Sorry to hear of your troubles with PayPal. I can offer no assistance there. But I do have this new song called Christmas Crazy that I'm trying to get heard. I don't know if you have any way of adding music to your blog or what but here's a link to the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ebl7Sz1OUv8&feature=player_embedded
If you would like the mp3 just let me know and I will send it right over.
I hope my song can bring a smile to you while you deal with your tasks. And I hope your readers enjoy it too. I'm from PA too but over near Philly.
Greg Swartzentruber
It stinks that you are being audited like this- but the real shame is that there are people out there who pretend to raise money for a cause and use it on themselves. It is those people who make this sort of thing necessary in the first place. May your forms be filled out quickly- it will all be worth while in order to validate your project to the skeptics. And of course in your goal of bringing Christmas surprises to all of the children in the city who otherwise would go without.
Gah. People suck. I'm sorry you're dealing with this!
It's a shame that it only takes one douchenozzle to cause this kind of injustice, never mind that there are so many that can vouch for the good work that you do with Christmas Crazy.
Are you sure you don't want to command your legions to email-bomb everyone at PayPal? Between Uncle Crappy and I, I'm sure we can riddle them with terminology so crass and depraved, they'll have no choice but to give you a pass.
what a crock of steaming horse shit. people suck.
Sweet Hell....this is a HUGE reason people are tool bags.
I think that after you've jumed through all of those flaming, pointless hoops, the a-hole who completely made up all that crap should have to match the balance to make up for wasting everyone's time so maliciously. And I think we should arm the damn hamsters.
Are you sure someone reported it? About a year ago, my house burned down, and a friend set up a Paypal account for my roommate and me for people to give donations to help us get back on our feet. He set it up as a "charity account" and he got an email from Paypal requesting proof that the site was legit or they were going to shut down the site and keep the money.
I think this happens from time to time on Paypal charity accounts because there are crappy people out there who will set up fake charities to scam people out of money. Therefore, Paypal is extra cautious about charity accounts. It's unfortunate, but I think that Paypal is just trying to cover its butt... I know it's a pain, but you'll have no problem getting everything up to snuff for them. Good luck getting everything back on track.
@displaced burgher--Yup, I'm sure. The account is set up as a business account. Always has been and absolutely should be. :-/
Im sorry Michelle. It's sad that there are people like this in our world.
If you need any help shopping for stuff a bus toys please let me know!
Things like this are the EXACT reason 'douchebag' is my favorite word. Earlier this week someone reported my Facebook account as being fake, causing them to disable it - and I was ticked! Facebook? Facebook is NOTHING compared to Christmas Crazy and all of the fantastic that it is, and I am sick that someone took it upon themselves to try to throw a wrench in it. Knowing how ticked I was, I cannot even imagine how livid you are!