What are the benefits of having an on-line store?

Convenience for members purchase from home or when they are out of the area.
Reduced handing and accounting for checks and cash in the office.
Sign-up data can be available on-line for committee chairs when-ever they need it.

What happens if I make a mistake while making a purchase

There are several "confirmations" required to complete a sign-up or payment. If you leave the process by going "back" in your browser, on simply not completing the process, nothing will happen. If you get into PayPal and "abandon" the payment, the system will show an "unpaid" purchse. If you have any difficulty, please use 'contact us' link on the left.

How can I know that my purchase was successful?

You should get a confirmation email from store@ppycbsm.org and also from service@paypal.com when you make a payment through PayPal. Please check your spam filters to be sure email is allowed from these addresses. (note that the ppycbsm.org is a .org domain that we don't normally use.)

Why are we using PayPal? Why don't we charge credit cards directly?

PayPal is a secure credit card processing sevice. Their fees are lower than we would pay for a "merchant account" to handle credit card charges. Further, we don't take the chance of "losing" members' credit card info to hackers or theft, since we never have the numbers in our system.

I've heard bad things about the way PayPal operates. Should I follow my friend's advice and avoid using PayPal?

In the past PayPal had some problems and did settle a class action suit. Most of the issue had to do with "freezing" merchant's acounts because of chargebacks, or potentially fraudulent activity on their account. .Resolution took a long time and the funds in the account were "frozen" during that time. There have been few problems with the purchasers' system. Actually, many people now prefer to use PayPal checkouts instead of providing their credit card to on-line merchants.

What happens if I cancel my purchase? How do I get a refund?

Transactions in PayPal can be refunded back to the credit card any time within 60 days of payment. The "store administrator" will process the refund. Please use contact form at the left.

Do I need to have a PayPal account to use the system?

No, PayPal will process credit cards on an individual basis. The advantage to a PayPal account is in the ease of payment for transactions after signup. With an account, you only need to enter your email address and PayPal password and confirm the transaction. No need to enter name, address, phone, credit card number, etc