It's a monopoly. At its convenience for its customer, the vendor is its pin-cushion. The same good reasons to like and use the service, should bring you an alternative to market.

Wow, these are some pretty horrible stories, but I have to believe that they are the exception and not the rule. Plus, I am absolutely certain we are only getting one side of the story here, the rest of the story could make all the difference in the opinions of PayPal. As for myself, I've used them for years now, I even have a PayPal debit card attached to my account's funds, and I have never once had a single problem with them. In fact, my regular bank and credit card companies have caused more problems and pulled more "douchebag moves" that are far worse than what I have seen posted here (so far).

My interaction with PayPal so far was quite good. Admittedly, I'm only using it as a buyer, however it opened up the world of online shopping to me. (I refuse to get a credit card)
Those recent news relating to them make me a bit wary. I'll still be using their services, but I'll be much more careful about the amount of my money stored on their system at any time.

I would prefer an automated bank transfer kind of site TBH. I know that those exist, but due to the amount of banks they have to cover (they need one account per bank as most money transfers within the same bank are pretty much instantaneous) they are usually limited to a single country, making them impractical for buying stuff from abroad.

Well, as someone else mentioned, you don't become wary about doing business with them until it happens to you (which I hope it never does). Maybe these really are rare cases of Paypal protecting their interests, but at least in my case it was almost flat out thievery. They may have had legitimate reasons, but the problem is they don't tell their customers why they do things. As a buyer, you generally have more protection from Paypal then sellers do. I wouldn't worry about it if you've never received money (or never plan on selling anything).

...but how are we supposed to pay now? You kept telling us to not use CCs when they had issues, and to use PayPal, but now PayPal is a no-no. I don't know what to do! *runs into streets screaming hysterically*

I use paypal all the time. Never a problem never an issue make my sales and get my stuff just as easy as any other pay feature. Stop listening to the sky is falling chickenlittles they always cry when mommy is away.

Just because you don't have problems doesn't mean that all the other people's complaints are null and void. Also, how was kindergarten for you today.

I'd closed my own paypal account long ago if it weren't for all the damn artists at deviant art who can accept commission money over paypal.

If there is an alternative for future online payment, I'd gladly switch to this....

Never had any problems with PayPal and it's by far the fastest, most convenient way of paying for anything online. Of course, putting any actual money into the PayPal account itself is pointless (at least for me) so I don't have any experience of that.

Actually, you get that refunded when you enter the 4 digit code that shows up on your credit card billing statement. That "fee" is to simply ensure your card is in fact, your card.

As it is, I haven't had too many problems with Paypal except for them removing several functions due to "local banking regulation" and Paypal remains the only payment option I can use for several sites. But then I only use Paypal as a means of performing credit card transactions as it's not possible to actually add funds to a Paypal account from Japan.

I'd still recommend Paypal over CCs. The difference is that with credit cards, you're paying with someone else's money and naturally they're going to feel the need to keep a tab on that. Such checks can be misinterpreted and really screw with your DD accounts. Especially true of Steam. But GOG seems to get no end of problems as well.
As for Paypal, well they merely think the money you're spending is actually theirs...
The key is to not leave any money in your Paypal account. At least not enough for Paypal to think it might be worth trying to steal. If you can set it up with direct debit then you should be safe.
That's the thing. Most people won't think it's so bad until it happens to them. I've got off comparatively lightly in the past. But even so, it was warning enough to not leave anything in that account again. Maybe if more countries had Macedonia's financial regulations we wouldn't still be in such a bloody mess. Also we might have a slightly more tamed Paypal.

PayPal, the DRM of e-commerce...

So said, I mostly use it to buy stuff on-line and there have been no problems so far....

Paypal's stealing all your monies so they can fund their space ship.

Well they've certainly stolen enough to get the hyperdrive.

Problems with Paypal are by no means uncommon. They screw people with impunity and if it wasn't for the fact that eBay owns them and can force folks to use them, no one would.