Sodbury Slog 2013 at risk of cancellation due to PayPal sitting on entrants' money

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Spleen Oct 2013 3:18pm, 10 Oct 2013 478 posts	0 Spleen Anyone seen this? bristolpost.co.uk THE organiser of the Easy Runner Sodbury Slog, one of the most popular and best off-road races in the country, has warned this year’s race is at risk. With a month to go to the event on Sunday, November 10, Gordon Robbins has revealed that due to a dispute with PayPal, who handle all of the online payments, he may have to pull the plug on the race and disappoint the 1,300 runners. “There is around £15,000 of entry fees on account with PayPal, but when I recently asked to access £3,500 for expenses for putting on the race, like the goody-bags, portable toilets etc, I was told I couldn’t have the money,” said Robbins, who is a member of Bitton Road Runners. --- If all the facts are correct, this is an absolute disgrace. I have found an email address for PayPal online (for the "Office of Executive Escalations", which hopefully means that someone actually reads it) and am considering sending them a very snotty email, and encouraging every runner I know to do the same. For those that haven't done it, this is one of the best races in the West Country. It's been going for 23 years and I've done it every year since 2010. If it's true it's disgusting that PayPal thinks it is entitled to sit on our money in this way - we paid it so the organiser could put on this race and it is ludicrous they are saying he can't. (Having said that, PayPal are notorious for pulling shit like this, and I question the organiser's naivety for leaving the money with them and not in a reputable UK bank account. But that does not excuse PayPal's behaviour.)
Spleen Oct 2013 3:39pm, 11 Oct 2013 480 posts	0 Spleen Am I really the only one who is annoyed about this? It could be your local race next. I'm sure dozens of other races use PayPal to collect entry fees, and not everyone knows that you shouldn't leave any money in there for any length of time. My running club's inaugural race used PayPal as well to collect the money, though thankfully we've not been leaving it there.
HermanBloom Oct 2013 3:47pm, 11 Oct 2013 3,916 posts	0 HermanBloom I've seen a fair few reports of Paypal doing this to companies/people when significant funds are involved. I wouldn't use them for anything major, but that clearly doesn't help the organisers here.