Amazon

So basically Amazon pays merchants on a bimonthly basis. It sucks for small businesses and/or those with small margins considering a significant amount of my money is held by Amazon for weeks on end, but to make matters even worse, my disbursement which was supposed to be released today has been withheld. Why, you ask?

• Well a few weeks ago my credit card number was stolen and used fraudulently [ 1 for Bitcoin, push payments would prevent such a thing from happening]. I got the card changed through the bank but did not think to update it on Amazon considering they pay me not the other way around.

• This morning I received an email from Amazon saying the disbursement I was to receive today will be held until the next disbursement period (over three weeks from now) [ 1 for Bitcoin, immediate payments make waiting for your hard earned money a thing of the past]. Why? According to Amazon my invalid credit card was preventing them from disbursing my payment. So let's backtrack a little. For Amazon merchants, if your product is doing well, they will advertise it for you and then charge you per click. I never signed up for this, but when I tried to cancel it they basically told me it wasn't possible. So I just take the ~$100/mo and chalk it up as an advertising expense that I don't really have control over [ 1 for Bitcoin, if I never authorized payment for something no one can take money out of my account without me explicitly sending it to them]. Well because my credit card is invalid (remember, fraud?) they said they will be holding my disbursement until they get paid. Now, that makes some sense - from their POV they provided a service (advertising) and I "did not pay" so they're holding my money until I do. But it gets better.

• Immediately upon receiving this email I changed my credit card to the new one and resubmitted payment. Oh joy, their website broke and will not register the recent payment, so they are still withholding the disbursement. But in checking my credit card account, they've charged me multiple times for the same charge. [ 2 for Bitcoin, if I send a payment not only is there proof of said payment in the blockchain, there is no possibility of a double-charge because I'm the one in control of sending the money].

• But wait, there's more! Amazon is now denying 1) that their website messed up, 2) that they have my payment numerous times over, and 3) that they are still holding up my disbursement. According to them everything is fixed and all is hunky dory. When I explain to them that the issue is far from resolved they literally mark my support ticket and supplemental emails as "resolved" so I have to keep sending more emails to get it reopened and ultimately fixed (something that has yet to happen).

State of California

• As a merchant I have to legally collect sales tax for all sales within the State of California. Every year I send this off to the CA BOE as a lump sum when I file my sales tax return. Well this year I received a notice of non-payment and a warning that I would lose my seller's permit if the tax was not paid. I called them explaining the situation and they said they had NO record of my payment. But wait, I know I paid! So after searching through my receipts I found the confirmation number and called the BOE agian. [ 1 for Bitcoin, permanent proof of payment will always be in the blockchain]

• CA: "Oh yeah, we have your payment right here."

• ME: "So, uh, why did I receive this notice?"

• CA: "We have your payment but not your filing."

• ME: "But they were both submitted at the same time..."

• CA: "I know."

• ME: "So what do I have to do?"

• CA: "... Pay again."

• ME: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

• Finally after a week of talking to my account representative I was given the form to submit asking the State to give me my money back. I sent it in today and should be receiving their ruling (it may not even be in my favor) in 6-8 weeks.

Bank of America

• I keep all my fiat in a local credit union but maintained an account with BofA because up until now I had a credit card through them and it allowed me to easily pay my [cc] bill when need be. I kept a token amount of fiat in BofA because I really don't trust them. Well this morning I logged on to see they decided to start charging me a "maintenance fee" for them holding my money. [ 1 for Bitcoin, again, push payments makes it impossible for an institution to just take my money unless they want to take the legal route and sue me]. Wait. I'm being charged because you are making shitty investments and making interest off my money? No thank you. When I told them I wanted to close my account they said since I was "a loyal customer" they would waive the fee. It was around this time I explained that I don't want to have to beg the institution that controls my money to let me access my money. After an hour of them trying to convince me otherwise, both accounts were closed.

So let's tally this up.

7 for Bitcoin, 0 for traditional banking.

Once more people have to deal with arbitrary shit like this they will realize the comparative benefits of bitcoin. It's just better.