Well, the PayPal folks made good on their promise to fix things. What they did was to, with my permission, close down the PayPal account in question and merge its assets to another PayPal account I have. (I am now receiving form letters in my e-mail box that begin, "We're sorry you decided to close down your PayPal account…" but that's another story.) Solving the problem from my end turned out to be a matter of hanging on the line and calling back repeatedly and adopting a patient but exasperated tone with a long line of PayPal staffers who told me nothing could be done. Finally, I reached someone who had the power to do all those things the others told me were impossible. Why this took 4+ hours of my life today is a fine question.
Many of you have sent me your own PayPal Horror Stories, and you'll forgive me if I don't post any here. I have the feeling that if I do, I'll get dozens more and this will turn into a site all about PayPal problems. I would like to forget about the whole ordeal…
…except that I will mention that everything relating to PayPal works here so if you've been thinking of sending a donation to show your appreciation of this site, now would be a wonderful time. I mean, if I'm going to spend this much effort to get PayPal working here, the least you can do is use it.