When gPal first came on board, many gunnies (including myself) were thrilled that there was an alternative to the anti-gun PayPal. Some people were cautious because it was a new company, but I recall others vouching for them and decided to use them for my tip jar. What follows is my recent interaction with them. This is not a blanket statement regarding gPal, nor has anyone else contacted me regarding this. This is simply anecdotal, nothing more, nothing less.
Recently I sold my 6.8 SPC AR Upper using the amazing Internet and US Postal service loophole that allowed me to accept payment and then ship it directly to the buyer's house, sans FFL.
For payment, I suggested we use gPal, since they are firearm friendly, and the buyer agreed. I sent a 'payment request' that… didn't really work, but nonetheless he eventually just signed up for an account and put the money into my account. This was on July 11th.
On the same day, I transferred the money into my checking account. According to the website, it would be 5 to 7 business days. On the 19th, I still had not had the money transferred so I logged into my account and sent a support request for which I received an automated reply stating that they would get back within 24 hours.
The same day, I received this automated message
Recently GPal has been experiencing difficulties with the banks providing the services which allow us to make transfers to and from our customers' bank accounts. For weeks we have been working day and night to resolve these issues. We realize now the serious mistake we made was not immediately telling you, our customer, more about the problems we were having and how you would be affected. We sincerely apologize. It now appears that repeated attempts at electronic transfers to many customers were not successful. As such, we are now issuing paper checks on request to anyone whose electronic withdrawal is overdue, at our cost. If you would like to have a paper check mailed to you please email GPal Customer Support at support@gpal.net and we will make sure a check is mailed to you right away. Very soon the GPal.net website will have the functionality to process your withdrawals by check directly through the website. We are very sorry for the inconvenience GPal has caused many of you. We are continuing to work hard to restore our checking account transfer services. We greatly appreciate you as a customer and thank you for your patience and support during this time.
Now, I cannot say one way or the other if this was sent to me because of my support request, so I replied back that I would like a check cut. For that email, I received back yet another automated support ticket. I never received a confirmation of the check being cut or any further information.
I attempted to call their number several times, but the wait times were always a half hour or more. Eventually, a week later I sent another support request stating that I was unhappy with the fact that I've yet to receive either my money or an explanation for the delay. After trying again to call support, I was finally able to get through (when I first called, it told me estimated wait times were 1 minute. 35 minutes later, it was telling me 20 minutes).
I was informed that they received close to 20,000 requests to cut a check and were simply way behind, but since I called my check was moved up to the front of the queue. 16 days after this whole thing started, the check was finally 'cut' and I received it on the 2nd, for a total time of 22 days to complete the transaction.
I am irritated that gPal did not notify me in advance of this known issue. If gPal was having problems transferring money, it should have been noted on the website so that people attempting to transfer funds would have been aware of the possible delay and made arrangements if the delay was unacceptable. While I cannot be 100% sure this was the case, it would appear that I only received the notification that funds were delayed because I complained. Then, when I asked for a check, again I was left in the dark that it could be weeks before it was cut due to the volume and only received it when I did because I managed to suffer through horrific, on-hold music and a voice that told me every 10 seconds how important my call was and that the wait time is now greater than it was a minute ago.
At this point and time, I cannot recommend gPal for transactions. I am not implying that they are shady, but I do get the distinct impression that they are not capable of performing the job you expect them to. Again, this is my opinion based on my single transaction with them and is not intended to claim this is what happens to everyone. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
Tangent - I never understood why the lower is considered the gun. Theoretically, I could modify the upper to be a single shot rifle with a LOT less effort than it would take to make a lower into a weapon (sans upper, of course ;)
Hi Robb, I just wanted to check in with you after reading this post and give it some clarity. GPal is a new venture, and the issue that affected you and a number of our customers was a nasty growing pain we had to endure. We have been working extremely hard to fix the issues that caused this, both the banking issues and the customer service issues. The mountain of requests was indeed huge, and we found ourselves significantly understaffed for the task. All of these issues appeared in just a few short weeks, and honestly, it has been just a few short weeks to get them fixed. At this time we are proud to say that we are very close to 100% capacity and we are working nearly 24/7 to ensure we stay that way. I hope you will give GPal a chance in the future, as we are a good company with good people, and we do support your rights and freedoms!