'Overpriced' BlackBerry apps spark renewed skepticism over PayPal links

An undue amount of attention is being paid to BlackBerry App World's "overpriced" $2.99 minimum charge in the soon-to-be-released app store, when there's the specter of PayPal and eBay lurking just behind it.

And where they go, dissatisfied users follow.

Since PayPal is not a bank, its security and policies have frequently come into question, and hundreds of user complaints can be found with scant effort.

"Merchants finding themselves on the wrong end of a frozen PayPal account will still have to find some way to pay their obligations and fill orders for the weeks and months while the account is restricted. A domino effect occurs when a merchant's account is frozen, leaving them with No Means To Fill Orders. Those orders are then disputed by customers, creating more chargebacks and the illusion of fraudulent activity on the part of the merchant. "Welcome to the PayPal Nightmare." The Best Solution?: Get a Real Merchant Account." --Paypalwarning.org

PayPal has a reputation as a risky means of exchanging money anywhere outside of eBay. The two services are so closely tied together that they were cited by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as being anti-competitive.

EBay CEO John Donohoe acknowledged that PayPal is a more valuable asset than eBay, and that the company will be putting increased emphasis on the PayPal business. Many career eBay sellers conversely feel that the new executive has destroyed the eBay brand with changes to the user feedback policy, and JP Morgan Chase analyst Imran Khan called it the "fall of a franchise." Stockholders and sellers went so far as to petition for Donohoe's termination.

People are worried about a two dollar premium on their BlackBerry apps when they have this to worry about? eBay will host its annual shareholder's meeting tomorrow, where Donohoe will speak about the company's plans to take PayPal further into the mobile sector.