April 7,
2008
The
payment processor ugly sisters
Article by
C.J
AlertPay
and PayPal seem to have been the subject to much wide spread debate
recently with much focus on how they both have such high set backs.
Unfortunately these are the only two realistic options for the PTC
industry which is a big shame as one would think by now pay processors
would be much further progressed (PayPal especially).
The fact
is PayPal has reduced its service while Alert Pay has come from nowhere
with attributes are also going nowhere. In 2007 PayPal was the dominant
processor with a follow up minority on e-gold. Don’t worry I wont even
get started on e-gold so lets just say there is a reason it's not one of
the major brands.
PayPal
were coming to a point where it seemed it was beginning to embrace the
PTC industry until late January 2008 when they started to receive a mass
influx of disputes against PTC sites that had failed to pay on time for
various reasons. Much of these disputes were a little rushed to say the
least and often the first port of call when a PTC faced problems.
One would
have thought PayPal would have been able to distinguish the difference
between a legitimate dispute and a panic dispute but never the less they
acted on the PTC industry by locking numerous PTC site accounts causing
the most unprofitable day in the PTC industries history. After the
accounts were unlock the limitations were introduced which meant some
PTC sites couldn’t release enough money to pay everyone.
This move
by PayPal wasn’t smart as it only caused further panic disputes as
members who were unaware of the PayPal issues thought they were being
scammed or having their payment requests deliberately ignored. It wasn’t
long before half the industry were making moves to ditch PayPal… enter
Alert Pay
At first
Alert Pay seemed to be the bee’s knees with no more limitations or silly
rules until recently. The problem with AlertPay to start with is that it
isn’t as established as PayPal and therefore not international
recognised by a long shot. Such countries such as Mexico, Turkey,
Pakistan and many more do not have banks that accept AlertPay. This
meant that not only did the PTC industry have to face more timely
administration in validating their accounts but work in a much smaller
international market. Some sites have resorted to using both to cater to
a wider field of people.
Unfortunately the problems with AlertPay would only grow due to
AlertPays substandard support service. With all AlertPay and PayPal for
that matter accounts you are dealing with pee nuts unless you verify
your account. This now means having to upload ID sensitive documents to
them to make sure they have a more detailed record of whom you are for
legal matters. This process commonly requires you to send a photo ID
such as a driver’s license or passport and a proof of address such as a
utility bill.
At PayPal
the verification is fairly fluid but at AlertPay they are a little over
sceptical about the legitimacy of these documents. This doesn’t always
have to do with the details but more silly issues such as a scuff on
your photocopy or DPI and colour inconsistencies. I am aware that it’s
important to have a clear image but many people argue they reject down
to the slightest spec of dust. The rant continues with their member
support as one member who signed up on 1/12/08 has had his legitimate
documents rejected twice and on the now third attempted hasn’t heard a
word off them regarding his verification with no support questions
answered.
The
support at AlertPay is arguably comparable to that of a call centre
manned by monks who have taken marathon vow of silence. I myself don’t
own an AlertPay account but believe me I have tried. After registering
you have to confirm your request via email but for me this email is a
mystery to its existence even after a filter and junk mail check. I of
course submitted a support ticket which was answered 2 days later simply
telling me to provide the email I registered under. After that I heard
nothing and had no means to sign up and this is apparently quite a
common occurrence.
To top
things off nearly everyone who owns an AlertPay account is now getting
run time errors most of the time when trying to log into their accounts
or add credit cards to their account. These errors build up and cause
much wasted time when PTC sites have to check their account or make
payments to members.
It’s
very much a double edge sword with these processors and laughable given
the day and age we are in that those major online companies cannot get
the balance right. There are a few ways to avoid the services such as
using payment cards or the snail mail payments but for the time being we
are stuck with two processors that can’t seem to get in gear
