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scrumpy
10-18-2004, 04:51 PM
I went to iKobo's website to obtain details about their services for merchants including website integration info.

I wasn't impressed.

In particular I was looking for a Merchant User Manual/Guide, as is provided on a number of other payment processing company's websites.

There was no obvious link to one so I clicked on 'Help'. This opened a new window which linked to another company's website (qualte.com). Clicking on any of the links in the FAQ section (eg. Merchant Program & User's Guide) resulted in this error "We're sorry -- an error occured. The page you're trying to reach is temporarily unavailable or the page may no longer exist."

No email address is listed on their website so I clicked on 'Chat'. A window opened and I asked an operator called Stephanie for a working URL to a merchant user guide or website integration manual. After a few minutes of questions and answers, with me explaining that there are broken links in their website's 'Help' section etc. and she replying that iKobo are currently swapping out that section, she told me that I can download a manual *after* opening an account!

iKobo uses CGI for serving up some webpages and PHP for others. Try visiting their homepage and viewing it's source code.

The experience I had in visiting iKobo's website doesn't make me feel confident in their web programming abilities and strength in this area is surely essential for a company operating as an online payment processor!

I'm setting-up an e-commerce site for the first time and don't want to open a merchant account (at least not in the beginning).

I'm looking for a good payment processor with reasonable fees (5% or more of a sale is not reasonable) but I have some doubts about using Paypal (especially after their most recent outage, although I've never used them before).

Can anyone suggest a good payment processing company i.e. reliable and with good security and protection against fraud (it needs to accept non-US merchants) or reassure me that Paypal's service is satisfactory?

Cheers,
Scrumpy :)

ahile
10-23-2004, 05:12 AM
I was in the same situation except that I am selling pottery. With pottery the good thing is that you can sell it worldwide and this is the reason why I chose to sign up with ikobo as merchant. After that I sent them a copy of my ID and a utility bill. Also, I have read on other forums about an ikobo payment module which can be used with OsCommerce free online shop. Both were free so I installed OsCommerce on my website along with the payment module. They both work fine. Good luck.

sigmund
10-23-2004, 08:23 AM
OK, I understand you don't seem to like ikobo but as far as my business relation with them I can't say I have any major complaints against them. I use them for a while now and didn't run into any serious problems; there was this one time when I fount my limit lowered from $2000 to $1000, but after speaking to them they apologized and increased it to $3000 (I guess they felt bad or something :) ).
I know that maybe this isn't exactly what you wanted to hear, but it's they way things are with me and ikobo. Maybe this helps, maybe it doesn't, just wanted to share my experience.

pcam
10-23-2004, 08:40 AM
I decided to take a look at this service and was presented with this message on the website.

SERVICE UNAVAILABLE


We are currently experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later

sigmund
10-23-2004, 08:59 AM
You're right... Hmm, they seem to have problems with the website, although my account was working because just a few hours ago I withdrew some money. I hope the site will be back up ASAP, I hate this situation.

scrumpy
10-23-2004, 09:08 AM
I just saw pcam's post and encountered the same problem when visiting ikobo.com. That "SERVICE UNAVAILABLE" message is framed by their standard header and footer :(

I'll have another look at iKobo when their server is working ;-)

Visa's "Verified By Visa" and MasterCard's "SecureCode" make a lot of sense and in the future I might limit credit card purchases only to buyers who use either of those systems. Presently though, there aren't enough credit card issuers who have added support for those verification systems.

As a minumum, I'll have to ensure that whoever I use supports AVS, CV2, Verified By Visa & SecureCode. An approval under Visa's AIS audit scheme would also be nice.

ahile
10-25-2004, 07:00 AM
PayPal crushed for three days last week ... so I don't think ikobo are the only one processor who is doing that. I am not defending them, but considering the late improvements, they must have been doing an upgrade to their system ... who knows ?!?! . Anyway, they are back now and my account is ok.

sigmund
10-26-2004, 09:20 AM
Yeah, I guess this happens to the almighty paypal as well. This stuff seems to happen to anyone and everyone at some point. True, with ikobo this happens a little more often than with let's say paypal but I guess they're expanding or something and haven't got all the bugs out (or maybe new ones are getting in :) ). Anyway, what's important is that it's up now and let's hope it'll stay like this from now on. ;)