This is Marek from BidPay. I am so happy to see that AW has rearranged the boards as I never felt comfortable posting on a thread dedicated to another topic (although sometimes I had to) and now the boards are much more open.
AW seems to be doing a REALLY great job lately!
Anyway, I have just been reading over a lot of the postings on other subjects and payment options and just wanted to point out a couple of things about our services.
1) BidPay DOES NOT require the seller to register with us to get a payment.
2) BidPay has NEVER processed a single chargeback against ANY seller. NOT ONE!
3) BidPay accepts transactions from ANY buyer ANYWHERE in the world.
4) BidPay pays ANY seller ANYWHERE in the
world.
5) BidPay has NEVER charged our sellers ONE CENT for sending them payments and - WE NEVER WILL. "BidPay has always been FREE FOR THE SELLER TO USE".
Sellers are mailed a Western Union certified funds international money order (NON_RECOURSE)...meaning NO CHARGE BACK!
These money orders can be cashed and/or deposited and treated like cash at over 40,000 locations in the US including all major banks, credit unions, savings and loans, etc.
SELLERS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO GIVE ANY BANKING OR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION IN ORDER TO GET PAYMENTS.
They can also be cashed internationally by almost any major financial institution.
BidPay has over 300,000 registered sellers and well over 650,000 registered buyers and is in fact the oldest online person-to-person auction payment service having preceded ALL the other payment options by quite some time.
We process tens of thousand of payments every week and currently have over 350,000 banners placed on eBAY (slow after xmas) and another 200,000+ on other major auctions sites such as Yahoo, MSN, Amazon, etc..
I just wanted to get these 'facts' out there as some of you seem to be seeking a reliable payment option and don't seem to be aware of our services.
Oh, one final thing. In the last 18 months BidPay has not made ONE SINGLE CHANGE to our Terms of Service for either buyers or sellers and in all that time we have sent exactly "two" emails and both were critical announcements.
posted on January 3, 2001 06:45:17 PM new
Hi Marek,
As as international buyer, I have a problem with BidPay service, the minute i started my first transaction.
I registered with Bidpay on the Dec 29 00, and straight went for my 1st transcation to purchase Money Order. I intended to pay for the auction on Ebay. I can see it in my transaction details that Bidpay has charged my credit card and the charging process has been completed sucessfully. That proves that I'm the legitimate credit card owner, right ?
Couple of minutes went by and there's an e-mail coming stating that the transcation was stopped and if I want to get further explanation, i have to contact the customer service department. WHY ???????
I have to apologize to the seller for the inconvienece and ask for his patience while I'm settling this issue with BidPay
Desperately until this moment, my efforts to contact the BidPay customer Department is fruitless. E-mails and fill-in form to contact the customer service via the link on the web hasn't proved anything yet. Any suggestion from you? [email protected]
[ edited by avfh138 on Jan 3, 2001 06:47 PM ]
[ edited by avfh138 on Jan 3, 2001 07:57 PM ]
posted on January 3, 2001 07:38:06 PM new
hi marek--i use your service as a seller. i have signed up with bidpay as a seller. you put your logos on my auctions. every time i get a email it says i am not registered. so i go to register and they say i am already registered. would you please check that [email protected]
posted on January 3, 2001 11:49:08 PM new
Hello AVFH138;
I looked up your order and sent you a private email about why we cancelled this order as the matter is confidential and I din't want to post it here on the boards.
posted on January 3, 2001 11:54:43 PM new
Hi VeeBee;
While it is true that we have sent you a number of payments in the last month you are not a registered seller.
Go to www.bidpay.com
Seller Services - register with us.
Then, fill out the form and we will send you an email message that YOU MUST REPLY TO in order to activate your registration.
If you did register, but did not activate your account or lost the confirmation email we sent you. In the seller area, you can request that this confirmation email be sent again.
Not to worry though, there is no requirement that you register. We 'suggest' it, but as you know we do in fact mail out payments even when you're not.
The biggest advantage to being registered is that it speeds the delivery of your payments as we use the registered address YOU enter with us and this prevents delays when the buyer makes mistakes entering the order.
I know it sounds a little confusing but it is only 3-4 steps, confirm the email and you're done.
posted on January 4, 2001 06:43:43 PM new
Hi Marek, I have a question for you. I have a Canadian customer who wants to send me about $200. He wants to use another service that recently went International even though they are still screwing up in the US. He insists that it's cheaper than Bidpay. The other service would charge him about 2.3% for the currency conversion and then charge me 2.2% + .30 for receiving the funds. Seems to me they would be more expensive and less secure. Bidpay would only charge about $5, am I right? I would be better off knocking $3 off my price and telling him to use Bidpay.
posted on January 4, 2001 10:59:41 PM new
Hey YisGood;
Long time, no see.
BidPay's fee's are a flat $5 up to $100.
Above $100, it is 2.25% + $5.00
So a $200 transaction would be $7.75
The other service you mention, would be $4.60 for the buyer, $4.70 for you so while not only more money is also sounds a little too confusing to me... charing both buyer AND seller + a transaction fee.
As you know BidPay doesn't charge sellers ANY fee.
Hope that helps... and as always with any new business or service one should always use caution.
posted on January 5, 2001 06:13:50 AM new
Thanks, Marek. The point I have been trying to make in this post and on my web page where I rate payment services http://www.ygoodman.com/payments.html is that folks believe Bidpay is more expensive than the other service. It isn't. And it's safer. Folks should learn that it's better to spend a little more to be safer and it's even better to spend a little less to be safer. What I will do is split the cost with the buyer. We will each save some money over the other choice and we will both be safer.
posted on January 5, 2001 07:24:17 AM newyisgoodThe point I have been trying to make in this post and on my web page where I rate payment services http://www.ygoodman.com/payments.html is that folks believe Bidpay is more expensive than the other service. It isn't. And it's safer.
Please give me an example of your math where as a buyer I save money purchasing a $10.00 CD via BidPay vs. using BillPoint, PayDirect, or PayPal. Either my calculator is malfunctioning or I'm unable to use it properly. Please show me how my purchase is more secure, I was unaware of being able to dispute a charge via BidPay.
posted on January 5, 2001 12:31:54 PM new
I was hoping Marek would jump in here. Speaking not as an employee of Bidpay, I am stating what I have been told.
>>Please give me an example of your math where as a buyer I save money purchasing a $10.00 CD via BidPay vs. using BillPoint, PayDirect, or PayPal.<<
I didn't give $10 as an example. The reason buyers want to use credit cards is to protect themselves against unscrupulous sellers. The average buyer taking a $10 item isn't so concerned with security that he would feel he had to use a payment service. A check or money order works fine.
>>Please show me how my purchase is more secure, I was unaware of being able to dispute a charge via BidPay. <<
Bidpay has a human being involved in every transaction. The transaction must be auction-based. So someone from Bidpay will check out the auction and check out the seller. A lot of the complaints are have received were from newbie buyers who bought from a new seller or a seller with negs that they hadn't checked out. Bidpay will prevent them from making this mistake. Bidpay was the first one to catch the phony hard drive seller on Yahoo who cheated folks out of about $15,000 through Paypal. Bidpay stopped him before he cheated any of their customers. Paypal wasn't able to.
As for charge backs, anything paid for with a credit card can be charged back. But sellers paid with Bidpay don't have to worry about it. So buyers are getting more protection than PP and sellers are getting more protection than PP. And as I showed in my real-life example which just came up yesterday, Bidpay was also cheaper than PP.
As for US-only transactions, Moneyzap also contacts the buyer. They don't verify the seller as Bidpay does but charge backs will be taken from the seller. So with buyers verified and sellers threatened by charge back for non-delivery, I would suspect that fraud is low. I havent seen a single post about it yet. Moneyzap told me they have never processed a stolen credit card, due to their verification.
It's time that buyers and sellers realized there is no free ride and you get what you pay for (and in the case of Paypal, less than you pay for). So don't judge a service based on the fact that it's a few cents less than the other one. Judge it for its track record.
posted on January 5, 2001 12:34:18 PM new
Dear uaru;
I realize your question was directed to VisGood but as I am with BidPay I felt it better if I attempt to answer your questions.
BidPay is the oldest online p2p payment service out there and was in fact the innovator of the concept, having been in business and issuing payments for buyers and sellers LONG before any of the other payment services came along. Including PayPal and Billpoint... whose services are essentially the same as Bidpay with variations to the overall concept of the service.
The saying 'you get what you pay for has never been more true that with BidPay'.
BidPay has ALWAYS been international, while most of the other payment services are not, are on a limited basis or are just now going international in selected markets.
BidPay has NEVER charged the seller a PENNY, ever... 'never have and NEVER will'. We all know how that has transalated with the other service offerings.
BidPay has ALWAYS guaranteed the seller payment unconditioanlly. Always has, always will. NO EXCEPTIONS. Once again, we all know how that has translated with the other service offerings.
BidPay has no limit on the amount a purchaser can spend with us. We have a Japanese client who has spent over $100,000 on Zippo lighters... and a large number of other collectors who have spent tens of thousands of dollars on purchases.
"Try that... with any other payment service and see what happens".
BidPay accepts orders from ANY buyer, ANYWHERE in the world and sends those payments to ANY seller ANYWHERE in the world.
BidPay screens its sellers and watches for negative feedback and WILL DECLINE to process a payment for a buyer "Nobody else offers this service" and while some clients are initially upset when we cancel their orders in the long run they thank us for protecting their interests.
If we see a client paying $300 for fake item, we will tell them... "you know this seller does not state the item is authentic".
No other payment service screens its orders on behalf of its client purchasers.
Perfect example, you can use just about any other payment service to send a $500 payment to an eBAY seller whose account in NO LONGER ACTIVE and who has -50 feedback as a fraud and that payment will be accepted and approved.
ONLY... BidPay would decline to approve that purchase - with a full credit being issued to the buyer and no charges applied.
We could, accept the order and the fee and we could save a lot of money by not screening the orders... but that is not customer service.
Few people truly appreciate the lenghts to which we go to protect our client buyers and to ensure that ALL of our transactions are completed to both the buyers and sellers complete statisfaction.
We protect our buyers, we guarantee payment to our sellers and yes... for that we charge a fee which our more than 650,000 registered buyers are more than willing to pay because we provide them with a quick and easy payment method without all the restrictions and hassles that some of the other services put their customers through in order to approve a payment.
posted on January 5, 2001 12:55:41 PM new
Dear VisGood;
Thanks... 'we should hire you'.
If I may I would like to add to a point you made about 'bad sellers'. As many of you know there was recently a seller in California GameTek who took A LOT of buyers for a ride by selling PlayStations they could not deliver.
We've seen posting on the boards and those payments being processed (more than 2,500) via other payment options.
Well, BidPay...is a payment option and we nailed this seller after only TWO ORDERS.
This seller was placed on our ACCESS DENIED list waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in early November because we were unable to verify thier information and we declined to process hundreds of payments to this seller.
Once again, our buyers who were initially upset with us for not processing the payments have come running back in flocks to thank us for having these security measures in place.
There was another large scale fraud seller in the Northeast about six months ago and not only did we not process any payments to this seller we assisted the United States Postal Service in tracking this seller down and they were arrested and charged with mail fraud.
As an aside, despite BidPay being in competition with these other payment services we very often share our negative seller information with eBAY and several of the other payment services (even though they do not do the same for us)....
posted on January 5, 2001 03:49:50 PM newyisgoodThe point I have been trying to make in this post and on my web page where I rate payment services http://www.ygoodman.com/payments.html is that folks believe Bidpay is more expensive than the other service. It isn't. And it's safer.
Please give me an example of your math where as a buyer I save money purchasing a $10.00 CD via BidPay vs. using BillPoint, PayDirect, or PayPal. Either my calculator is malfunctioning or I'm unable to use it properly. Please show me how my purchase is more secure, I was unaware of being able to dispute a charge via BidPay.
Sorry to repeat the question, but I feel like I was just given an answer by a politician running for office.
So don't judge a service based on the fact that it's a few cents less than the other one.
Care to dig out that amazing calculator and show me the 'few cents' difference for a buyer between BillPoint and BidPay on this $10.00 purchase? You have any idea what the average purchase price is on eBay? I do.
posted on January 5, 2001 11:24:24 PM new
Hi Marek!
I just wanted to say 'thank you' to BidPay!
This week, I had a transaction with a buyer in Turkey. The buyer wanted to pay with VISA, so I recommended BidPay.
The buyer placed the order with BidPay on New Year's Day. I received the first e-mail from BidPay that day and the confirmation e-mail came on January 2nd. I shipped the goods. On January 4th, I had my money order in hand.
This deal would not have been so smooth and easy if not for BidPay!
posted on January 6, 2001 02:43:08 PM new
Dear Bidpay:
I have one question. If I send a payment to someone in England, my question is how long would teh mail take for the seller to receive?
posted on January 9, 2001 10:09:06 PM new
Dear Day4321;
Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, I am not on the boards as much as I would like to be (only 27 hours in a day).
Generally speaking almost any international payment is delivered within about 12 mailing days... the closer you get and the bigger the country is, the shorter the delivery time.
Australia, is the worst... 2-3 weeks, but at the same time we have also had payments reach Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore in as little as 4-5 days.
The UK, generally takes about a week, but again some are as fast as 2-3 days and others take two weeks.
I wish the answer was more exact. Anything over ten days and we usually put a trace on the payment.
posted on January 10, 2001 07:42:55 AM new
Hello Marek,
I am having a problem getting your logo to
appear in my eBay auctions. The written words
appear but not the logo. I have written
to customer service, but no help has been received. I must have something wrong but can't figure it out. Can you help me?
gaylene30
posted on January 10, 2001 01:35:10 PM new
Hi GayLene;
I did hope over to eBAY to check the user name "Gaylene" and that is a (0) feedback user whose acocunt is no longer registered - so that must not be you.
Please see below about becoming a registered seller and placing banners into your listings.
Once you are registered and have CONFIRMED that registration by replying to the email we sent you - you will be able to log into the seller area and insert banners into all your eBAY and Yahoo listings.
If you return to SELLER LOG IN banner area and you see an 'error' message this means that we were not able to log into the auction site using the login and password you gave us...and in this case you would need to submit the request again.
While we encourage sellers to register so they can check the status of orders, there is NO REQUIREMENT that a seller be registered to get a payment as we mail you a US$ Western Union International Money Order. As long as the seller is in the USA or Canada - for other countries you must first check with the seller to be sure they can accept and cash one of our money orders.
As a registered seller, you can log into www.bidpay.com SELLERS AREA and you will see option (3) AUTO BANNERS, from here it is an easy three step to automatically insert our banners into all your eBAY & Yahoo listings.
1) Select the banner.
2) Select the text for the banner.
3) Insert the banner.
Please note, if you are inserting the banner into another auction site you will need to select GET HTML code and insert that code manually into your auctions.
Once selected, your auctions will be updated WITHIN FIVE HOURS and we will then monitor eBAY for any new listings four times per day and insert banners into your new listings.
If you wish to stop auto banners, log back into the sellers area and select option (4) banner management and from there you can stop the banners from being inserted into future auctions. "This will not remove the banners from your current auctions".
posted on January 10, 2001 03:07:50 PM new
Hello Marek,
The ebay name is gaylene30. I am registered
with BidPay. I used the HTML and the logo
I picked out did not appear. I hope you will
have the time to check out one of my auctions and can tell me what I did wrong.
posted on January 12, 2001 11:33:12 PM new
Hi tc61380;
The short answer is, our staff don't work for free. Any payment made not using standard mail delivery is handled by our office in New York and not the Florida office which handles automatted mailing.
These orders are printed manually several times per day, placed into the respective envelopes and addressed... then taken to the Post Office.
Truth be known, I think we actually loose money on them because of the handling required but provide it as a service for buyers who need to get the payments there faster.
posted on January 12, 2001 11:36:39 PM new
Hi Gaylene;
We did go take a peak at your auctions and each of them does indeed contain the BidPay logo - but - it looks like this was entered manually by you. NICE LISTINGS BTW. I like the graphics...
posted on January 13, 2001 12:28:46 PM new
Somebody please quote Marek's answer about Priority/Express shipping charges the next time that one of those "Why do you charge more than actual postage?" threads comes up. Please. Pretty Please.
posted on January 13, 2001 09:14:28 PM new
Hi Marek!
Thank you for your help and your kind words.
It is great to have you here!
Yes, I did try to add the banners manually
but plan to try your auto banners in my next auctions. Thanks again.
posted on January 15, 2001 04:36:23 PM new
But priority mail is not any faster than first class mail, so if you're losing money on it AND there is no service difference why offer it?
posted on May 1, 2001 07:22:29 PM new
I had my first customer service interface with BidPay the last couple of days and I must say it was not good.
The person sent me the same canned responce both times and it was not even close to the question I asked.
Simply there is an e-mail in my account I have not had for couple of years. I wanted to remove it but could not see how to do it. Seem hard to you? Well I can figure it out and e-mailed them. Wow they talk about their people not working for free but they should.
They will not answer their phone either, I spend my several dimes today trying to contact BidPay and keep ending up with a recording of some guy with bad english trying to give cocky answers.
I gave the 24 hours to answer the question right the 3rd time I sent it back to them or I am pulling all their ads from my auctions and telling my customers I refuse to take them. I know it is a money order but I can pretend I never got it.
