DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA!

In Rants, Start-ups
19/10/07
2 Comments

Since we are discussing a lot about alternative payment solutions, I thought it would be nice to account the nightmare that a Pakistani e-tailer went through.

Once upon a time, there was a team of E-commerce enthusiasts, who dreamt of opening a website exclusively focused for Pakistani audience. CitiBank was then and still is the only option available for charging credit cards online. It took them a good one year to get themselves checked and re-checked and then again had to re-submit again for the merchant account. They picked Cybernet as their payment processor and in August 2006, they went live and started accepting orders.

Described by the bank, the mighty CCV2 check applied on the secure payment page was the only check & balance required. Our brothers who have a knack for fraudualism started ordering in numbers and the e-tailer started dispatching, till someone “Charged back” on the premise of card misused. After debates with the bank staff, a home grown check & balance system was designed, requiring customers to send the e-tailer scanned copies of their last bill, front side of the card and CNIC to stop scams. Even then they had to check on few Photoshop gimmick specialist, who forged their bills and credit cards and later on it was devised to call the respective banks for customer Verification.

All seemed to be working fine, till, one fine day the e-tailer discovered that the bank had silently withdrawn SUPPOSED charge back money from their merchant account., “without any prior intimation.”

The CitiBank staff in Lahore was very kind to us in this demise and stood by the merchants in fighting their case, but CitiBank head-office in Karachi proved to be a lost cause. All they got from them was an explanation “You should have read the Fine Print, which says that MERCHANT IS RESPONISIBLE FOR ALL DAMAGES AND THE BANK IS NOT LIABLE FOR ANY LOSSES”

It is fruitless to say but I will still quote it that no proof has been provided to the e-tailer – Shophive.com and no report has been given since then.

We are still waiting for the CitiBank explanation, where are you people?

MCB Online payments and UBL Online Payments are a relief in this inevitable situation, where we are able to receive our payments without such a situation.

Alternatives like Amaana would facilitate the customer in ordering items online from secure online merchants like Shophive.com. Until it happens, e-commerce merchants are surely stuck in a much quoted situation – between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Bookmark It