Let's see the survey of Ikobo ...:D

I love it, I use it as primary payment gateway.

"no choices." :)

Originally posted by Nilomedia
I

"no choices." :)

Ah...ha, we are on the same boat.....:D

Good, I must have some fish on lunch today.

I think I will sign up with ikobo. I will post here if I'll have problems because you have been very helpful. Thank you again.

Alyssa26,

You have nothing to lose to sign-up with Ikobo. Go ahed and good luck..

No, you'd lose your time which is most important factor in some businesses :)

Just like everyone else here, I would also recommend you sign-up with them. I can't see how you could not like it. Just make sure you follow instructions properly. A lot of people complain about this or that service mainly because they fail to red instructions properly or do something that violates their user-agreement with that particular service. Give them a try and let us know how it goes. Good luck!

Actually most accounts are blocked for IP issues, fraud issues, so on. but If you sell within their green lines, a good transaction flow, you will never have a problem. The limits can be easily increased or removed. Also the transactions limits.


but can anyone assist with removing that 25% holdback of funds?
Are they afraid from chargebacks?

For the limited amounts of payments that we put through Ikobo each month, it seems to work fine.

However, we don't use it as a means of accepting payments - only for making payments.

I know that when we first started using it many months ago it was quite a pain to get any changes made but perhaps someone here who has recently gotten a limit increase done can comment whether they have improved on their response time or not.

For merchants that can't setup their own merchant accounts or use any of the more popular 3rd party processors due to their geographic location - iKobo can certainly be a viable option.

And regarding the message above on the 25% holdback - is that a standard holdback now for iKobo if you process over a certain amount or what exactly?

I think Ikobo is really good. I have an account with them & am using them as the primary source of billing. Secondary is PayPal. :)

I think the 25% holdback is standard. I've heard that others experience it as well. I think it's indeed a chargeback protection. After the paysystems "incident" I don't think anyone can be to careful when it comes to chargebacks.

Well, I guess that when you are dealing with clients from all over the world, it's normal to choose ikobo over paypal and I don't think that accepting only Visa and MasterCard constitute an issue. What do you think?

Hello Moderator,

Can you add one more option to this poll?
"I have to use Ikobo because I have no choice"

Thank you!

We use iKobo as our main payments gateway. They process over $7000 a month for us. iKobo don't hold any of our funds, and once payment is made by the customer, we always get it within 24 hours. I've never heard of them holding back 25%.

Well, I get my payments faster anyways. and the 25% is standard. I still love to know that it will be released some day in which I could make a good income to start a good business in the future ;)

Columbus,

How long have you been using Ikobo?

For about 5 months now. We have 2 separate accounts servicing 2 different websites with them.

Does ikobo allow 2 accounts per company or per client?

Columbus, can you tell me which web hosting are you using? I am looking for one now. Thanks

Hi Cavalry,

The reason your user status changed to "Junior Guru" is because this is configured by WebHosting to show different statuses depending on how many posts you have achieved. For example, when you hit the 100 mark, your status changed to WHT addict.

I don't think iKobo technically allows 2 accounts per company. We have 2 different business units that are totally unrelated, hence the need for 2 accounts with iKobo.

For cheap webhosting, try https://registerfly.com/

They are very cheap. Their website is a little complicated at times however. They offer live chat support which is great.

Cheers!
Columbus.

Thank you, Columbus

Congratulations! Obviously you are doing extremely well in your e-commerce by looking at your monthly sales turnover USD 7,000..wow..!

Perhaps I will register my domain from registerfly, and probably I will get my hosting from www.modhost.com, they offer multiple domains, and Cpanel with Fantastico.

Cavalry, Registerfly also do hosting for you at a very reasonable price.

Good luck!

Thank you Columbus.

The iKobo website TITLE tag says: "Send and Receive Money Online Instantly in 170 International Countries". I guess others make payments only in national countries.

kosmo

Hello Kosmo,

What do you mean by "national countries"..?

I dont know what they mean by "international countries", so I guessed that others serve only "national countries" if iKobo serves "international countries" :D

I'm too confused. Don't know what you mean kosmo.

iKobo offers it's services to all countries, and in their control panel you have the option to remove countries you don't wish to deal with.

forget my contribution. I just laughed when I saw the <TITLE> tag in their website: "170 international countries". If you get the joke, laugh with me, if you don't get it, just leave it :)

kosmo

yeh.... i know what you mean now. What is an International Country? A country is a country.... It's like saying an International Passport, which I've heard some people use sometimes.

Thanks for your humour kosmo.

They used that title to have the feel that they offer worldwide services, not just a U.S 3PPP, but yes it is a weird expression.

iKobo doesn't allow 2 accounts for the same person/company. however, you can open a new one for a new person/company with new address details.

I get my payments released day by day. yet, I believe I can expand everything and remove any transacton/withdrawal limit.

>> still waiting to qualify for auto pay.

columbus, the reason you get your payments in 24 hours that after a good transaction history, no chargebacks, no fraud orders, you get enrolled into Auto-Pay funds. Funds release themselves automatically within 24hours.

You qualify for this when you stay with ikobo for a longer time, and have a nice amount of transactions.

Kool! :) lol, "International Countries", I think the title is from the customer's Point of View. So, the other countries are international for them. lol, it really sounds weird but I think that's what they are trying to say. :)

With the current stats we can say:

75% use iKobo, or nearly to use them as payment gateway.
25% decided already, to stay AWAY!

Which is a nice percentage for iKobo ;)

I registered at IKobo both personal and merchant. Nice web, easy to use. However I had to register also with 2checkout because the developer of my billing software, DRAMS, doesn´t want to develop an integration for Ikobo.

albatroz,

Please be aware ikobo only allows one person per account. Please verify your dual accounts status with ikobo to aviod any disappoinments.

I read that many people did that by mistake (made two accounts on for the same person) and iKobo security system will block them until you get rid of one of them. I have to say they run a pretty tight security system.

calvary,
sorry you misunderstood my message. What I did, is exactly what
you state. I opened a personal account and 15 days later I upgraded it to merchant. Needless to say it was painless and fast.

Originally posted by cavalry
albatroz,

Please be aware ikobo only allows one person per account. Please verify your dual accounts status with ikobo to aviod any disappoinments.

That's 100% a legal behavior. So you don't need to worry about their security then. Let us know how's your experience going so far.

Indeed, seems like something normal. Why would you want to have two or more ikobo accounts. One seems like enough for me, anyone doing this on purpose is probably not doing it for the most honest reasons (if you know what I mean) so I also think that the fact that ikobo blocks the accounts of such a person/business is a good safety measure.

Originally posted by albatroz
calvary,
sorry you misunderstood my message. What I did, is exactly what
you state. I opened a personal account and 15 days later I upgraded it to merchant. Needless to say it was painless and fast.

I see...!! :D

Because I can't create another account, I have to upgrade my p2p account to a merchant account. I have two question:
1. Will I'll be able to use my account as a p2p account (send and receive money) ?
2. What are the steps to upgrade my account to a merchant account ?

Thank you very much.

1. Will I'll be able to use my account as a p2p account (send and receive money) ?
Sure thing. The merchant account is a combination between p2p features & merchant tools. However, If you receive payments in your personal account in the manner of "web sales" or "sales" your account will be limited and/or blocked.

2. What are the steps to upgrade my account to a merchant account ?
iKobo has recently updated CP interface. but go to your main page "personal account". You will see a link labeled "Merchant" or "Merchants" or similar. Click it, and it will guide you through 2 clicks of buttons, after that your account will be automatically enrolled into "merchant tools". It takes one minute.

You don't need to do anything special other than you click the label "merchant"

Your menu will contain "Sell". in that page you can edit your profile, view your iKard number (last 4 digits), view your card balance, and add items for purchase & setup their payment links which you pass to your client through e-mail or on website.

Please note that after upgrade you need to:
>> Enter a valid, complete URL/website in your profile.
>> Enter a valid company name in the company name field.
>> As well as, Business type, business description, customer service reeachable phone, name, e-mail.. Such normal information.

Failure to have accurate information on profile or complete information will lead to account being suspended or ikard block, or transactions block.

Good day. :wavey:

Well.. that's pretty simple. :) Isn't it.

It's much of verification, not as you thought. but for international vendor, It's.

That’s a pretty nice guide on how to transform your p2p account into a merchant account. All future ikobo users (or current p2p ones looking to upgrade their accounts) should take a look at this. Good job Nilomedia. ;)

Thank you, always serving :D

:)
On a different note now, has any tried, and if so succeeded, in integrating ikobo with OSCommerce? I'm pretty interested in this since there's such a hype on this matter on many forums. Anyone? ;)

I heard that there's an integration module with osC, do a search. :)

Good idea. Really, how about OSC + ikobo ? OSC is offered by any hosting provider, it's free, it has a good design and also ikobo is free and the ikobo module for OSC can be found at http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,2440 free of charge. So, in other words, a free online store. Any opinions?

I think Ikobo's Shopping Cart/Order Forms are much easy to setup as compared to PayPal. They're pretty straightforward. :)

What do you mean by that Intelle ? Please give us some details. I want to learn as much as I can about ikobo.

Alyssa. when you click the sell button link, you will have 2 choices.

1. use iKobo shopping cart: only if you're selling many items and want your clients to be able to purchase more than one per one transaction.

2. use single Item purchases. If you want to sell each item on its own. one item per transaction.

What is better for a hostng Newlook...

But the first option is more profitable for merchants because they will be charged once with the 0.29$ fee. Am I right ?

Does Ikobo support recurring billing? If we need to change the recurring figure, is that possible?

Joshua

Not sure about his, you should try asking them yourself on livechat, I'm sure they'll help you. I've always found them useful whenever I had a question.

I already spoke to their customer support and they said that at this time, they do not offer the service of recurring billing. However, they are going to have this function available to all of customers in the near future.

Does Ikobo support recurring billing
It's not supported yet although It'll be integrated with iKobo shopping cart in a future release soon.

But the first option is more profitable for merchants because they will be charged once with the 0.29$ fee. Am I right ?
In fact I recommend the use of single item purchases, other than their shopping cart. It needs a lot of work still.

There's a 0.29 cents per transaction. but a 3% on each too. so It's a matter of a $1 saving. not very profitable for merchants, If you got what I mean.

Originally posted by Nilomedia

But the first option is more profitable for merchants because they will be charged once with the 0.29$ fee. Am I right ?
In fact I recommend the use of single item purchases, other than their shopping cart. It needs a lot of work still.

There's a 0.29 cents per transaction. but a 3% on each too. so It's a matter of a $1 saving. not very profitable for merchants,

I do not get what you mean by $ 1.00 saving.

Or did you meant that:
(1) $1.00 saving if we use Ikobo shopping cart rather than recurring billing?

(2) $1.00 saving to use single item buy button rather than shopping cart?

I mean, it doesn't show an effective profit for actual merchants. whether we use single item purchase buttons or shopping cart.

But Ikobo offers the lowest rate so far. Moneybookers's rate is low also.

For the no. of months, I got an idea! There is an option for filling out the quantity. There the customers can fill out the no. of months! :)

So basically you're saying (Nilomedia I mean) that one should use the single item purchase instead of the shopping cart. It's true, ikobo's shopping cart does require some work done here and there, but I don't find it all that unusable. So far I haven't encountered any problems by using it, than again I haven't been using it for all that long. I'll keep your suggestion in mind though, thanks. :)

By the way, I don't mean that there's a problem with their shopping cart. but its only useful for real shops (many items, many options..)

That's insane, who would apply for an account with them

Originally posted by RMan
That's insane, who would apply for an account with them

Rman,

What made you said that? :stickout:

Can you share your ikobo's bad experience with us?

Did you mean "insane" for.. the shopping cart thing? or something else?

Be more clear.

Originally posted by RMan
That's insane, who would apply for an account with them
Well, apparently a lot of people as you can plainly see. I should take this as an offense since I'm one of them and you've just called me insane. I assure I am more than aware of my actions and choice and I am as healthy as I could be. Ikobo works and no one is insane if they chose to sign up with them. End of story!

Yes, I had to choose from multiple payment services and I also chose iKobo so I don't think I am insane or anything like that. So, even if am a new ikobo customer I don't have anything to complain about.

@Nilomedia: I have in my store a lot of different products and I chose OsCommerce cart + ikobo module. What do you think of that ?

Nothing wrong about that. go ahead, If you want your buyers to buy multiple items per purchase. then use the shopping cart module, no other way.

Sorry. duplicate posting by error.

Yes, I thought so too. Thank you anyway.

So basically you're saying there's nothing wrong with using ikobo's shopping cart, right? I'm contemplating this option as well so I want as many opinions as possible. Thanks!

@alex, You could use OsCommerce + ikobo payment module but ikobo shopping cart isn't bad either.

Sure, once again it's as easy as this.

If your buyers buy one item per purchase. Use Single Item Purchases.

If your buyers buy multiple items per purchase. Use shopping cart module.

regardless of the quantity.

Thanks for your suggestions. To tell you the truth the OSCommerce option looks very nice to me. It's a pretty good way to use ikobo's services via the OSC interface. I'll look into this matter. Thanks again.

Yeah, and you don't have to bother anymore with scripts and stuff especially if you are not a coder (LIKE ME :( )

Yeah, I know, you really hit me where it hurts. I'm also not that good with all of this scripting stuff (although I do my best to learn a thing or two) so this ikobo/OSC solution would be the easiest. Wouldn't it? :)

Yes, and the good news is that you ca use multiple payment modules if you want to have a backup. I trust ikobo so for me it's not necessary. Others may have other opinions about this. What CC processing systems are you using right now ?

No alternatives here, I use it as a main one.

So I am not the only one here. Cool

I use ikobo and it works very fine

One more positive review there :)

Not decided whether to use it or not? : is still the highest decision. Looks like many are confused with their service.

Currently using it as my secondary payment gateway. If they wouldn't require users to sign up to send a payment they would be my primary gateway.

True, but the sign-up is pretty much automatically done so there isn't so much work involved on the user-side. Eh well, who know, maybe in the future we'll see something being done about that as well; it wouldn't surprise me seeing that lately things seem to be improving with ikobo.

luisfam, sign up isn't required initially to send money.

I got an e-mail with new improvements from ikobo: new look for p2p and merchants account, 5$ + 3% fee for sending money and US merchants can now withdraw their funds directly into their US bank accounts ...

Me too! it seems that those guys are doing the things quite good and moving fast.

And what about International merchants?

Originally posted by Alyssa26
I got an e-mail with new improvements from ikobo: new look for p2p and merchants account, 5$ + 3% fee for sending money and US merchants can now withdraw their funds directly into their US bank accounts ...

How come I did not receive this email notification from ikobo?

Is this 5$ + 3% fee for sending money for P2P or merchant?

I didnt' receive that too!

I can tell ikobo is not a professional company.

Can I change my rating on ikobo which I posted on this voting previously?

This is the e-mail I received from ikobo. The $5+3% is for p2p money transfers and after a simple calculation adds up to the fact that for larger amounts of money it's actually cheaper than before. Anyway, here's the mail:

iKobo Money Transfer
October 2004

In this issue:
Bank Account Withdrawal
Refreshed Personal Account
New Fees Policy

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bank Account Withdrawal


US based merchants now have the ability to withdrawal money into their

bank account. This service is free and has full reporting features to

record each withdrawal.

The service is currently in beta testing with select merchants.

Availability to all US merchants will begin shortly.

We have also incresed your account security with the new IP management

tool. Register your IP and and further protect your account. Log into

your merchant account and view your profile to see full details.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Refreshed Personal Account


The personal account has undergone an update to give a fresher, easier

to use interface for our customers. You will find our send money

process even easier and faster to use.

iKobo is always striving to improve your user experience. First time

senders can still send up to $500 free. Send money now.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Merchants - We Need your Feedback!


We are actively improving our iKobo merchant account and are looking

for your input on how we can serve you better. Please contact us in

Marketing at marketing@ikobo.net to suggest how we can build you the

world's best merchant account.

The best suggestion received this month will receive a Sterling Silver

Money Clip with their company name engraved on it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
New Fees Policy

Beginning on November 1, iKobo's fees for sending money will be

changed to as follows:

$5 + 3% from anywhere, to anywhere in 170 countries. Merchant fees

will remain unchanged.

New i-Kard ATM Fees

Monthly Maintenance Fee $.99
ATM Withdrawal Fee $1.99
ATM Balance Inquiry Free
Declined ATM Withdrawal $.99
Point ofSale Purchase Free
Declined Point of Sale Purchase $.99
i-Kard to i-Kard Transfer (within a country) $1.99
i-Kard to i-Kard Transfer ( one country to a different country) $2.99
------------------------------------------------------------------------
iKobo Affiliate Program


Earn $10 for referring someone to iKobo. You also earn 5% of fees they

pay on every future transaction!
Join the Affiliate Program Today at [...]

1)Enter your email address (the email address in your iKobo account).
2)Enter the email addresses of the people who you want to
refer and click submit. **
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Merchant Account FAQs –
Q.
Can I withdraw funds to my bank account?
A.
Yes, this feature is now available for US merchants and will be

available very shortly for all US accounts. Non-US accounts will still

withdraw funds with our free Visa debit i-Kard.

Q.
Can I have my customers see my company name on the confirmation page?
A.
Yes, proper documents need to be sent in to the Verification

department for this to be done.

Q.
Will I receive funds in USD or my own currency?
A.
The funds are received in the local currency.

Q.
How long does it take to withdraw the funds from my Merchant Account?
A.
The funds are sent to you once the transaction is verified. After

initial verification, most merchants do not have a holding period on

their funds.

Q.
How do I raise the limit for sending/receiving on my account?
A.
In order to raise your account limits please go to <a href='http://everyonetomarch17.c.topica.com/maacK6xabaUTSb7FhbbeaehnN0/'>https://www.ikobo.com/extending_sending_and_receiving_limits_form.html</a>
Fill out this form and be sure to include a picture ID and a utility
bill with the fax.


Copyright 2004, iKobo. All rights reserved.


Unsubscribe Instructions
Please do not reply to this message. Please contact us through our
Help/FAQ section on <a href="http://everyonetomarch17.c.topica.com/maacK6xabaUVhb7FhbbeaehnN0/">https://www.ikobo.com.</a>

You may also contact us by mail or phone at the address below:
iKobo, Inc.
1355 Terrell Mill Rd SE
Building 1466
Marietta, GA 30067
USA
Phone:
1-678-483-4562


Affiliate Program –Terms and Conditions
**The people you have referred will receive an email with a link. Once

they click on the link it will take them to the iKobo Sign Up page.

Once the referee has signed up and sent money you will be notified of

your earned commission. The Refer a Friend program is a part of the

iKobo Affiliate program.

Thank you very much, Alex

So, basically what are affecting non-US merchant is only the
ikard:

New i-Kard ATM Fees

Monthly Maintenance Fee $.99
ATM Withdrawal Fee $1.99
ATM Balance Inquiry Free
Declined ATM Withdrawal $.99
Point ofSale Purchase Free
Declined Point of Sale Purchase $.99
i-Kard to i-Kard Transfer (within a country) $1.99
i-Kard to i-Kard Transfer ( one country to a different country) $2.99

I signed up and my account was automatically blocked.
I contacted them and they said that their systems usually does this, just random.

So, I just stepped out. I am not sending any personal docs to a company that I don't even know.

Anyways we don't need them, that is also why we did not push. But would want to see how that worked though.

Thanks Alex!

You're all welcome, I'm glad to help, I just find it odd that you haven't received the mail yourselves; eh well, moving on. In response to cavalry, yes, you're right the only thing affecting non-merchants are the new ikard fees (guess it's better than having the old $3 fees, right ;) ).
In response to adjkhost, I've also had my account frozen in the very beginning, but I understand that happens if you don't send the required documents on time as I failed to do. After sending them all was fine. I understand your skepticism in regard to sending personal documents, but I think me and the other folks here using ikobo can tell you there's no risk in doing this. Right guys? :)

Hello Alex,

Can you tell us what documents did you send to ikobo?
Thanks

I don't like their FAQ. never seems to work but they are pretty reliable.

Originally posted by cavalry
Hello Alex,

Can you tell us what documents did you send to ikobo?
Thanks
Well I sent them a copy of my drivers license, a copy of a utility bill, a copy of my passport and also one of my birth certificate and I've had no problems ever since (maybe I sent too much stuff, but as long as it did the trick I'm cool with it).

Oh...my godness, passport and birth certificate?

I was wondering if ikobo needs our marriage certificate as well?

How long have you been using ikobo? Alex

Now I think ikobo only sends email notification the users who already submitted their documents..? Double standards..!!

Originally posted by alex27
yes, you're right the only thing affecting non-merchants are the new ikard fees (guess it's better than having the old $3 fees, right ;) ).


Alex,

Are we paying $3.00 now? per year or per month? :o

Originally posted by cavalry
Oh...my godness, passport and birth certificate?

I was wondering if ikobo needs our marriage certificate as well?

How long have you been using ikobo? Alex
As I said, I probably sent them too much stuff. :p
Then as now I trusted them and I just needed to have my account unblocked ASAP, which actually happened in a short while I think. I use them for almost a year now, at the beginning only for p2p transfers, later on, as a cc processor as well.

Then Alex, you are the ikobo senior among us. Salute.

But I definitely will not send birth certificate and passport.
We do not even know how is ikobo company registration certificate look like..?

Thanks. :D
I think you should speak directly to them via livechat or e-mail and ask for the appropriate documents. As the e-mail states, there's a new address for merchant account support at marketing@ikobo.net. Maybe you should give that a try, could be faster than the usual. ;)

Thanks, Alex

Have you ever experienced there is ikobo live chat operator available
in their chat room?

Actually, I've tried the livechat quite a few times and indeed, a couple of times I didn't get anyone on the other end, but most of the times someone was available to speak to me. True, they've not always been the most helpful, but they did try. Even now I gave it a try to see if it works. Apparently there's been some changes here as well. The whole thing looks a little more professional and yes, I actually got to speak to someone, her name was Syrita. Since I didn't know what to ask (I was only checking to see if someone would answer) I asked about the required documents to remove the block from an account. Apparently the only documents required are a drivers license and a utility bill.

Thanks Alex,

Anyway, they are many people who includes some credit card processor professionals do not really trust ikobo, they must have
their own professional judgement to view ikobo.
So, just be careful.

Originally posted by cavalry
Oh...my godness, passport and birth certificate?

I was wondering if ikobo needs our marriage certificate as well?

How long have you been using ikobo? Alex

That is why I did not care about them lol. I ain't sending that to a company, it is ridiculous.

Only the gov should ask that, at least in the EU.
I wonder, why not to ask just your local ID Card.

Anyways.... To signup with ADJK HOST, I guess you will now need a certificate that you really was born in the planet earth + photo of your wife + photo of your children together + report from doctor saying how much coffee you drink and cigarettes you smoke + a proof of purchase of your home computer, mouse, keyboard and modem. LOLOLOL

I will suggest this to all responsables of ADJK.. Do you guys think it could work? :D

Ridiculous!!!!

However, I have seen worst. Moneybookers asks you a photocopy of your Visa Card..

===================

ALSO, VERY IMPORTANT DETAIL TO WEB HOSTS!
I spoke once to one operator using their LiveHelp! System, and asked information about their API. The girl in the other side had no clue of what I was talking about. Yaycks! :(

Originally posted by cavalry
Thanks Alex,
Anyway, they are many people who includes some credit card processor professionals do not really trust ikobo, they must have
their own professional judgement to view ikobo.
So, just be careful.
Thanks for the warning; I'll take this into consideration. Seeing the way things went so far, I personally don't have too much of a reason not to trust them. True, I'm no professional, but still, I think my personal experience so far, counts as something, right?

Sorry Alex,

I had by no meant of offensive at all by using this word "professional".
What I meant was just beware!

I have a question, since you have been using Ikobo for 1 year, have your customers (buyers) ever asked by ikobo to submit their personal document like picture Id and utilities bills for verification?

Originally posted by adjkhost

However, I have seen worst. Moneybookers asks you a photocopy of your Visa Card..

Andre,

Are you using moneybookers? Can you share your experience
with moneybookers? Thank you!

As you already know, I am a new ikobo customer and when I signed up I only sent two copies:one from a phone bill and one from my ID. That's it. The account was unblocked immediately and since then I never had problems with them.

I think Alex sent them those copies because he wanted to do that. I don't think ikobo requested all that documents ? Isn't it , Alex ?

Originally posted by cavalry
Sorry Alex,

I had by no meant of offensive at all by using this word "professional".
What I meant was just beware!

I have a question, since you have been using Ikobo for 1 year, have your customers (buyers) ever asked by ikobo to submit their personal document like picture Id and utilities bills for verification?
Don't worry, I didn't take any offense. I understand what you mean and I appreciate your advice. About my buyers being asked for these types of documents, I don't know of any cases. I'm not saying they haven't been any, it's just that no one complained to me about this.

Ikobo required my cutomer to fax his ID and utilities bill for approving the 5th transaction, my customer was very frustrated on it. Finally this sales went to Stormpay.

Does ikobo make any sense to do like this to my customer?
But I have not faxed any documents to ikobo.

Hmm, maybe it was an automated decision based on your customer's location or something like that. This triggered the security check and asked for the documents. Just guessing here. :)

Originally posted by Alyssa26
I think Alex sent them those copies because he wanted to do that. I don't think ikobo requested all that documents ? Isn't it , Alex ?
Well, those were the documents I could get my hands on sort of speak, so I sent them. At that time I just wanted to unblock the account, which I actually did. Guess it was more information than ikobo requires, but hey, since nobody has stolen my identity so far, I don't think they'll be doing it from now on. As I said, I for one trust them on this matter.

Actually only picture ID and utilities bill are sufficient, right?

Yes, I think this is enough to unblock your account.

Yep! :) That's all it takes.
As I found out later. Eh well, I used those documents later on, to increase my limits, so it wasn't a completely wasted effort.

Actually ikobo is not blocking my account, but just cannot withdraw even 1 cent..

So, why don't you talk to them ? When I have something to ask, I always use their Chat system. They made improvements even to that :) I like it.

I waited for a long time in the long queue, when it was avalable for my turn, then a message said: No agent is available, please leave a message...

Originally posted by cavalry
Andre,

Are you using moneybookers? Can you share your experience
with moneybookers? Thank you!

Nope, I actually signed up with them but my customers were afraid of it by that time (it was like 2 or 3 years ago when they appeared). They asked also customers to send a photocopy of their VISA (back/front), so it was really a pain, and could not use it for long. :(

Hmm, that's odd. As I previously said, almost each time I try to reach them, I manage to get someone to talk to. True, sometimes I also have to wait a little, but it never is more than 1 person in front of me in this queue.

Ikobo also asked my customer who from Europe to fax picture ID and utilities bill over, but my customer has completed 4 transactions with ikobo previously, this made my customer very angry and disappointed. I was so worry I was going to lose this order. What a headache ikobo is giving me!..:angry:

I heard moneybooker is very stable and reliable, I just have the hard time to set up their multiple items shopping cart.

What credit card processor are you using? Andre

Originally posted by alex27
Hmm, that's odd. As I previously said, almost each time I try to reach them, I manage to get someone to talk to. True, sometimes I also have to wait a little, but it never is more than 1 person in front of me in this queue.

I accessed their live help after 2:00am their time (Georgia), I had 4 queue in front of me, when it became my turn, they asked me to leave a message.

But I think this is depending on what time you contact them, they are seldom available when their time is after mid-night.

They are mostly available now, because now it is almost noon in Georgia:

http://www.worldtimeserver.com/

Or maybe they put me in a second prority? just like I have never received their email notifications at all, because I did not fax them my documents? It could be..

I think you should talk to them about that and send them a copy of your ID and a utlity bill. You will be able to withdraw your money if you do that. If you don't want the money, you can always send them to me ... :))

Ok, enough about those documents. As I already said, I sent them too many documents to begin with. I later used these to increase my limits. End of story.
As for the customer support part, I think you answered your question yourself, it's related to their local time and I suppose I was lucky enough to speak to them during a regular work day. I don't think you, or anyone else is second or first or whatever priority, it's just a question of timing. :)

Originally posted by alex27
Ok, enough about those documents. As I already said, I sent them too many documents to begin with. I later used these to increase my limits. End of story.
As for the customer support part, I think you answered your question yourself, it's related to their local time and I suppose I was lucky enough to speak to them during a regular work day. I don't think you, or anyone else is second or first or whatever priority, it's just a question of timing. :)

You look like someone from iKobo. ;)
Just a thought.

Originally posted by cavalry
Ikobo also asked my customer who from Europe to fax picture ID and utilities bill over, but my customer has completed 4 transactions with ikobo previously, this made my customer very angry and disappointed. I was so worry I was going to lose this order. What a headache ikobo is giving me!..:angry:

I heard moneybooker is very stable and reliable, I just have the hard time to set up their multiple items shopping cart.

What credit card processor are you using? Andre

I am one of the people who were using PaySystems. I am now stuck at 2CO. They are not working bad since I signed up, let's hope their frequency stays the same.

I am willing to signup with WorldPay in the future or to get my own merchant account in the US though.

Originally posted by Alyssa26
If you don't want the money, you can always send them to me ... :))

Here you go....:beer:

Ikobo website is down, I cannot log in my accout. When I tried to get the live help, it said" you are in the 1 position in queue", I waited for about 10 minutes, then it said"no agents are currently available, plesae try again later"! What is this? :uzi:

Here is the Ikobo website's down time which I copied from
worldtimeserver:

UTC/GMT is 03:33 on Saturday, October 23, 2004
the current time inGeorgia, United States 11:33 PM
Friday, October 22, 2004 DST -0400 UTC

:kaioken:

When I tried to log in again with my email and password,
it said:
Invalid Username or Password

Is ikobo blocking my account?

I received an order from my email via ikobo, but now I cannot access into my ikobo account, and the live help is always not available!

The problem is I have to ship the goods to the customer by now!
Am I going to receive money from ikobo?

Ikobo is real giving me hard time!!!

Ikobo is holding my fund, what the hell they are worrying about?

Originally posted by adjkhost
You look like someone from iKobo. ;)
Just a thought.
That would be nice I guess. Maybe now I could access my account, not be left out like everyone else. :mad:

When I tried to log in Ikobo account with my user ID, this is what I get:

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, support@ikobo.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

worldtimeserver
UTC/GMT is 09:19 on Saturday, October 23, 2004
the current time in Georgia, United States
5:19 AM
Saturday, October 23, 2004
DST -0400 UTC

Originally posted by adjkhost
You look like someone from iKobo. ;)
Just a thought.


hmmm...it could be..:mad:

I am trying to chat with ikobo now, it says my position in the queue1..

UTC/GMT is 09:29 on Saturday, October 23, 2004
the current time in
Georgia, United States
5:29 AM
Saturday, October 23, 2004
DST -0400 UTC

I waited for 9 minutes, then it said:
No agents are currently, plesae try again...!!!

worldtimeserver
UTC/GMT is 09:38 on Saturday, October 23, 2004
the current time in
Georgia, United States
5:38 AM
Saturday, October 23, 2004
DST -0400 UTC

Well they're back for quite a while now. Have you managed to sort out your problems? About chat support, this is what they say on their, apparently, new support page:

• Chat support is available:
Monday - Friday: 08:00 AM - 08:30 PM EDT
Saturday - Sunday: 10:00 AM - 08:30 PM EDT

• If it is outside of chat hours, please click the question/suggestion tab to send your request by E-mail.
• It is currently 08:41AM EST on Thursday

This may explain why it's unavailable sometimes.

I have clarified the hold on funds thing before. It's not surprising, some accounts may have full hold on funds for 30day period.

I like their new customer support page. It's pretty nice and it has more functionality than the old one. Nice touch ... :)

Thanks Alex,

I see, on which ikobo webpage did you get the ikobo chat time table from? But ikobo is suppose to display the chat time schedule rather than asks visitors to wait for nothing?

Lets continue the story from my previous posting - I took the "risk" to ship the order to my customer even I could not loggin my ikobo account, later on I realized that I made a right decision, because ikobo's server was down, not blocking my account.

I took a deep breath, then I faxed my documents to ikobo immediately. Within 2 hours, I received an email from limits@ikobo.net, it said that ikobo did not receive my utlility bill with the fax, the I re-faxed my utility bill again.

Until now, I have not heard any notifications from ikobo, and I still cannot withdraw my money to ikard? I started worry again.....

Originally posted by Nilomedia
I have clarified the hold on funds thing before. It's not surprising, some accounts may have full hold on funds for 30day period.

I understand. So, in other words, this means that take into consideration the type of the business and also probably the volume of sales. Isn't it?

Add to the list, Location of Business.

Originally posted by cavalry
.......Until now, I have not heard any notifications from ikobo, and I still cannot withdraw my money to ikard? I started worry again.....

I am sure that if you didn't broke one of their security rules they will resolve your problem. Did you check your account? If it shows that you have money on the iKard then you really have them. Maybe there is a problem with the bank you are withdrawing the money. I had such a problem, but it was not ikobo's fault, it was the ATM's fault.

I didn't have such problems with faxing the documents and stuff. Everything went smoothly.

Anyway, keep us informed.

Originally posted by cavalry
Thanks Alex,

I see, on which ikobo webpage did you get the ikobo chat time table from? [...]
You're welcome. Well I got it from http://ikobo.custhelp.com. Apparently it's their new support page. I think you have to create an account (not an ikobo account, an account to use on this page only) then you can log in. Guess you can do without one, but I this way you don't have to enter that information required when you want to talk to an operator each time, and also with this you can check your past conversations. Hope I made myself clear. :)

Originally posted by Nilomedia
Add to the list, Location of Business.

Yes. Maybe this is because there are many countries with high risks because of the hackers and other bad people. Considering their 170 country coverage, this could be a filter for those countries where people just try to scam us and steal money.

It could be easier to just accept three or four countries like other similar services do but I think they really want to have a good coverage. And this is also good for merchants like us. :)

Hi Alyssa26,

I can loggin my ikobo account, I can see the fund available in my ikobo account, but I cannot transfer the fund to my ikard.

ATM withdrawal from my bank is not the problem.

Did you receive any notifications from ikobo that your account has been verified last time? Thanks

Originally posted by alex27
http://ikobo.custhelp.com. Apparently it's their new support page. I think you have to create an account (not an ikobo account, an account to use on this page only)

Thanks again Alex,

Yes, I already created an user account last time.
But will ikobo inform us whether our account status is verified from the submitted documents? or rejected? :D

Originally posted by Nilomedia
I have clarified the hold on funds thing before. It's not surprising, some accounts may have full hold on funds for 30day period.
Yep, it's something I guess we all have to try and live with. I for one know I'll get them when the hold period expires, so that's that. :)

Originally posted by Alyssa26
Yes. Maybe this is because there are many countries with high risks because of the hackers and other bad people. Considering their 170 country coverage, this could be a filter for those countries where people just try to scam us and steal money.



I agree,....;)

Originally posted by cavalry
Thanks again Alex,

Yes, I already created an user account last time.
But will ikobo inform us whether our account status is verified from the submitted documents? or rejected? :D
First of all, welcome again :)
Not sure about the notification, I think the best way to know this is by checking it yourself. You could also try speaking with a chat operator about the status of your account. Have you tried that "verify account" tab in your account? ;)

Originally posted by alex27
First of all, welcome again :)
Not sure about the notification, I think the best way to know this is by checking it yourself. You could also try speaking with a chat operator about the status of your account. Have you tried that "verify account" tab in your account? ;)

Hello Alex,

Yes, I did click on "verify Account", this was what I got:
No pending account.

I will double check my status with Ikobo operator later.
I think an ikobo Club should be established here...

Thanks again, Alex..

Okay Good News Now,

limits@ikobo.net replied my email very fast, they
said they received all my documents and my limits
have been restored to $1,000 withdraw.

I do not mind to put my money with ikobo as long as I can
withdraw the money for sure.

Thanks everyone!

:beer:

You are welcome ... :P

BTW: The ikobo Club is not a bad idea :)

Still "ify" myself so id be interested hehe

My short experience with them is a good one so my advice is to go for it and sign up. They really improve their services and they are cheeaaaaaapppp. :D I should say that this is my own opinion.

cavalry, what documents you sent to have your withdrawal limit set to $1k?

Nilomedia,

I sent my driver's license with picture on it (front and back),
and also my DSL internet line monthly bill.

I just withdrew money with my ikard from the ATM, no problem at all.
I hope everything will be fine from now on.....
la..la....

:banana:

Well, good for you ... :)

Thank you Alyssa and Alex, both of you have been very helpful!

Beer time now...!!!

:beer:

Great to know that cavalry :)
It's easy process...

I just read on some forums about people who were very angry at ikobo with no reason at all. They posted bad reviews in the forums and in the end they said that it was not ikobo's fault and as a matter a fact they are the only ones to blame. I simply don't understand why they didn’t use the FAQ or the HELP page before or immediately after joining ikobo. Let's just hope this new customer support page will shed some light for those people.

Originally posted by cavalry
Thank you Alyssa and Alex, both of you have been very helpful!

You're very much welcome. As long as I have any ideas I won't hesitate to share them with you all. I'm glad I could help out, even it wasn't that much.
So, what's wit the ikobo club? Where do I sign up? :D

Beer time now...!!!

:beer:
You're buying? After all, you've just got a nice $1000 limit. ;)

Yeap. This is true. You have money now :D so you have to celebrate this ... :)

About the ikobo club, I have an idea. Let's use google groups and set-up there a mailing list. What do you say ?

To tell you the truth this is the first time I've heard someone mention Google groups. Checked it out and realized they actually exist. Maybe we should give it a try, or was everyone just kidding and I fell for it? :cartman:

Thanks Nilomedia,
------------------------------------

First of all, I am a merchant who is running a small e-commerce, everything I say just based on my neutral comment and personal opinion, I do not take part, nor apply prejudice to particular person or company.

It is too early to tell how stable or reliable for a credit processor who has been around less than 6-7 years in the industry. Good examples just like paysystems and payline; and 2CO has been complained very badly recently.

Here are what I have found about ikobo so far:
I hate it
(1) A well established on-line company should always keep their website up. If their server down, they should send email to notify the users, or they should make a notice on their index page.

(2) About live help, there is a message requesting visitor to wait in queue, but in fact there is nobody available there for live help,
what is this?

(3) I do not like their merchants' secure page interface, especially the space to put product ID and product descriptions are too damn short!

(4) Anything else..?

I love it
(1) I can withdraw money from my local ATM, so I can get my money fast, and I can save the expensive wire transfer fee. Most importantly I do not have to keep too much money with the credit card processor.

(2) It is good to have a live help facility, provided if they are available.

(3) Competitive rate

(4) Shopping cart provided. Unlike moneybookers, moneybookers offers low rate but no shopping cart provided. ( I always comparing ikobo to moneybookers..?)

(5) Anything else..?

In summary, I have to intention to speak ills of some cedit card processor company, as this is nothing to gain me!
Perhaps I was too anxious to get a reliable credit card processor to keep my e-commerce alive, and I was just frustrated when I
did not see my expectation.

I am not looking for a one night stand, but I am looking for a long term business relationship.

Pretty much agree with you, but you have to admit they're trying on the "hate it part", but it's a slow progress. :)
I didn't think to highly of ikobo at first, but once I began to know my way around I started to like them (problems and all). I think sticking with them isn't such a bad idea (guess I'm a living proof of that ;)) since they appear to be trying their best to work out problems.

Originally posted by alex27
You're very much welcome. As long as I have any ideas I won't hesitate to share them with you all. I'm glad I could help out, even it wasn't that much.

Alex, you have been extremely helpful to us!
We are very glad to have you here. Thank you!

So, what's wit the ikobo club? Where do I sign up? :D

How do you like this name? I believe it will set up soon.

You're buying? After all, you've just got a nice $1000 limit. ;)

Yes, absolutely, but heineikien and budweiser are very expensive here, coors is not available. Only carlsberg and tiger beer...
:beer: :beer:

Originally posted by Alyssa26
Yeap. This is true. You have money now :D so you have to celebrate this ... :)

About the ikobo club, I have an idea. Let's use google groups and set-up there a mailing list. What do you say ?

google group? it sounds cool.....:cool:

Originally posted by alex27
Pretty much agree with you, but you have to admit they're trying on the "hate it part", but it's a slow progress. :)

I agree, Rome was not built in one over night!


I didn't think to highly of ikobo at first, but once I began to know my way around I started to like them (problems and all). I think sticking with them isn't such a bad idea (guess I'm a living proof of that ;)) since they appear to be trying their best to work out problems. [/B]

Alex, I take your word for it...but time only can tell :gthumb:

Indeed, guess we'll have to stick around and see for ourselves.
About that beer, Carlsberg will do just fine. :beer:

My experience with iKobo is most scary...

My account was disabed for fraud without even a single transaction in the account... and then same happened to one of my friend..
Their support says..."Our system disables account sometime without any fraud...pls send us follown details..blah blah"

Weird!

Thanks God I didn't implemented it on my site.. though I was ready with scripts and was about to do so...

For me they are a big scam...

To domainwala,

I guess maybe you tried to log in your ikobo account from many different PC? I heard ikobo is very sensitive for their IP detection. I always log in my ikobo account from the same PC.

Or maybe you fill out wrong information accidently on your ikobo sign-up form?

Thais is only my guessing...

<later edit> @domainwala (guess I posted this the same time cavalry did :) )
Well, I for one understand and respect your opinion. You've had some problems and no one is disputing that, but you can't generalize that to all of us. As you can see there's quite a few of us who don't consider it a scam and use them for some time. This whole account-blocking thing has been discussed already so I'm not going into that again, but in most cases it gets solved. At least this is how I see things.

What I learned about ikobo is that they have a pretty tight security system and you don't want to mess with it. This is a little frustrating BUT on the other hand it gives me reassurance and peace of mind knowing that no hacker can get my money from my ikobo account so ... my advice (here I go again :) ) READ their FAQ and HELP page every time you want to use a product or a service. This way you can't cause problems to you or your business and also you can't post bad reviews about a service or a product just because you think that it's not your fault.

Originally posted by domainwala
My experience with iKobo is most scary...

My account was disabed for fraud without even a single transaction in the account... and then same happened to one of my friend..
Their support says..."Our system disables account sometime without any fraud...pls send us follown details..blah blah"

Weird!

Thanks God I didn't implemented it on my site.. though I was ready with scripts and was about to do so...

For me they are a big scam...

I have a "WEIRD" question for you. Did you sent them the documentation?

The fraud isn't just you got a fraud order, but If the owner tries to trick the system.

However, sending your utlity bill to verify address along with a picture ID to verify name, isn't a trouble.

For me they are a big scam...
If it's a scam, I wouldn't withdraw around 1.5k-2k in a month. I mean, I never had the feeling of a "scam" in their services.

I have one more thought, I understand ikobo is working hard to prevent frauds. But if ikobo insists of asking our regular customers to send their documents over, considering not all customers will happy to do it, I am pretty sure we will lose some sales.

Furthermore, we have the monthly sales limits, we have to worry what if our monthly sales exceed the limits?

Perhaps ikobo is mainly good for person to person money transfer, not for e-commerce.

My personal opinion only...

I thought about that at the beginning of my ikobo journey and my conclusion is simple. If my sales limits are high for a good period of time I will just raise my limits with 1K or 2K. I saw there are merchants with 3K or 4K a month so my personal opinion is this: No problems here.

Thank you Alyssa,

But asking our regular customers to fax their personal documents will not be acceptable for some of them. Most importantly, we are not only losing sales, but our business relationship with the customers may turn bad!

Perhaps this is nothing wrong to ask the customer to fax their information for verification purpose, but we need to think of the customer stand point, they may not like to do it!

Now we are tallking about to provide shopping convenience for the customer, but not to provide shopping convenience for the processor, nor to us as a merchant. A very straight forward question
here: who is giving us money?

Only for general discussion only.

Ikobo now captures 31.71% positive feedback, this figure excluding option: "Not decided whether to use it or not?"

There are only 31% negative feedback.

I don't like it! 6 14.63%
It is a scam, stay away! 8 19.51%

It is 34.14 negative feedback....

Oh, ok ... I wasn't paying attention to the numbers ... anyway this means that (100%-34.14%) 65.86% already use them or they might use them in the future. The more, the merrier. They could buy my products. :D

So, now is almost even...positive vs. negative

for your information, the vote stats are not real, just fake clicks. I can assure that 75% votes came in without any true experience.

Yes, I know, but what can we do?
We just take the figure as rough estimate...
But I was wondering can the same person vote more than 1 time?

ok.. i agree they are not scam.. but I said.. they classified my account as fraud when I did nothing...

infact I liked the concept of withdraing through ATM.. and I recommended it to so many people earlier..

And I didnt send them the documnets.. I have no problem doing that.. but I feel little uncomfortable dealing with them now.. not only bcoz of unjustified account blocking but also bcoz of the reply from the support...

Originally posted by domainwala
ok.. i agree they are not scam.. but I said.. they classified my account as fraud when I did nothing...

infact I liked the concept of withdraing through ATM.. and I recommended it to so many people earlier..

And I didnt send them the documnets.. I have no problem doing that.. but I feel little uncomfortable dealing with them now.. not only bcoz of unjustified account blocking but also bcoz of the reply from the support...

Exactly the same with me. However they did not classify my account has fraud, it was instantly blocked. Looks like it is a Random block or whatever. Their support guy explained that to me. But when it comes to technical questions they are far behind my expectations, and seemed to be somehow unprofessional.

That is why I did not send any documents either. My personal information is not something that flies around from a country to another like that.

I would say ikobo does not have a good system to manage their user accounts. But I think they are improving, hopefully...

I was almost certain .... :) The account is automatically blocked immediately after you sign up (at least this is what happened in my case). After you send them the documents your account will be unblocked. It's just that easy.

I'm lucky then, never had my account blocked there! ;)

so that means I am not alone.. gr8..

also... can anyone suggest some good alternatives for us.. blocked users..;)

BTW I had to provide a free domain to a customer bcoz he registered with me agreeing he would pay by iKobo.. and my account got blocked so I asked him to not pay through iKobo and he was not registered with any other payment service provider...

Hope someone from iKobo reads this and realises how inconvenient there random blocker is...

I don't know what's harmful with sending a gov. issued ID along with utility bill through email to get your account unblocked. It's easy.

For all the cases I've known of blocked accounts, pretty much all of them were resolved after the account holder followed instructions and issued the required documents. I've also had the account blocked after signup, but I unblocked it easy and fast after sending the papers (too many for that matter ;) ). It's true, sometimes you have to have a little more patience to deal with them, but eventually things will work out. My 2 cents.

1 November, should we notice the ikobo system changes now?

Yes, I think their withdrawal fee should be 1.99$. :) I will loose 0.49$ at every withdrawal. I am going to get bankrupt :D.

Seriously now, what other changes should we notice. We all are merchants here. :)

Yeah.. I'm a IKobo user from Indonesia. They help us process payment very much..
Long Live IKobo..!!

Heh, that's one of the good parts of ikobo. Being able to cover countries others can't, or don't do it with very good services. So, how long have you been using them? Did you vote? :)

Originally posted by nukecpower
Yeah.. I'm a IKobo user from Indonesia. They help us process payment very much..
Long Live IKobo..!!

What kind of shopping cart are you using right now ? Are they your first payment gateway ? Vote !!! :D

I suggest removing the poll since it doesn't reflect the truth anyway.

You're right.
Anyway, if someone reads through this thread I think they can see for themselves it is a pretty good choice and people actually use it with success. :)

You should take into consideration that every time when a user enters this thread he will vote before he gets the chance of reading this thread. So, that's why most of them voted "Not decided whether to use it or not?” The reality is not mirrored in this poll.

but we actually realize that a 15%+ is a big percentage considering ikobo as a "scam" which is not correct. I think it's a big percentage.

It is quite a high percentage and quite an unreal one too. All of those votes could have come from a single person voting under different user names, or just from people who don't really know anything about this and just like to vote. Pretty much the same way as with the US elections. :D

Quite a mixed response on the poll.

I know Ikobo serves a purpose for some merchants that are unable to be served by other services... and for that, it is a good thing in those situations. It is definitely NOT a scam.

We've used it first hand to make payments and it is has worked well for that part - but we did go through quite a headache of a process to increase our limits and Ikobo took forever to do it at the time.

I would not recommend it as a primary gateway option if other options are available. However, as a backup or as a means by which payments can be transferred to countries that are not serviced by PayPal and others - it fits a need nicely.

Lately there have been some improvements with them, including the speed with which they do things. True, people are reluctant to use them because they're not so well known, but hopefully that will change. I'm one of those who can't use paypal and have ikobo as an only option. So far it hasn't been such a bad experience, not at all.

Their speed of processing the raising of the limits has increased along with the other improvements made to their website and services. I know, because I've been there not a long time ago.

Been there where? :)
Seriously now, what cdgcommerce is partially right in my opinion. What I mean is that indeed ikobo is a very good option when none of the other services is available (or affordable), but I think that using them as a primary gateway wouldn't be such a bad decision. I should know, since that's what I'm doing. :)

But keep asking our regular customers to fax their personal information is not a good business practice, and it will definitely jeopardize our online business.

Now my customer is using Stormpay to make his payment to me. Luckily this customer still buy from me; but I know he dislikes me, because I recommended ikobo to him to make payment.

I cannot afford to let all my regular customers to be treated like this.

Yeah, but if they're regulars, they would only have to do this once to have their accounts verified. After that things should work smoothly...

The best thing to do is to ask cdgcommerce for a merchant account ;)
I think he would at least inform you how to proceed if you don't want to use these 3rd party processors.

Even if you are not in the US, I bet they should know where to send you.

Hi adjk,

I am still waiting for your story book, please pm me when it is ready.
Thanks..

Yeah Guys, the "send your documents" Policy simply won't work for me.

I've had 2 delays in payments because 2 clients had their accounts blocked and couldn't pay me. The had to send me via western union (which costs about $9 more than ikobo based on a $200 transfer).

I don't like stormpay cuz I am not allowed to have a bank account yet (I am only 17) and therefore I won't be able to withdraw my earnings by any means.

Another thing, heard about the I-kard maintenance fees ($.99 per month). The strange thing is, its just like ikobo don't take that fee in their consideration that much, its just like charging fees on the fly
I asked their online support: What if my Ikard balance is 0, how will you charge me?
The guy/gal replies: We won't charge you then
Me: Will my I account be still active, and will I be able to recieve payments?
He/She: Yes you will

This seems to be kinda weird.. What if i withdraw weekly or right before the month ends, how will they charge me?

I guess IKOBO aren't getting any better after all.

Ha..you see! Another complaint..!!!

In fact, there is nothing wrong if Ikobo wants to verify the seller and buyer in order to safeguard the transactions.

But the problem is not all customers like it.
Can't Ikobo just figure out a better way to handle this?

Well, thats not very convenient for the buy, if I wuz a US resident, and was looking at a website and thinkin I am gonna order, then I start the order and BANG, my account is blocked, and they want me to send over some documents!! why the fuss, lets find some other website that accepts paypal..
Thats the usual scenario

m_php,

Was you customer angry?

That exact customer wasn't that much angry, but wuz rather like: How will I pay you then?, but we sorted it out
But believe me when I say, before Ikobo was that popular, I had many -and believe me when I say MANY- customers turned away because of the difficulty of payment due to the fact that i don't accept paypal.

Its just a fact we have all to admit, 95% of your customers will be turned away because of the silly, time consuming, boring verification process, specially if you're selling low priced intangible products such as Hosting or domains or whatever, and if you're selling tangible products that are rather low priced and not that "essential" for the client. I mean, I will be selling some local goodies, they are not exactly ESSESNTIAL for a american or european person, but he would rather find it interesting and low priced, so he might start thinking about buyin it mhe gets out his CC, which might not be a VISA or Mastercard :?, starting ordering and again - Bang- account blocked.. what would he do then?
He would just say "nevermind"

Its a fact people, ikobo aint that good a payment solution
I am seriously looking into using 2CO

If buyer enters his information complete, accurate, as on file, I bet there's no such block may occur, impossibly to happen. Just some buyers mistype their address, billing info, or bank name/phone or both.

well, no accounts are initialy blocked, once u sign up the initial status is blocked, like what happened to alyssa26

Originally posted by m_php
well, no accounts are initialy blocked, once u sign up the initial status is blocked, like what happened to alyssa26

And like happened to me. Block just as I logged in :D

Yes, but as I told you I got my problem resolved in a matter of minutes because I scanned my documents and send them immediately. And I don't consider this to be a problem anymore. I feel much safer now when I know that all the ikobo users cannot be hackers (people with very very bad intentions who can clear your account very quickly :) ).

m_php, did you ask your clients to sign up before sending money? No, use the CC processor.

Indeed, to some, this account verification may seem like a problem, but once you consider all the frauds happening and the fact that chargebacks led some companies into bankruptcy (see paysystems), I for one am willing to accept this. True, I may lose some customers, but at least I don't have to worry about the above. I guess it's a compromise one has to make.

I got your point. iKobo may not be perfect (as of this moment) for first-time users, or unknown/public clients. They must improve their billing form, and their verification system a little to make it as easy as 2CO for example.

I for one prefer to have a list of good clients other than having a lot of clients who chargeback a lot just because they can. And yes, ikobo could improve their billing form. Recently an ikobo representative told me that they are working on a new billing form. So, I think we'll just have to wait and see.

Good news. Let's hope they do this sooner than later. :)
I agree with you Alyssa. Chargebacks are the worst, especially when used abusively. If sending more documents will help prevent this, that so be it. I accept this situation.

What third party shopping carts can I use with ikobo?
Like Cubecart? Or Agora cart?

OsCommerce works great with ikobo. I know I use it. You can find the ikobo payment module on the contributions page of the OsCommerce website.

Thank you, Alyssa,

I do not like OSCommerce shopping cart.
Do you other 3rd party shopping carts in your mind?
Thanks again!

I know there are two shopping carts supported by ikobo but I don't remember their names. OsCommerce is popular and very easy to implement. Why don't you like it ?

I for one think OSC is not such a bad option for a free solution to create a pretty decent online shop. The fact that now it supports ikobo is an added bonus IMHO.

Originally posted by alex27
I for one think OSC is not such a bad option for a free solution to create a pretty decent online shop. The fact that now it supports ikobo is an added bonus IMHO.

The problem of osCommerce relies on customization, a real pain.

stay away from them ! bad company !!
I just add credit card and then next day I remove my card info from there. they cost me about $3 :(

Originally posted by jenok
stay away from them ! bad company !!
I just add credit card and then next day I remove my card info from there. they cost me about $3 :(

Sorry, I didn't get this. Could you explain?

I think the $3 he's referring to are the verification money needed to register the credit card. It’s normal procedure, and after it's finished you get your money back. Again, I must emphasize the fact that one should read instructions properly before deciding they're bad and stuff like that.

I tried many times to verify my merchant account status with my credit card, but this feature did not work..!

Guess that's still "under construction". :)
Give it time, it will work. You know how it is with them, kinda slow but they eventually get the job done.

Oh...! I see!

Thanks Alex. But I think ikobo is suppose to have an under construction notice on this particular site? So we won't keep trying to key in our information..!!

Very nice to have you here..Alex.

There is a plugin for OsCommerce which you can use to design your own shopping cart using the OSC elements. Look on the contributions page of the OsCommerce website were I found the ikobo payment module too. Nice ... :)

Thanks Alyssa, I will try it...

Here is the email I received when iKobo blocked my account (just after signup):

Dear Andre,

Our system actively runs a verification process on all iKobo transactions. At this time, the system has identified your account to be blocked. Occasionally our system does block accounts that should not be blocked.

In order to unblock your account, please submit the Unblock Form (http://www.ikobo.com/blocked.html) along with a copy of a government issued photo ID and a household bill. Accounts are reviewed within 24 to 48 hours following the receipt of your submission. You will be contacted once your account has been reviewed.

We apologize for the inconvenience, but you cannot process website sales or receive payments until your account has been unblocked.

We appreciate your cooperation and patience.

If you have any questions, please contact us at (678) 483-4562.

Thank you for choosing iKobo,


The iKobo Team


Copyright 2001-2004 iKobo, Inc. All Rights Reserved


Please do not reply to this email. Messages sent to this address will not be
answered. For assistance, please visit our website at www.ikobo.com and click the "Help" link.

Just to add this to the thread.