Hello,

Back in 2004, I was using PayPal and PaySystems. After PaySystems went crazy, I moved to iKobo, based on positive advice in this forum.

I still use PayPal as well, and in fact, only had two transactions sent to ikobo. I waited to receive the ikobo card, but it never came. I requested it twice, and still, it didn't arrive. Since I was living overseas at the time, I decided to wait until my return to the US.

Today, I entered my ikobo account and confirmed that the two transactions were still in their system. I searched the site for the procedure to order a ikobo withdrawal card; I must have missed it.

I started a real time chat with, Carlos (good name), one of their customer service people. I explained I would like to receive a card so I can withdraw the amount of the two outstanding transactions. Carlos replied that my account had NO transactions.

Since I was logged in, and LOOKING at the two transactions, I replied that INDEED I did have a balance. Back and forth we went. I wondered if he was even connected to their backend. He asked that I send a screenshot, and I did. His reply was that "There is no way for him to confirm it is my account." What? He next recommened I phone in.

I did, and surprise, was connected to Carlos (the chat person). He said his system is not showing my balance. This is VERY strange! He then put me on hold. When he came back, he said that their system was down, and to call in another hour. This is a typical excuse by tooooo many businesses these days. Very very bad customer service in my opinion.

When I returned to the chat window, I notice he added a last reply asking me why I was trying to claim my balance from the year 2004? Well, it is MY MONEY, I was never able to resolve not getting the ikobo card while overseas, and JUST returned to the US.

The amount is very low, but to me, it is the principle -- how can I trust ikobo with more funds if they fail such terribly with a small amount?

Does anyone here have connections, or advice in resolving this matter? I've worked about eight years in customer service myself, so I know yelling isn't the anwer. During the above communications, I've kept my calm.

Regards,

Carlos Camacho
idevgames@gmail.com

so you were burned by paysystems too eh.

Actually, I didn't have any funds in PaySystems when it went to he||. Up until then, it was a great system. Anyways, I called back to ikoko and spoke to a more pleasant staff. She confirmed I had funds inside of my account. BUT she said she would need to hand me off to her manager, and said that person would call me back. Of course, that person never did.

:(

Some of my friends had an opportunity being in contact with Ikobo representatives. Those folks from ikobo are really amateur (as in not professional). I personally had bad experiences dealing with ikobo in the past and I do NOT recommend them to anyone. I think you should stay away from that shady company.

According to Ikobo, they are now strictly in the business of providing person-to-person payments (likely due to conflicts with the Card Associations, if I had to guess) and so they are not even designed to handle merchant payments any more.

While I don't think Ikobo's intentions are bad, they definitely have big issues on the service side and I think that they are so loss adverse, it has been like pulling teeth to get even a small limit increase on the few occasions that I've needed to do so. (We have a vendor we pay each month via Ikobo so I am directly familiar with their service)

IKOBO is owned and run by Nigerians. Have you heard about Nigeria? Heheh, I bet you did, especially if you are an online business. Guess what "kobo" is name of coins in Nigeria. They named their company after a Nigerian coin. Stay far away from Nigerian businesses.

I don't think being Nigerian is a problem. That is a "bad generalization."

You may want to check if they have some account expiration or something like that. Or probably they deduct something every month to an inactive account?

At any rate, if your account did have a balance, and you cannot get it because you do not have an iKobo card, then that's a problem. If chatting won't work and if calling won't work, I will still place a support ticket detailing all the scenario.

We used to transact person to person money transfer using iKobo and we did receive our iKobo card back then. But, we had decided to consolidate all our transactions via one processor with control panel where you see and download a record of your transactions in CSV format. Therefore, we stopped using iKobo.

We wish you well.