hi guys i have already posted it on scam.com forum here is the original link

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?p=788446#post788446

the reason i cross posted it here on WHT is that i wanted to asked those people who have experienced with alertpay. But before anything else i would like to introduce myself I am Ronnel Ang from philippines i own a small web design business.

I had a client who asked for a service the following are the services they have asked


1 768x90 banner
1 468x60 banner
1 125x125 banner
1 300x600 banner
Full template
SEO analysis
CUSTOM features (altering and adding a readymade script)

The amount og the project is $756 they have paid 50% as downpayment which is $378.

I have sent them the script needed altered it, asked for their temporary cpanel and website access then i did my job. And its because i pay my programmer and designer on every project that we have, we have to withdraw the money asap but before doing that i have email alertpay about our transaction so that atleast they are being notified as i really dont trust this people who hired us, they run Ponzi program so its really hard to trust and one thing bothers me is that because i had this horrible experience with paypal after giving and fulfilling our service my client asked for a chargeback without asking us 1st but they still won the case so in this case i dont want it to happen again even though i know that alertpay is different from paypal but there is no hurting on making sure. And so i emailed them.

Hello i just want to inform you about a transaction made by my client who bought a virtual item my script autohitter and a custom template worth $756 and he paid 50% here is the detail

Date: 7/30/2009 5:40:29 AM
Reference No: AFBE8-6DE7E-****
Transaction Type: Transfer Received From
Name/Email: ACN advertise
adcashnet@gmail.com
Current Status: Completed
Amount: $378.00 USD
Purchase Type: Other
Note: Thank you

we have sent the script but we are not doen with the template yet. We want a protection just incase this is a fraudulent transaction we dont give refunds. any tips how to protect ourself? jsut like on paypal sorry but this is our first big transaction on alertpay so we want protection just like paypal do.

and so they replied back

Hello Ronnel Odysses Ang,

Thank you for contacting AlertPay Customer Support. I am happy to assist you.

While we do not have a specific form of buyer protection, we do have a loss prevention department and a dispute resolution process in place to assist our members who feel they have been cheated. If you have provided the complete product to the buyer, we recommend that you request that your client complete their part of the transaction and pay you the remainder of the funds owed you.

If you wish to initiate dispute against your client, you may create a dispute ticket at https://helpdesk.alertpay.com . Please ensure to provide the reference number/s of the transaction/s in question and a detailed description of why you are initiating the dispute so we may investigate the matter. If you file a transaction dispute, we will do our best to mediate a resolution that will benefit all parties involved.

We recommend that you read through our User Agreement ( https://www.alertpay.com/info/UserAgreement.aspx ), specifically sections 2.0 and 5.0 for more detail in regards to our dispute resolution process.

so im kinda relief there now the day that my client asked for our service we already have a problem with our hosting. here is the details.

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=872062

my username there is dirtydoug same as here. But sadly right after we are done with our service our hosting runaway and that make our site temporarily unavailable, so we had a trouble as we have 3 sites being hosted there we have no backup, when the time we are facing a big problem and wanted to fixed it asap we asked our clients to just pay the remaining balance to our Liberty reserve account or through paypal and we have agreed so i decided to withdraw the amount to my alertpay through our exchanger and we have successfully withdrawn it after receiving the money in 2 days we decided to close some of our payment processors that includes alertpay, solidtrustpay and strictpay and we have closed it successfully but after opening my email i recieved an email from alertpay not from my client about a ticket asking for a refund, so i was quite surprise after all those days that they were operating they asked for a refund now? they have not paid us yet with the full amount and they asked for refund, so i was thinking that they might thinking to get their money back without paying us at all, i dont know what i have done that they didnt like after our service we havent heard from them so i assume that everything works fine so i called alertpay hotline even if its too expensive i have to so i talked to an agent i forget her name and told her about the whole story she told me to file a dispute and instructed me, and just by now my exchanger to whom i exchange my AP funds told me that the funds that came from me where frozen by alertpay, whats that? it was been hold by alertpay he told me that maybe the transaction was from a credit card and if your client paid you through ap using credit card they ca ask for a chargeback within 30 days and nothig alertpay can do about it, they will still refund the money.

So it means even if you have done your service they can still asked for a chargeback within 30 days, why does this thing happen? my concern is does alertpay have seller protection? or any protection from this kind of business of course we can not have our items back even if we can have it back what would we do about it? our hard worked will be wasted if they do refund our client and grant the chargeback what would we do? we have already closed our account cause we have already agreed that they are goig to pay us on different payment processor. What should i do? if this happen the money they paid us will be refunded to them and thats not all the remaining balance will not be paid anymore so inshort our hard work will be totally wasted.

So guys pls. do let me know how to solve this problem it was like my client were actually waiting for these things to happen or even if my host didnt run away maybe this was planned from the start.

If alertpay staff is reading this pls. do let me know how to protect my self from this kind of modus operandi?

I tried to email my client talked to them on Ym but they are not responding that is why i am pretty convince that they really planned this whole thing.

well, if you use paypal for a transaction you can withdraw the money to your bank account. When the person opens a dispute paypal will only take the $ out of the account, not debit card or bank account. I've had many disputes from scammers and this method works. Not sure if this will work with alertpay...

yes i have already withdrawn the money but because i have not withdrawn it on my bank to help a business exchanger from my country the one affected and the account being froze was my exchangers account so i am very shy and shamed of what have happened and so i am hoping that alertpay would somehow help me with my problem

You can get reverse scammed any time, any day, any minute, by any client, welcome to the internet. The only way to prevent this is have them sign a CC authorization form, like a check you sign when you buy something in person.

I don't know much about alertpay but from what I heard last they cut off CC processing to pharms at some point, and might still be cut off (not too sure). You're better off finding a more stable method of payment.

Hi Ronnel,

How's the situation with your AlertPay?


Ping

So posting everywhere including SCAM.com is fair to Alertpay?

They didn't scam you, your client did.

That's the rules of card associations such as Visa / MasterCard and its usually pull funds, ask questions later!

That's like you have a fraudulent customer and the people at Altertpay posting everywhere that you are scams!

The word SCAM is pointless because people use it in the wrong context everywhere!

Alertpay do not have a seller protection policy but I wouldn't call them a scam. The sad thing is that big companies like AP and PP hardly ever dispute chargebacks, they let the seller take the fall. Presumably, it costs them more to fight it than it does to ignore it.
Atleast Paypal does not ask for an 'admin fee' when you face a chargeback. AP charges one (last time it was 20% of the total amount) for not doing anything. For this reason, I have stopped accepting credit card payments via Alertpay. I am not sure if they protect you when there is a user to user transfer because I have never faced such a dispute.

I'd always use an escrow service that's reputable for work like this. This way, the escrow service holds the full amount, and releases it to you when the work is completed. With services it's so hard to dispute a chargeback because when it goes to arbitration with Visa or MasterCard they are focused on tracking numbers for proof of delivery. Anything electronic or for services and you're really up a creek.

Years back I sold software, and in a dispute they won't consider email or the delivery of anything unless it was by carrier with a signed return receipt from the cardholder as proof.