I’m annoyed. I’ve complained earlier about the lack of “global” in global commerce and I just hit another bad example with moneybookers.com. Without getting into details, Moneybookers is sort of like PayPal – they act as an intermediary between merchants and customers in financial transactions.
How did I end up dealing with them? Well, the warranty policies of a certain camera company forced me to get a camera from within EU instead of getting it from the US with a reasonable price. So here I was, having finally located a store within EU to sell what I want for a not-too-outrageous price, trying to buy a camera from a merchant that uses Moneybookers to process their transactions. Everything went well until I had to pay for it which turned out to be impossible. Why? Because Moneybookers has a limit of 500eur for new customers. 500eur doesn’t buy much of a camera, so I called their customer service.
Customer service my @$%. While they weren’t as bad as HP in this completely unrelated case (seriously, it’s amazing what companies can call “customer service” and still get away with it nowadays!), it soon became apparent that they were equally unhelpful. The limit was there for my security, they told me. My security. And then they continue with a hypothetical case that if someone hacked into my account, they would be able to make purchases and they (Moneybookers) were going to be held liable and all that. So after eloquently telling me who exactly would be on the line of fire if there was a security breach, explain to me again how it was my security that was protected by this arrangement?
At this point I didn’t know what to think. But okay, I’m sure the limit could be raised somehow.
Like maybe by further identifying myself. To this end, after failing initial queries of possibly raising the limit, I offered to fax in every imaginable identification detail – to no avail. So how about a temporary raise? Not possible. They did offer to raise the limit if I sent them a recent bank statement with my address. Raise it to a whopping 750eur, that is! Alternatively I could also wait for six months(!) to get it raised – again to 750eur. Well whoop-e-doo, instead of an absurdly too low a limit I would then have, well, an absurdly too low a limit. More than that was apparently “impossible” as their system was “automatic”. Unbelievable. In essence they resorted to blaming the computer, so I called up a manager in an attempt to find some reason. But no. Even the manager blamed their “system” and that “nobody in the office can change these amounts” – if that is indeed true, it’s one pathetic system.
In any case, as it stands, Moneybookers is 100% useless to me and I hope by now they have deleted my account. So instead of getting some significant business, they managed to a) lose a customer for one of their merchants, b) get one disappointed ex-customer of their own and c) lose out on all the revenue my transaction would’ve brought them.
Way to go.
PayPal, fear not – your competition is not trying too hard on the “competing” part. I only wish the merchant in question would switch providers and all would be well in this particular case.
Hei Sami,
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Obviously they’ve mastered the fine art of “customer service” outside Finnish borders as well. :/ What a bummer and what a bunch of lousy excuses. They will run out of business if they keep running it like that!
Read about a Google equivalent to PayPal, it was called CheckOut or something… would that be of any use if you found an e-shop that used services provided by them?
Hope you can track down the camera of your dreams and get your hands on it fairly easy, though hard it seems.
Yep, Google Checkout would also do – unfortunately it’s the merchants decision what to use; amazingly, many European merchants don’t accept credit cards at all.
Sometimes I really miss the well-functioning online commerce of US.
Hi there.
I use moneybookers very often mostly to fund my betting accounts.
I can tell you that they customer service is weak but you can raise up your transaction limits.
I only needed to send them my ID card, confirm my address (they send a letter with a verification code) and that’s it.
My transaction limit now is 30.000 euros, should be enough for you, no?
Just take some days (like in paypal)
Santos, thanks for the comment. My transaction limit was also high enough, but unfortunately that’s not the limit they apply for credit card transactions (as a sidenote, the multitude of limits is also confusing) – sending money from a bank account wouldn’t have been a problem, but I needed to use a credit card and it simply wasn’t possible to do that for sums beyond 500eur.
I’ve been reading the forums about moneybookers.
I also had a problem with Moneybookers recently. I respected all the limits allowed to my account to send money to a relative abroad. As soon as the transaction was processed (without any apparent problem) they decided to freeze both accounts and kept insisting that we were using moneybookers for commercial purposes. we sent ID documents (again!) as requested but at the end they kept asking us for an company URL that we didn’t have. So they ended up closing my account. No explanation at all about why they believed that I was using MB for commercial purposes. I think they couldn’t understand the problem. Very disloyal. I’m happy to have my account closed finally, Paypal is still by far the best even if a bit more expensive but I couldn’t use it with the country I needed to sent to.
I wouldn’t recomend them.
Moneybookers = AVOID!
Yes, my experience is very similar to everybody above.
This is one company that does give you the support-run-around!
It starts wonderfully, until you try to get money OUT of Moneybookers! That was when my troubles started.
Their support services (all automated web-submission rubbish) is a black hole where messages go to them and nothing comes back. Well, they do request documentation, verification, more documentation – stuff they don’t tell you upfront. And after that? Silence. Dead bloody wonderful silence.
To date, after 30 days, I have not received transfers into my account, I have had customer payments not credited to my account and I have STONE, COLD, SILENCE from Moneybookers on this issue.
Plus I have yet to encounter any company, anywhere, that charges you 25p per minute for holding on in order to speak to their telephone support.
I have had similar problems to you other guys with M/b and don’t know where to turn to for help? I have a 4fig balance with them but my account has been locked for withdrawals and transfers, I have uploaded my security documnets and faxed and even posted them to they’re registered office as requested over 3 weeks ago but still my a/c is locked, I phoned them Monday and was told they had receieved my id and the a/c should be unlocked within 24hours No such case 4days later, can anyone advise on what to do so i can withdraw my money? can you contact the FSA or anything like that?
for me MB works fine hopes will not get problems :/
Please stear clear of Moneybookers, they are just another bunch of crooks!
It all starts out very nice and easy and cheap, so everybody is overwhelmed and recommends them to all their customers. That is why they grow so quick. When we signed up a month ago, there were 4.6 million customers, now there are 4.9. M a n y are going to see their hard earned mocash frozen without ny apparent reason!
Thaiphhoon
on the 8-5-09 i paid $36.00 for 5million pokerchips still got nothing.1-5 days that was suppose to be .paid into this account via my bank.
global collect
account no.062000-11002112
swift code no.ctbaau25
reference no.410000260349
can someone please look into this or im gonna report global collect.for scamming.
I too have had a negative experience with Moneybookers because of their inefficiency and poor customer service. Now, in my case they have “only” lost just over 100 pounds but if they are losing track of the money belonging to lots of people several times a day it is a nice little earner for someone. I would not recommend Moneybookers to anyone.
I’m very unhappy with MoneyBookers.com
I’m an old client for Paypal.com for various purposes, but I’m looking for other alternatives and my clients have been telling me to use MoneyBookers.
After various of checking for months, I decided to open an account and 3 days ago, I started my very first transaction by letting one of my client sent me money.
I have verified my address (the letter was sent to my house with the code) and I had confirmed the code in the website as well. My credit limit was increased and I’m ready to withdraw the sum my client sent me.
It was $250 USD. On 11th April I withdrew the sum. The next day, I logged in to check for any updates and found that my withdrawal was canceled along with a deduction of $3 for “withdrawal” failure.
The reason was: “Following an audit of your account, we must advise that your account has been frozen. Please provide the following documents: – A full colour copy of a valid, official identification document; such as your international passport (double page), national identity card or drivers licence (front and back). This is required in order for us to verify your identity. – A copy of a paper utility bill (Gas Bill/Electricity Bill) or bank statement issued in the last three months clearly displaying your name and address that has been received at the registered postal address detailed on your Moneybookers account. This is required in order for us to verify your address. The required documents/information should be sent via email to security@moneybookers.com. ”
Okay, I was disappointed by the horrible scam here. If they really need the documents, they should have asked them BEFORE I created the account. Asking the documents AFTER I have money in the account is a way to FORCE me to hand the document to them.
With no choice, I sent them the scanned Driving License (Front and Back) and my Credit Card statement on March 2011. In the scanned document, I stated that “For use only by MoneyBookers.com, to verify the ownership of the account xxxx@xxx.com and the legal ownership”
It’s going to be 48 hours soon and I have yet to receive any replies from security@moneybookers.com
I used to think Paypal was horrible, but their customer service replied and always helps whenever there’s problem.
Now since I cannot confirm the withdrawal, I cannot ship out the goods my client ordered.
This is horrible, and yes, MoneyBookers.com is horrible.