Help with Epassporte

[Paul Markham]

I've just set up Epassporte as a billing option on our site. And as the final stage I wanted to see how user friendly their system really is.

So went to our site made an order, selected Epassporte as the billing process, got sent to their site where I had to fil in the amount to be paid and my details. Then I had to register with Epassporte, which I did. It then saked me for a pending amount that had been charged to my card. WITHIN 10 MINUTES and in US $ not my local currency.

How many of you use Epassporte and how many of you find it useful?

Because this looks like a deterent to most clients especially non US ones.

[Calvinguy]

I entered the pending charge amount the next day. No problems.

I hope you put up a additional payment method. For some reason I don't like that I have to use two creditcards just to purchase something

[jact]

Epassporte is a great payment option. I'll be adding it to my site shortly as well. I did something similar to yourself but at an earlier stage and found that all of the banks that I deal with don't properly support CVV2, so I wasn't even able to sign up for an account. Soooooo, I'm going to guess that a large portion of shoppers might not be able to get an Epassporte account (yet). Those that have them will probably find it handy as hell for payments though.

[Paul Markham]

So we have had three orders from clients opting to pay via Epassporte.

One has used them before and it worked fine, the other two have not and the money has not arrived. So if you have an account with them fine.

I got no confirmation email from them, even though they say I should and I cannot find a record of this payment other than the email.

Just discovered, they did send an email but only to my email box at Epassporte. So every time a client opts to buy by this method I have to log in and check my email account.

[jact]

Originally posted by charly
So we have had three orders from clients opting to pay via Epassporte.

One has used them before and it worked fine, the other two have not and the money has not arrived. So if you have an account with them fine.

I got no confirmation email from them, even though they say I should and I cannot find a record of this payment other than the email.

Just discovered, they did send an email but only to my email box at Epassporte. So every time a client opts to buy by this method I have to log in and check my email account.

Did you setup with a commercial or a commerce account?

[Zprogramz]

From everything I have seen, my (and many I have spoken to) conclusion is that Epassporte is not good for anything more than B2B payments. Surfers will use credit cards, debit cards, online checks, or phone payment.

This thing is just a bunch of hype and has alot of problems. Adding this to a pay site, will probably decrease sales as someone who may have been approved with their credit card, may just get declined with Epassporte for example.

Just my

Z

[jact]

Originally posted by Zprogramz
From everything I have seen, my (and many I have spoken to) conclusion is that Epassporte is not good for anything more than B2B payments. Surfers will use credit cards, debit cards, online checks, or phone payment.

This thing is just a bunch of hype and has alot of problems. Adding this to a pay site, will probably decrease sales as someone who may have been approved with their credit card, may just get declined with Epassporte for example.

Just my

Z

Ok. We were talking B2B here. Thanks for that though.

[MichaelAncher]

I'm planning to use then as an extra option to, but it look's to me that it's pretty complicated for people to use them..
we need to have some more debate about this...

Please inform about good and bad..

[Tipsy]

After trying to sign up for one with 3 different (up until now very CVV2 compliant) cards with no success I would certainly not use them for anything other than B2B type transactions. I wanted the account purely for B2B type use. Just wanted a way to shunt money about and more importantly get money out easily without paying the crazy fees my bank charges to cash foreign cheques.

I figure if I have this much trouble getting a card a lot of people going to my sites are simply going to be lost sales if I go anywhere near them with this type of system. It very much has it's uses, but I can't see payment for site entry being one of them for anything other than the very, very few 'surfers' who will already own a card.

Maybe if the system ever really matures and takes off properly for this kind of use it'll work, but to me this seems doubtful unless a huge site like Ebay take it on aa a standard/suggested payment method which isn't going to happen.

[m0rph3us]

Originally posted by Zprogramz
From everything I have seen, my (and many I have spoken to) conclusion is that Epassporte is not good for anything more than B2B payments. Surfers will use credit cards, debit cards, online checks, or phone payment.

This thing is just a bunch of hype and has alot of problems. Adding this to a pay site, will probably decrease sales as someone who may have been approved with their credit card, may just get declined with Epassporte for example.

Just my

Z

do you have any contact info? I need to get in touch with you

[Paul Markham]

Originally posted by jact


Did you setup with a commercial or a commerce account?

A commerce account. I spoke to them on the phone and told them what I was doing and they said this was the best for me.

Another thing is, I can only get my money with an Electron Visa card at an ATM machine. It was only yesterday when I was speaking to them on the phone that I discovered that it has to be applied and payed for seperately. It will also take 3 weeks to get it to me. So when was someone going to tell me this? Or were they just going to wait for me to ask for my money?

Also ther is no where I can see to decline an order. What happens when someone logs in with a free mail, gives a site that does not exist or says he owns Yahoo and then orders $1,000 worth of content? Normally I will decline an order that looks fraudulent, by declining the payment. Cant find how to do this on their site.

[Paul Markham]

Just for general info, ePassporte is only for one off payments. They do not allow recurring billing, for that you have to go through their Epoch system. Which even though I explained I would be doing it for B2B, with a lease plug in gallery they said it was only allowed under the Epoch system which is 13% commisssion and a hold back.

I reckon webamsters paying for their second and following months payment to access a plug in is as solid as anything on the net, adult or straight.

I admire Paycoms (Epoch, ePassporte) stand against Mastercard and for that reason will stick with them if possible. But I have to admit it looks like they have a lot to learn.

[Backov]

The subscription stuff is coming up, and threads like this will hopefully help them get their shit together. ;>

[jact]

Originally posted by charly
A commerce account. I spoke to them on the phone and told them what I was doing and they said this was the best for me.

Another thing is, I can only get my money with an Electron Visa card at an ATM machine. It was only yesterday when I was speaking to them on the phone that I discovered that it has to be applied and payed for seperately. It will also take 3 weeks to get it to me. So when was someone going to tell me this? Or were they just going to wait for me to ask for my money?

Also ther is no where I can see to decline an order. What happens when someone logs in with a free mail, gives a site that does not exist or says he owns Yahoo and then orders $1,000 worth of content? Normally I will decline an order that looks fraudulent, by declining the payment. Cant find how to do this on their site.

Very odd, consideirng all the business about granting them permission to credit/debit the bank account listed in the contract. I was personally really annoyed that I have to agree to keep said bank account open for the duraction of the contract, what if I want to change banks? I'm not allowed to close that account as per their contract.

I haven't seen their system in action yet, I'm starting to wonder if it's going to have what I need from waht I've been hearing, maybe I should ask for a demo before sending the contract in.

[jimmyf]

sure some ePassporte people will be around and answer every ones GOOD questions.

[hershie]

Originally posted by jact


Very odd, consideirng all the business about granting them permission to credit/debit the bank account listed in the contract. I was personally really annoyed that I have to agree to keep said bank account open for the duraction of the contract, what if I want to change banks? I'm not allowed to close that account as per their contract.

My Rep. told me it had something to do with the Patriot Act - that they have no intent of transffering money to/from but need to have that info. for the Gov't to satisfy that Act. My eyes glazed over and I never followed up on that.

[KRL]

Where's Kimmy to the rescue? She's usually here by now.

[Tipsy]

Oddly tonight it seems to like my cards. Even so it means no account as the system for some bizzare reason only allows 48 hours for you to confirm the amount (in USD). Great if you're inside the US but when for many people outside the US it takes up to 72 hours for details to appear on your account totally useless. Good system if you only deal with US customers it seems.

Why the 48 hour time limit thing?

Hmmm...I do have a 1 - 200 chance of guessing the amount. I've had worse odds....

I seem to remember paypal using some kind of unique number to bill with and you used that to confirm. Much easier way to do it.

[Tipsy]

It looks a little like I'm basing epassporte which really isn't the case. Just pointing out problems I experienced that many others will too if this is tried as a site payment solution.

So on a plus note just wanted to add that so far the e-mail support has been very responsive. I have a slight concern about any company asking for card details be e-mail, but other than that all mails have been answered and replies received within 12 hours.

[Backov]

Originally posted by Tipsy
Oddly tonight it seems to like my cards. Even so it means no account as the system for some bizzare reason only allows 48 hours for you to confirm the amount (in USD). Great if you're inside the US but when for many people outside the US it takes up to 72 hours for details to appear on your account totally useless. Good system if you only deal with US customers it seems.

Why the 48 hour time limit thing?

Because quite frankly their tech guys are clueless about a lot of design issues. Kimmy is working hard to straighten them out, as am I.

Luckily, the biz guys are top notch.

[Paul Markham]

Originally posted by KRL
Where's Kimmy to the rescue? She's usually here by now.

I emailed her about it and she has not replied, so I guess she's having the weekend off.

Just had another client click on ePassporte as a payment option. She then came back to me and asked to pay by another method. So can she change it.

[Paul Markham]

Originally posted by Tipsy
Oddly tonight it seems to like my cards. Even so it means no account as the system for some bizzare reason only allows 48 hours for you to confirm the amount (in USD). Great if you're inside the US but when for many people outside the US it takes up to 72 hours for details to appear on your account totally useless. Good system if you only deal with US customers it seems.

Why the 48 hour time limit thing?

Hmmm...I do have a 1 - 200 chance of guessing the amount. I've had worse odds....

I seem to remember paypal using some kind of unique number to bill with and you used that to confirm. Much easier way to do it.

Agreed Tipsy.

Also to maker it worse for the non US client is they have to convert their local currency into an US amount, what if they get it wrong. When I brought this up with the rep he said that they were going to put up a currency convertor on the site. I said "Why not give the charge a 4 digit number like Paypal did?" They will look at it???

This is not bashing, this is us discussing whether their system works, I will email them to look at it. They need this feedback, this is Beta testing.

[Snake Doctor]

I'm confuzled......I was under the impression that epassporte was a VISA.
So if I wanted to use my epassporte to buy something online I would select VISA as the payment option and just type in my epassporte number and be done.

Why would you have to set it up as a payment option if its really just a VISA?

[Paul Markham]

Originally posted by Backov


Because quite frankly their tech guys are clueless about a lot of design issues. Kimmy is working hard to straighten them out, as am I.

Luckily, the biz guys are top notch.

Yes the reps are good and you get straight through to them which is great. Plus they listen.

I think it was designed by some whiz kid techie. He understands the whole site perfectly, unfortunately the rest of us lesser soles are struggling.

[Paul Markham]

Lenny ePassporte is the billing company, it's part of Paycom which also do Epoch.

You have to sign up to them before you can use your CC with them. They want you to use one CC, which they charge and you tell them what the charge amount was. This is to verify that you are the holder of that CC.

It's an excellent way to go for one off amounts B2B, this keeps the fraud and charge backs down so comission charges are low and no hold back. Which lets us know the buyer is solid and keeps our prices down.

We looked at most of the CC billing companies business models and they are useless for our type of business. Webmasters moan at getting a chargeback of $25-35, how would you feel about charge backs of $2,500-3,500. "A son cannot come onto our site and buy content and you charge it back." Well not through this system.

[Kimmykim]

Originally posted by KRL
Where's Kimmy to the rescue? She's usually here by now.

Um, actually smartass, I was all the way across the country for my son's end of school year ceremonies, something that left zero time for getting online. But after a completely hellacious flight through Chicago's lovely OHare airport on a fucked up United flight with a mentally challenged pilot, I'm now back. So sorry.

First off, what ePassporte is --

1. It's a payment option if you sell products or services that are non recurring at the moment, and soon to be recurring as well. This will not require getting an Epoch account and paying 13%, it will be a little more expensive than Paypal, but considerably less than IPSP, and it will be available regardless of the country of residence (with the exception of Iraq and Iran I believe).

2. It is also a Visa, or actually 2 Visas -- one Virtual, one Electron -- which serve different purposes for spending money, anonymously online and in real life.

3. It has p2b, b2p, p2p, b2b functionality in a very similar manner to Paypal.

The verification process is not perfect yet -- there are some changes to be implemented in it, and we do realize this.

There are a some other additions and features that are being added in by the staff, they don't happen overnight.

ePassporte is NOT owned by Epoch, I do want to make that clear.

Rome was not built in a day, and I would hope that as things come to your attention that you either really like, really don't like, or don't understand, you would all either email me or post them so that they can be discussed and perhaps acted upon in some cases.

I've noticed a couple things in this thread that have set me to thinking about some possibilities and that's after only taking a minute to skim the thread

[Kimmykim]

Originally posted by charly
Also ther is no where I can see to decline an order. What happens when someone logs in with a free mail, gives a site that does not exist or says he owns Yahoo and then orders $1,000 worth of content? Normally I will decline an order that looks fraudulent, by declining the payment. Cant find how to do this on their site.

You should be able to reject, or simply not verify, ANY transaction that you do not want to take -- let's get in email regarding this if you will --

[Paul Markham]

Originally posted by Kimmykim


You should be able to reject, or simply not verify, ANY transaction that you do not want to take -- let's get in email regarding this if you will --

OK. The guys at Epassporte are very helpful as you are.

Go get some sleep.

[Tipsy]

Originally posted by Kimmykim

The verification process is not perfect yet -- there are some changes to be implemented in it, and we do realize this.

I was hoping that'd be the case. I've now hit a brick wall. As I no longer have a modem and simply don't fax enough to even consider purchasing a fax there's no way I yet want a card badly enough to go into town, park, photo copy and fax my life history (OK, slight exaggeration but... ).

If/when the signup process becomes usable it'd be nice to have an announcement somehwere. I can try again then.

At this point in time I'd still say it's not as usable as paypal. There isn't the base of people out there with an account and there won't be the base of people out there with an account until the signup process is simplified a little (especially for those outside of the US). Not a bad idea for a B2B option but really not too usable yet for stuff like a paysite.

It remains a great idea but IMVHO just isn't quite there yet.

[Loch]

Paul you cant reject the payment!
BUT, if you dont accept it within 48 hours the payment is auto rejected by epassporte.

Besically the same thing!

We will be going with epoch as the true visa processor for the ones that for some reason dont want to use epassporte, but to me is seems like a very good system sofar.
And by selecting epoch will be more expensice "dammit"!