Thursday, October 23, 2008

A Message From ProPay

Red Ink Diary was honored yesterday by a visit from Brandon Crotts of ProPay who left a comment on my post about the two new payment processing options for eBay sellers. Long time readers will remember Brandon from my post about ProPay vs PayPal in late August.

Thank you Brandon for posting. Here is the question I asked the (very nice) ProPay CSR

I am a silver powerseller (I am not but it was a rhetorical question) and in January due to failure to maintain volume I loose my PS status. What happens?


The answer I got was that on review I would be offered a different plan tailored to my seller status at the time.

From this I wrote in my blog "Are you comfortable with the possibility of losing your payment processor if your PS status drops and/or paying increased fees?"

I am curious to know in what way I "had it wrong", if Debbie and Brews are "right" your implication is, I had it wrong.

If I loose my PS status my rate does not change?

Image courtesy of www.hedweb.com
Image courtsey of hedweb.com
As an ex-eBay seller I am very familiar with the carrot and stick concept. As a low GMV seller I would be the recipient of the stick, you would recognize me by my shaggy gray coat and very large ears, which hear very well by the way.

What I hear is not something I like. It is not in any way wrong or abnormal in business. It is a fact of life that the more you consume or purchase, the better deal or discount you get. That doesn't mean I have to like it!

As I stated in my response,
ProPay have worked very hard to come up with a plan for eBay sellers which should be mutually advantageous and is infinitely superior to what they were offering earlier this year.

The ProPay eAuction plan is a special deal directly tied to seller status on eBay. If on evaluation you no longer qualify, either because of DSRs, (losing PS because of one below permitted level) or volume you will have to move to a different plan.




I stand by my post. That is something every well brought up donkey knows how to do.

Onward.

My business is about 30% export, or cross border. ProPay does not, at this time, offer an international payment processing facility. I have been told that ProPay has excellent customer service. From my very minimal experience with them this is true. I am pleased and delighted that ProPay were able to come up with a viable alternative to the PayPal stranglehold on eBay sellers. I sincerely hope that ProPay will continue to work on producing an even more comprehensive service for ALL established eBay sellers..


Y'all come back!







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6 comments:

Cliff said...

Thanks for your work on this one, Henrietta. As a Powerseller who is both greatly interested in ProPay, but has also recently been bumped down in PS status, this is enormously relevant to me.

Anonymous said...

In your previous article about Propay you obviously had it correct which is why I responded to Debbie's comment where she accused you of having incorrect facts.

I had the same understanding that you did - a seller's Powerseller status (and change in status) DOES in fact determine the rate and/or the eligibility for a specific ProPay program.

Perhaps Brandon was addressing the comments between Debbie and myself -- where she and I obviously disgreed. I think Brandon was saying that Debbie eventually got it right and that I got it right the first time. :)

Anonymous said...

I wonder if ProPay has any plans for those who sell on multiple venues? I believe Etsy has a ProPay option (though I could be mistaken). Perhaps they have plans for people who are multi-channel?

Anonymous said...

In other words, if you're an itty-bitty seller or casual, you have to offer PayPal, a merchant account (prohibitively expensive) or ProPay (also prohibitively expensive for me with my tiny volume). So the only realistic option is PayPal. Some choice, huh?

Though I will say that I am impressed that Brandon does spend as much time as he does on these blogs and forums, answering peoples' questions.

Anonymous said...

Quote: "In other words, if you're an itty-bitty seller or casual, you have to offer PayPal, a merchant account (prohibitively expensive) or ProPay (also prohibitively expensive for me with my tiny volume). So the only realistic option is PayPal. Some choice, huh?"

That is the whole point. It looks like you are offering choice to get around anti-trust laws, in the hope that nobody pursues the less obvious breaches.

Kind Regards, Kevin

Debbie Levitt said...

I'm glad I was eventually right. Better late than never. :)

I only thought Henrietta was wrong because her original post made it sound like the moment you lower PS status, ProPay will jump on you and kill your rates.

Brandon told me that ProPay accounts will be reviewed every 12 months. So if you sign up as Gold in Jan 09, drop to Silver for 3 months, and back up to Gold, you will NOT see a drop in rates. You're not ping-ponging constantly, and I thought Henrietta gave that impression.

Of course, I was wrong too. I thought that once you had a rate, it was locked in forever. It sounds like it's locked in for a 12-month period, unless you want them to look at lowering it earlier.

:)