AlertPay Vs PayPal... Both Scams?

As a seller...

My only problem with them has been their lack transparency regarding changes. Once they got kicked out of their bank and didn't bother to tell their sellers that they were no longer accepting credit cards. (They are now, of course.) Then recently they required all sales pages to go through a review and once again, didn't bother to notify the sellers. Why a mass emailing or just a plain old newsletter-style mailing list is beyond them, I don't know. Here is where you can keep up with their changes: Forums - AlertPay Developers Community

One the up side, I appreciate that they're willing to accept semi-adult items (not p**r, but the gray area stuff) that PayPal won't touch. I also appreciate that they're willing to work with people from a variety of countries.

As for the customer service being outsourced, I'm not so sure. I think they're actually run by "people with Arabic-sounding names." From the About Us page: "Firoz and Ferhan Patel founded AlertPay in August 2004." It's a Canadian-based company, though, as far as I know.

So, I don't think they're "bad" or a "scam," but you do have to keep an eye out for changes they make. As for reliability, I've made numerous transfers to my bank account over the last year and a half or so and never had a problem.

Thanks Green for your honest and whole hearted review. I will read the info on the link you have posted. Once again, Thanks!

Cheers!

Warrior2008

People more use PayPal. But PayPal has many limitations.
For example, AlertPay accepts multi-level marketing, mature content and other often considered `risky` businesses. All those are forbidden by PayPal TOS.

AlertPay is not a scam company, but they have had their problems due to the kind of businesses they accept. They are a Canadian company and as such have a very diverse employee base (ethnically and culturally speaking).

If you work with them, they will work with you.

As another poster commented, I do agree that their updates and seller notification transparency does need to improve.

Best Regards,
James Campbell

Both of them are not scam. They have their own TOS, and as long as we follow their rules it would be okay. I have both AlertPay and Paypal account. Yes, AlertPay often called us for clarifying the money source, to proved it is not came from crime activities and some sort of it.

But, I admit it, their updates and seller notification transparency does need to improve. If you ask me why I used, AlertPay, it because I need some backup plan.

I like alert pay . they seem to be a great payment processor. The only thing I don't like is the long wait time for response to inquiries. I'n a time crunch you could potentially lose business while waiting for them to respond.

We have had PayPal and they are the biggest payment processor, and I have had good service from them, using the website payments pro, where you can take orders over the phone, recurring payments if necessary, I don't have any experience with Alertpay, but it is always good to have a couple payment gateways to work with. To start I would suggest Paypal if you only going to use one, in my opinion.

My only "beef" with Alertpay from a seller point
of view is it takes forever to get your funds released.

It normally takes a total of 12 days from time of sale
to finally getting a deposit to my bank account.

They put a 7 day hold on the transactions.

Talk soon,
Gary

Definitely Alertpay > Paypal.
Alertpay takes chargeback a whole lot more serious, and being scammed really doesn't exist in AP.

I personally confortable with alertpay. Paypal are lately blocking accounts because of change in ip while alertpay does not.

PayPal also seems to have their customer support overseas. Anyway, I called PayPal Europe, and some woman answered, which clearly didn't have English accent. Not to mention she was so stupid she couldn't answer anything on her own, all she was saying was "Just a second let me check" and then I could hear her asking around in the office to find out the answer and tell me something I already knew.

Alertpay is the best

I'm growing rapidly very fond of AlertPay myself. The more I use it, the more I like it.

Hi everyone -

Have to step in here and add my experience with both companies - which is from an 'insider' perspective - not just the customer side, as I am in the payment processing industry, and have been in meetings with top staff at both companies (yes, I can even send you pics of myself and my partners wearing our little badges as we were admitted to the secure PayPal/eBay facility - whee!)

PayPal has support offices all over the globe now. Support is localized by region, so you will get the 'best possible user experience'. But you also need to remember that since the main campus is in California - which has a VERY diverse population - that means you are going to still talk to a lot of CSRs whose first language was not English. A scam? Definitely not - and while I don't always care for the way they do things - it is an amazing company if you really take the time to learn about what they have built. It is the most complex money remittance platform in the world - and because they are allowing what is technically referred to as 'person to person' payments - they must deal with an incredibly complex set of regulations regarding money movement between countries - made even worse by 9/11.

AlertPay - I admit that I was somewhat skeptical a couple of years ago, however, I had the pleasure of spending quite a bit of time with their COO, CTO and VP of sales earlier this summer at a conference, and subsequent discussions since then. They are knowledgeable in their field, very legally compliant, and have a very solid technology. I have been very impressed with their entire operation. They are NOT overseas - they are based in Montreal, and have been since they started several years ago. The platform is proprietary and offers a wide variety of payment methods, including credit cards and alternative payments, such as real time bank payments.

As to 'reviewing' merchants: this has to be done by all licensed processors on a regular basis, depending on the jurisdiction they are licensed in. In Canada, FINTRAC, the body that audits and monitors all money services businesses (MSBs) requires that this be done at least every two years, so the fact that they reviewed your account simply means that they were following regulations. And in truth - all good processors do this on a regular basis, and they do not usually notify merchants - this way they know that you did not change anything in order to pass the review!

But something that no one here seems to understand is that there are many laws now regarding the transfer of funds - especially between countries. AlertPay could not transfer the funds until it could confirm the source of the funds and the ultimate beneficiary of the funds - this is not a failing of AlertPay - this is mandated by law to prevent money laundering, and funding of terrorism.

PayPal has been 'grandfathered' in and is actually exempted from a great many regulations - but even so - it had to go through the arduous process of getting licensed as a money remittance company in 48 states to get where it is today. It still cannot get going in India - because India doesn't want money leaving the country - and they keep shutting PP down.

Both companies do an incredible job and if you know more about what they do behind the scenes to get your transactions from point a to point b - and what the difficulties and legal issues are - you would probably appreciate them both a little more.

Sorry to be so long winded but the industry that these two companies is in is highly regulated and very complex, and both do a damned good job, all things considered.

Melody

Funny stuff.

Both of them are not scam sites. But I honestly don't trust any of them anymore. The customer service clearly sucks for both of them. So as much as possible I try not to put much money in my account to avoid dealing with their representatives. Try Google checkout instead.

Ryuchi

Also, most African countries will still prefer AP over paypal as they are not currently accepting most african country.

In my option, use paypal but make Alert pay a Plan B!

Out of the two, I've only used Paypal and I've never had a problem with them. It's funny really as I hear so many scare stories about them but they have always been good to me.

James Scholes

what? paypal a scam? You gotta be kidding me ... paypal is not a scam, it's legit and reliable company... maybe you just have to be bear with alertpay. . . but I'm sure they're both not scam. just lack of customer service.

Paypal is not scam but it is funny the way the do things. Suspend accounts as if it is nothing but a child's play!

I've been using Paypal for 15years. Its very safe than AlertPay..

I use both alertpay and paypal.Though alertpay is not as popular as paypal ,it has few extra features.One example includes -they have transaction password that is not available in paypal .Of course their customer service should be quicker

No,they certainly arent scams.
But every service has its horror stories.

I've been using paypal in 3 years they didn't spam me

Paypal just has way too many restrictions in my opinion, makes it not so userfriendly

Nope, they are not scams. I have been using Paypal for a few years now. No regrets. They have restricted my account once, but their customer service is super excellent. Solved the problem less than a week.

I was shocked when I was saw alert's pays email than I need to confirm my account or update my account and I didn't but funny part was that I didn't had any money inside it and I am safe from it..but thanks for sharing it and now days paypal is doing it as well..

Here is a forum you can catch up on the current state of litigation against AlertPay/Payza
and the links to the litigation papers.
Anyone can join this forum and post their views

Payza - AlertPay Scam :: View topic - Forums and links where the ALERTPAY/PAZA scam is noted

Links to some known litigation in the public domain:

http://ictremission.com/LinkClick.as...bid=67&mid=415

http://www.nh.gov/banking/orders/enf...ay-otsc-cd.pdf

Services aux citoyens - Rercherche d'une décision - Search for AlertPay and Firoz Patel separately

http://www.themcoekf.com/Media/ita_6...e_and_sale.pdf

http://www.themcoekf.com/Media/ita_6...ertificate.pdf

Spread the word please -These people have had their way with the masses long enough.

Warm Regards,
mirico