Do Not Use Moneybookers If You Value Your Money

[petkaymad]

DO NOT USE MONEYBOOKERS, they will use any excuse they can to lock your account and stop you withdrawing your money. Thier communication also sucks big time, the chances of getting a reply to any emails you send through thier crapy system is very remote and extremely unlikely.

I have had an account with them since 2008 and have been trying to get my account verified on and off for that period of time. I have emailed them (using their crappy ticket system) well over 100 times. To date I have had one reply, that is less than 1% of emails replied to in almost 2 years. The stupid thing is I regularly get spam emails from them asking me where I have been and that I have not been using my account....what a joke.

I have phoned them (from Australia) at my expense numerous times, and get told in a rather nasty manner that my queries will be answered when they get to them, please be patient.

In the two year period I only used my account a handful of times, but I recently started using it more regularly, unfortunately that was a bad idea and I now have over $2900 stuck in my account and it has been locked. The reason I was given when I rang them was because I have not verified my identity or my bank account. Both of which I have been trying to do for the past 2 years. When I told them this I was informed that they were unable to verify Australian account via the website or bank accounts and it had to be done with identification documents, since then I have provided copies of my Passport, Drivers License, a number of Utility Bills and Bank Statements, but they still won't unlock my account or tell me what else I have to provide.

I am now holding my breath waiting for my identity to be stolen after all the documents I have had to provide. I no longer think they are a trustworthy organisation and can not say it strongly enough, DO NOT USE MONEYBOOKERS.

I recently lodged a grievance with FSA, but I have had no reply so far and from reading thier website it could be months before anything is done if at all.

My advise to anyone who is looking at using Moneybookers is DON'T.

 

[drazenn99]

DO NOT USE MONEYBOOKERS, they will use any excuse they can to lock your account and stop you withdrawing your money. Thier communication also sucks big time, the chances of getting a reply to any emails you send through thier crapy system is very remote and extremely unlikely.

I have had an account with them since 2008 and have been trying to get my account verified on and off for that period of time. I have emailed them (using their crappy ticket system) well over 100 times. To date I have had one reply, that is less than 1% of emails replied to in almost 2 years. The stupid thing is I regularly get spam emails from them asking me where I have been and that I have not been using my account....what a joke.

I have phoned them (from Australia) at my expense numerous times, and get told in a rather nasty manner that my queries will be answered when they get to them, please be patient.

In the two year period I only used my account a handful of times, but I recently started using it more regularly, unfortunately that was a bad idea and I now have over $2900 stuck in my account and it has been locked. The reason I was given when I rang them was because I have not verified my identity or my bank account. Both of which I have been trying to do for the past 2 years. When I told them this I was informed that they were unable to verify Australian account via the website or bank accounts and it had to be done with identification documents, since then I have provided copies of my Passport, Drivers License, a number of Utility Bills and Bank Statements, but they still won't unlock my account or tell me what else I have to provide.

I am now holding my breath waiting for my identity to be stolen after all the documents I have had to provide. I no longer think they are a trustworthy organisation and can not say it strongly enough, DO NOT USE MONEYBOOKERS.

I recently lodged a grievance with FSA, but I have had no reply so far and from reading thier website it could be months before anything is done if at all.

My advise to anyone who is looking at using Moneybookers is DON'T.

I really can't agree with you on any of those moneybookers things,mate.
I have opened Moneybookers accounts few times,and every time on other adress with intention to use it,but never did until few months ago until I received first payment,and there was really no problem deleting all other accounts,and leaving just one which I am using right now(All corespondence was made through their helkp lobby in your account,and they kindly replied every one of my emails or requests for deleting accounts)
After that,I wanted to confirm an adress,so I can raise the traffic limit, but for some weird reason,when got a letter from them on my home adress,I havent enter the code right away,and later that week I throw that letter in the trash,and since you can't ask for another letter,I deicided to confirm my card and raise the limit that way,but again I made a misstake.There says"PRESS(or click) ONLY ONCE",and I clicked confirmation maybe 7 or 8 times in 2 minutes,so in my account on net banking,I saw a pending reservation(for that verification purposes) for almost 20-25€,and I was affraid that verification will cost me really 20€ or so,and I blocked account right away.
After lady in the bank,explained me,that ,that was just a system problem,and pending reservation was just 2.53€,I contacted them again but through my mother account then.
And again,there was no problem,they replied the same afternoon,asking me to confirm request for reactivating my account from my email adress.I confirmed it,and that was it.My account was active the same day again,and I was again able to send and receive the money.
After that I had one more problem,I switched my GSM phone card registered in Moneybookers with my mothers,and after sending them an explanation what we have done and why,they solved that right away.
So,I really can't say that Moneybookers doesn't replie on emails sent through their system,or they are rude or something.
Everything is clearly written on terms you agreed when opening your Moneybookers account,and beside thatmthey are going even beyond that(or above-can't find the word because my english is not so good),and really do a favors which they shouldn't do at all.
I don't know about EWallett or Netteller(or any other),so I can't tell,but from my point of view,thumbs up for Moneybookers.

P.S.And one more thing,I am not neither an employee or an affiliate of Moneybookers and I am not payed to wrote this.
Cheers
Drazen Mestrovic

 

[vinylweatherman]

This has been the problem with Moneybookers. SOME customers get good service, and others get BAD service.

The OP has NOT refused to verify their account, it has been MONEYBOOKERS not handling it very well. Clearly, they NEEDED to reply to many more queries than they did, but decided not to. Maybe they couldn't be bothered verifying an account that seemed to be inactive, so decided not to provide replies and assistance. Now the account IS more active, they suddenly take an interest in doing a full verification. Rather than open fresh communications with the customer, they just lock the account to force the customer to chase after them. When the customer HAS asked Moneybookers to get the process moving, they have been met with a "no can do 'coz you're in Oz" attitude, and have now said that verification is NOT the straight forward process they would have you believe in the terms, because they do not support Australian banks' systems.

ID documents are the norm, yet even here they are providing a shoddy service. Documents sent, but Moneybookers refuse to communicate with the customer about what is now happening, and all the while they hold $2,900 hostage.

Moneybookers have a reputation for being hard to communicate with. They hide behind premium rate phone lines and online forms, and are NOT as approachable as Neteller CS. With Neteller, you get a free phone CS line, email, AND an online system for queries. Since it is FREE to keep on phoning them when they don't provide a response, you can keep at it for as long as it takes, rather than have to wait on them.

The "rudeness" experienced is because CS are used to being hidden behind the online system & costly phone number, and don't expect such persistence from a customer. Seems like they "snapped", and more or less admitted they DO take a long time to respond to problems, and to "go away & just wait, and stop bothering us".

Being regulated by the FSA doesn't seem to count for much. They DON'T have to meet BANKING regulations, and in any case, the type of account they offer to online gamblers actually falls OUTSIDE the remit of the "electronic money issuer" licence they have, which ONLY covers around €1000 of "electronic money" in an "express" account.

In a sense, these eWallets are glorified gift cards, the kind you buy at a store, load with money, and give away as a gift. They are only intended for SMALL sums of money, and are not considered "safe" for large sums.
If money is stolen from such an eWallet, you are NOT covered by anything more than "goodwill".

The €2900 is not "real money" in a strictly legal sense as it would be in a bank account, but rather an electronic credit backed by the assets of the ewallet company, rather than the treasury.

When stores go bust, the gift cards become worthless overnight, and the money used to load them vanishes with the company. This has happened a few times here in the UK as stores went bust after the 2008 crisis. Loads of money loaded onto their respective gift cards was lost.

The eWallets can use this argument to arbitrarily cancel any electronic credit they have issued, and have done so in the past. They don't do it often, because it will give them a reputation of being unsafe. Unfortunately, Moneybookers have effectively confiscated balances by being stubbornly unresponsive to customers, who have ended up walking away in frustration, rather than pursue a relatively small balance.

The best a complaint to the FSA will achieve is to get Moneybookers to start communicating, but this is probably all that was necessary in the first place, 2 years ago.

 

[Jasminebed]

Moneybookers' internal mail system clearly states that sending another email on the same issue moves you to the bottom of the queue. So when no response is received after a reasonable length of time (perhaps a week?) and the customer asks the same question again, he gets a week further away, rather than a week closer to an answer. This is far from ideal for the customer.

I was initially unable to verify my credit card to fund my account, because the amount was deducted in GBP, and only the converted rate was available to me, and I couldn't use this to verify. It was prepaid card with no paper statements, and no kind of screenshot or other documentation was going to be acceptable to them.

Eventually my Moneybookers was funded by a casino withdrawal. I was able to withdraw to my bank account without problems. Quite some time later, a larger withdrawal got my account "locked", and I had to provide a photocopy of a couple of bank statements showing withdrawals from Moneybookers to my account, and I think some other identity verification as well. My bank account was then verified, although I've never used it to fund MB. I think the whole process took less than two weeks, it being 4 or five days that I normally wait for a wire before I went looking to see where my funds were, a couple of days for them to tell me why I was locked in response to an inquiry, and a day or so for me to get the copying and uploading of documents accomplished, and my account to be unlocked and the money sent.

Things have worked fine ever since (including a new credit card being verified with no problem a year ago, they changed how they verify them), and my limits are quite large IMO.

I've still never funded Moneybookers in any way except casino withdrawals, I can deposit directly with my prepaid without paying a load fee to Moneybookers, and their fees for cheques and wires are quite modest.

Neteller is not available to Canadians, and I'd have to rate my overall satisfaction as "medium high".

As I recall, they had a secure upload for your security documentation, and it could only be sent in that manner.

my queries will be answered when they get to them, please be patient.

This is a long way from good customer service, but this is one company where the squeaky wheel does not get the grease, but rather gets shoved to the bottom of the queue.

It is very anxiety provoking to have funds locked and unavailable. They may be backlogged because of recent storms and the Xmas season.

I sincerely hope it's resolved for you soon. Although there was no response to let me know my funds were available to transfer (and I did have to initiate another wire request), they just became available (the button reappeared), so maybe just keep checking your account without initiating another ticket in their message system.

 

[cdomi66]

I've found MB to be excellent. When I first signed up I was immediately asked to provide verification and did so, within day and a half was done. I was able to register and verify two prepaids within a day and any transaction has been done seemlessly, including largish deposits (wins) and withdrawals (wire).

 

[vinylweatherman]

Moneybookers' internal mail system clearly states that sending another email on the same issue moves you to the bottom of the queue. So when no response is received after a reasonable length of time (perhaps a week?) and the customer asks the same question again, he gets a week further away, rather than a week closer to an answer. This is far from ideal for the customer.

I was initially unable to verify my credit card to fund my account, because the amount was deducted in GBP, and only the converted rate was available to me, and I couldn't use this to verify. It was prepaid card with no paper statements, and no kind of screenshot or other documentation was going to be acceptable to them.

Eventually my Moneybookers was funded by a casino withdrawal. I was able to withdraw to my bank account without problems. Quite some time later, a larger withdrawal got my account "locked", and I had to provide a photocopy of a couple of bank statements showing withdrawals from Moneybookers to my account, and I think some other identity verification as well. My bank account was then verified, although I've never used it to fund MB. I think the whole process took less than two weeks, it being 4 or five days that I normally wait for a wire before I went looking to see where my funds were, a couple of days for them to tell me why I was locked in response to an inquiry, and a day or so for me to get the copying and uploading of documents accomplished, and my account to be unlocked and the money sent.

Things have worked fine ever since (including a new credit card being verified with no problem a year ago, they changed how they verify them), and my limits are quite large IMO.

I've still never funded Moneybookers in any way except casino withdrawals, I can deposit directly with my prepaid without paying a load fee to Moneybookers, and their fees for cheques and wires are quite modest.

Neteller is not available to Canadians, and I'd have to rate my overall satisfaction as "medium high".

As I recall, they had a secure upload for your security documentation, and it could only be sent in that manner.



This is a long way from good customer service, but this is one company where the squeaky wheel does not get the grease, but rather gets shoved to the bottom of the queue.

It is very anxiety provoking to have funds locked and unavailable. They may be backlogged because of recent storms and the Xmas season.

I sincerely hope it's resolved for you soon. Although there was no response to let me know my funds were available to transfer (and I did have to initiate another wire request), they just became available (the button reappeared), so maybe just keep checking your account without initiating another ticket in their message system.

That's terrible. How long do they expect a customer to wait. They cannot ASSUME a delay is down to their enquiry being dealt with, it may have been OVERLOOKED, in which case they could wait FOREVER to hear back.

It woudn't be so bad but for the fact that they "lock first" and THEN "ask questions", so you CANNOT "go and do something else whilst waiting patiently".

How do they even KNOW an enquiry is the "same issue" unless they have already dealt with the first one, yet not bothered to reply.

 

[jstrike]

That's funny...

Weird. I was about to come on here and start a thread calling it "MoneyBookers - WTF?", and here it already is right at the top of the forum.

I'm looking at them from a casino's point of view, since I'm launching my own site and going through which payment processors I can or should be doing business with. I realize pretty much every site takes MB these days, but I'm seriously considering not doing it. Here's why.

First of all, I hear these terrible things way too often from players who try to withdraw their MB money. Second, and probably more importantly, when you [edit: "you" meaning an online casino, not a player] go to sign up for an account with a processor, it's usually pretty hard. You have to keep on them, show them a lot of references and bank statements and everything. I don't want it to be that hard, but I understand why it is, and I respect that's what a legitimate company has to do to protect itself.

So while I'm still waiting to hear back from Click2Pay and a credit card processor, I went on the MoneyBookers site last night and tried to send in a first time processing application. I let them know it's for a startup gaming site based in Costa Rica. You would think that would raise some red flags... I mean, I know I'm honest, but how do they?

Nope. Instead, the second I finished the form, I got an email saying I could start processing payments immediately. Up to $2500, it said, and then "they'd be in touch." Huhhh??? So I started looking around my account pages on their site, trying to figure out exactly where this money's supposed to go and how I'm supposed to get it out. Nothing. Wrote them an email. Nothing back (it's been 24 hours). So...they're happy to let me start taking players' money, but I can't access it, can't return it to players, can't get in touch with their customer support...

It's staggering to me that anybody thinks this company's legitimate at all, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do business with them unless I get some kind of really convincing email from their sales people explaining WTF is going on with this unprofessional way of doing business.

 

[jstrike]

Y'know, just writing this made me PO'd all over again. I really think MB is as rogue as they get.

 

[luckydabberbingo]

I have used them many years and have a VIP account with them .Last year I got an email from them that their rep was going to be in Toronto Canada and two ladies from moneybookers took me out for lunch .If OP wants to send me your email address I can ask my contact to look at the situation and try to sort it out for you as $2900 is quite a bit to get tied up.I could not verify my credit card recently as acct receives in Canadian and they send in a different currency but we have never had any issues with them ever.

 

[vinylweatherman]

Weird. I was about to come on here and start a thread calling it "MoneyBookers - WTF?", and here it already is right at the top of the forum.

I'm looking at them from a casino's point of view, since I'm launching my own site and going through which payment processors I can or should be doing business with. I realize pretty much every site takes MB these days, but I'm seriously considering not doing it. Here's why.

First of all, I hear these terrible things way too often from players who try to withdraw their MB money. Second, and probably more importantly, when you [edit: "you" meaning an online casino, not a player] go to sign up for an account with a processor, it's usually pretty hard. You have to keep on them, show them a lot of references and bank statements and everything. I don't want it to be that hard, but I understand why it is, and I respect that's what a legitimate company has to do to protect itself.

So while I'm still waiting to hear back from Click2Pay and a credit card processor, I went on the MoneyBookers site last night and tried to send in a first time processing application. I let them know it's for a startup gaming site based in Costa Rica. You would think that would raise some red flags... I mean, I know I'm honest, but how do they?

Nope. Instead, the second I finished the form, I got an email saying I could start processing payments immediately. Up to $2500, it said, and then "they'd be in touch." Huhhh??? So I started looking around my account pages on their site, trying to figure out exactly where this money's supposed to go and how I'm supposed to get it out. Nothing. Wrote them an email. Nothing back (it's been 24 hours). So...they're happy to let me start taking players' money, but I can't access it, can't return it to players, can't get in touch with their customer support...

It's staggering to me that anybody thinks this company's legitimate at all, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to do business with them unless I get some kind of really convincing email from their sales people explaining WTF is going on with this unprofessional way of doing business.

THIS is often where PLAYERS first encounter problems, when they want their money OUT.

From an operators' perspective, especially a start-up, consider what would happen when players win and withdraw, and you STILL have heard nothing back from MB as to how you pay these players. It is YOUR business that will take the flak, and end up losing any credibilty it had, which would not be much for a start-up operation in any case.
Worst of all, these problems would come at the WORST possible time, as a new operation needs to build it's trust from scratch, and to hit the ground limping with excuses, rather than paying your first lot of winners, will mean that the initial publicity could quickly destroy your business.

At best, you would have to find other money to cover the deposits trapped in MB until you can get hold of them, and tell players who deposited by Moneybookers that they would either have to wait, or have a cheque.

 

[jstrike]

Yup. You're right on.

Just to update, MB still hasn't responded to my first email as a newly signed up casino merchant. Think about that. I could've already taken $2500 in deposits through them and not be able to get it out, and have to pay people back out of pocket. If they treat merchants that way, I'm sure they treat players that way too. Really, really unprofessional. Meets every definition I can think of for rogue.

Click2Pay got back to me first thing Monday morning with some high fees but a very professional approach, and are asking me for banking info, corporate documents, passports of the shareholders, etc., which is just what I'd expect they'd want.

I think MB might be a black hole going both ways. They take players money, take casino money, and disappear with whatever they want to, whenever they want to. No way in hell I'll be accepting them on my site now. If players have a problem with that, I'll send them to this thread.

 

[vinylweatherman]

Yup. You're right on.

Just to update, MB still hasn't responded to my first email as a newly signed up casino merchant. Think about that. I could've already taken $2500 in deposits through them and not be able to get it out, and have to pay people back out of pocket. If they treat merchants that way, I'm sure they treat players that way too. Really, really unprofessional. Meets every definition I can think of for rogue.

Click2Pay got back to me first thing Monday morning with some high fees but a very professional approach, and are asking me for banking info, corporate documents, passports of the shareholders, etc., which is just what I'd expect they'd want.

I think MB might be a black hole going both ways. They take players money, take casino money, and disappear with whatever they want to, whenever they want to. No way in hell I'll be accepting them on my site now. If players have a problem with that, I'll send them to this thread.

What about Neteller?

 

[jstrike]

What about Neteller?

So far, I've contacted them and gotten the forms. The forms are about the same as what Click2Pay and UKash give you. They want to see one or more bank accounts, color copies of all the directors' passports, corporate papers, bills, etc. And they want a certain reserve. Par for the course. I don't see anything about Neteller that makes me think one way or the other about them, so far. I used them as a customer years ago, and never had a problem, but that doesn't mean anything either.

I'll be more than happy to report here if any processor turns out to be scammish from the business side, as things get rolling with my site. MB finally got back to me with a weird little explanation and they're definitely on my **** list. Not using them. I hope players will be okay with that. I think it's for everybody's good.