Alternatives to ShareIt/MyCommerce/Digital River

[grujicd]

And that's the problem. With minimal costs they have, and huge amount of total sales they're keeping (instead of just their 6-7%), they have a huge runaway. They can stop paying us (not a criminal act, just a breach of contract), and they can legitimately say they're not insolvent (since bank accounts are full). It's "just a matter of dispute related to new contract, we're not bankrupt". Then suddenly they have to pay huge debt for parent's company loan to Cerberus in January, but that was "outside of their control" as it's the problem of Digital River Inc, not Gmbh. And they can get bankrupt after that point, while none of the actors will be criminally liable.

[Urs]

In the 2021 filing it said, the 100M for Cerberus were due in June 2024 - which would align with the current order of events, but that wouldn't be the case if they moved that...

[sft234]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_River

In August 2024, the new CEO, Barry Kasoff, was first noted on the e-commerce biz website. [25] Under his leadership, DigitalRiver has started claiming merchant debts are no longer to be recognized as valid obligations.

[7tltd]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_River

In August 2024, the new CEO, Barry Kasoff, was first noted on the e-commerce biz website. [25] Under his leadership, DigitalRiver has started claiming merchant debts are no longer to be recognized as valid obligations.

It was edited 2 days ago.

[sft234]

https://www.digitalriver.com/about-us/

https://www.realizationservices.com/pre ... y-l-kasoff

[IaES]

I was testing 2checkout payment links on my website on the last day of september and a few buyers went through !! Around $1000.

And already been paid out!! I know it's not a lot of money but it's the first payment from anywhere for sooooo long. Yay!

[sft234]

Why did you choose 2checkout? Is it better than FastSpring?
Differences?

[IaES]

Why did you choose 2checkout? Is it better than FastSpring?
Differences?

The short answer is that I have already used 2Checkout some years ago so I had payment links and IPN already setup to handle their sales. My old account had been disabled because of inactivity but didn't take long to create a new one and just point everything at that new account.

I don't see much difference between 2Checkout and Shareit. Same kind of payment links. Checkout is done on their site and I get an IPN allowing my site to deliver once payment is complete.

The long answer is that many years ago I had ShareIt and RegNow accounts and sent buyers to one or the other based on IP of the buyer. Most of my buyers were USA so they'd be sent to RegNow. But regNow was terrible at handling foreign character sets and would often screw up names and addresses and failed payments if they contained accented characters or cyrillic etc. So anyone not in USA got sent to ShareIt.

Then when RegNow closed and migrated everything to shareit I went looking for another MoR. I just liked having two. I searched the web and, at that time, one named 'Avangate' had really good feedback. Based in europe but US buyers had invoices from a US address so I went with them. Also no problems with different languages and character sets. Very similar setup to ShareIt so easy to setup.

Anyway. To cut a long story short. Avangate became 2Checkout and everything just continued as before. But. Not sure of the reasons but eventually I stopped using 2Checkout and just sent everything through ShareIt/MyCommerce. I got lazy. MyCommerce worked and I took my eye off the ball.

I'm still kicking myself for
(a) I didn't keep using 2checkout so that the account would have been active and I coulda switched quicker. and
(b) Really kicking myself that I didn't switch way back in June when MyCommerce asked for KYC data and then that email about switching to 60 days payment cycle. That email really was written badly. Bad english. Long winded explanation. Not written in their usual perfect legalese. I felt something was wrong but didn't believe my gut. (Is there a my-own-ass-kicking imoji - there should be)

[grujicd]

I was in the exact same boat, using Avangate and MyCommerce in paralel for years. Maybe you also abandoned Avangate after they introduced rolling deposits? I should not see it as a bad sign, because that move was just a way to share risk between two partners.

Anyway. If there's one lesson to learn from this debacle, it's that we should always use two payment processors. Whether switching them every week or two, based on customer's location, or some third way, but all of us would be extremely happy if we had such system active in July. Yes, it's a bit of extra work, but now we learned the hard way that we do not have any kind of legal protection when dealing with bigger entity.

[IaES]

. . .
. . .
Maybe you also abandoned Avangate after they introduced rolling deposits? I should not see it as a bad sign, because that move was just a way to share risk between two partners.
. . .

No. I didn't mind a rolling deposit. It was more likely because I also had an SWReg.org account and their fees were a bit less than anyone elses. When they migrated to shareit I managed to wangle that rate with them too for that new migrated account even though my sales aren't that big. Basically I got greedy and just sent everything through the account with the lowest fees.

Anyway. If there's one lesson to learn from this debacle, it's that we should always use two payment processors.

Yes. Indeed. Lesson learned. I also have a paddle account for many years. I never used it but it's still active. Or seems to be. Bit more work to setup the inline payment frames on my site but must get round to finishing that ASAP.

but now we learned the hard way that we do not have any kind of legal protection when dealing with bigger entity.

Not just the "Bigger Entity". More to do with this whole MoR business model. They are not a payment processor. They are a ReSeller selling our products to our customers which, from a legal point of view' are "their" customers. So, basically, we don't have a leg to stand on.

[IaES]

Oh. and don't forget PayPal. Their newer payment buttons allow buyers to checkout with card even if they have no paypal account and don't get nagged (too much) to create one.

I also switched one of my product sites to using PayPal. Not many sales and their currency conversion rate is terrible. But being able to call down the funds any time I like is a really nice feeling.

PayPal are not an MoR so, legally, I'd need to bill the buyer VAT at the rate in buyer's country. But all of my buyers are businesses and as long as I confirm they're a business I can do the invoice without VAT and add a sentance to the bottom referring to the tax "Reverse Charge Mechanism". Most countries around the world have now signed up to the Reverse Charge Mechanism for B2B sales. Just a few such as mexico that haven't. But no problem to catch buyer IP and make sure that kind of buyer doesn't get through to the PayPal checkout.

[yps]

they will withhold the money for 180 days, backing this by the article 5e of the agreement 6.1. Imho that's a bit stretchy. Also it's nowhere written that they have 180 days, nor that number can be defended by anything - like chargeback period, etc.

Got an update to my termination ticket today, and got the same information:

We are actively coordinating with the internal team regarding your contract termination request. Please advised that upon termination, your remaining balance will be held for 180 days to cover refunds and chargebacks that may be received for your recent MyCommerce orders. After that period has lapsed, your remaining balance will be paid using the payment details we have on file for your MyCommerce account. You can verify this information through your account's control panel, under the 'Administration' section to 'Your Payment Information'. In the interim, you will continue to have access to reporting in your MyCommerce Control Panel, but no further sales will be processed.

In other words, now that I have terminated my account, all of my balance, including the July payment, are now "legally" (according to their interpretation of 5(e) of MSA 6.1) on hold until April 2025.

Can anybody confirm they are still processing refunds currently? I think this will be the only way to see any of the money again at all.

[grujicd]

So it turns out that if you cancel, you're in worse situation than if you leave account open, despite $100 monthly fee. I'm thinking about "cancelling my cancel request". Essentially you're gambling that MyCommerce will be alive and well and in mood to pay anything in April 2025. On the other hand you'll be paying $100 per month, but have some hope to get at least something while DR is still alive.

And I thought they don't have more means to torture us

[yps]

Essentially you're gambling that MyCommerce will be alive and well and in mood to pay anything in April 2025.

Exactly what I was thinking.

But I'd rather take over control now, and refund all of the 98 orders since July 1st, revoke license keys, send out e-mails asking people to order again etc.

[IaES]

Some of my buyers had the shareit payment links in their browser bookmarks so went through shareit this month even though I've taken the links down on my site.

Anyway. I refunded those last week and have been notified by shareit that the refund was done. It's been taken from the balance on my account but I'm waiting for buyers to tell me they've actually received the refund. So far still waiting.