Introducing Bike Hub Pay: Buyer & Seller Protection

Oh this service is gold. Well done!

 

We're excited to announce the launch of our buyer and seller protection service. Bike Hub Pay is a new payment service which offers peace of mind by allowing you to transact safely and securely.

Click here to view the article

 

Unfortunately, there is a lot of entities trolling the web with no honest & pure intensions.

This excellent, thanks guys.  Will provide protection for both buyer and seller ...  

PS: I suppose you cant make it mandatory?

Excellent!

The 3% fee is small price to pay for peace of mind.

I assume you can then set the negotiated price before the buyer makes payment?

If the buyer is using a credit card the seller will pay a higher fee to offset the card fees. How will the seller know that this is what the buyer used for payment?

Thanks for the positive feedback. We're really excited to finally get this out.
 

PS: I suppose you cant make it mandatory?

 
We have no plans to make it mandatory. Buyers can always elect to avoid sellers who refuse to use it.

Our current thinking is that a free-to-use classifieds for private users is important for the continued success of Bike Hub.
 

I assume you can then set the negotiated price before the buyer makes payment?

In most cases, we're assuming that sellers and buyers would have agreed on a price in their discussion/negotiations before initiating the Bike Hub Pay deal.

Even so, the Seller can reject an offer from a Buyer if it does not meet their expectations with a note to the Buyer giving the reasons. The Buyer can then make an amended offer. So yes, there is a some negotiation built into the process.
 

If the buyer is using a credit card the seller will pay a higher fee to offset the card fees. How will the seller know that this is what the buyer used for payment?

 
The buyer using the credit card will pay the additional fee, not the seller. We're also hoping to bring this credit card fee down a little bit as the service grows.

yeeeow!

This is awesome. Less 'oil rig' threads and more 'ready for shreddy' threads!

This is great! Well done Bikehub!!

This is cool, I've often hesitated to buy something due to the risks involved.

This seems to provide more protection for the buyer than seller, which is understandable. What happens if the buyer doesn't confirm delivery? Can the seller provide the courier's records?

This seems to provide more protection for the buyer than seller, which is understandable. What happens if the buyer doesn't confirm delivery? Can the seller provide the courier's records?

Although, not yet automated on our system. In the case of dispute about delivery, we will confirm the delivery time with the courier and if more than 48 hours has passed, we will confirm the delivery. Unless the Buyer has good reason for the delay that all parties are happy to accept.

The Seller is required to enter courier tracking details before they can proceed to mark the item as Shipped, which is shared with the Buyer too.

Although, not yet automated on our system. In the case of dispute about delivery, we will confirm the delivery time with the courier and if more than 48 hours has passed, we will confirm the delivery. Unless the Buyer has good reason for the delay that all parties are happy to accept.

 

The Seller is required to enter courier tracking details before they can proceed to mark the item as Shipped.

One possible snag is that I've seen that couriers often let anyone sign for a parcel, often not asking for ID.

Anyway, this escrow service is cool and should help with sales

Great news, being able to buy stuff from outside my regional pool with confidence...

One possible snag is that I've seen that couriers often let anyone sign for a parcel, often not asking for ID.

This could be a snag, but in a scenario where a parcel is said to be delivered (by the seller and /or the courier) we'd open a dispute and hold the funds while resolution / investigation is in progress. 

The 48 hour window Nick describes above would really be a fail safe in the event that a buyer goes completely silent, doesn't confirm delivery, hasn't raised any disputes and is uncontactable. In that scenario, we'd release the funds to the seller 48 hours after confirmed delivery.

If the buyer is using a credit card the seller will pay a higher fee to offset the card fees. How will the seller know that this is what the buyer used for payment?

*Additional fees do apply where a deal is funded via Credit Card.

Do you have a target date when it will be up and running?

Edit:  Nevermind, look like it already is.

I think it brilliant, however I have not bought items that were more than R3000 which would make the R100 minimum Charge, otherwise brilliant system.

What if buyer uses CC and does a charge back?

Brilliant offering that is much needed... and great that it is all in house. Well done

I think it brilliant, however I have not bought items that were more than R3000 which would make the R100 minimum Charge, otherwise brilliant system.

Yeah that seems in line with most escrow offerings. TradeSafe's and Standard bank's is R115, Paysho R69, Truzo R29. 

The percentage fee is much higher than the sliding scales other escrow places have. The highest starting at 1.5%

If anything is remotely fishy these services should be used and it's great that it's built into the platform.

I think it brilliant, however I have not bought items that were more than R3000 which would make the R100 minimum Charge, otherwise brilliant system.

We're hoping to offer a more affordable fee for cheaper items in time. At the moment, we are intentionally focussing on the higher value items. Currently we need to improve scale and efficiencies to drop the minimum fee. We also need to test the service in the wild before confidently opening it up to the higher volumes that a lower fee for cheaper items will inevitably bring.

What if buyer uses CC and does a charge back?

Chargebacks are a risk we considered. Most card companies would require that the buyer has already lodged a dispute with the merchant (Bike Hub in this case). 

Where a charge back is requested the card company would investigate and we'd have the opportunity to provide proof of delivery on the transaction as agreed between the parties. We're confident that we'd have sufficient proof of this to demonstrate that a chargeback request is unreasonable.

Yeah that seems in line with most escrow offerings. TradeSafe's and Standard bank's is R115, Paysho R69, Truzo R29. 

 

The percentage fee is much higher than the sliding scales other escrow places have. The highest starting at 1.5%

 

If anything is remotely fishy these services should be used and it's great that it's built into the platform.

This is a fair point regarding the fees and where you compare this to the standalone escrow offerings we will be more expensive. Bike Hub is providing more than just a protected payment service, we offer the listing platform too allowing buyers & sellers to meet.

A better comparison though would be with the likes of eBay, or locally BidorBuy. In these marketplaces a success fee of 8-10% applies before any transaction fees, which typically includes some form of transaction protection.

That said, we are considering approaches to ensure the fees remain reasonable across the price bands. As Nick mentioned above, the R100 minimum does make it less attractive for lower value items at present but we'll address this in time.

Users will be free to use other services, but we're confident Bike Hub Pay will provide greater convenience and an all-round better experience. 

This is awesome!!! I have chewed people's ear off about something like this on many a ride... I have had great experiences with fellow hub users but I know there are some bad apples out there. Next up is a deal with a courier service where we get a small discount and you guys can charge a small commission for the set up... I have spent far too much money at Postnet. 

Good job guys.

This is awesome!!! I have chewed people's ear off about something like this on many a ride... I have had great experiences with fellow hub users but I know there are some bad apples out there. Next up is a deal with a courier service where we get a small discount and you guys can charge a small commission for the set up... I have spent far too much money at Postnet. 

 

Good job guys.

Thanks! 

Courier integration is next up on the road map. We expect this will be key to the broader success of the service to super charge the convenience factor.

Thanks! 

 

Courier integration is next up on the road map. We expect this will be key to the broader success of the service to super charge the convenience factor.

If you guys ever need a student to help out around the office hit me up... I am free from today until mid March 

Well played Bikehub Team