Thousands of Amazon sellers in shock as Payoneer freezes pre-paid cards amid Wirecard scandal
[whohit]Thousands of Amazon sellers in shock as Payoneer freezes pre-paid cards amid Wirecard scandal[/whohit]Payoneer is a global payments processor that enables millions of businesses and professionals, including thousands of Amazon sellers from more than 200 countries to make seamless cross-border payments. One of its products is Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard, which is issued by Wirecard AG’s UK-based subsidiary Wirecard Card Solutions Limited (WCSL).
On Thursday 25.June 2020, Wirecard AG filed for insolvency after it was revealed that the company was involved in the accounting fraud and reported that 1.9 billion euros from the company account were missing. Subsequently, the UK regulator of WCSL, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), ordered WCSL to freeze all prepaid card activity for the time being.
The FCA has communicated that they have taken these measures with the primary objective of protecting the interests and money of consumers who use Wirecard services. Pending further actions from the FCA, all payments services, including Payoneer, that subscribe to Wirecard, their cards will be blocked temporarily and the users will not be able to withdraw the funds on these cards, nor receive new payments.
Payoneer CEO Scott Galit stated,
“We understand that the developing situation with Wirecard has created a lot of concern and challenges for Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard®️ card users. We have been assured by the FCA that the freeze was put in place to ensure the protection of all cardholders funds. We have also been given repeated reassurances that all funds are properly safeguarded. Progress is being made to lift the freeze, and we will continue to update you as soon as more information is available. This situation has impacted the customers of many companies, and we believe that it will be resolved soon.
In the meantime, incoming funds to Payoneer users can be withdrawn to bank accounts, or held in a Payoneer Account which remains safe and secure. All funds held in Payoneer are fully liquid and available and held in global leading banks. Our company is strong and stable, and committed to safeguarding our customers’ funds in accordance with all relevant global regulations.
We know that our customers depend on these funds, and that this freeze has created hardships for many people. We have enabled alternative solutions for payment withdrawal, and are working to address any technical issues that have come up, and to help our customers in any way we can.”
Payoneer, in its blog, also assured its users that the funds stored on individual Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard users were safe and secure.
“Although Wirecard Card Solutions Limited is a subsidiary within the Wirecard group and shares the same brand, they are an entirely independent entity with their own board, their own regulatory and capital requirements and are subject to regulatory oversight and accounting standards in the UK,” the blog post read.
“As they are independent, your card is not impacted and you can continue to use it as usual. Nonetheless, we work with other issuers including our own, and are working on contingency plans to ensure we maintain continuity and redundancy now and in the future. Even in the unlikely event of insolvency of Wirecard Card Solutions Limited, funds held on your card remain secure as they are held in trust in safeguarded accounts at regulated credit institutions in the UK and the European Economic Area (EEA) and designated as your funds,” it read.
Payoneer prepaid cards are mostly used by freelancers to receive payments from offshore clients for the projects they deliver. Besides freelancers, Amazon sellers also use Payoneer’s services for international payments.
The payment can be retrieved into a prepaid card or an app-based virtual account. People who use prepaid cards have temporarily lost access to cash as the cards have been blocked for an indefinite period of time. While no timeline has been given by Payoneer for resumption of card services, the company says that users are able to transfer money from their virtual accounts to local bank accounts for withdrawal.
In their latest marketplace newsletter, OnBuy shared what they have new.
Unlike Amazon, OnBuy strives to never compete with independent retailers, according to their statement:
“We’re determined to change the way consumers view online marketplaces, and that starts with our fair approach and commitment to you, our retailers. We vow never to compete with you but to treat you as equal partners and provide the best environment for you to grow.”
They were also working on VAT compliance.
“If this change is applicable to you, you’ll notice this reflected in the ‘VAT collected’ column on the orders page and also in reports on the VAT collected for orders.”
OnBuy further shared the list of their upcoming events:
Garden & Outdoors is a big focus over the coming months, covering everything from gardening and furniture to camping and outdoor sports.
Searches for all things garden started climbing in March, with high demand for garden storage, gardening products and garden furniture expected in late April – May.
We’ve also got promotional pushes planned around Father’s Day (from w/c 16th May), the Queen’s Jubilee (from w/c 9th May), summer bedding (from w/c 30th May) and travel/holidays (from June).
Here you can view the whole OnBuy newsletter:
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This week, Etsy announced an increase of their transaction fees from 5% to 6.5%. Similarly to Amazon, they have done so in a form of a ”feel-good” positive announcement titled “Investing in Etsy’s growth: A message from CEO Josh Silverman”.
The whole notice starts with celebration of success of Etsy sellers and a mention of recorded increase of sales by 23%. It then proceeds to mention that selling fees are getting increased.
Etsy justifies the increase by saying that they invested into marketing, enforcing bad actors and improving customer support.
Here is a copy of the full announcement:
| Dear Seller Community, At Etsy, we’re focused on building a marketplace that allows sellers like you to turn your creativity and passions into real, money-making businesses. Last year, active sellers increased their sales by 23% on average compared to 2019, and in 2021 alone, we showed more than 90 million active buyers worldwide that there’s an alternative to big-box, automated shopping. Together, we’ve made Etsy the global marketplace for unique and creative goods. We plan to make significant investments in marketing, seller tools, and creating a world-class customer experience so we can continue this tremendous growth. To support this goal, on April 11 we will increase our current 5% transaction fee to 6.5%. This change will allow us to make improvements in three key areas: Bringing more buyers to Etsy: Last year, we spent nearly $600 million on marketing. This year we’ll be investing even more, including on TV commercials, influencers and tastemakers, billboards, podcast advertising, and email marketing that bring new buyers to Etsy. The support you need: We’ll grow our support team by more than 20% this year so you can get help more quickly and easily, including faster email responses, expanded access to live chat, and prioritization of your most urgent requests. Keeping Etsy unique: We’ll build on last year’s roughly $40 million investment in the teams and technology that help make our marketplace a safe and secure destination for handmade, vintage, and special items. This year we’ll expand our efforts to remove listings that don’t meet our policies and help you resolve issues with buyers. These are some of the great things we’ll invest in to keep Etsy a beloved, trusted, and thriving marketplace. We don’t take fee changes lightly, and we believe that these investments will enable Etsy, and our seller community, to continue to grow. Thank you for making Etsy a one-of-a-kind marketplace. |
There is also a banner with the announcement published at the top of Etsy’s home page:
I hope you found this article helpful. Many Amazon sellers recently started trading stocks and crypto currencies, hoping to diversify their income, which is a very good idea with all the uncertainty which comes with the platform. For this reason, we launched a new Facebook group, Crypto Arbitrage Income (Bitcoin, Crypto, Altcoins, Blockchain, Trading) – feel free to join us and forget about the troubles of selling on Amazon for a moment!
Regarding Amazon Seller Performance, you can always participate in our Amazon Seller Performance – Friendly Advice – Worldwide group, where you will be very welcome.
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Today, Etsy informed their sellers by e-mail that numerous refunds were erroneously issued to buyers as a part of a site-wide technical difficulty.
Affected sellers were provided with specific orders, for which refunds were issued and advised not to take any action, because Etsy is addressing the matter with buyers and the company is covering all refunds out of their own funds.
Orders, for which full refunds were mistakenly issued are still showing as paid in Orders & Shipping dashboard.
Here is a copy of the e-mail wording from Etsy:
Here is a screenshot of the e-mail:
I hope you found this article helpful. Many Amazon sellers recently started trading stocks and crypto currencies, hoping to diversify their income, which is a very good idea with all the uncertainty which comes with the platform. For this reason, we launched a new Facebook group, Crypto Arbitrage Income (Bitcoin, Crypto, Altcoins, Blockchain, Trading) – feel free to join us and forget about the troubles of selling on Amazon for a moment!
Regarding Amazon Seller Performance, you can always participate in our Amazon Seller Performance – Friendly Advice – Worldwide group, where you will be very welcome.
If you are an Amazon Seller who needs help with any Amazon-related issues such as suspensions, listing blocks or is looking for professional assistance, please don’t hesitate to subscribe to my new OnlyFans page at: www.onlyfans.com/kikaangelic
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