Dwolla Developers
developers.dwolla.com
developers.dwolla.com
https://developers.dwolla.com/
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I don't know what the answer is- clearly they want to avoid making a bank transfer for every purchase (which is understandable) but the user experience just seems kind of lacking to me. Last time I checked they did have an automatic option, but it cost users $3 a month. Eh.
Dwolla is a benefit to merchants. Under $10 no fee over $10 .25 (see how long this lasts of course). Presumably the merchant because they are saving money will offer an incentive to the buyer to make the trouble worth it, at least in theory.
Sounds like you really should be making a point that Dwolla needs to build confidence and adoption. If Dwolla could become or partner with a net bank that has FDIC deposit insurance, I would think that would seriously blow up their adoption rate. I haven't given it a good look recently, but that would make me feel more comfortable with using it; especially if they also partnered with a behemoth like Amazon or Google for payments. They need to make a marketing push as a way to screw Visa, MasterCard, Banks, etc and it's ability to push down prices through lower processing fees.
Well, my credit card doesn't require topping up, it requires paying off every month. And my bank account/debit card gets a direct deposit of my wages- I don't have to top it up.
If a lot of places used Dwolla it would make sense to stick $1,000 in my account. But as it is right now, I would be leaving a lot of money in an account I barely use.
http://www.shtylman.com/archives/319
This is not meant to be trolling; I genuinely want people to be aware of what they are getting into and understand the risks so they can avoid the problems I (and others) have already faced.
I will say, however, that the API is simple to use, and having a built in mechanism for charging a facilitator fee is great - but convincing my customers and merchants to use it will be difficult if fraud continues to be a sore spot.
But they insisted that each customer have their own account which didn't make sense in my circumstances. I couldn't even get them to return emails or have a phone call to discuss.
Pro tip to startups out there: it never hurts to talk to potential customers.. they may be your next pivot.
But this is my biased opinion as a Bitcoin user (and former Dwolla user). Please go read about it yourself. Perhaps others will come to a different conclusion.
I run Bitfloor and was hit with similar fraud as Tradehill (on a much much smaller scale) and Dwolla was just as ignorant and dismissive of it. Fundamentally, they went into a business that they did not understand. I know this to be true because early on (even before any Tradehill incident) we emailed them to ask about ACH chargebacks and how they handle them. They claimed there were no chargebacks and this was everything I needed to know about their lack of understanding.
A while back I recapped what happend between myself and Dwolla and why they are not a useful service.
Links? Nothing obvious I am seeing even with a search for "how Dwolla combats fraud"
Additionally is there any difference (for a merchant) in how Dwolla handles chargebacks vs. a credit card company?
"If a transaction was reversed, what can I do?"
per http://help.dwolla.com/customer/portal/articles/99253-if-a-t...
What you can do:
You may request a copy of the affidavit from Dwolla, who will forward it to you. If you choose, you can then take further action directly with your customer who filed the dispute with the bank.
If you were intially the receiver of the payment, you may send a money request to the other party by logging into your Dwolla account. If you were intially the sender of the payment, you many send another payment to the other party by logging into your Dwolla account.
What you can do:
Contact the other party to work out a resolution.
What you can do:
Contact the Financial Institution directly to see if your account has been closed or is no longer valid.
What you can do:
Contact Dwolla to inquire about verifying information to ensure the account is reopened.
I don't see any reason to use Dwolla instead of Paypal if they are going to handle chargebacks the same way.
As much as I hate Paypal, you will earn more money by being able to receive credit cards from different countries through Paypal than being restricted to US customers and forcing them to wait 5 days to get money to Dwolla.
Until they dumped Bitcoin.
Now I have bad feelings.