I was just on the phone with Ken Sproule, owner of Ko-Kard, and no, that was not a job interview. 🙂
Let me share with you what actually happened…
Last Wednesday, November 14, I received notification from Xoom that one of my clients has sent me money. It usually takes a few minutes before I get another e-mail telling me that the money is ready for pick up. A few more minutes, the client sent me an e-mail to tell me that Xoom denied the transaction. When I clicked on the tracking link, it showed that the transaction has been cancelled. Came Thursday, November 15, and found another notification from Xoom in my folder. I was expecting it, since that one is from my main client and I actually manage his Xoom account and I also pay his other service providers through Xoom. Found out that the payment transaction has been cancelled. Came the invoice from the transcriptionists, so I logged in to Xoom to send out the payment. Instantly, the transaction was cancelled. And then it hit me. Xoom found me out! Xoom’s fine prints state that remittances should not be commercial in nature. So all payments to me are now being blocked.
Sent my clients an e-mail letting them know that we have to find another way they can send payments to me. Direct bank deposit is expensive, and so is Western Union. I shy away from Paypal coz it charges me an arm and a leg on withdrawals. And their conversion rate is almost a peso lower compared to Xoom.
Then my main client, bless him, sends me a link to payments.ph and says: “If that works for you, go ahead and set it up. Just tell me what you need.” So I went ahead and started the registration process. I have all his bank and credit card details so no problem there. After completing the required information on the first page, the system tells me that a confirmation link has been sent to the e-mail address I used in the registration. So I sent my client an e-mail letting him know that he has to click on some link or forward it to me.
Nada. He could not find anything even in his spam folder. Twenty-four hours passed and no link. So I finally sent Ko-Kard’s support staff an e-mail to follow up and requested for another link.
Must have received my e-mail and acted on it, on a Saturday, coz the client forwarded the confirmation e-mail to me. I went ahead and clicked on the link, and was told that the code was not in their system. Tried to log in, crossing my fingers that the client has clicked on the link and therefore it was no longer valid, but account must have been verified so I can log in.
No such luck! The account still needs to be verified.
I was already stressing. I need to pay the subcontractors, and I still don’t have the cash. So I e-mailed support again. And the one who replied was Ken Sproule.
“Please send a contact number so I may call you and get things sorted out.”
So I did.
And that was what the call was about.
The link turned out to be erroneous, so while still on the phone, I was sent another link to click, and it actually worked! So I continued on to page two of the registration, and at the end was told that another e-mail with a link has been dispatched to my client so he can verify his bank account.
It’s past midnight in his part of the world, so I guess I will have to wait ’til late tonight, or early tomorrow morning to find out what comes next with Ko-Kard.
Marge, also known as The Happy WAHM, is a virtual assistant who turned her passion for entrepreneurship into a worthy endeavor of offering complete business solutions to CEOs and business owners around the world. She turned her back on a thriving corporate career to become a hands-on mom and created a lifestyle that allowed her to build a homebased career, homeschool her children, and still have time to pursue her passion for arts and crafting.
She only posts her content on her website, TheHappyWAHM.com. If you see this content on someone else’s site then it is NOT by any means authorized.
