MODASolutions Rechristens Its Service, Unveils Buyer Protection

MODASolutions Inc. which has been marketing an online-payment system called SECURE-eBill for more than two years, has renamed the service and introduced its first buyer-protection policy to cover instances of delayed or damaged goods, as well as non-delivery. The new policy comes as online retailers seek alternatives to bank-issued credit and debit cards, which carry what many regard as high acceptance costs but which come with long-established rules to deal with transactions that don't work out as expected. The MODASolutions payment service, which allows online merchants to send electronic invoices to consumers, which buyers then pay via their online-banking accounts, is now called eBillme. The new name reflects what consumers do with the service and also responds to how merchants and consumers are referring to it, says Marwan Forzley, president and chief executive at Ottawa-based MODASolutions. “People were going for a shortcut, calling it 'ebill,” he says. The company added “me” to the shortened name “to make it action-oriented, since [receiving and paying a bill] is what consumers do with the service,” he adds. The 6-year-old company, which brought its first merchant live on the service in May 2005, now processes payment for at least 28 online merchants, including Tigerdirect.com, a major electronics merchant, as well as PCrush.com and ToolKing.com. Forzley says without giving details that more sites will start accepting eBillme shortly. He says transaction volumes, including repeat-usage volume, is heading upward steadily. Tickets are averaging $240, which Forzley says is remarkable for a service that doesn't extend credit. “That's incredible for a cash-like payment system,” he says. The new buyer-protection policy, Forzley says, is the first of what he expects to be a series of new sets of rules governing how so-called exception items are to be handled. The policy offers refunds in certain cases of delayed, lost, or damaged goods. If a product ships but hasn't been received within 30 days of purchase, for example, the customer is eligible for a refund. It doesn't, however, address cases when customers receive intact merchandise that wasn't as described, an instance Forzley says should be worked out between customer and merchant. He says a dispute-resolution policy, which is part of the new set of rules, allows MODASolutions to step in as a mediator when these cases cannot be resolved directly by the parties. Forzley doesn't expect these instances to come up often. “We have not had cases where things did not get sorted out,” he says. Acceptance fees for eBillme range between 1% and 2% of the transaction. Like competing online-payment products Google Checkout and PayPal, the processor late last year introduced an incentive to hike volume, offering to forgo processing fees and pay $25 cash rebates to consumers who use the service. That offer expired Feb. 28. Unlike services such as PayPal and Google Checkout, eBillme relies on online-banking programs to authenticate consumers and let them pay online merchants as if they were paying a bill. When the customer is ready to pay, he clicks on the eBillme icon, reviews his invoice on-screen, and enters only his name and e-mail address. Within minutes, the merchant sends the bill to the consumer, who logs onto to his e-banking site and pays it as he would any other bill, setting up the merchant as a payee. MODASolutions, which is linked to MasterCard Worldwide's RPPS backbone network, receives notice of payment and notifies the merchant. Within two days, the merchant receives guaranteed funds and can ship merchandise. MODASolutions' software also integrates to the merchant's back-end system, updating its shipping and accounting servers.