Analysis of Skrill and Its Services
Skrill is a company dedicated to providing money transfer services. It is also an online payment provider. It originally operated as Moneybookers. It was originally incorporate in the year 2001 in the United Kingdom. In 2008, Moneybookers opened its services in USA. Skrill moneybookers offers different features including digital wallets. It allows its users to transfer fund to and from different countries. Users and companies from the USA or Europe can process credit cards online through Skrill. It also enables users to pay their bills in eBay and other sites. Merchant accounts are also available at Skrill.
Moneybookers Limited own Skrill or Moneybookers USA and its headquarters are based in London. The USA headquarters are located in New York.
Tactics Employed By Skrill in Marketing
Skrill does not advertise through any major or unique channels. It opts for the traditional methods and it does a fair bit of advertising in its own website. Skrill does not partner with any agencies in order to advertise the services that it provides. Moreover, there are no complaints regarding false advertising on the part of Skrill on the part of the users. The only major problem seen with Skrill’s advertising is faced by merchants and companies. They find that there is not enough information regarding the policies of Skrill in prevention of fraud.
Skrill should disclose more information and display them prominently regarding its policies. Complaints highlight the fact that the policies have not been disclosed properly or the explanations provided is not clear enough. Skrill should pay heed to these complaints and take the appropriate steps to ensure proper clarity of its policies.
Currently, unqualified or fraudulent businesses are not deterred from opening accounts with Skrill. These businessmen might conduct transactions which go against the policies of Skrill. It is possible that when their accounts are blocked or cancelled, they turn to complain about it. Skrill needs to make its advertising program tighter.
Costs and Identification Process of Skrill
Skrill operates with a variety of currencies. It allows users to have their own digital wallets and European companies are allowed to have their own payment gateways. These features actually pose serious problems when industry standards are being compared to the prices charged by Skrill.
Moreover, the complaints lodged by account holders do not focus on the rates charged by Skrill. There is rarely enough information in the complaints regarding the contractual fees. Generally, these complaints are concerned with the termination of accounts and withholding of funds. These complaints show that users have trouble comprehending the policies employed by Skrill before it is too late. Additionally, users find that it takes far too long for Skrill to resolve the problems.
One of the major issues that seem to crop up consistently is the verification and identification methods employed by Skrill. Companies and even individuals seem to be facing this problem with Skrill. The complaints mention that users have to provide a lot of identification materials for verifying their photos, addresses etc. More often than not, they even had to divulge sensitive information just to verify their identity.
While it is understandable that an organization like Skrill needs to have stringent verification methods. After all, it is a monetary organization. However, Skrill needs to be able to enforce their security policies effectively. Skrill needs to be able to able to maintain and regulate its security effectively. This becomes all the more important because Skrill used by companies dealing in high risk cash transfers like online gambling and Forex.
Complaints against Skrill and Their Resolution
There are more than 100 complaints against Skrill in forums dedicated to such matters. The recurring theme of the complaints seems to be that Skrill levies unnecessary and phony charges. Their customer support services seem to be in shambles as people are unable to contact Skrill for prolonged periods of time. Some customers even claim that Skrill exercises deception in selling practices. The most common issue linking all these charges is the freezing of funds or accounts without prior notifications. While there are individuals complaining about Skrill, most of the complaints were posted by companies.
Companies find the elongated identification procedure tedious and irritating. Many of them are actually suspicious of the necessity for such devices from Skrill. On reciveing the complaints from these users, Skrill mentions the fact that they were violating conditions regarding use of Skrill’s services. However, it seems there is a problem with the way Skrilll resolves these issues through freezing or termination.
The Skrill Report from Better Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau is a non-profit organization which monitors businesses for trust issues. Skrill has not been accredited with this organization. Better Business Bureau conducted a review of Skrill and found it lacking in various aspects. Skrill was given an ‘F’. There were 47 complaints lodged against it over that last few years. Most of these complaints were regarding the problems faced by users with their services. A few of them were related to the billing processes and others were about delivery or sales. Most of these complaints have been resolved but quite a few still remain. The few remaining issues have either not been touched by Skrill at all or they were not solved to the satisfaction of the customer. This caused Better Business Bureau to give a lower score for the company.
In Short
SKrill is seen by many as a provider of subpar services. There are far too many complaints regarding Skrill most of which concentrate on its security policies. Skrill seems to be ineffective at solving the issues to the satisfaction of its customers.