Hi,

as far as I understood, it is needed for an admin some kind of manual intervention to make payments using paypal mass payments. Is it possible to have something like:
1) the user registers its paypal or amazon account during his account creation.
2) For each transaction, the money is automatically transferred from the buyer to the seller without any intervention.

Thanks for any suggestion and comments. If a good solution arises from this discussion, I suppose my company could partly support the development.

Best regards,
K.

Comments

Korchkidu’s picture

Korchkidu commented

EDIT: this would be very useful when selling files where orders are instantaneously completed...

Best regards.
K.

syndicateStorm’s picture

syndicateStorm commented

Hi,

You are correct, you must do paypal masspay manually. 1) is essentially implemented, at least with paypal. 2) As you point out, this doesn't exist yet since it is manual.

This is an interesting idea and maybe someone in the community can help you out here.

I would think it shouldn't be too hard. We've had a few suggestions to automate masspay on a recurring schedule, which I think is too risky. Your approach is better, but I'm still concerned about the risk associated with automating any payments (on a site by site basis this might be ok, I'm just concerned about adding it to UC Marketplace). If someone has a patch I would be happy to review it and consider adding it to marketplace if it makes sense. Let me know if I can help in any other way. Cheers.

Korchkidu’s picture

Korchkidu commented

Hi,

thanks for your answer. Would it be possible (and a good idea) to implement a module handling user accounts? They could that way register their paypal and/or amazon accounts, put and retrieve money on their marketplace account, etc. The same thing you have on poker sites or for skype for example...

Best regards,
K.

syndicateStorm’s picture

syndicateStorm commented

Hi,

I think the issue is, the way Marketplace is set up right now, money goes from the buyer -> to you -> then you execute a Masspay to pay all your sellers. This is somewhat a side effect of using Masspay. We are talking about other schemes but that's how it works right now. That put's "you" in the awkward position of being in the middle of the transaction.

I'm not sure this answers your question. I'm open to any thoughts and ideas you might have. Maybe you have a clear idea of how this might work, so feel free to brainstorm here.

Best regards.

Korchkidu’s picture

Korchkidu commented

I am thinking of something similar but it is the seller to take the action to get his money and he can decide how much he wants to retrieve. The module keeps the total amount the user has earned so far so that it mimics a bank account. The user can additionnally put money on his account.

What do you think?
K.

syndicateStorm’s picture

syndicateStorm commented

That's seems to be a reasonable approach. Still not sure if this is within the scope of marketplace. Ideally, I think we would need a patch users could try out and give feedback on. If it worked well I think we could then add it. I would be happy to look over anything you come up with.

I'll also be working on some other payment features that might make automated payments easier to implement in the future. I'll keep you informed if I come up with anything useful.

Korchkidu’s picture

Korchkidu commented

Great! Let me know if you have something new...;-)

Best regards.
K.

syndicateStorm’s picture

syndicateStorm commented

Hi Korchkidu, I take it back, I'm wrong. The future development I was talking about is actually almost exactly what you are requesting.

The idea is to do something like etsy (see http://drupal.org/node/501826). Customers would buy from the sellers and sellers would be responsible for paying your marketplace commission (essentially a service fee, the seller could pay monthly or something). This makes sellers accountable directly to buyers, which is good.

The problem is Masspay doesn't work this way. We need a payment system that allows one credit card to pay multiple paypal accounts. This is the future development I'm talking about which would basically solve your problem. It's probably still a ways off though... Maybe later this year?

Korchkidu’s picture

Korchkidu commented

Thanks for your answers. I believe that the payment mechanims should be disconnected in separate modules so that we have the choice of the method:

1) Buyers => MarketPlace => Sellers
2) Buyers => Sellers => MarketPlace
3) Buyers => MarketPlace then Sellers <= MarketPlace

The one on the left side of the arrow takes the action.

In my case, option three is the most important. Basically, users register on your site. Then, they can put money on their account with a credit card, paypal or amazon. They can buy and sell on the site. When they want, they can cash-out the desired amount with paypal or amazon.

So, basically:

1) Are there people here who are interested by such a module?
2) Are there people here who can help writing it?
3) Are there people here who can donate to help the development of this module?

From our side, we can help writing it and maybe donate also.
Let me know what you think.

Best regards.
K.

syndicateStorm’s picture

syndicateStorm commented
Title: Another payments method for file » Other payment systems for UC Marketplace

I think the lack of payment methods/options is probably the biggest shortcoming Marketplace has. I have certainly heard many people voice their interest in such a module. So I think the answer to (1) is definitely yes.

I'm in for (2). If you can get these modules started I would be more than happy to help write and/or integrate them into Marketplace.

Regarding payment methods. We may still need to modularize (1) but this should be how marketplace works now. I would like to see (2). And I think your (3) would be good too. I have also thought of using some kind of points system, where the user could purchase products using points (like iStockPhoto.com). Just a thought to consider during development.

marcus178’s picture

marcus178 commented

Something like this would be ideal http://drupal.org/project/uberfunds but unfortunately there isn't anything available yet.

Korchkidu’s picture

Korchkidu commented

Hi,

yes, it would be nice. According to the author, the project is on hold for the moment. I don't know if it will be alive some day. However, I believe we could start to write some kind of feature-list first based on this project and then see if we can start the implementation or continue with uberfunds. I will look into this and post a new issue.

Do not hesitate to participate.

Best regards.
K.

Stomper’s picture

Stomper commented

It would be great to see an escrow service and I believe UberFunds has API that could support it.

The escrow service would be provided by the website to sellers and buyers.

The service could be free or paid(website decides), optional or mandatory (seller/website decides.)

jbiggis’s picture

jbiggis commented

Hey Syndicate storm, I am in dire need of a module that facilitates payments from buyer -> multiple sellers directly in one checkout. Be it using the amazon flexible system or any other way. I am willing to help fund this development. It's pretty urgent, if you can get back to me asap that'd be great. Thanks.

syndicateStorm’s picture

syndicateStorm commented

I can't tell you how much I would like to see this payment method myself. Unfortunately, I'm buried under several other obligations for at least the next month, if not two.

Maybe there is another taker out there? I'd be happy to integrate this into Marketplace if someone could even just get the basic mechanism/framework together.

Korchkidu’s picture

Korchkidu commented

Hi jbiggis,

I started a new thread to try putting all important features for such a module here: http://drupal.org/node/743708

Do not hesitate to participate.

Best regards.
K.

syndicateStorm’s picture

syndicateStorm commented
Category: support » feature