DaoPay payment processor: from theory to practice

After the scarce discussion on the origins and the operational concept of DaoPay payment system in our previous article we now can focus on directly testing the system and the services available. Here below you will find some interesting points which, in our humble opinion, cannot be regarded in a unique way inasmuch as the service has both advantages and shortcomings. And we should say that shortcomings are related to the most considerable aspect such as fees charged for the use of their so called phone payment solution.

Before we start we would like to draw your attention to the fact that we missed in the first article on DaoPay. Our readers should know that the service is registered as:

DaoPay Ltd 
145-157 St. John Street
London EC1V 4PY
United Kingdom

Thus the company is in the UK, but what is noteworthy is that most merchants and retailers partnering with DaoPay are German. This will be further detailed in this article. So, let us start our testing procedure.

A simple soul of interface

The outer interface of the system is rather modest but very neat and pleasant, in principle. You can access the site on any of the three languages: English, German and French. In the upper navigation panel we have 5 options: select a language, articles (which we do not recommend you to read as soon as it is a time waste), contact us and sing in here (for the users already registered with DaoPay). In the middle menu bar we see such buttons like Tour, Overview, Demo and Payout.


Using the tour option you will be able to look through the short presentation on what DaoPay really is. This presentation was already detailed in our previous post. Demo option provides you the opportunity to learn how the system works when a customer pays for any purchase via DaoPay. At last the payout section presents the list of fees and the amounts to be paid to merchants depending on their location. Our approximate calculations reveal that there are over 240 countries where DaoPay services can be accessed.

Interestingly, the global web network has saved the previous versions of DaoPay interface. As early as in 2006 the logo and the site itself were dominated by blue colors instead of this optimistic green that we see now. There are also some pictures of Demo payment page which is mainly in blue as well.

Design resembles that of DaoAccess payment platform, another service provided by the DaoTec group. Seems like the owners who make profit out of huge commissions charged by DaoPay do not hasten to spend their money on designers, though, wait, in September this year they hired a new manager responsible for the questions related to the interface.

Come and use it

The registration procedure is not very sophisticated. You just fill in only one for where you provide your personal information details along with the contact information. You specify your username and password to be used at logging into your member area.

After this, in the theory, you should be immediately advised about a successful or on the contrary unsuccessful registration. But that remains to be just a theory. As it was 2 years ago, according to the experience of other people who tried DaoPay, so is the case today. The system operates with errors. After we filled in all the required fields and pressed ‘submit’ button we find ourselves at a blank page where there only was an upper navigation panel with the company logo. After we reloaded the page and pressed ‘sign in’ button we were offered to enter our username and password. Well, we got it. We were lucky to have been successfully registered with DaoPay. What a miracle!

Well we are in our account. Here we ran across one more strange point. First time we logged into the member area the page looked this way:

The second time we logged into our account it looked a bit another way:

Do you see? There are some differences between these pictures. The first version shows the main options on the left side of the member profile while the second version presents the same options on the upper navigation bar. Seems like this new manager is tirelessly working on improving the interface and these upgrades has not been fully fixed yet.
Before we can use such options as ‘Statistics’ or ‘My account’ we need to register our website from where customers will be able to purchase any product. This can be done by clicking on the ‘New application’ button placed under the navigation panel. After you press the button you will be offered to select the type of integration:

In case we select ‘EASYmail’ interface (which is by the way the cheapest one, but with poor functionality) we will be requested to specify our RUL address, then describe our purpose and contents of the webpage, service category and email address to where DaoPay will send a message in case of any technical issue. Besides, the system offers you to choose the melody to be played during the purchase call. Then you should specify which country you want to prohibit for payments.

Well when creating this new application you will also meet a dozen of problems like system error or redirection to some strange places. Thereby, do not be very surprised.

After you solved all the issues related to the integration of your website with the system of DaoPay you can now accept payments from your consumers. Though, it is hard to imagine any customer in the global crisis environment to agree to those conditions on which the transaction is performed and it is even harder to imagine such a merchant who will be very enthusiastic to learn that DaoPay will pay him/her only 40% of the total amount in case a buyer makes purchase via premium number from Denmark. Don’t get so perturbed! Merchants from Chile receive even less: only 30%!
Certainly the fact of the service availability in such a great number of countries unlike PayPal’s possibilities speaks to the favor of DaoPay but these outrageously high commissions is far more than just a little shortcoming, it is intolerable extortion. That is the reason why most of the partnering companies are located in Germany inasmuch as the payout to German merchants accounts for 77% which is followed by Austria with 74% (as we already mentioned the server of DaoPay site is located in Vienna). One more significant point is the terms of payouts. In case you are a German retailer you will be credited only within 60 days in case a customer uses premium number, otherwise if he/she uses premium SMS you will be paid within 90 days. Well, our conclusion is that DaoPay is very very far from posing any competition to PayPal which is not only one of the most convenient services today but is cost-effective as well.