Marktplaats evolves escrow service Gelijk Oversteken

The job title on my LinkedIn profile says it all: CEO & Payment Innovator @ Online Payment Platform. This means that in addition to general business, I also like to be involved in innovation. Standing still is going backwards, as we say in the Netherlands, and this is even stronger in the online world than outside it. This also applies to our partners.

Today Marktplaats officially announced that it is discontinuing the escrow service Gelijk Oversteken with immediate effect. It will be replaced by a new, more comprehensive product. The news has been picked up by the media and the questions are flooding in. This is only logical, given that as a payment service provider for Marktplaats we stood at the cradle of this payment service, which was already innovative for the Netherlands.

But again, there is always room for improvement and after 5 years of Gelijk Oversteken it is time for something new. And although for many people this seems to come out of the blue, behind the scenes we have been working with Marktplaats for months to evolve Gelijk Oversteken into an even better service. We listened to the users, mapped out the limitations of the service and looked at how we could make it even better.

Protection for damaged products as well

Tweakers clearly states in this article what the new service means for Marktplaats users, saying among other things:

"The new service should protect buyers not only against the non-delivery of packages. With this new service you are not only protected if your package is not sent by the seller, but also if the product arrives damaged or the content of the package is different from what was agreed with the seller. That was one of the criticisms of Gelijk Oversteken: a seller got the money even if he had sent a box full of newspapers instead of the agreed product."

While not entirely accurate - a box full of newspapers triggered a fraud investigation - this was the perception of some users. In short: the customer experience could be further improved and Marktplaats has started working on this with us.

There will soon be a new service. And, just like with Gelijk Oversteken, we are proud of the fact that Online Payment Platform is closely involved in this and that we can facilitate this service on Marktplaats. Until then, Gelijk Oversteken is turned off for a while, but the direct payments will remain available.

And the new service? You will hear more about it soon stay tuned!