TL;DR: dLocal, a payment provider for emerging markets, lures a small company into technical integration and then doubles their minimum fees just before the release to production and signing the contract.
When we started looking into payment providers that provide local acquiring in Latin America and lots of other countries that are outside of the scope of regular payment services, we came across dLocal. They seem to offer a wide range of payment methods for all the countries we were interested in: Brazil, Mexico, India, etc.
The first sales call was great. Friendly and informative. They even provided a reference for us to reach out and ask for their experience.
After checking potential alternatives, we decided to go with dLocal and requested an offer. We got a detailed contract, listing the rates for each payment method per country. Even listed the next pricing tiers when our volume grows.
dLocal asked us for our numbers: Revenue, ticket size, expected growth, countries we intended to operate in, etc. – we delivered. We went full disclosure and transparency, trying to demonstrate our commitment from the get-go.
The contract also included a minimum monthly fee, which we managed to negotiate into a gradual increase over a year so we can roll out dLocal gradually to other countries as well. We’ve had what seemed to us as a constructive and enjoyable negotiation, trying to create a partnership that will be mutually beneficial, as well as display full commitment to a long term partnership from both sides.
They also requested all the legal documents from us to onboard us, which we had also delivered. At this point, all the contract details were nailed down and agreed upon from both sides. The fees we agreed upon were a balance between the minimum they need to operate and profit and maximum we are able to provide being a small company. We were very grateful and happy that we found this sweet spot for both of us together. We didn't sign the contract just yet, as we were still testing the sandbox and trying to figure out the integration. This was the last step that we both agreed we wanted to see finalized before signing the contract.
Coming closer to releasing the integration, we revisited the contract to check if there were any updates which we would need to consider before we would finally sign it. Surprisingly, the new appointed sales manager just doubled the minimum fees and said in an email: "Yes, let's work on that document. Let me know your thoughts."
What we experienced there felt like a stab in the back. Being shocked by such a sudden and substantial one-sided change, I tried to go back to the conversation phase with this new agent. With the entire integration pending Production deployment, we’ve spent a couple of weeks in back-and-forth exchange with them, but any attempt to bring down the fees to any bearable amount for us was unsuccessful. From this moment, we got the feeling that they simply don't want to have us as a customer. It felt like they were no longer interested in working with a small company, even though every business needs to start small before it grows. Or perhaps, there was something else that has changed internally that they didn't communicate with us.
Being in entrepreneurship for quite a few years now, I understand that a business strategy can change and take a sharp turn for various different reasons. But this isn’t how it’s done, it isn’t how it’s communicated. We’ve had a lot of faith in dLocal as a partner and have invested significant resources into the integration. In the end, it felt like they tried to use our progress to leave us no choice but to accept doubled fees. Even if we processed billions, we would not accept this as it is a grave breach of trust and good faith.
I can only warn everyone doing business with dLocal to be very cautious. They act unethically and intransparently.
