My analysis of the enquiry from Mark Henry (easyoptical.com) regarding switching his store to the cashflows.com payment processor (2026-03-22)

Other
1

1. Introduction

I often receive non-viable enquiries regarding new Magento development.
Sometimes the non-viability of an enquiry is not immediately apparent, but becomes clear only after several hours of my in-depth analysis.
In such cases, I always regret that my invested time is lost somewhere in correspondence.
I believe that my analyses of such non-viable enquiries may be interesting and valuable to a broader audience.
For this reason, I have published this analysis here as a standalone article.

2

2. The enquiry

From: Mark Henry <henry@easyoptical.com> 
To:	admin@mage2.pro
Date: Mar 21, 2026

Hi Dmitrii,

Hope you're well.
Apologies for not (yet) using Upwork for this.
This is only because I could not figure out how to ask you a question before posting a job.
Which I would like to do in order to define agreed job parameters such as cost, deliverable, timing, etc.
Or really whatever your preferred process is.

I am a long-time Magento user and sometime developer of small Magento 2 extensions for my own use only.
But nowhere near your level of developer competence.
I saw you have your IQ in your profile.
My IQ is allegedly 168.
I tell you what, it doesn't feel like it ;-).
I am an engineer by profession (the University of Waterloo in Canada) and should hopefully be easy to work with.

Reason for email:
I would like, via Upwork where I have a hiring account (i.e. no trying to go outside of Upwork -- I have seen that Upwork is how you work and that is no problem at all), I would like to ask about the cost and timing of development of a custom Magento 2 extension for the cashflows.com payment processor.
Specifically credit cards and Apple Pay and Google Pay.
As I think you know, they have an API.

I have a new live account with cashflows.com and I am trying to get it working with my Magento 2 shop (https://www.easyoptical.com).
As I say, credit cards and Apple Pay and Google Pay.

If you are available and this project is one you will take on and that I can afford (cost), I will post a job on Upwork for you to accept and we can proceed.
I think that's how it works.
Apologies if not.

Apologies again for not using Upwork to send this email to you.
I could not figure it out.

Also, I have tons of Magento needs, it seems to have taken on a level of complexity beyond what I can handle.
At least for how I am using it.
I'd love to hire you and I think the Magento 2 projects I have are cool.

Let me know any questions you have.
Otherwise please let me know cost and timing.
I re-iterate this is not an attempt to circumvent Upwork or disrespect your process.
I honestly could not figure out how to PM you on Upwork.

I have seen you in the Magento dev space to 10+ years and have tremendous respect for your work and longevity and wish to conduct myself accordingly.
I hope this email is ok.
In general I will 100% use Upwork per your preference.

Thank you and best regards,
Mark

Mark Henry :es: :canada:
Director and Co-founder
Easy Optical Limited (UK)
Email: henry@easyoptical.com
Phone: Direct+WhatsApp+WeChat: +44 7308 348 348

3

3. My analysis

Hello Mark,

1

Based on TrustPilot and Reddit reviews, your business has a lot of dissatisfied customers.
In particular, all 8 of the latest reviews on TrustPilot (since August 2025) are negative, and customers complain not about the quality of your products, but about not receiving what they paid for at all.
trustpilot.com/review/easyoptical.com
reddit.com/r/glasses/comments/1mva121

2

In the situation of §1, payment processors usually terminate their contracts with the merchant.

3

§2 is certainly your motive for switching your payment processor to cashflows.com.

4

§2 also explains why, despite having known of me, in your words, for «10+ years», and having, in your words, «tons of Magento needs», you are only contacting me now: this suggests that you are currently facing the threat of a complete ban on accepting payments on your website and you urgently need to find a solution.

5

Based on §2, even if you integrate your store with cashflows.com, continuing to conduct your business as in §1 will certainly cause them to terminate your contract very quickly (I think, within a quarter).

6

How to send direct messages to freelancers on Upwork before starting a contract with them is thoroughly explained on the Upwork website: support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360046621873
You could have found it with a simple Google query: «How to message a freelancer site:support.upwork.com».

7

The section «Who can send direct messages?» (support.upwork.com/hc/en-us/articles/360046621873#who-can-send-direct-messages) lists the reasons why direct messages are unavailable to you: you do not have a verified billing method on Upwork, your account is not in good standing, or you have not hired anyone yet.

8

Developing a module for integration with cashflows.com will require about 50 hours of work.
Accordingly, this will take about 7 working days and will cost about $2500 at my current rate.

9

I have already created 27 open-source payment modules for Magento 2 (github.com/topics/mage2pro-payment) and 130 open-source modules for Magento 2 in total (github.com/topics/mage2pro-module-ready).
So, I know exactly what I am talking about.

10

Contacting me outside of Upwork does not violate Upwork's rules in your case, as you have known of me for a long time.
We have no obligation to Upwork to work strictly through their platform.
However, working through Upwork is indeed very convenient.

Dmitrii Fediuk
github.com/dmitrii-fediuk
upwork.com/fl/mage2pro
mage2.pro