I would like to hear about anybody's experience with charge.com I am thinking of switching to them and would just like to know a bit more about them

..affiliated with WorldPay. Probably an 'Affiliate Partner' and above.

The service is good. Many of our E-commerce customers use them.

I was going to sign up with them - but they tried to sneak in a bunch of extra charges at the last minute. When I called to inquire about this (remember, this is BEFORE I signed on the dotted line), they were less than helpful and one woman was outright rude. I never sign up with anyone who gives PRE-sales customers a hard time...because it gives you a taste of what AFTER-sales support will be like.

--Tina

Unfortunately their telephone support is less than helpful. But once past that it works well.

What kind of charges did they try?

We unfortunately signed with them a few months ago and we are right at this moment considering changing to another, more professional group.

Charge.com=iPayment=Humboldt Bank

These guys really have no clue how to run a financial institution and they are rude, unhelpful, incompetent and dangerous if you are relying on them for the health of your business.

I suspect that they deal with so much fraud that they have decided that most all customers are to be treated as garbage.

A quick example of their nonsense is their bizarre policy of freezing all charges in a batch if just one has a problem. So if you billed $5,000 on a day and say one charge for $499 was fraudulent or similar, they decide to hang onto the the balance of your money until they can sort the single issue out in their dull witted manner. This, in our case, is taking weeks, and we cannot afford to lose income while they dither.

If you do choose them, I would also strongly suggest that you get every piece of advice they give you in writing, because they employ incompetents who give instructions over the phone which are subsequently declared as invalid if it suits their purpose.

My suggestion is that you visit the Authorize.net web site and collect the contact details for all their resellers and make enquiries of them all.. The gateway is fine but the processing can be full of unpleasantness, particularly if they con you into signing up for 36 months..

If you have a low ebb of sales then you might escape without incident, but I know now there are better run, cheaper and more professional companies available.

[that feels better]

Good luck with your final choice.. :)

For those of you who are not pleased, who are you now using (I've been thinking of using charge.com but am open to better alternatives if they are priced well).

Thanks

Originally posted by felix220
We unfortunately signed with them a few months ago and we are right at this moment considering changing to another, more professional group.

Charge.com=iPayment=Humboldt Bank

These guys really have no clue how to run a financial institution and they are rude, unhelpful, incompetent and dangerous if you are relying on them for the health of your business.

I suspect that they deal with so much fraud that they have decided that most all customers are to be treated as garbage.

A quick example of their nonsense is their bizarre policy of freezing all charges in a batch if just one has a problem. So if you billed $5,000 on a day and say one charge for $499 was fraudulent or similar, they decide to hang onto the the balance of your money until they can sort the single issue out in their dull witted manner. This, in our case, is taking weeks, and we cannot afford to lose income while they dither.

If you do choose them, I would also strongly suggest that you get every piece of advice they give you in writing, because they employ incompetents who give instructions over the phone which are subsequently declared as invalid if it suits their purpose.

My suggestion is that you visit the Authorize.net web site and collect the contact details for all their resellers and make enquiries of them all.. The gateway is fine but the processing can be full of unpleasantness, particularly if they con you into signing up for 36 months..

If you have a low ebb of sales then you might escape without incident, but I know now there are better run, cheaper and more professional companies available.

[that feels better]

Good luck with your final choice.. :)


Yes, I agree. I felt like it was all about getting me to sign up. Not much about customer service. I told the sales rep that I needed to know ALL of the charges, fees, etc. that would be charged each month...EVERYTHING. This was the main focus point of my conversation with them. She gave me quotes, figures and told me that there are no other hidden charges and that my discount rate would be (can't remember the exact quote now). I asked her if this was indeed what it would be...not subject to change, etc. She assured me....I wrote it all down.

The contract came and the charges were all different (higher and more of them!). I phoned and got the run around...was told that this person couldn't verify it...had to speak to this person...left a voice message...never returned my call...finally spoke with the person (I called her back, she never called me) and was told "The numbers you have aren't correct. You didn't understand what the other sales rep told you."

Hello!?!? Calling a potential customer an idiot is not exactly a sales booster.

So, I told her to tell me exactly what it WOULD cost me per month. Couldn't get a straight answer - was told that I could just sign the contract "to get the ball rolling" and then we could negotiate a better rate right away. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!

*click*

(that was me hanging up the phone in frustration)

--Tina

Originally posted by TedS
For those of you who are not pleased, who are you now using (I've been thinking of using charge.com but am open to better alternatives if they are priced well).

Thanks

We use EMS. Easier to deal with, better interface and quick to setup (no need to mess with Authorize.net when you use EMS!).

A tad more expensive - but well worth it. This is our third merchant account and we've been with them since last April...the longest I could stand being with any other merchant account provider.

--Tina

Tina, What's EMS's webpage?

Is it http://www.emscorporate.com ?

Yes, that's it.

--Tina

the problem with EMS is if you don't have a US bank account forget it,

<quote
Q: Can a merchant outside the U.S. apply for a merchant credit card acceptance account with EMS?
Due to bankcard association and system limitations, the merchant credit card acceptance account offered through EMS it is applicable only to merchants located in the United States that have a relationship with a U.S. Financial Institution and a valid checking account /quote> from thier own FAQ:angry:

Here:

PlanetPayment.com
SfCommerce.com

These people provide international merchant accounts without a US-bias.

A note though, their discount rates are reasonable:

PlanetPayment: 3.5% + 50 cents ($550 or something setup)
Sfcommerce: 2.x + 25 cents ($299 setup)

PlanetPayment is a company of AuthorizeNet thus very stable
Sfcommerce, well i dont know much about them.

Planet payment caps your income at $15K. Unless you pay them thousands of dollars they wont let you have all of it.

Sfcommerce caps it around $10k


Regards,
Asher.

Originally posted by ^Kyo
Here:

PlanetPayment.com
SfCommerce.com

These people provide international merchant accounts without a US-bias.

A note though, their discount rates are reasonable:

PlanetPayment: 3.5% + 50 cents ($550 or something setup)
Sfcommerce: 2.x + 25 cents ($299 setup)

PlanetPayment is a company of AuthorizeNet thus very stable
Sfcommerce, well i dont know much about them.

Planet payment caps your income at $15K. Unless you pay them thousands of dollars they wont let you have all of it.

Sfcommerce caps it around $10k


Regards,
Asher.


Are you seriously saying that they won't processmore than $10 or $15k?!?! What good is that???

--Tina

Tina,

They will process more, but they wont let you have the excess until next month and so on.

If you need to increase your limit you gotta throw thousands of dollars at them.

Regards,
Asher.

Originally posted by ^Kyo
Tina,

They will process more, but they wont let you have the excess until next month and so on.

If you need to increase your limit you gotta throw thousands of dollars at them.

Regards,
Asher.


That's insane. We process more than that each month - and EMS always deposits it in our bank account within 3 days.

--Tina

Yeah i know its insane, but they provide cc processing services to international people, therefore they arent willing to take any risks.

Hey what can I say, I dont own em ;)

Regards,
Asher.

the problem with EMS is if you don't have a US bank account forget it,
If my company registered as an LLC in Delaware and somehow got a US bank account there could we apply for this service even though we are located in Canada?

Um, isnt a us social security number also required?

If you register a company as an LLC or INC, you can get a number, similar to a ss# for the business' identity.