It appears to be that mBill failed to offer what they said they would offer when I signed up. They claimed that it came with a free merchant account /w free authorize.net account. They also claimed that there is a free eNom domain registration account. Taking those into account, I signed up. It appears to be that the authorize.net account is not free as there is a $10/mo gateway fee, and the eNom is $7.95/yr minimum, with a required $100 deposit. Finding that out, I decided to not download the serial number, and ask for a refund. However, they have a no refunds policy. Since I never used the service, and they didn't provide what they said, do I have the right to do a chargeback on them? If I do, should I just run it through immediately if their response to my request is not satisfactory? What do you think would be the right thing to do, and what do you think is the moral way to solve this? I would hate to be referred to by the public as a chargeback-happy person.

Originally posted by excelblue
It appears to be that mBill failed to offer what they said they would offer when I signed up. They claimed that it came with a free merchant account /w free authorize.net account. They also claimed that there is a free eNom domain registration account. Taking those into account, I signed up. It appears to be that the authorize.net account is not free as there is a $10/mo gateway fee, and the eNom is $7.95/yr minimum, with a required $100 deposit. Finding that out, I decided to not download the serial number, and ask for a refund. However, they have a no refunds policy. Since I never used the service, and they didn't provide what they said, do I have the right to do a chargeback on them? If I do, should I just run it through immediately if their response to my request is not satisfactory? What do you think would be the right thing to do, and what do you think is the moral way to solve this? I would hate to be referred to by the public as a chargeback-happy person.

I'm pretty sure what they meant by the free authorize.net account is there is no setup fee. Most authorize.net accounts do have a setup fee (i think so). I believe Enom account require a $100.00 deposit minimum if using paypal. I really don't see how you can ask for a refund as the authorize.net account was free (no setup fee) and the enom account was also free.
Does anyone else see this the way I do?

Yes, i see it like you sh-directssl, I have yet to see a free TRUE merchant account, thier prices are still low compared to some others out there.

As for the $7.95 enom account, it IS free to you, but Enom does require a depost $100 min on paypal/credit card, no minimum on wire/check deposit.

So you really have no right to ask for a refund due to those reasons. Give it a shot, Modernbill is the best billing system out there on the market for webhosts IMHO.

Scooter

They also mentioned the part about no yearly fees. The link says: eNom $7.95, so I don't understand what's free about it. The deposite part, I do understand though. I don't think I'd like modernbill that much though. It's pretty much unclean. In general, I think they sorta decieved me, since they didn't give a warning about gateway fees and stuff.

What has yearly fees? Enom doesn't nor does the merchant account, it DOES have monthy fee's though, which is a stipulation of Authorize.net NOT Modernbill.

Modernbill is saving you 100-200$ setup fee alot of places charge for authorize.net gateways and merchant accounts.

Still a pretty good deal if you ask me.

Scooter

I wonder if I really wanted to be unmoral and get my money back, could I use the following reason? They said they give a free merchant account to every customer in the US. Thing is, they never mentioned that the customer has to qualify. Since I don't have a bank account specifically for the business, I don't qualify. That means I don't get a free merchant account, nor can I get an expensive one from them also.

Well if its a lease license, i would just consider it a loss.

If you purchased the license, i'm sure they will let you sell and transfer to new owner, they are usually pretty good about that.

As for not qualifying for the merchant account, thats not MB's fault, thats your own for not reading before hand at http://www.modernauthorize.com which shows all the stipulations you must meet before qualifying.

Scooter

As mentioned earlier in this thread, there isn't any such thing as a "free" merchant account. That is just referring to the setup costs being waived and I am sure that this was the intent of any representations made by ModernBill on this.

In fact, most merchant account programs also have a Monthly Minimum of $20-25/month, a statement fee which is typically $10/month and a gateway fee usually around $10-15/month. So these are also costs that you should be aware of. These are also outlined on the MB page if I'm not mistaken.

Some fees, like monthly minimums, are NOT the case with all merchant programs but they are typical for most... so definitely ask around on those fees and also ask about other costs such as annual fees, AVS, WATTS, termination/cancellation fees, etc. with any potential processor that you talk to.

Regarding the requirement to have a business checking account in order to qualify for their program - that is also not a requirement of all merchant processors but rather that specific program.

So in reality, you could setup a merchant account and Authorize.Net account with an alternative merchant processor and still be able to fully make use of your ModernBill license.

In terms of your question here on how to handle this situation with ModernBill... I'd suggest just politely explaining the situation to them and asking for their assistance in the matter.

Then give them a chance to respond. You may also want to think carefully as to whether or not you really want to have them cancel your sale if indeed their software will be useful for your needs.

Already found alternative software for it. I found that the alternate was just as useful as mBill. They never mentioned there were additional fees. When I went to the site, it was my fault for misreading the requirements, but I thought that if I signup with them, they'll give a special offer that waives the gateway fees and all that. I did explain to them the situation politely, and hope they will understand. Maybe I'll wait two days to one week. Why would merchant providers have to charge this kinds of costs anyways? Why don't most just provide a final all-inclusive fee?

They have to charge fee's to cover thier fee's.

Business's are here to make money as you are. They get charged for what you do, so they have to charge you.

Good luck on your refund.

There are many, many costs associated with operating a merchant services business and with merchant accounts even on a merchant-level basis.

For one thing - there are out of pocket costs such as account-on-file costs, costs for the merchant ID and terminal ID on the front-end and back-end network side, statement printing & mailing, payment gateway setup and ongoing monthly costs and BIN sponsorship costs.

Then, you have over 100+ Interchange categories from Visa and MasterCard that vary depending on the card brand, type of card, merchant category code and purchasing situation and add to that - network transaction costs on top of it.

Then you can also add in the costs of risk management software & technology, a full support staff to handle the underwriting, new accounts, deployments, merchant support, customer support, technical support.

And then you need to factor in some costs for the merchants that will NSF each month and incur small losses as well as the occasional fraudulent merchants or the large merchant that goes "poof" and costs tens of thousands of dollars per hit or more.

Now when you take all of these costs and add them together... it is pretty remarkably at how competitive and aggressive the effective pricing is on most typical U.S. merchant accounts these days.

The reason why processors don't typically have a "all in one fee" is because there are just too many variables to account for. And if you charge just a flat % or something to that effect - you would be massively overbilling some merchants and possibly taking a loss on others.