I've tried to get my shopping cart to work with 2CheckOut. It works fine with Netscape and Opera, but fails with MSIE and Firefox. I've had three other people verify the problem. The 2CO tech rep suggested that I clear all cookies and cache. This is hardly a solution.

So I need to move on. Can anyone recommend a good gateway with pricing at least in the same league as 2CO? This is for a merchant that is expecting very few sales per month (probably under 30).

FWIW - My shopping cart is ClickCartPro.

What are you selling? Digital or physical goods?

The client that I'm currently working with is selling hourly consultation. She intends to start selling ebooks over the next few months.

However, I'd like to find a good cart/gateway combination that I know works well when a new client asks me to build them a storefront. I'm starting to get comfortable with ClickCartPro, so I'd just as soon stay with them, unless there's a very good reason that I should leave them.

Where is your client located?

If digital is the answer go with ClickBank. They're reasonable.

At some point over the past couple of days, I think 2CO did some tweaking in their order processing, because now my orders are going through ok. So for the time being, I'm going to continue testing with them and see how it goes.

We have developed and currently host several companies using Clickcart Pro with various payment gateways.

From our experience 2Checkout.com does work with Clickcart Pro, however we would recommend Paypal for a client with minimal transactions since the fees are more reasonable.


Web Specialists, Inc.

I have a hunch that the problems with 2CO are related to the recent change to "version 2".

I don't advise my customers to go with PayPal because it's been my experience that most people with any substantial experience on the net don't have a very high opinion of PayPal. The common perception is that it's used by kids to sell stuff on Ebay, and any self-respecting vendor should use a "real" gateway.

Whether or not that is actually the case is irrelevent.

If you can afford it, take a look at a real merchant provider.

if you have a costco membership, they have a pretty good plan, fees are very low and if you cancel there is no cancellation fee. because of the membership, they have agreements which make it worthwhile.

Originally posted by enchant
I've tried to get my shopping cart to work with 2CheckOut. It works fine with Netscape and Opera, but fails with MSIE and Firefox. I've had three other people verify the problem. The 2CO tech rep suggested that I clear all cookies and cache. This is hardly a solution.

So I need to move on. Can anyone recommend a good gateway with pricing at least in the same league as 2CO? This is for a merchant that is expecting very few sales per month (probably under 30).

FWIW - My shopping cart is ClickCartPro.

If you are in the US, I would suggest Netbilling. No gateway is better and they have a great free cart system and also work with X-cart, Miva, OScommerce and a bunch of others too. We have been setting up many of our hosting clients with them and use them ourselves. Never a complaint.

Originally posted by enchant
I have a hunch that the problems with 2CO are related to the recent change to "version 2".

2co is known for making changes that break carts and being much less than helpful in helping to rectify the situation. Happened last year with Oscommerce. People were screaming for months with no solution in sight. Don't know if that ever got rectified.

The common perception is that it's used by kids to sell stuff on Ebay, and any self-respecting vendor should use a "real" gateway.

Whether or not that is actually the case is irrelevent.

Maybe still the opinion by some but I would not say thats across the board anymore. Most hosts accept Paypal because there is a demand for it. With identity theft becoming prominent people feel eaiser giving their information to an established company (Ebay) than they do a name they don't recognize. I personally don't know of anyone who thinks Ebay is just for kids and if you don't take Paypal on Ebay you are dead in the water.

When Paypal became an Ebay company the associated name recognition did alot for it and now that customers don't need to signup to pay for something its just as about as easy as 2co to use with greater name recognition. Still best position is to have Paypal with something else.

Originally posted by demostorm
Maybe still the opinion by some but I would not say thats across the board anymore. Most hosts accept Paypal because there is a demand for it. With identity theft becoming prominent people feel eaiser giving their information to an established company (Ebay) than they do a name they don't recognize. I personally don't know of anyone who thinks Ebay is just for kids and if you don't take Paypal on Ebay you are dead in the water.

I think that your circle of friends is a lot more tech-savvy than mine, and stays on top of trends. Most of the people that I talk to about this are small-time merchants and that sort of thing. They'd have no way of knowing that PayPal is an Ebay company. What they DO know is that the big companies that they're used to dealing with do NOT take Paypal. They places they see Paypal being used are average everyday people on Ebay selling stuff.

So whether or not it's true, the perception from average folks (at least the ones that I talk to) is that Paypal is a non-business tool.

I haven't looked at it recently, but when I first signed up with PayPal, you had to agree to a 26-page document that said over and over and over that PayPal was NOT responsible for bad transactions. If you're unhappy with what you got, tough. This made a lot of people, including me, apprehensive about doing business using PayPal.

Originally posted by enchant
[B]I think that your circle of friends is a lot more tech-savvy than mine, and stays on top of trends. Most of the people that I talk to about this are small-time merchants and that sort of thing.


Yep that is the market I am talking about a great deal of which explore Ebay as an avenue of marketing. Can't argue with your experience no more than you can argue with mine but our personal experiences are not a wide enough sample to determine an average and with Paypal having tens of millions of users and Ebay a household name (Paypal does announce itself as an Ebay company.) some hosts do just fine with them (should also have something else I think).

We are talking about the hosting industry so the majority of customers who have shopped around or had a hosting account before are more than likely to have come across a multitude of hosts that accept Paypal. Its the norm in the hosting industry and there are a number of people who will hesitate to sign up with anything else (especially if they have been burn't before on a billing error)

So you are right there are those who want to have a company that accepts credit cards directly but if they are savvy enough to know Paypal is for selling on Ebay they are all Savvy enough to know that 2checkout isn't used by big companies either. The ultimate solution if your customers have a problem with any third party processor is to get a merchant account directly.

Incidentally the requirement to sign up for an account of any kind when buying through Paypal ended some time ago. That was a headache. Now its away of getting business that doesn't feel safe giving their credit card to company they have never heard of before (or one they don't think big enough to trust). When I use Paypal I know that after the transaction the only one who has my credit card information is the one that had it before the transaction.

Hello,

Have you considered a merchant account maybe?

Originally posted by demostorm
We are talking about the hosting industry so the majority of customers who have shopped around or had a hosting account before are more than likely to have come across a multitude of hosts that accept Paypal. Its the norm in the hosting industry and there are a number of people who will hesitate to sign up with anything else (especially if they have been burn't before on a billing error)

I'm not sure what you mean when you use the term "host". I consider myself a hosting company. I host people's websites. I don't accept Paypal, or any credit card, for that matter. My customers (about 80 of them) all pay via check. Only one of them has ever complained. But I deal with companies. They don't pay their electric bill via credit card, or any of their other expenses. It's done via check or purchase order.

My clients are companies with websites. They're not hosts. Many of them accept credit cards for merchandise or services that they sell on their websites. The payment that they accept is totally up to them - not their hosting provider.

The ultimate solution if your customers have a problem with any third party processor is to get a merchant account directly.

Now I'm really confused. How can you accept credit cards withut a merchant account? They all have one.

Now its away of getting business that doesn't feel safe giving their credit card to company they have never heard of before (or one they don't think big enough to trust). When I use Paypal I know that after the transaction the only one who has my credit card information is the one that had it before the transaction.

I don't think that everyone shares your understanding of the process. If they want to buy a widget from bobswidgets.com, they are transferred to PayPal (or whoever) for the credit card processing. I don't think that it's clear at all that bobswidgets.com won't get the credit card information. Perhaps it's clear if you go into PayPal's in depth documentation, but again - how many people are going to do that?

My clients are companies with websites. They're not hosts. Many of them accept credit cards for merchandise or services that they sell on their websites. The payment that they accept is totally up to them - not their hosting provider.


My apologies I confused your own personal use of 2checkout with your customer given the title of the thread and your references to your own circle of friends. That said specifically for your consulting client I would still not rule out Paypal especially for something like an ebook (general products there is a case against Paypal to be made but I don't find it convincing enough to eliminate Paypal as a viable option for any purchase - although maybe not the only option).

If I am buying a digital product the last thing I want to do is give my credit information to a small vendor. and yes the customers who would be buying from your customers are far more likely to recognize Paypal over 2checkout. In fact except for being technical and internet business savvy enough I would assume 2checkout was a part of the company (or had agreement to share info with them) that I was buying from.


Now I'm really confused. How can you accept credit cards withut a merchant account? They all have one.

He and I were referring to getting an internet merchant account. 2checkout is a third party processor that doesn't require you to get a merchant account and that has a negative feel to it in some peoples mind just as much as Paypal. Generally speaking if your customers have merchant accounts they shoulld go that route but for ebooks or services there may be some issues.

I don't think that everyone shares your understanding of the process. If they want to buy a widget from bobswidgets.com, they are transferred to PayPal (or whoever) for the credit card processing. I don't think that it's clear at all that bobswidgets.com won't get the credit card information. [/B]

Actually your customers clients are more likely to understand how Paypal works than 2checkout. Again its a matter of experience but I have rarely met anyone unassociated with Ebay and buying things there and paypal is a part of that world. The millions who have bought throug Ebay and understand Paypal can't just be ignored or written off.

As the person who brought up Paypal first pointed out the fees are probably the most reasonable for that kind of activity. Sorry for any confusion. Paypal has changed quite abit. I find it very palatable as a purchaser now. In dealing with smaller vendors with unrecognizable names I find it the preferred way to go and so would alot of the millions of people associated with Ebay and paypal who know the company does not get the credit card info.

Originally posted by enchant
I've tried to get my shopping cart to work with 2CheckOut. It works fine with Netscape and Opera, but fails with MSIE and Firefox. I've had three other people verify the problem. The 2CO tech rep suggested that I clear all cookies and cache. This is hardly a solution.

So I need to move on. Can anyone recommend a good gateway with pricing at least in the same league as 2CO? This is for a merchant that is expecting very few sales per month (probably under 30).

FWIW - My shopping cart is ClickCartPro.

PaySystems is nearly a clone of 2CO. If you're looking for something, you may want to give them a try.

Originally posted by demostorm
He and I were referring to getting an internet merchant account. 2checkout is a third party processor that doesn't require you to get a merchant account and that has a negative feel to it in some peoples mind just as much as Paypal. Generally speaking if your customers have merchant accounts they shoulld go that route but for ebooks or services there may be some issues.

Hmm... I've never heard of an internet merchant account. But your remarks about 2CO brings us back to why I started this thread.

Possibly earlier in this thread, possibly in another one, I mentioned that this current client knows next to nothing about computers and internet transactions, but she spoke to a group of women at a some business meeting. They all use 2CO and highly recommended that she do the same, so that's what I did. Now it seems that 2CO has fixed things to a point that the website is interfacing with them correctly, but from what I'm reading in this thread, 2CO isn't the wisest choice.

I'd like to find a GOOD cc gateway to recommend to my future mechant customers. Authorize.net seems to be the big boy here, but if there are competitors that are 95% as good but only 50% as expensive, I'd love to hear about it.

It depends on your needs enchant. I have worked with Verisign, Linkpoint and Authorizenet.com electronic payment gateways. Linkpoint is very easy to use & program. Verisign offers extra features for fraudulent transactions if you are worried about that. And LinkPoint is owned by First Data - which a lot of electronic payment gateways board on.

And don't forget - you still need a merchant account with the gateways.

Originally posted by coreybryant
And don't forget - you still need a merchant account with the gateways.

??? I have several websites that interface with a cc gateway, and none of them have merchant accounts with that gateway. Their accounts are with their local bank. They have set up agreements with the gateways - pay them a monthly and per-transaction fee - to transfer money to the merchant account at their local bank.

It is more than likely a merchant account - not a checking account. Banks are able to provide a merchant account and some outsource this service as well to MAPs