I am looking for a new merchant account service. My current provider just does not cut it. I got nailed for about $1000 by a scam that I did not know could happen.

I had a customer who bought almost $500 of software from me. I have a 15 day money back guarantee and this person asked for a refund which I issued BUT this person also charged back this purchase. The purchase date was 4.18.07 I refunded on 4.29.07 but he initiated a chargeback on 4.28.07. I just got the notice on 6.24.07 which is outside of the 30 days I have to file my reply to the chargeback. I contacted the provider which is iPayment inc. They said to file the report and the bank should straighten it out so I have my fingers crossed.

Then I got a second charge back again inside of the money back time frame which the person never asked for a refund but the same thing could have happened there because the notice came 45 days after the cahrgeback was made.

The notice has no pertinent information either. No last 4 of the CC or persons name so I have to dig through all my transactions to try and match the purchase date and amount to the person.

Also the way the account is setup is odd. I signed up with freeauthnet got all my account info fromm I think it was something like firstdata or first bank, then notices come from ipayment and the underwriter is CSI.

Can anyone recommend a good merchant provider that isn't 5th party and if possible has a web based chargeback system so I can see right away if someone has filed a chargedback (if something like this exists).

I am using PayPal right now because I do not want to take any chances with this processor. I signed up for their PayPal pro merchant services but none of the carts have plugins built into them for this yet so it is basically useless.

HELP PLEASE :confused: :eek: :mad:

Hi,
To speed this up, you might want to contact the customer and let him know what happened and ask him to cancel the chargeback request with his bank. This will make things much faster. However they should eventually get everything straitened out. Good luck!

Steffan

I was replying from my blackberry before and didn't read everything correctly.

So you have receive 2 charge backs of $500 each for a total of $1,000 plus you refunded the initial $500? And your service provider sent the notice 45 days after the charge back was issued? You should receive a notice in the mail no longer than 3-4 business days after your service provider is notified of the charge back.

You will want to contact "First Data" about this.

Yes I did contact them. It was 1 chargeback for 500. They are of no help.



Can anyone recommend a solid merchant provider that is not a reseller of a reseller of a third party to the underwriter and is actually interested in customer service?

You might want to try going with your local bank.

I talked with my bank (USbank) but they take 6 weeks to get everything setup and since it is digital goods and services they want a $5000 security fund. They charge 2.89% where my other account was 2.15%. Not really a feasible option. But thanks for the suggestion.

Wow, thats very odd. What bank is this?

Hi Movieflick,

I am familiar with iPayment. It sounds to me like FreeAuthNet is a site run by an agent for iPayment. iPayment did the underwriting and the risk and they outsource a lot of their operations to First Data.

Their customer service has never been a strong point - to put it nicely. Of course, part of the reason why is that they actually bragged about reducing their staff head count at one point even as they were growing rapidly via acquisitions - never a good recipe for satisfied customers.

I wouldn't really recommend going with a local bank as they are often very inexperienced with Internet accounts. Most of the time the person you speak with at the branch doesn't fully understand how it all works and is really only representing an ISO that is part of an agent bank alliance with that bank.

Thus, at the end of the day, while you think you are dealing with "your bank" you are simply dealing with an ISO that is partnered with that bank and all of your customer service, risk and underwriting is ultimately going to be handled by that ISO.

On a positive note, there are MANY solid ISO/MSP's who specialize in Internet merchant accounts and so you have a lot of great options to choose from.

I would definitely suggest asking any prospective provider on how they handle chargebacks - do they provide any kind of online interface to assist with rebuttals? How quickly do they notify you? What kind of experience do they have fighting chargebacks?

And find out about merchant reporting tools - how detailed are they? Will you be dealing with just one company or are they really an agent, and not a registered ISO/MSP? What kind of fraud detection and prevention technology do they provide?

And of course - find out about pricing. What is free, what is not, what is included and what costs extra. I always advise avoiding any kind of early termination fee if you can as well - this puts you in the driver's seat and can only help you into the future.

Sorry to hear about your troubles on this issue but best of luck with selecting your new provider!

I don't think going with a "mainline" processor necessarily gives you better service when it comes to chargebacks. Actually... I think (strictly my opinion) you might actually get worse service since you're dealing with the folks that are second in line to make the most money off the deal. Example...

I have an account through Nova - that's pretty direct... no middle man or reseller. I received notification of the chargeback something like 1 month after it was filed, and it was filed something like 2-3 months after the charge. No problem, because I still had 2-3 weeks to respond. I faxed in all my evidence to Nova AND called the customer who filed the chargeback. She claimed it was a case of "I forgot about that charge" and said she'd call her bank to drop the chargeback.

Fast forward about a month later. I called Nova because I hadn't seen the charges reimbursed to my account. They claimed they never received my faxed information! I responded with a date/time I faxed it and offered to fax them the fax confirmation page. They flat out refused to even consider any of the info as it was past the cutoff date for review. But the error was on their end, I insisted. Doesn't matter... I didn't call in within 48 hours to verify receipt of the fax. Huh? Their forms state that businesses should wait 48 hours before calling in to check on progress, but nowhere does it imply you HAVE to do this to cover your butt!

Long whiny story short... Novus flat out declined to deal with the fact that THEY misfiled/lost my information and considered that I didn't respond to the chargeback. I told them that the customer said they cleared it with their bank, and was told that if that was the case, eventually I'd see the money show up. Eventually. (To this date... about 8 months later... that has never happened. And in speaking with the customer, I believe her story.)

Soooo... at least from my experience, dealing with a "big boy" does NOT equate to good customer service for chargebacks.

I am in 100% agreement. iPayment, just like Nova, is a large merchant processor. Size definitely does not correlate to service and often times there is an inverse relationship between the two.

I really do believe the best bet is to go with a processor who specializes in the type of business that you are. If you are an Internet business, get an account with a company that has a reputation for excellent with Internet merchant accounts.

The same holds true for any other merchant category. Most merchant processors are generally focused on retail accounts but there are many boutique processors that specialize in specific areas like e-commerce/Internet, wireless or other niche categories (petroleum, hotel/motel, high risk, etc.)