We've been looking at alternatives to our current merchant provider and contacted Cdg a bit ago. We were turned off by their constant emails after submitting an initial application and also the fact that they called us from a fake telephone number.

Their site claims to offer much more protection for merchants but is it really all true? Because of the type of business we're in with hosting services we're at the wrong end of the table since 'the customer is always right' doesn't work with you being the customer of the merchant company:)

I still might find myself motivated enough to dump our current processor so im anxious to hear opinions on CDG, good/bad, do they really help protect merchants in the hosting business?

called you from a fake number?
sure it wasn't just an indial or gdn?

We almost went with them. But we were able to find a 2.15% rate with some other company. The .10% difference will save us a few hundred dollars each month, but I hope this other company good and has good customer service. CDG also charges $35 for chargebacks, which can add up to hundreds if you have a couple each month.

We have 4 merchant accounts, they are one of the providers, using the Quantum Gateway and haven't had any complaints with them over the first 6 months. Integration with WHMCS is simple.

called you from a fake number?
sure it wasn't just an indial or gdn?

Im not sure what you mean, when we get international calls through our 800 # they usually come through with our phone number however our system logs the actual #.

CDG actually called one of our landline/voip lines as I recall so im not sure.

All I know was it didn't come up as a real phone number and that doesn't say much about them.

With my many years on this planet theres only been a few companies that I know that use fake #'s to call from, there really wouldn't be a legitimate reason for it, I wasn't even going to grab it but assumed the call had something to do with them since we were expecting them.

Im not really concerned about the cost of the chargebacks, more over the process of chargebacks.

Where we are currently there isn't much of a review process of anything, perhaps the way the card industry is it just works out that way.

It seems criminal to me since we were told by our merchant provider that people are charging back legitimate goods/services to other companies just because they need the money. That sure makes me sleep better at night.

I guess anyone experienced with a CDG chargeback could possibly shed some light on this.

Hello Woods01. I am not sure why your system showed a invalid number for us. The employees who would have called you about your application also are right in the underwriting office and their number is indeed a good number. As for those annoying emails we put a stop to that about 2 weeks ago when we revamped out many different processes into one area so our underwriting staff can see every area into one page. No instead of the emails automatically sending to applicants who have not sent in any paperwork they will be called instead.

I've not had any experience with chargebacks but I am very happy with CDG in comparison to authorize.net. We've been using them for a year or so and had no problems, very easy to integrate with WHMCS and friendly from the people that I've talked to.

larry2148 you mean comparing authorize.net merchant accounts to CDG or the authorize.net gateway to CDG's gateway?

I'm less than pleased with CDG. A year ago I got hysterical after looking closely at my statements and seeing how much they were charging me; I demanded that the discount rates be decreased to the figures stipulated in the original agreement.. They agreed, and I, like a fool, didn't look at my statements until recently, when I discovered that nothing had been changed. Once again I got hysterical, and once again they promised to decrease my rates to the rates advertised on their site. I'm awaiting the next statement.

As far as I'm concerned, CDG doesn't provide any "protection for merchants" if by "protection" you mean not hiking rates up and hoping you won't notice.

We have used them for over a year and had no issues. The system works. What more could we want?

We have zero chargebacks, knock on wood, so I can't comment on that process.

The Quantum gateway is great. Easy to interface with oscommerce, WHMC and even a web payment page we wrote in HTML. VERY easy.

Im not sure what you mean, when we get international calls through our 800 # they usually come through with our phone number however our system logs the actual #.

CDG actually called one of our landline/voip lines as I recall so im not sure.

All I know was it didn't come up as a real phone number and that doesn't say much about them.

With my many years on this planet theres only been a few companies that I know that use fake #'s to call from, there really wouldn't be a legitimate reason for it, I wasn't even going to grab it but assumed the call had something to do with them since we were expecting them.

It's just an exchange based number. They're real numbers but often won't go anywhere if you try to dial it. They're pretty common here and don't have any negative connotations against the company using them.

smenkhare, when they called it didn't come up as a real number. But anyhow, that's not really the point of the thread.

Our merchant provider also changed our agreement after it was signed. You know how they own the agreement so they can do whatever they want with it. They furthered that by insulting us with a 10% hold/reserve that is not reflected on our statements, which they say isn't much. If it isn't much why are they holding it?

From what im see'ing so far theres no reason to switch to CDG, from what a CDG rep said earlier it's apparent they knew their e-mail marketing was annoying people but seemed to run with it for quite awhile.

It's always good to see that sometimes the grass isn't greener on the other side of the fence:)

To date we've never had a chargeback but that's not saying we can't get one. From what we're told card holders have 6 months so a heck alot can happen in 6 months. Perhaps the CDG chargeback protection i've somewhat read about would never of covered non-tangible goods to begin with.

We have never dealt with CDG so I can't comment on them, but we have used ECHO for about 3 or 4 years now if I'm not mistaken and they have been solid. Good rates and great service.

We are on our 3rd or 4th month with CDG and had a few frustrating experiences with their Quickbooks Integration software but they just recently added that feature and are still working on improving it so that's understandable. Aside from that, to the above poster who said they increase rates without letting you know....They and the credit card providers let you know of the charges. They have no control when VISA or MC decides to increase their rates, and all credit card merchant providers are all affected by that, just not you. Right now like I said the only issue we are having is having a way to be able to export a detailed report to quickbooks or somehow transferring all data to quickbooks if need be. Our accounting department has to balance everything through quickbooks at the end of the week and have always had issues with that because the bank statements aren't always clear with the way they process the fees.

As far as security goes they are Trust-E and Mcaffee Hacker Safe also PCI Certified and have been in the industry for over 10 years now.

ayksolutions, this is the first i've heard of Echo, it seems they are owned by Intuit so im sure they would be solid:)

As far as CDG's rate increases I doubt the previous poster is talking about MC/VC fee increases but rather the % that CDG is collecting off each transaction.

reddem0n, I believe the PCI certification would have to be full-circle for it to be mentioned. Starting with the merchant provider and the entire way through to the merchant. Im sure there isn't a merchant provider out there that hasn't already qualified for whatever is necessary to meet PCI standards.

We at CDG do not increase the fees ourselves. The only time they are increased is when Visa and MC increase their fees. In fact where many providers up all the fees we try to minimize it and work hard to keep it as low as we can without taking to hard of a hit ourselves. Each time the fees are increased the merchant ARE notified on their monthly statements.

Now as far as the comment
"from what a CDG rep said earlier it's apparent they knew their e-mail marketing was annoying people but seemed to run with it for quite awhile"

It annoyed some, and many were happy to get the email. Strange thing is that there is a cancel application link right in the email. If someone does not like the emails they could have easily canceled the app or even been so kind as to ask for an extension or to have the app put on hold.

We've used CDGCommerce for 5 years now, and love them. Absolutely great.

Support is excellent whenever we've needed to use it, and their rates are pretty good. Yes, I know I could probably get a little bit cheaper somewhere else... but I'm very happy and content to pay a bit extra in exchange for such excellent service.

:)

To answer your question about security/fraud... yes, if you use the free (FREE!) quantum gateway that they offer, then your account includes free use of the excellent maxmind fraud prevention software.

Hope that helps. :)

and quantum gateway is in the visa/mc pci 2009 list.

I can't say much about CDG, yes we also got bunch of e-mails and it didnt bother us much but what did was the fact that they did not accept our legitimate VOIP business.

I would not say anything bad about CDG, we have been working as a partner with them for a long time, and have not had complaints from our customers. As for payment gateways, they work with several ones I believe:
Quantum gateway
Authorize.net
eProcessingNetwork
iTransact