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  1. #1

    avoid CDG Commerce at all costs

    I had a terrible experience with this company. These guys are discriminative, xenophobic and not man enough to come out and say it.

    I'm a US citizen with a US bank account living and operating a business in the US for a US audience. After I fulfilled all their requirements with flying colors they denied my application because I was born in a foreign country. They kept claiming that my domain name is registered under a non-US address, which is simply not true.

    The truth is they are suspicious of me because my name sounds foreign to them and they're not open minded enough to admit that they think of immigrants as second class citizens.

    CDG Commerce prides itself on being American but their prejudice, xenophobia and dishonesty is distinctively anti-American. Boycott them: say no to hatred and discrimination.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Florida
    Posts
    160
    Those are some pretty harsh statements are you able to back any of it up? We have an account with them and they have been exceptional. I have zero complaints with how they handle everything.

    You do realize their merchant accounts go through a third party bank?
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  3. #3
    They are the ones who have not been able to back up their claim that my domain name is 'registered outside the United States'. I don't even know what that means. My domain name (.com) is registered with a US company and the servers are physically in the US, as am I. I'm a US citizen and I've been operating an online business for 4 years without any issues, I just decided to upgrade to a merchant account so I could start accepting credit cards.

    I understand they use a third party bank, but that's just good cop-bad cop bs. I was trying to get their business and they turned me down with an explanation that they can't even explain let alone prove, but which is clearly based on discrimination.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2001
    Location
    San Diego
    Posts
    72
    The truth is they are suspicious of me because my name sounds foreign to them
    Unless your name is Osama bin Laden I find it unlikely that's the reason they turned you down. Where is your domain registered?
    Grant Spy "The grant-seeker's intelligence source"

  5. #5
    Merchant account providers are very strict, and most fraud comes from overseas. Don't have to play the race card. Businesses aren't people, they don't run on emotions and/or bigotry.

  6. #6
    Please define what 'where a domain name is registered' means.

  7. #7
    Sam:

    I am not overseas. The only thing overseas about me in this story is my place of birth.

    Are you serious? You don't think these decisions are made by people?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Posts
    1,708
    CDG is simply the processor, the banks are who they submit your information to and if their banks reject you after a background check there isn't much they can do. You should really learn the process before making statements like this. After being a customer of theirs for 6 years I have never seen anything unprofessional out of the company must less something biased.

    There is something in the check that triggered the banks, CDG does not have control over that.
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  9. #9
    So these guys are running a business where they have zero control over who is eligible for their services. They reserve the right to reject you without taking any responsibility. When you ask them why they rejected you they make up some ridiculous and discriminative explanation they can't back up and start pointing at some bank you have no way of contacting.

    This is beyond unprofessional, it's a joke.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Scotland, UK
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    2,916
    Quote Originally Posted by randew View Post
    So these guys are running a business where they have zero control over who is eligible for their services. They reserve the right to reject you without taking any responsibility. When you ask them why they rejected you they make up some ridiculous and discriminative explanation they can't back up and start pointing at some bank you have no way of contacting.

    This is beyond unprofessional, it's a joke.
    I can't speak about the way they rejected you, but, it's quite common for businesses to depend on another to exist. In this case, yes, if CDG's banks won't accept you, they can't.

    It's no different really to insurance companies - if you don't match the perfect criteria, they might sometimes have to go back to their underwriters who might then decide they can't cover the risks you pose.

    I hope you find a way to resolve this and perfects get a better explanation of what the issue is. I know you might be upset, but, you'll probably get further if you don't adopt a confrontational tone
    Alasdair
    Long time ex-host, ex-billing software owner/developer/support staff. Recent lurker.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    9,264
    Quote Originally Posted by tickedon View Post
    I can't speak about the way they rejected you, but, it's quite common for businesses to depend on another to exist. In this case, yes, if CDG's banks won't accept you, they can't.

    It's no different really to insurance companies - if you don't match the perfect criteria, they might sometimes have to go back to their underwriters who might then decide they can't cover the risks you pose.

    I hope you find a way to resolve this and perfects get a better explanation of what the issue is. I know you might be upset, but, you'll probably get further if you don't adopt a confrontational tone
    Nor any different than hosting.
    Hosting requires payment processors, banks, datacenters, hardware companies, phone companies, bandwidth providers, etc. If one of the ones in the middle don't like you, you don't get hosting

  12. #12
    I've never been rejected by an insurance company or a hosting provider for being an immigrant. It's interesting that many people here are happy to embrace and even defend discrimination as part of a company's "rights". I suppose that's one way of looking at the world, at the end of the day it all comes down to values and priorities.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
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    I've heard that they accept just about anyone. CDG is also recommended by many providers.

    --cP
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  14. #14
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Posts
    1,708
    Would like to hear the other side of the story, they have helped countless hosts on this forum so I doubt they suddenly started profiling or illegally discriminating.
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  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Milwaukee, WI, USA
    Posts
    438
    What is your domain? Does it in fact have a foreign address listed for the registrant?

    Haven't had a single problem with CDG either...
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  16. #16
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    India
    Posts
    1,453

    *

    Does it matter if registered address is outside of US?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheHostGenie View Post
    What is your domain? Does it in fact have a foreign address listed for the registrant?

    Haven't had a single problem with CDG either...

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Milwaukee, WI, USA
    Posts
    438
    Quote Originally Posted by humawebdesign View Post
    Does it matter if registered address is outside of US?
    Yeah, if CDG's reason for the application denial is that the domain is registered under a foreign address, I'd say it matters.
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  18. #18
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Damascus, MD
    Posts
    141
    There has got to be some underlying cause for your rejection. I highly doubt its due to racial profiling. They are an established and well trusted company used by many here on this forum.

    I'd like to hear their side of the story. What is your domain? What company is it registered through?

    They even provide High Risk accounts, so you must have had some issue.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2002
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    5,525
    My guess would be that OP's country of birth is a high risk country and that CDG is suspecting fraud. It's pretty common for foreigners to claim U.S., UK, etc. residency despite being born elsewhere in an attempt to open bank accounts and such.

    If you're a citizen why not apply for a U.S. passport and use that for ID?

  20. #20
    I would also like to hear the other side of the story, perhaps CDG Commerce can explain here why they've decided to deny my application.

    The only thing they told me was that my "website is registered outside the United States". You can argue whether that matters or not, but my website IS NOT registered outside the US. I don't want to say what it is because this is not about promoting my business. It's a web design company and I've worked as a web designer in the US for 4 years now. Because of all the issues with paypal, I've decided to apply for a merchant account and CDGC seemed to come highly recommended. I had no idea they would turn out be bigots.

    I am a US citizen and I live in the US (I've provided ample evidence to CDGC about this including my driver's license, my wife's driver's license, both of our SSNs and a utility bill, and I kept offering to provide more documentation if they wanted any). I have a US bank account, which was again verified.

    There is no basis for suspecting any kind of fraud here, it's all about xenophobia.

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Chesapeake, VA
    Posts
    3,381
    randew,

    I must say that in the past 12+ years this is probably the most bizarre claim that I have ever seen made against our company and the reality could not be further from the truth. As many fellow WHT members will readily attest, we have an extremely diverse group of merchants whose principals were born in many different countries.

    Where a principal is born has absolutely nothing to do with whether they can obtain a merchant account with our company as long as the meet the same requirements as everyone else does. A bonafide U.S. citizen born in the USA versus a bonafide U.S. citizen born somewhere else is absolutely the same - both are U.S. citizens and that is that.

    There must have been another reason why your account was declined but I can most certainly assure you that the reason you state was not the reason. It is important to keep in mind that the job of underwriting is to verify that everything checks out on a given merchant application because there are many fraud rings in the world who prey on merchant processors and some of them are quite good at what they do. Sometimes a mistake is made in underwriting but this is really the exception to the rule.

    If you would like to PM me your info I would be happy to look up your account to see more details on the reason for your account being declined.
    CDGcommerce.com - Trusted Merchant Account Solutions since 1998
    Many thousands of successful, growing businesses benefit from our expertise every day. You can, too!
    We help merchants to eliminate gateway costs, reduce & mitigate fraud and achieve streamlined PCI compliance.
    Learn more today at http://www.cdgcommerce.com - we look forward to helping your business grow!

  22. #22
    I'm not sure how you can claim that "the reason I state was not the reason" for being declined when you don't know what the reason is.

    I will send you a PM but I will post your response in this forum because you seem to have a very different attitude to accountability in public than you do when you communicated with just me, which is the reason I started this thread.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Chesapeake, VA
    Posts
    3,381
    Randew,

    The reason why I can state - without even looking at the details on any application - that your account would not have been declined because of your country of birth is quite simple: a principal's country of birth is never, ever a reason that would ever result in any merchant app being declined. Country of birth isn't even a line item or part of any checklist - it is a complete non-factor.
    CDGcommerce.com - Trusted Merchant Account Solutions since 1998
    Many thousands of successful, growing businesses benefit from our expertise every day. You can, too!
    We help merchants to eliminate gateway costs, reduce & mitigate fraud and achieve streamlined PCI compliance.
    Learn more today at http://www.cdgcommerce.com - we look forward to helping your business grow!

  24. #24
    Most people/companies that engage in discriminatory practices don't do so openly.

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    Chesapeake, VA
    Posts
    3,381
    I don't know how to make it any more clear... country of birth plays no role in any underwriting decisions. There isn't even a field for that on the merchant application. As I indicated to you via PM, I will find out the details on the account and then let you know further.

    Since you mentioned you were going to post my response to you here, with your permission I will be happy to post my response to this thread publicly and save you the trouble of re-posting. If not, I will certainly be happy to send you the information via PM and then you opt to share it (or not) as you wish.
    CDGcommerce.com - Trusted Merchant Account Solutions since 1998
    Many thousands of successful, growing businesses benefit from our expertise every day. You can, too!
    We help merchants to eliminate gateway costs, reduce & mitigate fraud and achieve streamlined PCI compliance.
    Learn more today at http://www.cdgcommerce.com - we look forward to helping your business grow!

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