Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Web Hosting Lounge : 2checkout - when good goes bad

[phpa]

You maybe know what it's like - you use a company and they seem fine. You read the complaints and the swearing from others but think it'll never happen to you. Maybe you even write and say "Hey, stop it! I've been with them for 18 months and it's all been great".

Well I'd been with 2checkout for a few months and yes, pretty much it's been ok for me too. Sure there's no phone contact, they look rather unprofessional (the expiry date for credit cards still starts at 2001 and not 2002, (lol), the payment screen *requires* javascript etc.), and the site navigation is broken, but hey, to paraphrase a popular saying "You don't get what you don't pay for", and they're only $49 to sign up and no recurring charges. I can live with the weaknesses, and email help has been pretty good from Kristin and Tom.

But now things went bad. Nearly $4400 just vanished from my account as of Nov 1, and without warning or explanation. No payment made to me (according to the site), and the funds aren't retained on account either. So, I raise a support ticket with a polite and courteous message and wait 24 hours. No response. I email Kristin. She's pretty chirpy and helpful. No response. Hmm. I try support@ as well. No response. Now nearly 48 hours still no response. You know - suddenly things look just a little less rosy and the doubts are starting to set in at this point.

Tired and frustrated at 12.45am, but still optimistic that the issue will get resolved, an Australian customer phones me in London. "The 2checkout SSL server is down and I couldn't place my order". Ok - now things really do look bad. The double wammy - let's also lose this guys money with failed servers as well. Thankfully I have PayPal as well for a last ditch backup, and the guy was cool about it. Cheers Steve - I owe you a pint.

But I'm left wondering what's next, and that little more eager to get my nearly $4400 back and on this side of the pond pdq.

So I guess things do look good when everythings working, and it's indeed easy to keep the faith when everything's ticking along automatically as it should. It's when things start to fall apart that the true strength of a company starts to show, or in this case, its big weaknesses.

After also reading the comments here from others about 2checkout over the last few days, maybe it's time to start DD again in preparation to bail, and now that I have at least some of the funds that I've worked hard to reap, head for the next level in payment processors, whomever, or whatever, that happens to be.

[Akash]

Whew...good thing I left in July..but if you're processing that much, why not try to get an international merchant account?

[Gurudev]

Whew! $4,400? I thought I was the biggest loser with them ($1,000)

Akash,
Who are you using for processing? I too can post in firebrick and blue and green... Never noticed that before. Also, how did you enter programmingtalk in there under your username? I don't see any option to edit that in my profile. I am not aspiring to be an evanlgelist.

[Akash]

Originally posted by Gurudev

Akash,
Who are you using for processing?

I've just got a new Charge.com account but I've also used HostCharge and 2Checkout for my processing needs.

I too can post in firebrick and blue and green... Never noticed that before. Also, how did you enter programmingtalk in there under your username? I don't see any option to edit that in my profile.

I like blue better As for the programmingtalk.com, I'm just special like that i guess....


....wait another 83 posts and you'll see how

[Gurudev]

Thanks, yes blue is better but I will just stick to black for now.

[Laurent]

If you want your customers to be happy, never deal with 2Checkout !!!

I bought something on the Net and the transaction went through 2Checkout. I had to cancel the order because the service was not as advertised. So I sent an email to both the vendor and 2checkout.

The vendor told me that he canceled the transaction and that the credit card won't be billed as it normaly taks 2 to 3 days to process a transaction. Then, 3 DAYS after, 2 checkout finnaly replyed me !! They told me that the credit card was charged and that they will issue a refund within 3 to 7 days.

That never happened !!! It took me over a month of emails to the vendor and to 3checkout to get something done. I did some reaserch on that company to found out that DAVID A. HOMEWOOD is the president and that 2Checkout is a foreign company from Delware

So I sent an email to several email address' of 2checkout asking them for M. Homewood to contact me or I will sue them. Suddently I got several emails from them !!! And someone called me. He did some investigations and within 10 minutes he called me back to tell me that the problem was ON THEIR SIDE DUE TO A TECHNICAL PROBLEM

He told me that the 19.95USD will be refunded the same day. When I asked him to get the interest (as it took over a month) and also to get something for the calls made to and from my cell phone to try to solve this issue he went kinda "drastic" and said that as fas as he's concerned, the case is closed and 2Checkout doesn't have to pay for the inconvenients and fees I had because of them.

So as PhPa said, they have some serious problems. When things get bad, they will take forever to fix the situation and won't assume their responsability.

I still don't know if I'll get that refund from them as the employee seemed pissed that I asked them to pay the fees I had to pay because of them....

To be continued........

[okihost]

When your monthly fees you pay 2checkout are that of what a merchant account would cost you or more it is time to move to a dedicated merchant solution.

Personally I think 2checkout is a paysystems waiting to happen and I would not be suprised if visa/mc/discover outlaws these types of companies offering merchant 'services' down the road when it becomes too big of a problem. Honestly I canot say I disagree with them it may slow down the 13-16 year old hosting crowd a bit.

[JayC]

This thread's two years old. And in the wrong forum. And closed.