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SwellJoe - you were paying way too much for your merchant account... Unfortunately, that's sort of standard practice for credit card processors, even ones that

by pitdesi 16y ago

SwellJoe - you were paying way too much for your merchant account... Unfortunately, that's sort of standard practice for credit card processors, even ones that we've seen people recommend on HN. We've got it in our contracts with http://FeeFighters.com http://FeeFighters.com processors that they can NEVER raise pricing, don't have any hidden fees, and we have reviews on them so you can see how other people have liked them. I don't know enough about fraud protection at PayPal, but we've heard a lot of horror stories when people come over to merchant accounts.

SwellJoe 16y ago
"you were paying way too much for your merchant account..." Yeah, I know. That's why we switched to PayPal. The rates started out great (I think it was 2.1% when we started). Then they climbed every few months to being ridiculously expensive; they'd labeled our business "high risk", or something, somewhere along the way (despite the fact that all of the problems were because their fraud protection mechanisms were nonexistent). Doing anything about it required sending faxes back and forth with the provider, and waiting on the phone for half an hour to talk to a human, who would fax us forms, and then ignore them when we faxed them back. Anyway, at this point, I have a strict No Fax policy. If a company requires me to fax them something, or requires me to accept faxes from them, I won't do business with them, under any circumstance. The merchant services thing was the last straw on that front, and it seems the majority of merchant services companies still want to do business via fax (even BrainTree, last time I checked, who are reportedly a great company to work with...but if I have to fax them, even once, I'm not going to ever be their customer). Basically, discussing merchant services with me is like poking a hornets nest with a stick. I hate those people. I've dealt with a number of merchant services companies over the past dozen years I've run businesses, and I've hated every single one of them with a fiery passion. There may be good ones, but I've never met one I liked. I don't like how much PayPal charges, either, but they've yet to screw me over, so far. And, the rates are close enough to merchant providers that I wouldn't be willing to send a single fax to change it (and if history is any indicator, I'd have to send/receive dozens of faxes a year, if I switched back to a regular merchant account).
- bryanjohnson 16y ago
  We (Braintree) don't require fax usage. It's an option but not a requirement.
  - SwellJoe 16y ago
    Someone, maybe you, mentioned in a prior conversation here at HN that fax or mail was required during setup. Has that changed?

by pitdesi 16y ago

SwellJoe 16y ago

"you were paying way too much for your merchant account..." Yeah, I know. That's why we switched to PayPal. The rates started out great (I think it was 2.1% when we started). Then they climbed every few months to being ridiculously expensive; they'd labeled our business "high risk", or something, somewhere along the way (despite the fact that all of the problems were because their fraud protection mechanisms were nonexistent). Doing anything about it required sending faxes back and forth with the provider, and waiting on the phone for half an hour to talk to a human, who would fax us forms, and then ignore them when we faxed them back. Anyway, at this point, I have a strict No Fax policy. If a company requires me to fax them something, or requires me to accept faxes from them, I won't do business with them, under any circumstance. The merchant services thing was the last straw on that front, and it seems the majority of merchant services companies still want to do business via fax (even BrainTree, last time I checked, who are reportedly a great company to work with...but if I have to fax them, even once, I'm not going to ever be their customer). Basically, discussing merchant services with me is like poking a hornets nest with a stick. I hate those people. I've dealt with a number of merchant services companies over the past dozen years I've run businesses, and I've hated every single one of them with a fiery passion. There may be good ones, but I've never met one I liked. I don't like how much PayPal charges, either, but they've yet to screw me over, so far. And, the rates are close enough to merchant providers that I wouldn't be willing to send a single fax to change it (and if history is any indicator, I'd have to send/receive dozens of faxes a year, if I switched back to a regular merchant account).

bryanjohnson 16y ago
We (Braintree) don't require fax usage. It's an option but not a requirement.
- SwellJoe 16y ago
  Someone, maybe you, mentioned in a prior conversation here at HN that fax or mail was required during setup. Has that changed?