Argh! 2Co is giving me a headache....

[net-trend]

Guys/gals,

2co is refusing to accept a clients CC details,claiming she entered an invalid address.

How wierd when she has used 2co with us before and had no problems.

So my question is this, are there any other 3rd party merchants out there that are reliable? Besides of course paysystems and paypal (which i swear i'm never going to even bother using).

And have any of you with 2co ever had this problem before?

TIA.

[DarktidesNET]

Going to signup w/ them this week... hope it goes well.

[Chicken]

Originally posted by net-trend:

And have any of you with 2co ever had this problem before?
I've had that happen with PaySystems (guess it was actually InstBill, but whatever...), but not with 2CO (which I do have an accout with). In the PaySystems case it turned out to be the customer's fault though. The customer kept adding or deleting one small thing which would kill the transaction. Just typos, adding an extra zero, etc. Had to be manaully confirmed (via phone, something you might ask 2CO if they can do).

[net-trend]

Well i submitted a support ticket and i was shocked when i got a reply within 3 hours. Anyways the tech said to inform my client to double check the address and to call their bank for verification.

I guess it could be human error after all. Now i just hope my client is willing to try and fill out the order form again. Sigh....

And thanks for letting me know about your experience Chicken, I was about to pay the signup fee for paysystem, hoping i won't have the same problem with them...but.....you shone the light...:)

[Robert]

That is why we stick to our own merchant account...

[1000rpm]

2CO were great a year or so ago. But they really have gone downhill, their customer support is really letting them down aswell as simple things like paying their customers on time, it's just not good enough! Thing is I have several hundred clients all set up with recurring transactions so jumping ship to another billing merchant or preferably a merchant account is not a real possibility.

[Robert]

You have a valid point 1000RPM. What we did was stopped using 2CO, and got our own merchant account and still let 2CO charge the monthly clients. For the yearly clients, we just added them to our account to be billed at the end of their 1 year through the merchant.

[JeremyV]

2CO gave me a headache in the first 3 days of trying to work with them, so got a refund and got a real merchant account. It has been incredibly smooth sailing ever since :)

[nameslave]

Originally posted by Robert:

That is why we stick to our own merchant account...
I think 2CheckOut is geared towards small businesses which cannot afford their own merchant accounts.

[JeremyV]

Originally posted by nameslave:

I think 2CheckOut is geared towards small businesses which cannot afford their own merchant accounts.

That is the impression these 3rd party processors lead you to believe, but not always the case. A merchant account can be just as cheap, and sometimes even cheaper, even for a small business. Let's take a look at some numbers.

Just for sake of two methods I've personally used, 2CO and Wells Fargo + Authorize.net

2CO setup fee = $49
WF setup fee = $99

2CO per trans. fee = 0.45
WF per trans. fee = 0.30

2CO monthly fee = 0
WF monthly fee = 29.00

2CO commission = 5.5%
WF commission = 2.35%

Sooo... lets take your initial month with each company. You start out spending 100 on the merchant account, and 50 on 2CO. Then another 30 for your monthly WF account fee. So without making any sales at all, 2CO is 80 dollars cheaper.

Now, lets say you have 1,000 dollars in credit card charges, and that required 25 individual charges. With 2CO you would be spending $11.25 in processing fees and $55.00 in the discount rate fees.

With a merchant account, you are sepending $7.50 in processing fees and $23.50 in the discount rate fees.

So for lets add it up for the first month:

2CO:

50 setup + 11.25 + 55.00 = 116.25

Wells Fargo:

100 setup + $7.50 + 23.50 + 30/month = 161.00

The first month WF only costs 44.75 dollars more. Now, once you are past the first month and there is no initial setup fee, the numbers change a bit more:

2CO:

11.25 + 55.00 = 66.50

WF:

7.50 + 23.50 + 30 = 61.00

Yep, that's right, your merchant account is saving you $5.50 after the first month is paid for. And mind you, this is only with a 1,000 a month incoming. Remember too that 2CO has a 0.15 higher flat fee per transaction, so the more and smaller transactions, the more money you are losing.

So really, you tell me. What is it worth to you? Do you enjoy waiting for your 2CO money to never come on time? Do you love that wonderful 2CO order page you use? Do you like the fact that it says 2CO on your customer's CC statements?

I don't know about you, but I gladly pay that initial 50 dollar more setup fee to have funds deposited directly into my bank account almost daily, and customers getting an accurate representation of my company making the charge on their credit card, and nearly eliminating chargebacks or forcing people to use a 3rd party order form.

Again, I'm not bashing 2CO or other 3rd party processors, because for some people it is a lot easier, you don't have to deal with some of the extra hassles of a merchant account... but to be honest, there isn't a lot of cost difference when you start breaking down the numbers :)

Hopefully this information provides usefull to someone at least as my fingers are tired of typing :D

[kunal]

Jeremy, you make valid points... but people who opt for a 3rd party processor do not have the legal requirements a merchant account company needs. Also, they dont have the initial capital to get a merchant account and the added expense of a billing interface to work with it.

Thats why 3rd party processors survive. :)
kunal

[Protollix]

Indeed,
I just started out with Protollix and 2co was the easiest for me, as I didn't and still don't (for another week or so) have my LLC formed. Hence no business checking account either.

2co and the like are a great "first step", but a real merchant account is the way to go. Something I will be doing very soon :)

As far as problems with 2co. None so far. The first payment took like 5 days to be deposited, but since then the average is 2 or so.

I have had one fraud instance (Just yesterday), but in my case, it seems like fraud is really the case.

[Operator]

Frankly, I have never had a problem with 2checkout. :)

[proxy]

Neither, i have been using 2checkout.com for over 1 year and i havent even had the pleasure of their support ticket system yet, never a single glitch.

[Dinsol.net]

We had such a problem many times. Then we request our clients to pay using PayPal.com.

Sometimes 2CO becomes very hard to work with.