With poor or no credit, it's not easy to obtain a merchant acct for processing credit cards. Paybyweb.com hooked us up with villageconsultants.com, d/b/a CustomerPay. CustomerPay provides a gateway where internet customers can pay w/VISA or MC. After deciding to no longer accept Paypal, this seemed like a good choice.
Merchant accounts are split into 2 categories: standard and high-risk. High risk includes those w/poor credit, adult, gaming or otherwise risky sites whose chargeback potential is greater than that of typical online merchants. We signed up with CustomerPay on 10/26 and were informed through their user agreement that payouts are held on a 2-week bank hold pending verification and account authorization.
Five weeks later, we still have not seen any payouts from CustomerPay or Village Consultants. Phone calls and direct emails to our account manager, "Robert, " have gone unanswered. This company owes us more than $2000 in credit card revenue, none of which has been charged back by the customers. They cap the per-transaction limit to a ridiculous $500, so for large orders, you're forced to debit cards in small increments, most of which are declined due to an "unexpected error." Cards are then blacklisted and cannot be re-run through the gateway.
After emailing "Robert" regarding payout status and threatening CustomerPay and Village Consultants with police theft action, we rec'd an email from "Robert" indicating we were scheduled to be paid this week. That never happened. We called Village Consultants and "Robert" was inconveniently in a "meeting, " but we were assured that we would receive a return phone call with regard to our account status the next day. Never received a phone call or email since.
Take great caution in obtaining a merchant credit card account if you have poor credit or no credit. There are vultures out there waiting to prey upon individuals or companies in this situation, with the promise of guaranteed credit card acceptance and payouts in a timely fashion. CustomerPay and Village Consultants will be receiving a visit from the Seattle Police very soon!
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