Paul Larsen Consulting charged us $10,000 for an audit of our credit card processing system, promising specific, detailed recommendations drawn from knowledge of our particular industry and vertical. The resulting report from Paul Larsen Consulting was clearly a generic, one-size fits all piece of paperwork, none of it specific to us or particularly actionable. Those recommendations from Paul Larsen Consulting that we did implement either had no impact or actually diminished our performance.
As soon as the funds were transferred, Paul Larsen immediately passed us off to a subordinate who was almost never reachable, and when he was, was usually on his cell phone at an airport, in his car running an errand, or at some other location where he couldnt get into detail with us. The only time they did pay us significant attention was when we threatened to leave the processor that we were working with at the timea processor that Paul Larsen (supposedly a neutral consultant) clearly had a close relationship with. I dont know the nature of that relationship, but the determination he suddenly
showed to persuade us to stay with that particular processor was suspicious to say the least.
To add insult to injury, I later saw an interview with Paul Larsen on an industry blog, stating that he typically charged $5000 for an audit.in the interview, Paul Larsen specifically said that this was what he charged for our industry and a company of exactly our revenue levels. When I confronted him about this, he responded that his pricing varies and refused to discuss the matter further.
On the whole, Paul Larsen Consulting is an organization of questionable ethics and dubious value. I spent over $20,000 in fees and gained absolutely nothing. Any insight that Paul Larsen Consulting can offer is much better provided by the merchant services provider itself.
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