Banctek Solutions Review
Merchant Maverick's Rating: (4 out of 5)
Last Updated: April 18th, 2010.
Overview:
Banctek Solutions looks great in most areas, but they're missing just a few things that could easily bump up their score.
They don't have a blog, Facebook account, Twitter account or a forum. As you all know, I'm a big advocate of those platforms, because they give us merchant's the ability to publicly voice our opinion directly to the company.
They're also missing some on-site data security features (i.e. McAfee). Not a huge problem, but I'd like to know that any information I provide them on their site, will be secure.
They've been around since 2002, and not a single complaint on either the BBB or any other negative review type website. That says a ton!
They offer seasonal downtime and interchange-plus pricing, and they're even willing to negotiate their contract terms and cancellation fee.
Finally, they have the names of actual existing clients posted directly on their front page, which basically says; "We really do have happy clients, so feel free to join them."
Until I find any reason to increase or decrease their rating, a 4 out of 5 it is.
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Date Established:
2002.
Location:
Denver, Colorado.
Domain Name(s):
www.banctek.com.
Parent/Partner Company:
Doesn't look like Banctek Solutions is a subsidiary of any other company.
Type:
Registered ISO/MSP.
Acquiring Bank(s) (Acquirer):
Wells Fargo Bank.
Payment Processor(s):
First Data.
Payment Gateway(s):
They use their self-branded payment gateway, but can also set you up with Authorize.Net if you require it.
Trust Symbols:
The Banctek BBB profile is sporting an "A+" as of this review, with 0 complaints in the last 36 months.
Negative Reviews:
None found.
Common Complaints:
None.
Verifiable Testimonials/References:
Banctek has a list of its clients posted directly on the homepage. Some nice clientele, I might add.
Security/Privacy:
No on-site security features (i.e. McAfee, Security Metrics etc...). The security issue really depends on what kind of information the merchant provider is collecting from you. If they require you to fill out a formal application with sensitive info like SSN numbers, then they should definitely have some third-party security in place.
Customer Service:
I've never had an account with Banctek, so I don't really know how their post-approval customer service is. Please help us out if you've worked with them before.
Contract Duration:
3-years. Here's a sample contract from Banctek.
Cancellation Fee:
$350.
Interchange-Plus Pricing:
They do offer interchange-plus, but they normally opt for tiered-pricing.
Seasonal Downtime:
Seasonal downtime is also offered by Banctek.
Product/Service Offering:
Retail (Credit/Debit), e-Commerce, POS, Terminals.
Product/Service Specialty:
None in particular.
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December 3rd, 2010 - 10:27
I tried switching to Banctek from the First Data reseller we’ve been going through for about 10 years. I was getting tired of a lot of the little fees we were being assessed and Banctek sure made it sound like they were going to save us money AND have the money in our checking account a day sooner than we were getting it. After carefully reviewing all of the fees Banctek said they would charge and comparing them to fees we were being assessed from our current processor, we determined that the fees would probably wash out to about the same, but the discount rates were going to be a whole point less and they said Banctek processed within 24 hours, so we would have access to our money an entire day faster.
The experience has been a nightmare.
At first they told us they had to send us reprogrammed pin pads and we were to send them our current pads for them to reprogram for someone else. I didn’t exactly like this since I had just purchased these pin pads this summer. Anyway, because I take a lot of debit cards, I wouldn’t reprogram my terminals with them until I received the pin pads. Three weeks later, after calling them twice looking for my pin pads, they told me they didn’t need to swap them out. They did some reprogramming over the phone, but they never would process the debit cards and we ended up running debits as credit for days.
Also, we were told there would be no annual fee with them, but before we ever received our first statement, we received a letter stating that they were going to implement a $75 annual fee beginning Dec. 1, 2010, and if we processed any cards on or after that date we agreed to the fee. I called them on it and their sales manager faxed me a letter stating that those were PCI compliance fees (which they had already told me would be billed at $6.95 per month).
Finally, the ACH ended up reaching our checking account exactly the same as the other processor did, only Banctek was taking out their discount fees on that same day, so it made the daily reconciling a nightmare. Our old (and now still current) processor always deposits the entire amount and debits our fees once per month, which we like.
I just faxed over the cancellation requests for both of my stores to Banctek. We’ll see how easy they are to quit, or if they stick by their promised “no cancellation fees” that they wrote into our agreement when we signed up. It ended up being longer than 30 days from the initial sign up because it took them 3 weeks to tell us we didn’t need new PIN pads, so I’m over the initial 30 days.
December 21st, 2010 - 13:54
My Name is Jason Alirez,
I am the Director of Operations for Banctek Telesales. I wanted to personally respond to the posting by Debbie D. We here at Banctek made several attempts to remedy the pin pad situation with Debbie and she was informed from day one that pin pads need to be internally encrypted and we even picked up the bill for reprogramming and shipping. As far as the $75 annual fee goes most of our merchants do have an annual fee; however in Debbie’s case the fees had been waived and the letter did not apply to her therefore they would not have been charged. We stand by our low price guarantee here at Banctek and invite any merchant looking to save money to contact us for a no cost rate review…..My direct number is 888-623-1633 x113
Sincerely
Jason Alirez
February 4th, 2011 - 10:03
It has been two months since we canceled our account with Banctek and they have debited our checking account their minimum $20 per account for both January and February – That’s $40 per month to us as we have two locations. I called last month after we saw the charges and they told us that we would not be charged again and they would reverse the charges for January, neither has happened.
Jason, I never spoke to you, so you obviously do not know what happened with the pin pads. We were expecting reprogrammed pin pads from your company and we waited 3 weeks for them and they never came. During that time, I called your company twice to check on them. After the 2nd phone call by me to Banctek, I was informed that they weren’t going to send us pin pads, we could reprogram them over the phone line. The reprogramming never worked. There was no expense from your company to be picked up on those!
Stay away from these people. They have lied all through the process. They cannot be trusted!
February 10th, 2011 - 10:19
It turns out Banctek did only charge us the $20 minimum on ONE of the two accounts we closed back in December. In January, [name removed] told me that they had definitely closed both of our accounts and we would receive no more charges, and that she would try to get us refunded $40 for the account fees we were charged for December. I spoke to her again just last week and she assured me that the one account we were charged for is indeed closed, and they will be refunding me that $20, plus the $40 for the previous month. None have showed up as a credit at my bank as yet.