Comments on: Encore Payment Systems Review

By: Robert Corris

Robert Corris — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 14:47:18 +0000

If the info is outdated or incorrect, heres a brainstorm, why doesnt your company get it removed or changed by the bbb if its so not true!

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By: Art Nesten

Art Nesten — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:19:35 +0000

Merchant Maverick: I'd just like to say that I'm currently considering the services of Prodigy, and I'm grateful for your post and the other information online. I actually think your post is pretty fair. Cheers,

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By: EncorePaymentInfo

EncorePaymentInfo — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:41:02 +0000

Here's the thing; Encore Payment Systems is operated by the same staff that operated a company called Certified Merchant Services. In 2002 the FTC filed a suit on behalf of customers who charged the company with deceptive sales practices including but not limited to modifying contracts after the deal was done. In 2004 Certified Merchant Services was sold and almost a $24,000,000.00 settlement was paid to the FTC... Ironically Encore was started in 2004 and I kid you not; look at the list of Executive and Director level employees; it's readily available on their website. Then google each of their names + Certified Merchant Services... All I'm saying is old habits die hard; would you really want to do business with a company that has already been called to the carpet by the FTC? FYI; the suit against Certified Merchant Services was the first of its kind... Think about who you give access to your bank accounts.

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By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 15:04:37 +0000

email address is furkidsdoggrooming@yahoo.com

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By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 14:06:57 +0000

We have recently been part of this scam. We signed with PRODIGY. We cancelled after 4 days. We then found out that we are now stuck with the credit card machine we leased through LSI (there leasing company) for 4 years. When i unpluged the machine LSI called this was probably a week later. LSI asked why we are not using the machine we told them about the problems with prodigy.

* One of the few in the short time is that when we batched out for the day we had 2 different Merchant ID #’s. We called concerend about this and the only answer we got was its not big deal there is nothing to be concerned about they didn’t know why this was…we even faxed the batch out report to 2 different people at the company.

Thats when we found out that you have a 7 DAY trial with LSI and of course we were already passed that. they told us that we should have called them.. its a little to late for that now.

The only solution that they had for us was to call the rep that we signed with and ask them to see if they could find another company to take over our lease….Thats funny because since we told the rep that we were not happy she has not contacted us with numerouse message left on her cell phone.. So much for customer service… which she raved about.

If anyone knows how to do anything about this it would be helpfull. We did find out to that if we want to use a different company with this machine it will cost us almost $400 with prodigy!! wow didn’t see this coming so know have a $2,600 machine that we can’t use nor at this point do we want to.

Prodigy is suppose to call us today to try and get our bussiness back they are offering no annual contract and a $200 insentive…. our answer is NO.

Do they have the ability to shorten the lease of the machine???? if so would it be worth signing to get out of the $2,600 fee for the machine?

I am glad to read all of this now before the 60 day trial was over.. mad about having a machine that we are not using…..when is this going to stop…

Any help or advice would be helpfull regarding this.

Danielle
Tecumseh, Michigan

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By: Jesse S

Jesse S — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:43:04 +0000

Not everyone has a credit card with a limit to purchase a credit card terminal. Leasing equipment is not always the right choice for everyone, but its an option. I use to work for Encore PS for 4 years. I left. They took care of me. I had a near life threatening car accident that left me out of work for 8 months. You know what Mark Harrelson and the rest of the Executive team did for me? Donated 100 hours of PTO to me and held my job back for me, once they found out I was going to pull through and survive. 50 hours of PTO and 50 hours PTO in a check all to land me back on my feet. As for creating two extra DBA's. Well its actually a very genius idea. And no, Encore PS is not the only company that does this. Certified Payment Processing runs Transtech and Summitt in the same building. They offer the EXACT same service. So say you run a very large telemarketing department. You purchase hundreds of thousands of leads. What is the best way to get your money's worth out of these? You utlize them with three different companies. Now it was mentioned that one sales rep goes in and doesnt close the deal, so they send it a Prodigy rep to go close the sale and so on. This is not how it works. It doesnt work like clock work. Its on an automated dialiar for all companies. Encore may set an appointment and not make the sale. That merchant phone number may not pop in the automated dialer for Mommentum for another 2 months. Never know. Its called a predictive dialer. ISO's make their money somehow. Some use the sales model of pushing leases. Some use insane EFT, such as Transtech, $450 EFT + $100 for each service such as Gift Cards, Checks, Debit, etc... Now you are looking at a $750+ EFT. Some ISO's get you into an introductory rate and then bump you up. Its all in the sales model and how they do it. When you got low risk merchant processors making an average of $60 profit off an account after passthrough and interchange, then yes, you need upfront money to keep the lights on. You can blame all of these Shenanigans on the greedy Visa/Mastercard increasing their interchange rates twice a year!! So instead of blamming an ISO like Encore, who yes infact is a full disclosure company. Page 1 of the app is all of the personal and company info, page 2 is all of your fees, page 3 is for equipment, pages 4-6 are for terms and conditions... Its the easiest application I have ever had to deal with and I was spoiled with having to use it. Go look at Transtech and Summit's or First Data's. Sheesh Now you may think that my opinion is biased because I worked there, but honestly, I have a little bit of beef with them. They fired me and my loyalty to them meant nothing. They didnt do anything to try to fix it. I was obviously burnt out and the ISO program was sinking like the titanic.

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By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:45:28 +0000

I am thinking of taking a job with momentum adk Prodigy. After reading the reviews I am more confused than ever. Could someone please give me the low down on working for this company? I want to remain ethical yet successful. Is that possible working for this company?

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By: Merchant Maverick Admin

Merchant Maverick Admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:03:53 +0000

JC, Thanks for your comments. Believe it or not, I actually like it when my readers point out my mistakes and bring good debate to the table. It helps other readers get a clearer picture as well, so again, thank you. Covering some of your points...

WOW. That was a fairly rough review you gave to EPS, mostly because they lease equipment for 48 months?

It's not actually just because they offer the lease. I encourage you to do your own research on Encore aka Prodigy aka Momentum aka, etc... and if you come to the conclusion that I'm still being harsh, then we'll just have to agree to disagree.

News flash…. EVERYONE pushes equipment leases…. it pays the processor some very nice upfront revenue. First Data, Heartland, RBS…. all of them have 24-48 month terminal leases…..EVERYONE.

I agree with you that a lot of these guys push leases, but not "EVERYONE." I've reviewed almost 100 ISOs, not all of them push a lease.

As someone who is trying to educate the public through offering reviews, one would think that you would be able to offer some of the positive aspects of leasing equipment. I’ll start you off…

You're right, I could definitely do a better job at this. I'll make a better effort to learn more about leases and offer that info to my readers. In the meantime, check out my QA page. There's a question regarding leases that was answered by one of my reviewee's. It points out another reason why a lease would work.

* Warranty Purchasing a $500 terminal outright vs. leasing one at $39/mo may seem like a no-brainer (obviously it appears that you will spend less in the long-run), but alas, credit card machines are like everything else and sooner or later something will go wrong. Stuff breaks, that is a fact of life. Good leases offer next-day replacement of equipment, no questions asked. In this case, the merchant is able to protect themselves from the financial risk of having to scramble and buy another terminal.

I've actually seen ISOs that offer lifetime warranty's at $79/yr (placement) and no contract. I think that's a much better offer than $39/mo for 48-months.

* Fees Many lease packages offered by processors bundle several fees that the merchant would otherwise be responsible for if they owned their terminal. Statement fees @ 10/mo, Batch header fees @ 15/mo, Pin encryption @ 95, Semi annual PCI compliance fees @ 150/yr…. some even satisfy the monthly minimums for lower-volume or seasonal merchants. All of those fees, plus the cost of the terminal, are wrapped up into a $39-79/mo solution.

Good point. I'll look into this. Do you have any references that you can point me to? You have any examples of ISOs that mention this benefit? It would be good for my readers to see that.

*Low start up costs – a new merchant just starting out is able to start processing card payments without the large upfront investment required to buy a terminal. With the proper negotiation, most processors will waive the down payment to earn the business of that merchant.

In theory this sounds good, but the merchant could also just charge the terminal to a business credit card or something right? If they have the credit to get the merchant account or the lease, then they probably have the credit to get a credit card. It might be a low limit, but it's still better than getting locked into a 48-month contract. I have a CapitalOne card for my business with a $500 limit at 9%. At $39/mo I could pay off a $500 terminal in 14 months. Like someone else mentioned on my blog, the whole "low startup costs" argument makes much more sense for larger merchants with multiple locations that need POS systems that are much more expensive than your average terminal. But, even then, a small business loan might prove to be a better investment. Anyway, I digress...

*Never, ever, ever lease proprietary equipment. There are some companies out there that tout a 1 year processing contract, but in the same breath sell a 48 month lease on a proprietary machine. STAY AWAY FROM THIS!! A proprietary machine will only work with that processor, so if your relationship with them sours, or they bump your rates at the end of your 1 year contract (which they most certainly will) you are on the hook for the full 48 months and no other processor can touch that terminal.

I agree! Thank you!

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By: jc

jc — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:22:41 +0000

WOW. That was a fairly rough review you gave to EPS, mostly because they lease equipment for 48 months?

News flash…. EVERYONE pushes equipment leases…. it pays the processor some very nice upfront revenue. First Data, Heartland, RBS…. all of them have 24-48 month terminal leases…..EVERYONE.

As someone who is trying to educate the public through offering reviews, one would think that you would be able to offer some of the positive aspects of leasing equipment. I’ll start you off….

* Warranty
Purchasing a $500 terminal outright vs. leasing one at $39/mo may seem like a no-brainer (obviously it appears that you will spend less in the long-run), but alas, credit card machines are like everything else and sooner or later something will go wrong. Stuff breaks, that is a fact of life. Good leases offer next-day replacement of equipment, no questions asked. In this case, the merchant is able to protect themselves from the financial risk of having to scramble and buy another terminal.

* Fees
Many lease packages offered by processors bundle several fees that the merchant would otherwise be responsible for if they owned their terminal. Statement fees @ 10/mo, Batch header fees @ 15/mo, Pin encryption @ 95, Semi annual PCI compliance fees @ 150/yr…. some even satisfy the monthly minimums for lower-volume or seasonal merchants. All of those fees, plus the cost of the terminal, are wrapped up into a $39-79/mo solution.

*Low start up costs – a new merchant just starting out is able to start processing card payments without the large upfront investment required to buy a terminal. With the proper negotiation, most processors will waive the down payment to earn the business of that merchant.

Think of your cell phone….. most people get a new one every year or two. Have you ever actually bought a BlackBerry for $500-600?? Of course not…. most people pay a reduced price of $0-50 for that phone, in exchange for signing a 2 year service contract with that carrier. The same principal applies here.

In the interest of keeping this fair and balanced, here is the one situation where leasing equipment never makes sense

*Never, ever, ever lease proprietary equipment.
There are some companies out there that tout a 1 year processing contract, but in the same breath sell a 48 month lease on a proprietary machine. STAY AWAY FROM THIS!! A proprietary machine will only work with that processor, so if your relationship with them sours, or they bump your rates at the end of your 1 year contract (which they most certainly will) you are on the hook for the full 48 months and no other processor can touch that terminal.

Smart merchants (and honest reps) will tell you, then ONLY way to get the lowest processing rates (and keep them) is to switch processors every 12-24 months. EVERYONE bumps rates after the initial contract period, that’s just the way it is.

Universal equipment + shop those rates every year or so = merchant wins.

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By: franc sim

franc sim — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 13:02:47 +0000

I found out the hard way why they choose to run with 2 names. They start an area and hire sales reps for both companies, the reps don't know this. They make the first rep run an appointment and if the first rep doesn't close the sales they make an appointment for the second company rep to go and close the sale. To the customers it looks like 2 competing companies called on them. In addition like many others try to lease a $200 credit card machine for $54.95 a month for 4 years. The unaware merchant is stuck with a non cancel-able $2,600 bill. They offer good rates only because they have a list of ways to screw the merchant.

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