Merchant Warehouse Review
Merchant Maverick's Rating: (4.5 out of 5)
Last Updated: July 12th, 2011.
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Overview:
Merchant Warehouse (MW) is a merchant account provider based out of Boston, Massachusetts, and has been in business since 1998. They've worked with over 100,000 merchants, and process $7 billion in annual volume. Needless to say, they're one of the bigger players in this industry.
Rated ETA's (Electronic Transactions Association) 2009 ISO of the year, I wouldn't expect anything less than perfection from Merchant Warehouse. They barely missed the mark in my book, but nevertheless, they didn't disappoint.
Merchant Warehouse looks like it's been running a nice outfit for over a decade now. The sheer duration of MW's good customer service track record definitely earned them that ETA award.
They have a great BBB rating, mainly because they actively participate in providing rebuttal's to complaints. Matter of fact, I am yet to see another provider that has put as much effort into resolving disputes as Merchant Warehouse.
I love that they have a blog on their site which provides a platform for education, user interaction and feedback. They're one of the few ISO/MSPs that really spends time and resources on educating merchants about the process and the industry.
They have a great testimonials section, they offer transparent interchange-plus (aka interchange pass-through) pricing, they won't lock you into a contract, they offer low cost terminals, and they guarantee you $100 cash if they don't offer you the lowest rates. Pretty good if you ask me!
You can find MW on Twitter and LinkedIn, and Facebook.
Merchant Warehouse gets a 4.5 out of 5.
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Date Established:
1998.
Location:
Boston, Massachusetts.
Domain Name(s):
- www.merchantwarehouse.com.
- www.merchantwaresolutions.com.
Parent/Partner Company:
Merchant Warehouse has a sister company by the name Capital Bankcard. Both companies are owned by the same entity.
Type:
Registered ISO/MSP.
Acquiring Bank(s) (Acquirer):
US Bank, HSBC Bank, National Association and Wells Fargo Bank.
Payment Processor(s):
First Data.
Payment Gateway(s):
Authorize.Net or First Data Global Gateway (formerly known as LinkPoint).
Do you need help setting up your payment gateway with your website? Click here.
Trust Symbols:
You can find the Merchant Warehouse BBB profile here. As of this post they have a "A+" rating with 75 complaints in the last 36 months.
Negative Reviews:
The two main sources of negative reviews that I could find were on RipOffReport and the BBB. You can also check the user review section below to see if there are any right here on Merchant Maverick.
A rep from Merchant Warehouse has been submitting rebuttals to the majority of those complaints, so it looks like they're staying on top of things.
Common Complaints:
It was difficult to come up with any commonalities between the complaints, but here are the ones that I think should be mentioned.
- Faulty terminals: A couple merchants complained about faulty or inoperable terminals. There's really no way to be sure who's at fault here. Sometimes terminals work, and sometimes it's the people working them that are at fault. It's a toss up.
- Withholding of funds: This can happen for a number of reasons. Chargebacks and/or suspicious charges can easily raise a red flag that will either get you suspended or shut down. Merchant Warehouse seems to contract out their transaction processing to First Data (FD), and since First Data is usually mentioned along with Merchant Warehouse in the complaints regarding withheld funds, it's safe to assume that First Data is the culprit here. If Merchant Warehouse is boarding merchants using the First Data platform, it's also possible that FD is underwriting those same accounts. If that's the case, then FD has the authority to shut down an account without authorization from Merchant Warehouse. The same goes for any acquiring banks that Merchant Warehouse is associated with. They have the last word. With that said, a good ISO/MSP will have their own risk department that monitors their merchants accounts to catch any security issues before they get out of hand. Because once that red flag goes up with First Data, it's shoot first, ask questions later.
Verifiable Testimonials/References:
There are plenty of testimonials on the MW website. Feel free to check them out.
Security/Privacy:
The Merchant Warehouse online application is secured by Verisign.
Customer Service:
Have you worked with Merchant Warehouse? Feel free to leave us your review. Don't forget to read the the user review and comment policy.
Contract Duration:
No contract. Be sure you verify this in your contract.
Cancellation Fee:
No cancellation fee. Be sure you verify this in your contract.
Interchange-Plus Pricing:
Interchange-plus is offered by Merchant Warehouse, but may depend on your processing volume. Most providers don't offer interchange-plus to merchants that process less than $10k/month. You may be able to negotiate your way into it though, so don't be shy. 
Seasonal Downtime:
Seasonal downtime is also offered by Merchant Warehouse.
Product/Service Offering:
Retail (Credit/Debit), Online/e-Commerce Payments, Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO), Wireless, Cash Advance, Gift & Loyalty, Point-Of-Sale (POS), Check Processing.
Product/Service Specialty:
None.
Don't forget to leave your review and rating in the comment section.
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November 19th, 2009 - 20:51
I Just signed with them. One of their reps [name removed] was really helpful over the phone and through email. I looked at lots of processors before hand; cdg merchant plus pay simple and others. I found merchant warehouse to have some of the lowest rates and fees. Your site was helpful in helping me narrow downthe field, thanks.
November 19th, 2009 - 22:30
Brian,
Glad to be of service. Please do come back here once you feel like you can give a decent review of their services. I know it’s tough to judge an ISO without letting the entire relationship take its course, but even a little bit of info will help out a ton.
Take care, and best of luck to you with Merchant Warehouse.
April 3rd, 2010 - 10:11
Our industry (adult novelties) is considered by the banks and processing companies – to be “High Risk” (although our return rate and cb rate is exceedingly lower than most “low risk” retail sites).
I contacted Merchant Warehouse in hopes they would be able to provide decent rate, and it appears they have. We were approved yesterday (< 48 hours), and are just waiting to get our settings for our gateway changed over. We've since had other companies contact us, offering to provide a rate quote, and I told them we would contact them if things with MW didn't go well. One such company said "I will send you some information. Merchant Warehouse approved you as a low risk company, and in a couple months, they will drop you. I'll be hearing from you in two to three months."
We'll see what happens. I would certainly hope this is not the case, but I guess you never know. I will post back in a few months to update everyone on how it's going.
October 18th, 2010 - 19:52
James,
MW is known for being a bit more flexible than some of these other non high-risk providers, so it’s possible that their underwriting department boarded you knowing full and well what you do. Of course, we won’t know for sure until you start processing. You can always contact their risk department to double check too. Although you might be hesitant in informing them that you’re getting traditional rates in fear that they may re-evaluate you, it’s much better to be certain then to face an account hold/closure once you’ve started processing.
Definitely let us know, because if MW is ok with your industry, then that’d be good news for other businesses that do the same thing you do.
February 17th, 2011 - 15:39
Well, it’s been a few months.. (4 actually), and I am really quite amazed. The customer service has been absolutely outstanding, with regular follow-ups from our rep just to make sure everything is going well. I’m sure it helps that we haven’t had a single return or chargeback with them (knock on wood), but I am pretty sure that even then, they would be just as accommodating, unbiased, and helpful as they are now. What’s even better, is our rates!
Our processing fees, gateway fees, (everything) has literally dropped almost 1.2%. Almost 4% of our revenue used to be gobbled up by Total Merchant Services, now we’re under 3% with Merchant Warehouse.
I wish I could give props personally to our rep, but I see the names are removed in this forum, but nonetheless, if he finds this, he knows who he is – great work, tell your boss you deserve a raise!
April 9th, 2010 - 11:35
I just wanted to say that while I am currently in shopping around mode and have been hesitant with signing up with Merchant Warehouse becuase of their 4.5 star rating, I find it impressively interesting the Merchant Warehouse makes the time to respond to concerns expressed in this fourm. Will see…
April 13th, 2010 - 09:47
Great company, We’ve been with them since October 2009. We’re in a high risk business where alot of companies will come and go. Merchant Warehouse has been very patient with us in dealing with any chargebacks we have from customers. They have great customer service and we’ve never had one outage or issue with their online payment gateway. We’ve recommended other people to them as well. CHOOSE MERCHANT WAREHOUSE WHEN LOOKING FOR A PROCESSOR
thanks again
All Day Auto Transport
April 14th, 2010 - 08:00
I signed up in February 2010 under a promotional offer of first month free processing and a 2.19 processing rate. Every single thing the sales person promised me was NOT TRUE. My rep was [name removed]. They billed me double at at 4.18% rate despite my specific inquiry about credit cards that I would not be penalized because of a MC or Visa that offers points and which I have no way of knowing. I have never received my refund and no one has responded to my complaints after 3 weeks. This is the SLEAZIEST company. I am going back to my nice bank which they much maligned in order to get me to switch but at least I know what I’m getting and there are no sneaky switharoos.
June 3rd, 2010 - 13:22
This is an unfortunate situation as we had the merchant’s best interest in mind but clearly didn’t do a good enough job communicating how the special promotion works or how different cards get charged different rates.
We have a special offer through one of our partners which offers a free month processing. We had a hard decision to make… do we give the first month free or the first FULL month? We decided to make it the first FULL month so merchants can maximize their potential savings, especially if they signed up later in the month as this merchant did. In this case we clearly did not set proper expectations that the first FULL month would be free but, objectively, I think everyone would understand our intent was to maximize savings, not to deceive.
In regards to the downgrades, again, I fear this is a failing in communications on our part. All credit and debit cards have different bases costs to process based in VISA and Mastercard’s Interchange categories. We have no say in these rates and mostly simply pass them on. In this case we had no idea the merchant was going to be accepting a majority of her transactions on the most expensive cards, B2B. We most certainly could have done a better job explaining what “downgrades” are and why they cost more. That would have gone a long way to avoiding this issue but it wouldn’t have changed the fact that these cards are significantly more expensive to process.
At this point I do feel obliged to point out that these fees are all clearly outlined on the paperwork application we send to all merchants. They need to sign and approve the fees before we can submit their application. I realize it isn’t a good defense to simply say, ‘well, you signed the paperwork’ but it absolutely isn’t the case that we hid anything or tried to do a switcharoo.
When we learned the merchant was upset we did attempt to explain these unfortunate miscommunications and did both offer to lower her rates for business cards and provided a very generous refund, including the first month free service. We sincerely apologized and, hopefully, the merchant at least understands that we weren’t trying to be deceptive in any way.
Brian Waldman
VP Marketing & Strategy :: Merchant Warehouse
June 15th, 2010 - 09:27
Thx Brian, but I am not an idiot. I asked all of these questions very specifically UP Front and was told otherwise by your rep [name removed]. I purposely signed up on the month when the bulk of my transactions were to be processed as I wholesale and do most of my business twice a year. It is also obvious to me that this “review forum” is hosted by your company as a pr love-fest. I have had several of your “happy” customers contact me telling me they had similar experiences since then. Alas, after I cancelled my service and started writing reviews I suddenly started getting all the customer service I didn’t get before.
June 15th, 2010 - 11:25
Hi Lesley,
When I asked you to respond, I wasn’t expecting a response like this. Lol!
Just a couple things I wanted to address:
1. Please don’t use a sales rep’s name directly. I know it’s good for us to know who you dealt with, so we can be aware, but without any type of restriction, this site will end up becoming a personal flame war thread, and I don’t want that.
2. In response to your comment…
I promise you and my readers 100% that I am in no way partial to Merchant Warehouse, or any other company for that matter. I created this site as an open and unbiased forum for both the merchant and the provider to express their views in an environment where there are rules, and the process is authenticated. Make no mistake, I don’t play favorites with anyone.
Just because I allow the provider to submit a rebuttal does not mean that I’m on their side. I’m on neither side, but I do think it’s only fair that both of you get to say your piece. Merchant Maverick is just a platform.
May 12th, 2010 - 08:45
I signed up in March 2010. They sucked me in with a 2.09% rate… all of my transactions are actually at 4%. my rep was [name removed]. Many things he said are not true. They overcharged me $40 for authorize.net setup. I am looking for a new processor
June 4th, 2010 - 13:15
The great news is that this merchant has decided to stay with us and is currently a valued customer. The bad news is that we made a few mistakes setting up his account which caused this frustration.
The first was the overcharge for the authorize.net set-up. This was a simple mistake as there are two different ways to set-up these accounts (higher start-up cost and lower monthly cost or vice versa). As soon as we realized the mistake we proactively reimbursed the merchant and changed his billing to reflect the correct amount going forward.
The second was in the set-up of the account itself. This merchant, similar to the other reply posted to this website, ended up taking a highly unusual amount of rewards and business credit cards which have a higher cost. Again, once we realized this we reworked the account to lower the costs of taking those specific cards.
These sorts of mistakes, while clearly frustrating, are relatively easy to fix and I believe our staff did a good job working to make things right with the merchant and to ensure that he was properly set to move forward in the most cost effective way possible.
Brian Waldman
VP Marketing & Strategy :: Merchant Warehouse
December 17th, 2010 - 17:50
Does anyone know what the Qualified Rate, Mid Qualified, Non Quailfied rates are for this company. As well as the Authorization and Per Item fee is? What the monthly statement fee is? Do they charge a PCI compliance fee? As well as any other fees they may have? Thanks.
December 27th, 2010 - 15:06
Merchant Warehouse. I don’t understand the rave reviews of this company. We have had nothing but trouble since we signed on. Customer service went out the window once we signed on the dotted line. Our terminal wasn’t properly programmed that we purchased from them and we had to spend valuable retail time during business hours to get it straight. Their billing is definetely on the shady side and I have to go over each statment with a fine tooth comb. That is, once I finally get the statment. We don’t usually receive it until about the 3rd week of the month, generally a week to 10 days after they have taken out their processing fee. The only good thing I can say about this company is that there is no contract, so no cancellation fee when I cancel.
April 12th, 2011 - 19:16
We signed up with Merchant Warehouse and they called me today stating that our custom packaging department was associated with medical marijuana and just called to tell us that they are dropping us because of association with medical marijuana. They should have made this decision before taking my money. I am appalled, we do not sell drugs or deal drugs, we’re graphic designers making boxes.
I am so disappointed in Merchant Warehouse, and I am considering taking legal action after all the money I’ve spent on them.
ZERO STARS. (sadly I have to give 1)
April 27th, 2011 - 11:05
I’ve signed up with this company and canceled my membership in 10 days because I found bad reviews about it. They told me that it is free to cancel, but they’ve charged me for two months service fee and refused to reimburse.. This is a scam. Stay away from this company.
July 12th, 2011 - 13:38
Dear Shippingplanner.com,
I am very sorry that you canceled your account before you had the opportunity to get to know us better. People say things online, as on this forum, which may fairly represent a poor experience, and that can be a little scary. On the other hand, those comments are often not reflective of the experiences of the 99.9% of customers who are completely happy. These informal reviews can also sometimes unfairly cast a company in a negative light or make more of an isolated incident than might be warranted. That is the nature of the Internet.
Merchant Warehouse retains an A+ rating with the BBB and has received multiple industry and independent awards for our ethics, service and innovation. We have helped over 100,000 businesses to process credit cards and our customers are overwhelmingly happy with the quality of products and services we deliver. Yes we make mistakes and, at times, have unhappy customers but we are in no way a scam and always do our best to respond to and resolve any complaints in a fair and transparent way.
As for your specific concern, it seems there is confusion in your interpretation of the fees you were charged as they had nothing to do with your canceling your account. They were the regular monthly fees you agreed to in your contract with us. Many companies specifically charge cancelation fees or lock customers into a long term agreement. We do not do so and that fact allowed you to leave us with no additional cost beyond the fees for the service itself.
Having said that, I do see that you signed up right at the end of a month and did not process any transactions during that time. Because of that we have issued a refund for the first month and probably should have when you first raised the issue. We apologize for that frustration. We will explore our policies in this area moving forward.
Thank you for giving us the chance to try and explain our position and also for raising the issue.
Sincerely,
Brian Waldman
VP Marketing & Strategy :: Merchant Warehouse
May 27th, 2011 - 12:59
I have had worst experience in my life with this company. their Client service has no clue of how many accounts they create on your name and keep charging.
they will keep charging you until you are bankrupt. Beware of these company. stay away. I will spread my experience any one who wants to know. Please email me. They don’t even accept their mistake now they want to charge me again next month. I ma sure this will be removed from this site. but I will Flood my experience in the web, Until I get justice on this.
July 12th, 2011 - 13:37
Dear Veettil,
Thank you for the opportunity to work with you to make this situation better. We are grateful that you spoke with us and allowed us to credit you for the period of time during which there was the miscommunication.
We hope you now understand now that our intent was not to be underhanded or deceitful. We did provide printed statements each month following when you thought the account was closed. For our part, we agree that we need to take steps to handle customers with multiple accounts a little differently and should have asked you explicitly about the second account. We also need to re-examine how much autonomy we give our customer support personnel when handling situations like this. We need to make it easier for them to resolve issues and will do so. It never should have gotten to the point where you felt you needed to voice your dissatisfaction in a public forum such as this.
We will use this incident as a learning experience and will continue to get better and better. Thank you again for allowing us to work it out amicably with you.
Sincerely,
Brian Waldman
VP Marketing & Strategy :: Merchant Warehouse
For those reading this review, I think it is important to add some context to this incident since the review was so overwhelmingly negative. As stated above, this customer had two merchant accounts with us. They called to cancel one and gave us that account number. It is my understanding that they did not mention the other account explicitly or give that account number. Unfortunately, it is a shortcoming of our system that we don’t have a clear notation within each account telling us that it is associated with a merchant who has multiple accounts. As a result we did not know to ask about the second account. We need to add this ability but this is the first such instance of this type we know of.
After that point, and for the next several months, the merchant was charged the regular monthly fees associated with their account. They were sent statements via mail and had money withdrawn from their account. It was not until approximately 5 months later that we were called by the merchant to close the second account. By that time the fees they were charged had added up to an amount our customer support reps were not empowered to credit. Suffice it to say that we should have handled this better from both a technology and empowerment perspective. This situation should never have gotten to this point and that is up to us to prevent going forward.
September 13th, 2011 - 17:52
I have been happy with this company, but out of the blue they mention a $99 fee for PCI compliance. Did anyone else have this experience? How many times do they plan on charging my company this amount? This charge was not mentioned when I signed up. Is there any way around it? It seems like a scam? Who is the best competitor of Merchant Warehouse?
Thanks,
Josh
November 14th, 2011 - 05:16
Very helpful when I first contacted them. Rates are good, etc. Time to process funds and land them in my bank account was very good. Only issue is the recurring fees. Way too many! And since when has a $99.00 admin fee been acceptable? Moved my account immediately. Contacting Office of the Comptroller of Currency. This is *not* right.
January 11th, 2012 - 11:31
Very unhappy with this processor!!!! This was my first month using them, came from Intuit’s Services. When The Client Srvcs Rep sold me the contract they promised 24-36 hour funding. After processing a few batches, they were funded 72 hours later. 2nd and 3rd batches were processed on 1/2/12 and 1/3/12, and it is now 1/11/12, yet to be funded. Called Srvc Rep, and he said there is nothing he can do it’s underwriting that put a 2-4 day fund on the account. Called Customer Relations, they said to deal with my Srvc Rep. The Srvc Rep said its out of his hands. NO ONE wants to handle this issue!! @#$%! So I call today and they say that my funds are on hold and they can’t tell me why? They are sitting on $2500 that is MY MONEY w/o an answer why this wasn’t funded. They said they will have to get back to me later. I am very disappointed in their services. Customer service is terrible, no support on setting up processing on my store, no one knows anything and has to ask somebody else all the time. After these funds are deposited I will be cancelling my service with them.