Merchant Warehouse Review
Merchant Maverick's Rating: (4.5 out of 5)
Last Updated: October 9th, 2012.
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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 merchant account providers 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.
Get Started With Merchant Warehouse
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).
Trust Symbols:
You can find the Merchant Warehouse BBB profile here. As of this post they have a "A+" rating with 97 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.
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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 28th, 2012 - 17:47
Because they’re .5 from a perfect score? Really? LOL
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.
January 22nd, 2011 - 10:55
Thanks much for providing this forum. I am just about ready to set up a merchant account of some sort. I was informed about MW thru Vistaprint offering a “coupon” – which Vistaprint never sent (by the way, they are a real “switcharoo”, no customer service company- avoid their online lack of services!)Talked to MW rep, Tim who was good about answering questions. I asked to have a contract emailed so I could review, that was 3 days ago (even with an voicemail reminder I left him yesterday). So far no contract. If this is how they communciate to earn your business, I can believe the problems listed on this site with after sale communication and resolution. I’m still waiting, but am exploring other venues. Any suggestions out there??? -
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
September 26th, 2011 - 13:48
Hi Josh. I’ve been with First Data for almost 4 years now and yes, a PCI compliance fee is an annual fee but at $99 it’s a bargain! First Data charges $300/yr and it’s a mandatory fee. Add to that the high fees that FD charges and you can see why I’ve been shopping around. I’ll be contacting Merchant Warehouse soon and making the switch……
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.
February 3rd, 2012 - 11:55
How does a compnay with such bad reviews have such a high rating???
February 3rd, 2012 - 12:26
Charlie,
Thanks for the comment. Merchant Warehouse is a very large company, so they’re naturally going to have more complaints than others. One of the biggest reasons why they have such a high score is because their merchant accounts don’t carry an early termination fee. That’s a HUGE plus for the merchant. Not many providers offer that.
Now, with that said, the MW rating isn’t set in stone. Their review will be updated, and when it is, I’ll re-evaluate their score to see if they still deserve it.
Take care!
March 26th, 2012 - 10:54
Merchant Maverick, why don’t you let people in on the fact that Merchant Warehouse’s processor is first data.
I think that will assist people in making informed decisions.
Your goal should be to assist small and large businesses find the best merchant solution.
Merchant Maverick is becoming to show itself as a independent sales agent assistant rather than a source of reliable information that is going to determine the near future of a business.
You’re going to make a few extra bucks in commission withholding relevant information, but someone on the other end is probably going to lose out on a few–or several thousand dollars.
However if that’s not a concern of yours, please disregard.
March 26th, 2012 - 10:56
Hi Miranda,
Thanks for the comment. The review does state that First Data is the processor. Please see the “Payment Processor(s)” section.
May 7th, 2012 - 08:36
I contacted Merchant Warehouse for services processing my online credit card transactions and upon discussing the fees prior to signing up with sales agent I was given the following information:
$10 per month from Merchant Warehouse and $7.95 per month fee for processing VISA,MC,Discover and AMEX with a 2.19% +$.25. I was assessed what i was told was a pass through charge of $79.99 without notification to me.
Had I been aware of these charges it would have made no sense for me to begin service with them. When discussing fees with my sales rep I specifically asked multiple times about any additional fees outside of the fees listed above.
I was told no on both occasions. I feel I was taken advantage of and given false information just to get me to start a account with them. It is the duty of the sale representative to accurately inform the consumer of the product they sell and in this case the product/service was misrepresented despite direct inquiry regarding the fees. When speaking with customer support the simply stated I signed a contract and I have to pay it. The contract is so full of legal speak that even after looking back at it I am un aware of how they came up with a $79.99 fee.
I am in the process of canceling my account with them.
May 10th, 2012 - 15:26
I was processing cards at a flat rate of 2.75%. After spending a good part of two days trading e mails, account statements, applications, and several different forms, I was approved. I requested the ability to accept American Express, which was a flat rate of 3.5%. No problem. The rates for non qualified rates concerned me. I was told, and I quote
“After looking over your bank statements and learning a bit about what you do I wouldn’t worry too much about non qualified rates because those are just for some corporate cards and government cards which you probably wont see too much of. The rates for Non are +1.99% + $0.10. For rewards cards the rates are +1.79% + $0.10. Based on what I saw from your statements it looks as though the majority of your cards will be debit and personal credit cards which are 0.39%+$0.04 and 2.19% + $0.21 respectively. ”
My first charge was a Visa Card. I was charged over 4% by Merchant Warehouse. My second was an American Express Card, I was denied because the application was never filed. I called AMEX directly and was approved. I was charged 3.5%. When I questioned the charges, I was told that AMEX made a mistake. They did not. After four e mails to my salesman and customer service, I still got the same answer. Finally I spoke to a different customer service rep, and the charges were explained. I was charged for three batches, even though I only charged two cards. My Visa rate was a non qualified rate of 4.18%, precisely what I had inquired about when I applied. Smoke and mirrors to get me on board! Wish me luck getting my $100 for Merchant Warehouse not beating my rate. I cancelled my account after a grand total of ONE charge.
April 4th, 2013 - 07:35
We were able to connect with Mr. Mayer and apologize for the experience in which he had with Merchant Warehouse. We were able to clarify all of the account issues in regards to pricing and determined the account may have been set up incorrectly. Merchant Warehouse issued Mr Mayer a check for $100 for our low cost price guarantee as a result. The merchant was completely satisfied with the resolution.
Janelle Kahn
Relationship Manager
Merchant Warehouse
jkahn@merchantwarehouse.com
Direct: 877 529 0134
July 20th, 2012 - 12:20
Signed up with Merchant Warehouse as I was told they and Mercury were the two options I had with POSLAVU. We had good rates with FTS Services prior to making the change.
Read the contract and was satisfied we were offered good rates and believed after checking with BBB this would be a good solid company to process the card business through. However, when you process a card it may go through or it may not go through. Many times you do not get confirmation but the card actually goes through to their gateway. Without the confirmation servers will run the card and 2nd and 3rd time looking for confirmation. This leads to multiple charges on the same card and multiple charges to the same customer. Talk about a lack of confidence and loss of reputation to your business. Don’t know how the BBB gives them a strong rating as this is the basis of the Merchant business. If they cannot accomplish the basics of the business with customer confidence there must be money changing hands to get those kind of reviews.
Since I purchased equipment and made a stressful change I am trying to give them a second chance, but each day this occurs my confidence & patience is erodes.
April 1st, 2013 - 08:02
We switched to MW last summer and process about $150,000 a month with them. I have very mixed feelings about the switch. There were numerous glitches getting started including holding funds unnecessarily, canceling valid charges because they happened to be for the same amount, and a couple other issues. I had hoped these issues would smooth out as the relationship matured and they got know us.
Instead we were hounded by them after the New Year over a ridiculous issues regarding our fed tax ID #. No one over there would proactively deal with the situation. Their security team rejected my signature because it didn’t “match” a signature done online with a mouse! And, no one over there seemed to care. I concur with the comment – after I signed on the dotted line their interest in providing customer service dropped significantly.
This morning $10,000 has not been posted that should have. The answer I just got on the phone was – “Can you send me the batch records? That’s what we are asking clients. We don’t even see the batches here in our system.” That’s scary. And, apparently I am not the only one. The woman on the phone had answer to when I am going to see my $10,000. She said “well I don’t want to tell you the wrong thing”. Scary.
We were with Chase Paymentech for 10 years. And, yes, they were a bit more expensive. But, I didn’t have an issue for years and years on end. I didn’t even know their customer service number, the money just flowed in like clockwork. With MW I am on the phone with an issue every couple weeks.
Very mixed feelings about the change to this company.
April 4th, 2013 - 07:27
I had the pleasure with speaking with Mr. Fagan today. While things appeared to have gotten off to a rocky start I was able to address all of his concerns. All funds were accounted for at the time of our conversation and he now has a dedicated representative to help him should he need any further assistance with his account.
On behalf of Merchant Warehouse, we apologize for any miscommunications and issues which were experienced and look forward to a long amicable business relationship moving forward.
Janelle Kahn
Relationship Manager
Merchant Warehouse
jkahn@merchantwarehouse.com
Direct: 877 529 0134
April 10th, 2013 - 20:23
So after about a year of getting phone calls from Merchant Warehouse about starting to accept credit cards, we went ahead and got it going. Our shiny, new website was finished and we were ready to go. So now we can accept credit cards, Ok. We make high-end guitars and they are not cheap. Originally, the plan was for the website but it turned out that some of our dealers and customers were asking if we accepted credit cards. “We do!” So I would get the occasional $1700 charge on a credit card. Some from international buyers. I didn’t think much of it. The cards went through and in almost every case I actually knew the people or had the card in my hand.
So then our Colombian dealer asked the same question and I replied that yes we could accept credit cards. We had six guitars going to him totaling 10K. A lot of money, indeed. The guitars were ready to ship and we could certainly use the money so we took the card.
A day later I get an email saying our account with Merchant Warehouse is closed and I shouldn’t accept any more transactions.
They could had denied the transactions and I would have accepted that and learned not to accept large charges from overseas customers.
Nope. You’re outta here. Closed. Good bye!
We have not had a single chargeback or any other problems prior to this.
I am truly stunned. Perhaps they could have gotten one of those super-friendly sales guys to take 5 minutes away from the important work of signing people up and give us a call. He could have said “Don’t do that!” and we’d have understood that the transaction was too risky for both of us.
Now I understand that they did not want to take the risk and now that I think about it, perhaps I don’t want to either. But to shut us down without so much as a call or any notice whatsoever I find unacceptable.