Comments on: PayByWeb Review

By: The Merchant Maverick

The Merchant Maverick — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:18:22 +0000

David, Thanks for the comment. I'm happy to see that you noticed your company's review, and I'm even more happy that you cleared up some questions that we had about PayByWeb. I'll be updating your review here very soon, so I'll definitely take your comments into consideration when that time comes. Thanks again, and that $800k you raised for Haiti is amazing! Great job!

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By: David Weiss

David Weiss — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:44:52 +0000

HI,

I can answer that.

First, Authorize.net is a payment gateway. They are a conduit or connection between a merchant acct and a merchant’s website. They also provide a virtual terminal for manual order entry. Authorize.net does NOT fund the transactions or payout to merchants. They will allow merchants to sign up directly with them, however, they use resellers like Paybyweb to do this in most cases. Resellers are afforded special pricing incentives. so if a merchant signs up using Auth.net directly, they can expect to pay more.

First Data, or other merchant services providers provide the MERCHANT ACCT. This is the acct that actually processes the transactions. First Data, and others do NOT work directly with merchants. They use Agents and ISO’s (Independent Sales Offices registered with Visa/MC) to do all the front end marketing and setup. Once an acct is activated, the merchants are then serviced directly by the Merchant Service Provider and the Gateway.

With regards to our phones, not only do we answer them during business hours, but we answer them at night and on weekends. Those who leave messages, even on a Sunday, may be shocked to get a return call within a few minutes.

As for the testimonials, no – we don’t offer an incentive to those who post a favorable testimonial. We do offer an incentive to those who complete a feedback form, which may or may not contain positive feedback. This provides an incentive for a merchant to let us know how we performed, no different than Office Depot or Best Buy offering a gift card to selected customers as they walk out of their store so that the company can check on the service that was provided.

Yes, we have been in business for over 18 yrs. We have thousands of happy merchants and a few unhappy. Who doesn’t? Search Google, MicroSoft, or Ford and you can find thousands of compaints. The bottom line is there is no way to please everybody, and those who are unhappy are more likely to make it their life’s mission to make sure everyone knows about it. That’s just how it is.

We work hard to do a great job. The A+ rating with the BBB says it all. And, lastly let’s not forget that we also have raised over $1M in donations to the American Red Cross to help with Disaster Relief. Over $800,000 paid for Haiti as of today.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/pinellas-park-internet-business-makes-it-easier-to-donate-to-charities/1072806

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By: The Merchant Maverick

The Merchant Maverick — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 03:11:23 +0000

Bill, I'ts all pretty confusing huh? I'm not sure if you got a chance to look at my "Meet the Sopranos" article, but check it out. Read the part about "Furio Giunta." It explains PayByWeb's (and other MSP's) function. Basically, they're middle-men. They handle the sales process, customer relationship management, and they offer other little services here and there (i.e. card teminals etc...). Most of the higher level guys, especially the banks and credit card companies, don't want to deal with having to sell merchant accounts to the end-user, so they're more than happy to pass the job off to companies like PayByWeb, to take care of that for them. MSP's (PayByWeb) are the guys who bring everyone together. Then you have guys like First Data (CardService) who are technically considered to be a credit card processor, and Authorize.net is of course the payment gateway. All these players fit into the whole process in one way or another, but it also creates this "pass-the-buck" type of environment. When three different companies are handling one service, it becomes easy for your voice to get lost in all of the madness. Especially if your MSP doesn't fight for you. My advice is to try and cut out as many middle-men as possible. If you have a credit card processor that also has their own payment gateway, and if they're willing to work directly with you, then you've just cut PayByWeb out of the picture.

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By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:01:08 +0000

Paybyweb, ummm, where do I start? First of all, I have had Authorize.Net for some time (Gateway). Then when it was "That Time" when your internet business is ready to launch, I was prompted online as I completed the merchant information from Paybyweb. Only to find out that paybyweb are through Authorize.Net. Not only was I charged the $99.00 for the activation fee from paybyweb, but Authorize.Net charged me again as if I was a new client. I can never speak to the person that initially signed me up b/c he never answers his phone. He may communicate via email. But I don't understand the paybyweb thing if First Data is the merchant bank, Authorize.Net is the gateway, and the Card Service is the company who actually put the money in the owner's account. So, does anyone know, specifically, what "The Hell" paybyweb is for?

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By: The Merchant Maverick

The Merchant Maverick — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:05:48 +0000

Hi Yolanda, I haven't done a review of PayPal yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I do.

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By: Yolanda

Yolanda — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:00:55 +0000

Thanks, I was just wondering how PayPall is rated?

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