Pivotal Payments Review
Merchant Maverick's Rating: (3 out of 5)
Last Updated: January 28th, 2010
Overview:
Pivotal Payments' biggest problem seems to be with their terminal leases, because that's where most of their complaints are based.
As I mention below, if you're a strictly card-present merchant, then you might want to take note of the issues other business owners have had with Pivotal and their terminal leasing company Leasing Finance Group (LFG), otherwise they're not that bad, especially on the eCommerce side.
The Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts are always a good thing, and I like the fact that they take time to respond to online complaints.
Take the terminal leasing issues, and add to that the RipOffReport complaints, and the negative comments down at the bottom of this review, and you have yourself a 3 out of 5.
You might want to take a look at my credit card processor comparison chart, to weigh your other options.
Click Here If You Need Help Choosing Provider.
Date Established:
2003.
Parent/Partner Company:
Pivotal Payments purchased Cardex Corporation in 2007, and changed its name to Pivotal Payments in mid 2008. They also purchased Tangerine Payment Solutions in late 2008.
In addition to their main domain, they operate the following websites:
- www.isoagentprogram.com
- www.pivotalepayments.com
They've partnered with Data Age (POS software), Comca Systems (POS for Dry Cleaners) and ClicNet (eCommerce) to broaden their services.
Pivotal Payments uses First Data or TSYS for their transaction processing, and Leasing Finance Group (LFG) to handle their terminal leases.
Type:
Registered ISO/MSP of Merrick Bank.
Trust Symbols:
The Pivotal Payments BBB profile has a "B" rating as of this review with a total of 18 complaints in the last 36 months.
You can find their corporate information here.
Security/Privacy:
No on-site security features (i.e. Verisign, TrustE, McAfee etc...).
Customer Service:
I haven't had any experience with Pivotal Payments' customer service, so if you have, please let us know.
Contract Duration:
3-years with liquidated damages.
Cancellation Fee:
$500, but can be waived if no fraud committed.
Interchange-Plus Pricing:
Interchange-plus pricing is offered by Pivotal Payments.
Seasonal Downtime:
Seasonal downtime is also offered.
Negative Reviews:
You'll find a total of 10 complaints on RipOffReport (as of this review), and the complaints found on their BBB profile.
It looks like Pivotal Payments does make an effort to respond to most of those ROR complaints, so if you've been treated wrong, you'll have a good chance of getting their attention by speaking up...publicly 
Common Complaints:
The most common complaint you'll notice is actually with Pivotal's terminal leases and the third-party terminal leasing company Lease Finance Group (LFG) that handles those leases.
Apparently several merchants have had trouble with Pivotal's retail terminals, so that's definitely something you should consider when signing up. If most of your business revolves around card-present transactions, then you might want to go with a company that has a better track record in that regard. But. if you're purely eCommerce, I don't see any reason (complaints) why Pivotal would be a bad choice.
Verifiable Testimonials/References:
No testimonials listed on the Pivotal Payments site.
Locality:
Melville, New York/Montreal, Quebec.
Product Offering:
Credit/Debit, Gift/Loyalty, eCheck, Pre-paid Cards, Fleet Cards, POS Terminals, Cash Advance.
Specialty:
None in particular.
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November 13th, 2009 - 12:38
I have been with pivotal for a year and it’s been a complete disaster. They have issues with double charges, for example the transaction will fail, and on the receipt it says please try again, and as you do, the initial charge though not at your terminal has actually gone through. Last January we had customers calling for multiple charges once for 12 times. Lately it has been happening on debit, at least once a day for a month. Supervisors never return calls and the contract is so one sided that one cannot afford to cancel. Beware, go with another company, I wish I never left Dejardins.
November 13th, 2009 - 13:22
Dino,
Thanks for the comment. Ya, you can see in my review that they’ve had issues with their terminals. I’ll definitely take your experience with them into consideration for the next review update.
P.S. If you’d like to leave a rating, let me know. You should be able to edit a rating directly into your comment, but if you can’t, I’ll help you out.
Best of luck to you.
March 26th, 2010 - 16:41
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one having a hard time with pivotal. Since my comment my rates have gone up, when I call and ask for a manager, they state managers do not deal with that, and Im left with nothing.I don’t understand how a contract with certain rates and fees are stated and they can increase the fees or rates with no recourse from the merchant. I figure one more year and I’ll be able to afford the penalty and cancell on them. I’ll give them 0 stars, it a company that’s impossible to get answers from, thay dodge and weave like crooks.
November 26th, 2009 - 13:30
i tried to get a debit machine from this company
i had to call them repeatedly to find out anything as they never followed up.
the customer service reps where not very useful and sometimes very rude.
on average id be on hold 30-60 min before someone answered.
i was charged an application fee,
i was then denied for whatever reason, which they did not inform me.
when i said id find another company to do business with i was charged a $500 cancellation fee
managers where non-existent and messages left for them were never returned
i recommend you find another company in which to deal with.
November 26th, 2009 - 22:03
Thanks for the comment Kurtis! It’s always good to hear directly from a merchant who’s actually worked with this company. I’ll consider your review when updating.
February 16th, 2010 - 09:16
We are 1 1/2 years into our contract with Pivotal and believe me the moment it expires we are gone. As stated previously, it is too costly to opt out now. We have had issues with errors on the CE Please try again – but it actually takes the transaction twice. I called once to see if they would credit the customers account but said they couldn’t & we would have to do it by cash. We are a small town & know all our customers; I shutter to think the mess in the big cities. They also suggested we call when we think there is an error but the customer usually does not like to be held up by the 20 minute or so wait time.
I do not recommed them to anyone.
February 16th, 2010 - 10:43
Marjorie,
Thanks for the comment. Do you know which processor they set you up with? Most likely First Data or TSYS (Vital), and which payment gateway you were using? Usually Authorize.Net.
Thanks again!
February 26th, 2010 - 09:19
I am in hell with pivotal at the moment. They are charging me fee that were never contracted. I call and when I get through to someone I was promised a refund for these inappropriate fees and that a manager will call back. The manager never calls back and I have to call many times again. I just got off the phone this morning with them to follow up and was told my requests were rejected!
What requests! I just want my overcharges back. I hate the lease company. Pivotal are using Global to process with me. They are charging hidden fees and I can’t seem to get them back either.
Stay away from this company! I left Elavon am am going to call and beg for their forgiveness.
February 28th, 2010 - 10:34
I have the same problem as Mad Mike. After two months they jacked up my rates by 60-80%. Customer service is a joke and when I asked for a manager, I was told there were none!They said someone would get back to me within 5-10 business days. No one has called. Do not do business with this company under any circumstances. They operate like telemarketing scammers.
March 1st, 2010 - 18:13
WE recently decided to stick with our existing processor. Here is the response we got from PP
————————
Mr. & Mrs (deleted),
I just wanted to take a second to thank you both for being an utter waste of my time. I didn’t know the knife making business was so lucrative it didn’t require cost management!
Keep on truckin’ buds!
Matthew Fleming
Sales Executive
685 Cathcart, Suite 1000, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3B 1M7
Tel: 1 866 328-9202 x8378 Fax: 1 866 328-9201
April 12th, 2010 - 22:17
Want to pay $94 a month for NO Service at all?
Then get involved with Pivotal payments. Why do they need a 3 year contract? Because [removed], ignorant CEO of Pivotal, knows very well as soon as you realize, what you got yourself into, you will want to run as fast as you can to get away from them. Lying to you by phone, but not backing it up via email, hidden charges, manipulative and misleading sales promotions. In an industry that is recognized as being pond scum, Pivotal is at the bottom. How would you like to pay $94 every month for 3 years? Just join up with [removed] and his gang of cut-throat, wheeler dealers. We do not process with them, yet they keep charging us $12 for a gateway they do not supply, $40 for a PCI scan that we do not need (we do NOT handle credit cards at all.), $10 for a PCI compliance fee, making it $50 a month for something we do not need. These liars might tell you that everyone needs to be PCI compliant, but they are exactly that. Liars. If you do not handle credit cards on your website, you do not need to be compliant. $7 for a statement fee that ONLY has their bogus charges, and finally a $25 minimum and these crooks just take this without asking because they have access to your account. So you need Credit card processor? Use Google and PayPal first as much as possible, because of all I have tried, they are the ONLY two that treat you with respect and have non-outrageous fees. Then for you own cards use anyone else before Choosing Pivotal Payment. The payments do not Pivot back and forth. They are all 1 way into Pivotal’s bank account. I will end on a positive note. Thanks GOD! we did not process with them. If you read that so called contract, it clearly would allow them to take the same amount of your money as if you continued to process with them for the entire 3-year period. In other words, sign here and own you!
Be very careful with this shysters. If you do try and get out, they will certainly nail you for exactly what you paying them now for the entire 3 years. Make more complaints, lots of them and add your complaint to you website. The more people you can convince to avoid these people, the more money they loose. Who know, maybe that will actually figure out what ethical business practices actually mean.
April 19th, 2010 - 15:31
Good news for anyone still suffering through a contract with Pivotal Payments:
Finance minister Flaherty has given Visa, MasterCard and all the payment processors out there 120 days to implement some major changes to the way they deal with merchants.
Of most interest to those stuck with a half-assed payment processor like Pivotal Payments or Monex, are new rules which will allow merchants to cancel their contracts WITHOUT PENALTY as soon as a provider attempts to modify contract rates, institute new fees, or introduce new features.
Given that Pivotal Payments loves to increase rates and randomly introduce new ‘compliance’ fees throughout the year, merchants will have numerous opportunities to dump Pivotal and avoid their ridiculous 500$/terminal exit fee.
So basically, if you are a merchant who can’t take any more crap from Pivotal and are contemplating paying the termination fee to just to rid yourselves of them, you might consider holding off a few months. Once these new laws come into effect and Pivotal tries to screw you with yet another fee increase, you’ll have a ‘Get of Jail Free’ card at your disposal!
If you signed an equipment lease with LFG, I don’t think the new law will cover that so you might be stuck paying that though.
If you are still contemplating using Pivotal Payments for your business after reading all these negative comments, here are even more disgruntled customers:
http://www.theswitchboards.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=30479