Chase Merchant Services (Formerly Chase Paymentech) Review
- Date Established
- 1985
- Location
- Dallas, Texas
Pros
- Large direct processor
- Few complaints compared to size
- No monthly fee with standard account
- Month-to-month billing available
- No terminal leases
- Next-business-day funding for Chase business checking customers
Cons
- “Free” credit card terminal requires long-term contract
Overview
Chase Merchant Services is the merchant services subsidiary of mammoth JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Originally established in 1985 as Chase Paymentech, the company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. A European office is located in Dublin, Ireland. The company is one of the largest processors in the United States, serving over 480,000 businesses and processing over $1 trillion annually. Naturally, they function as an acquiring bank, able to establish merchant relationships and process their own transactions. This type of business entity is also known as a direct processor, as you won’t have to deal with any middlemen when using your merchant account.
For such a large company, Chase has received remarkably few complaints from merchants. Their current total of 35 complaints with the BBB in the last three years represents a mere 0.007% of their customer base. This remarkably low rate has been consistent throughout our last few review updates and is a good indicator that the company trains their sales force well and generally provides quality customer service after the sale.
The main advantage of going with Chase is that you eliminate the middleman and deal directly with the company that will be processing your transactions. You may be able to negotiate better rates and contract terms, and you won’t get the run-around between your merchant account provider and your processor in the event of a chargeback or account freeze. They’re both the same company.
Chase no longer discloses any of its processing rates, but they offer a choice of either flat-rate pricing or interchange-plus. Their flat-rate pricing plan is designed for small businesses, and the rates are comparable to those charged by Square. You’ll have to ask if you want interchange-plus pricing, and you’ll probably also have to meet a certain (undisclosed) minimum monthly processing volume. Note that the flat-rate pricing plan does not include a monthly account fee, while you’ll have to pay $10.00 per month for the lower interchange-plus rates. We also recommend that you avoid dealing with the company’s sub-ISOs, if at all possible.
Overall, we’re quite pleased with Chase Merchant Services. The company has a solid reputation and ethical business practices. While I doubt they can give you the level of personal attention you’d get from a smaller processor, the competitive rates, fair contract terms, and state-of-the-art technology might be enough to make up for it, depending on the needs of your business. Chase Merchant Services earns a 4.5 out of 5 stars rating for its excellent terms, solid business practices and up-to-date processing hardware.
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Table of Contents
Products & Services
- Merchant Accounts: As noted above, Chase is a direct processor, which means they’ll manage your merchant account and process your transactions. You’ll have a single point of contact for any issues that arise, such as chargebacks or account freezes.
- Credit Card Terminals: Chase gives you the option of either buying your terminal outright or renting it on a month-to-month basis. The latter is a much better deal than the awful, noncancelable terminal leases many providers try to sell you. The company offers a full lineup of EMV-compliant, NFC-capable terminals, including the popular Verifone Vx520 and Ingenico iCT250 models. Wireless terminals are also available. Pricing is not disclosed, so shop around online before buying a terminal from Chase.
- Payment Gateway: For eCommerce merchants, the company offers their proprietary Orbital Payment Gateway, a highly-rated payment gateway that won the Judges’ Choice Award for Best E-Commerce Platform/Gateway at the 2015 Card Not Present Awards. Authorize.Net and many other third-party gateways are also compatible with the company’s system.
- Virtual Terminal: Chase Merchant Services also offers their Orbital Virtual Terminal, which allows you to turn your computer into a credit card terminal and enter transactions manually or with an optional USB-connected card reader. The web-based virtual terminal is free, but you’ll have to pay extra for the card reader. It’s a worthwhile investment as you’ll save money on processing costs with lower card-present rates.
- Mobile Processing: If you need a smartphone or tablet-based processing system, you can use the Chase Mobile Checkout app (available for both iOS and Android) and eDynamo card reader for processing and reporting with your phone. The card reader is EMV-compliant and connects via Bluetooth. Be sure to read the fine print in your contract regarding the “free” reader.
- Level II/Level III Processing: If you process a lot of B2B transactions, you can save money through lower interchange rates using Level II and Level III data. Don’t sign up for this feature if you don’t need it, however, as you’ll usually incur an additional monthly fee for this option.
- International Payments: As a global processor, Chase supports payments in more than 120 currencies from around the world.
- Line Of Credit: If you need to establish a line of credit to start or expand your business, Chase Merchant Services can help. See our post How To Get A Small Business Line Of Credit for more information on how this process works.
- Business Credit Cards: If you need a credit card for your business, Chase offers several excellent cards, including numerous versions of the Chase Ink Business credit card.
- Next-Day Funding: If cash flow is important to your business, you can get next-business-day funding from your transaction, but only if you also have a Chase business bank account. Without this feature, funding normally requires 2-3 business days.
The company also offers several ancillary services, such as online reporting, gift card programs, and eCheck (ACH) processing.
Fees & Rates
While Chase no longer advertises their small business plan on their website, it’s designed for new or small-volume businesses, and includes the following features:
- 2.60% + $0.10 per transaction for card-present transactions
- 3.50% + $0.10 per transaction for card-not-present transactions
- No monthly account fee
- Month-to-month billing with no early termination fee (ETF)
Actual rates will be subject to negotiation and based on factors such as your average monthly processing volume and length of time in business. While most of these accounts also feature month-to-month billing with no early termination fee, you may have to agree to a long-term contract (with an ETF) if you accept a “free” terminal. Chase offers very reasonable prices on their equipment, and we recommend that you buy your terminals outright. You’ll save money overall, and you’ll avoid being stuck in a long-term contract.
Check out our article The Complete Guide to Credit Card Processing Rates & Fees for an idea of what types of fees you should expect, and how much they’ll cost. As always, it’s critically important that you review your entire contract before signing up for an account. All recurring and incidental fees should be spelled out in your contract, even if you have to wade through a lot of fine print to find them.
Contract Length & Early Termination Fee
As we’ve mentioned above, Chase Merchant Services generally does not impose an early termination fee or a long-term contract for new merchants who sign up under their standard (i.e., flat-rate) processing plan.
Be aware that in some cases, Chase might require an early termination fee in your contract in exchange for a specific benefit. This benefit might be a “free” terminal or lower processing rates than you would otherwise receive. If you’re dealing with an independent sales agent or one of Chase’s resellers, be aware that they might tack on an early termination fee, also. If they do, there’s a chance that they won’t tell you about it. Once again, reading your entire contract before signing up is your best defense.
Chase makes the following disclosure about the contract terms:
Certain restrictions may apply. Not all businesses may qualify for Month-to-month or No Long-Term Contract, such as businesses who: require processing capabilities in multiple currencies, process over $5 million in annual credit/debit card sales or have certain software or connectivity requirements. Qualifying business may terminate their contract at any time by providing 30 days’ written notice. Businesses who do not qualify for the No Long-Term Contract may be subject to additional terms and conditions, including a defined initial term and early termination fees.
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Sales & Advertising Transparency
Chase Merchant Services has recently migrated the content from their old Chase Paymentech website to a new site. Unfortunately, a lot of older information has disappeared in the process. The new site has far fewer specific disclosures than the old one. We’re hopeful that eventually, all the useful content from the old site will find its way onto the new one.
One thing that has made its way over to the new site is an impressive variety of educational materials and resources. While you won’t learn everything you need to know about credit card processing from the collection of articles on the site, it’s still impressive. We highly recommend that you check it out before contacting the company for a rate quote, especially if you’re just starting out in business and are new to credit card processing.
Chase Merchant Services uses a combination of in-house sales staff and independent sales agents. As you might expect, the use of independent agents has generated a few complaints. Merchants allege that they weren’t properly informed of the terms of their contract before they agreed to sign up. Because the company uses both month-to-month billing and long-term contracts, it’s imperative that you review your contract thoroughly before signing anything. While the number of complaints regarding this issue is quite small in comparison to the overall number of merchants using Chase, you’ll still want to protect yourself from the possibility of working with a dishonest sales agent by reading your contract yourself. The problem appears to be more common among the numerous sub-ISOs that market Chase’s accounts.
The company also has a very active social media presence, with accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and others. Unfortunately, these accounts are for the main JPMorgan Chase banking organization, and Chase Merchant Services doesn’t have discrete accounts of its own. While you’ll have to do some searching to find what you’re looking for, the Chase YouTube channel does include quite a few educational videos for merchants.
Customer Service & Technical Support
When you deal with a company as large as Chase, you probably won’t get the same level of support you would from a small-time processor. It’s just a tradeoff that you have to make to get lower rates and a larger infrastructure.
Chase does, however, provide a 24/7/365 help desk, although it’s not clear if this comes from an in-house team, outsourcing (US-based or foreign), or a combination of both. Most merchant services providers tend to use in-house experts during regular business hours and outsourced agents during the evenings and weekends. The company also provides an impressive Merchant Support Center on their new website with numerous FAQs and educational materials. This resource should be your first stop if you encounter a technical problem and might allow you to fix the issue yourself without having to get customer service involved.
We also note that many of the complaints against Chase allege poor or indifferent customer service. While we’re always concerned about any allegation of inadequate performance or lack of professionalism on the part of a company’s customer service representatives, Chase’s remarkably low complaint volume relative to their size suggests that most customers have a positive experience when dealing with customer support. You probably improve your chances of having a positive experience with customer service if you contact them during regular business hours.
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User Reviews
Negative Reviews & Complaints
Chase Merchant Services is not accredited by the BBB and currently has a “Not Rated” designation. They have a separate profile on the BBB website (which is still listed as Chase Paymentech) from that of their parent company, JP Morgan Chase & Co. Their BBB profile currently includes 35 complaints filed within the last three years, with 27 of those complaints being filed within the last twelve months. Out of 17 reviews posted by customers, there were fourteen 1-star reviews, one 2-star review, one 4-star review, and one 5-star review.
These numbers are more or less equal to the number of complaints we found during previous review updates, with no noticeable upward or downward trend. For a company that serves around 480,000 merchants, this is a remarkably clean record.
The company also has five complaints on Ripoff Report, with an additional 28 complaints on that site under the old Chase Paymentech name. Again, this is a remarkably low number of complaints for a company of this size. Many of these complaints are actually filed against sub-ISOs that are reselling Chase’s services.
Common issues raised by these complaints include the following:
- Difficulty In Returning Rental Equipment: While it’s great to see that Chase no longer relies on non-cancellable credit card machine leases, merchants should keep a careful eye on their bank accounts when canceling their Chase merchant accounts if they opted for a rental machine. Unlike leases, rentals do not come with long-term contracts, but merchants will be charged for the machine if Chase does not receive it back promptly upon cancellation. Several complaints cite issues with the return process or being charged for the terminal even after returning it. The good news is that Chase seems willing to offer refunds if the machine is returned.
- Bad Post-Approval Customer Service: Most of these larger organizations tend to have customer service issues. The smaller merchant processors can spend more time with you but may not be able to offer the same kind of pricing that Chase might. Despite the complaints, most merchants will receive an acceptable level of customer service from Chase Merchant Services.
- Billing Issues/Withholding Funds: These complaints come up regularly in our comments, as well as on other review sites. Usually, funds are withheld because of a single very large transaction or a string of unusual transactions, and it’s fairly common with most processors. The real problem is that Chase seems to 1) not give any warning about withholding funds or freezing accounts, and 2) not provide the necessary customer service to resolve these issues quickly. This is really disappointing, because (unlike contract terms) you can’t negotiate these problems away since they originate with the Risk Management department. Still, these problems are relatively few and far between when compared to other processors, so I think Chase is doing at least an average job here. To avoid this, be sure to have an accurate average ticket/high ticket listed in your application and to contact your processor when you ring up an unusually large transaction. Also, make sure to discuss it with your sales representative if it’s a concern.
On the issue of withholding funds, Chase provides the processing network for Square, the popular mobile processor with a bad reputation for withholding funds and freezing accounts. This may indicate that Chase has a conservative Risk Management department, so high-risk businesses or businesses whose processing volume fluctuates a lot may want to look elsewhere for their processing.
If you’re working in a high-risk field, we recommend you look for a processor specializing in such accounts, such as Durango Merchant Services or SMB Global.
Positive Reviews & Testimonials
You’ll find four video testimonials on the Customer Stories page of the company’s old Chase Paymentech website. They’re very professionally made, but the merchants speak in their own words rather than following a script. We’re a little surprised that the company doesn’t offer more testimonials like these, given their huge size.
We’ve also found a few positive reviews of Chase Merchant Services scattered around on the internet. People are far less likely to take the time to post a positive review than they are to complain, so even a few positive reviews have a significant impact. If you’ve had a good experience with Chase, be sure to tell us about it in the Comments section below.
Final Verdict
For such a large processor, Chase Merchant Services does a surprisingly good job of serving the needs of all businesses, regardless of their size. I’m impressed by their standard contract terms, services, and overall reputation. Their customer support doesn’t have such an excellent reputation, but most customers seem to be satisfied with it.
A company this big is never going to be able to satisfy every merchant, but it does seem to do pretty well with what it’s got. When an issue does arise, Chase certainly has more leeway to come up with an amicable solution than a smaller processor might. It seems to lean on the conservative side when it comes to risk management, so high-risk businesses or businesses prone to significant fluctuations in their monthly processing volume may want to check out a different processor.
Overall, we’re comfortable recommending Chase Merchant Services to most businesses, and the company earns a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. As always, we recommend shopping around and comparing quotes very carefully before choosing a merchant account provider. Chase is about as good as it gets for a large, direct processor, but there are other, smaller companies out there that can do even better.
Frank Kehl
Latest posts by Frank Kehl (see all)
- How To Detect (And Prevent) Online Credit Card Fraud — And Why You Need A Solid Strategy To Manage Fraud For Your eCommerce Business To Succeed - November 18, 2019
- Don’t Fall Into The Trap Of Leasing Credit Card Machines & Terminals: 4 Smart Alternatives For Getting Payment Processing Hardware - October 21, 2019
- The Complete Guide To Online Credit Card Processing With A Payment Gateway - October 16, 2019
- Everything You Need To Know About Merchant Services - October 16, 2019
- Why Tiered Pricing for Credit Card Processing Is The Most Expensive Option (And How To Avoid Overpaying) - October 14, 2019
To learn more about how we score our reviews, see our Credit Card Processor Rating Criteria.
Organization Name: JES Lighting, Inc.
High charges, very poor customer service, -0- stars
Organization Name: Master Barber
Was going to switch from PayPal to chase merchant. After reading all these reviews I’ll stay with PayPal. Thanks
Organization Name: Island Energy Inc
POOR POOR POOR Customer Service – DONT US CHASE !!!!!Substandard equipment that needed to be replaced no less than 4 times within 6 months. They seem to just keep taking old equipment and shuffling it around. After dealing with them for several years, the deposits were not clear and impossible to reconcile and no desire to help. I found several transactions that just disappeared and had to send them proof of the transaction to get our money. Finally gave up cut the losses and moved to another provider.Then after we switched providers and returned their equipment they charged us for DOCKING stations that we never received in the first place.
Organization Name: Good Natured
No Stars for Chase.
Terrible customer service. Theft of money from my bank account for 7 months for a service fee when the account was closed. They hide behind legal clauses. I would never use this company for anything.
Organization Name: Construction
They’re customer service takes too long in picking up their phones. 30 minutes wait time or more. This is insane
Organization Name: Computer Upgrade King
As seller of $1K+ computers, we inevitably had a high chargeback and refund rate because we were always targeted for fraud. We would refund transactions that failed fraud checks and then have to represent the chargeback for already refunded transaction (huge waste of time). After 3 years, Chase kicked us to the curb with no appeals option and then added us to blacklist and they also froze money and took many months to return back. All because we had what they considered high refunds and chargebacks even though 99% of them were for fraud we caught, refunded, and then had to represent. We cannot control fraud occurring but we can catch it and refund the money which is what we did but what we got from it was Chase holding our money and adding us to blacklist.Paypal on other hand has been great. They never give us hard time about these refunds and chargeback metrics that are outside our control. They even extend us $100K of working capital. If you are merchant considering who to use, its a no brainer. Use Paypal since they will actually give you money versus taking your money and they will work with you instead of against you. Chase Payment is a terrible company to work with and you shouldn’t trust any CC provider that makes their decision based off chargeback and refund metrics that are outside your control due to fraud.
Organization Name: Fox Point liquor
I am signing up with Chase merchant services this week , I hope I am not making a big mistake. After reading all these reviews it makes me a little nervous . At least I will have a look a lot of good questions to ask the Chase sales representative. Thanks James
Organization Name: Auto-One USA
on 2/27/2019 Everyone that bought a car at our dealership and used their debit card for a down payment was double charged. Called Chase4 days ago, and twice a day every day since. Still not resolved, Customers are Angry, and I don’t blame them. Has caused several customers to get overdrawn, and one had their account shut off. Still no resolve. Customerss affected are returning cars, and one is sueing me. This has cost me tens of thousands of dollars, and Chase does nothing, but tell me they are working on it. Chase will see me in court when I tally the total cost, and loss of their mistake. I’m the one getting yelled at all day, wile they do nothing.
Organization Name: Pretty woman beauty parlor
They are fraud..they took money and use..20 30 days they use ur money
.we call evrydqy they said. They need to revew payment. Yhey eat ur money
THESE PEOPLE ARE CROOKS!!!! Worst Payment Service we have used. They are holding over $15,000 for 6 months for an error on their end by an employee not updating the account. Not only that, they debited our account for over $1,200 in fees on money they are going to hold for 6 months… This company will not help you grow your business, they will slowly kill it. They would hold any transaction over $1,000 for days and would not let you know when it will be available. So unreliable and horrible customer service. DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE!!!This Company is a 3rd Party and Chase Bank cant help you. Even if you have a great relationship with Chase and your banker they will still not help because they are not “affiliated”… Get the F Out, I signed up for CHASE CHECKOUT!!!!
You must be getting paid by Chase. T Chase Paymentech has to be the worst processor and support company out there. They respond in a secured email and once you respond back they say we cannot open secured emails. Nobody knows anything about chargebacks. I am told to call the credit card company when they are the group that processed the payment. So the CC company sends me back to paymentech. I call paymentech and they ask if I want a case number. I ask them what will that do and their response is “yes or no” super awesome guys. Please go back to being corrupt bankers.
Organization Name: Ocean Bri Shop
The app works great, sometimes the reader does not work… Customer service is terrible, they decided not to represent me in a chargeback dispute, because the reader was not working properly, so I needed to manually input the credit card information. The client decided to dispute, because it was her second purchase here, and the first one did worked with the chip. I sent them copies of the receipts with her signature on it. But they decided NOT TO REPRESENT ME! And when I call…. they are just following guidelines, no solution, nothing. No help at lot.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Miami Entertainment Group
I’ve been with Chasepaymentech for years ever since I opened my account and this month they decided to terminate my account for no reason. Contacted all the way up to a supervisor to know why it was terminated out of the sudden and they kept saying that in the agreement I signed they could terminate at anytime. Nobody from any department was able to give me the reason why. They just kept repeating the same thing that it was a business decision.
If a business decision for them is to loose loyal customers for no reason I don’t know why I would still be with them.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Organization Name: Jasmine's Garden & Art Ltd.
I have a contract with Chase for 5 months. I called for a cancellation after 5 five months because business does not work at all. I returned the rental machine promptly. They ask me to pay the early cancellation fee 300$ which is ok. But they also ask me to pay $421 for the remaining months of contract for the monthly equipment rental fee. They also still charged me $65 for the monthly service fee even though I canceled the service at the beginning of the month. I do not recommend this company to a new company if you are not sure your business will close early or not.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
HORRIBLE ongoing experience with Chase. My home was robbed on November 13th and the thief stole my electronic POS machine operated by Chase Paymentech. With due diligence, I called Chase and reported the machine stolen the following day and was told it was deactivated during this phone call. Between November 15th and 30th, thousands of dollars were fraudulently extracted from my bank account with the stolen machine, and someone other than me called their customer service line and successfully took on my identity. After I found this out, my subsequent requests for information and prompt attention to the matter have largely been ignored. I have been treated very dishonorably.Chase did get back to me last week and informed me that Chase would NOT be refunding me for the money stolen from my account. The reason being – Chase does not accept responsibility for activity on machines after they have been stolen – even if they have been reported stolen. And if someone was able to bypass their security and take on my identity, then that too is deemed my fault.As unconscionable as this response was, it was also deceptive. After pressing the Chase representative further, he finally revealed to me that the machines were not fully deactivated after I reported them stolen – only debit was deactivated properly. So unbelievably, contrary to what I was told, the POS machine was still working after I reported it stolen. And as a result, I was robbed…again. Still, I am being told that once Chase’s fraud department reaches a decision, it cannot be reversed.I have told Chase that if I am being held responsible for this crime, then I have a right to know the details of what happened and how, and I requested documentation of this. My request was denied. I also asked for details about Chase’s security measures to authenticate the identity of a caller who claims to have recovered stolen machinery. This request was also denied.One thing is clear, Chase Paymentech is as criminal as the thief who robbed me. And so the battle continues…
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
HORRIBLE!!!!!
I read your blurb about not a lot of complaints, well here’s one.
Two days trying to get a replacement sent for our debit machine in a busy B&W store.
Because we live outside of the service area and have asked for a one day delivery they want to charge us over $600 to send a service technician to personally deliver the replacement. Where they got that number is beyond me, they say it is based on the number of kilometers, they don’t even know where we are!
I have had these replaced numerous times and never had a problem!
Have had a response from them saying that they do not do one day delivery on weekends but they will send it on Monday, arrive on Tuesday and no charge.
Tell me why could they not say this in the first place, two days to figure this out, REALLY!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
There are so many chargebacks removed from my account without ever showing up for me to challenge in Resource Online that I question Chase’s competence. How am I getting so many notifications on my phone, and the money is being removed, yet the chargeback never shows? Forget trying to get in touch with someone about it. You’ll just get bounced from one incompetent moron to the next until someone finally says they have no idea and don’t really care, have a nice day. These guys are Grade A idiots and a failure as a banking service.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
SCAMMER ALERT! This is a pretty bad company. NO PROTECTION FOR A MERCHANT!? We have been burned way too many times, by scammers & fraudsters, using this company. It can be processed automatically and you still will lose. After numerous conversations with awful customer service, management pretty much said “we’re screwed” even after submitting evidence. This is definitely a company i would avoid, unless you enjoy losing money. If you dont believe me go give it and try… GRADE F
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
This is the worst company out there. I am a very small business that needed processing for 5-10 invoices a month. They signed me up with the lure of a bit cheaper rates. Told me i could bill in both us and can dollars no problem. They said the reporting was top notch. None of this was true. I could not bill my us customers in US dollars, reporting was none existent. Support was worse. I tried to cancel and they told me i have a 4 YEAR contract? WHAT??? So they lied to me about what the product did and now I can’t cancel unless I pay 75$ per every month of the contract I have left. Not even the phone companies are this bad. I would run from this company at all costs.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
We have an online store and we received some chargebacks 4 weeks after orders were made.Obviously we sent the goods in less than 48 hours since the order is processed so we sent to Paymentech all the information about the purchases (trackings, e-mails, etc.).Two weeks later they said that the chargebacks are our fault because the purchases were made with a stolen cards and the name on the card not match with the number of the card… how we supposed to know that???The payment goes trough their system so they should have a software connected with the card companies (VISA, MASTERCARD, AMEX, etc.) to check that information in a few seconds!!!We only receive an e-mail with the purchase details (item, name and address) so we don´t have any information about the card. It supposed to be their work because the are charging me some fees for that reason, right?In addition they charge us $10 for each chargeback so definitely the chargebacks are a great business for them. Maybe they have some people working for them doing purchases with fake cards because it´s a really good business for them. At the end of the day we are the unique part losing money because we already sent the items and paid the shipping and the chargeback fee.Well, the solution proposed for Paymentech at the end was: go to the police and make a report…How this company still working?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE – merchant services ? there are ZERO Services and ZERO customer service. Really dissatisfied on how they handled a charge back even after documentation was sent in that clears services rendered beyond a shadow of a doubt. Zero call backs throughout the process only telephone operators clearly reading from a script without ZERO knowledge on how support or help your business. Luckily we had a Wells Fargo Account we just closed the account and moved elsewhere. I HATE CHASE MERCHANT SERVICES they should be shut down for bad service .
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
GQ has been in business for over 47 years so you can imagine how many credit card processing companies we have been through. Finally found Chase and could not be happier. Changing credit card processing companies can be a real pain, but Chase made is so easy and you actually get a real person to answer the phone, no long wait times. Fees are better than most, but customer service is the most important to us, and Chase delivers.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
When did the start the month to month billing with no cancellation fee if you rent the equipment?
Thank you in advance.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
i started a new business in may 2016, signed up with C.F.I.B, and went online with Chase payment , what a pain in the ass, waited for my baking machine for weeks ,after 3 to 4 phone calls i was informed that since i did not have a bank loan for the last 10 years i was declined. Do not get involved with CFIB or chase payment, starting up a new business is great thing, dealing with these companies takes all the fun out of it, Chase payment kiss my ass
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I give Chase Paymentech a ZERO rating at this point. I switched providers due to rates and have attempted multiply times to close the account starting about 6 months ago. They give me the run around saying the account is with Everlink and I have to talk to Everlink….. The bills all come with Paymentech on them. I’ve tried to contact Everlink….. and they say talk to Paymentech…… I’ve had tech support guy suggest this could go on indefinitely and they will keep taking my money until Everlink tells them to stop…….. I suggest not doing business with them.
I have yet to get it resolved.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I have nothing but good things to say about Chase Paymentech. I’m usually not a person to leave comments on boards (unless I’ve had a bad experience with them), but when I read all of the above reviews, decided to add my two cents. We signed up with Chase back in 2008. During the first two years or so, we had to call with questions quite often, likely once or twice a month. They were always courteous and helpful. Since 2010 or so, we haven’t really needed to contact them. We’ve been approached by three other companies trying to get us to switch to their POS system. In every instance, I’ve done due diligence with all three companies and they could not beat Chase’s rates. Why would I switch? Anyway, bottom line is we’ve been with Chase since 2008 without any major problems. If there is a problem with the system, they replace it at their cost. Works well for us.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
RUN from Paymentech. It’s a clown car organization. They do not know what they are doing. RUN. God forbid you get a chargeback from a CHASE card – you WILL lose. They NOT have the merchants back in anyway shape of form. No idea how this jokerrates them so highly – read ALL of the posts. They screw you over one way or another and try to take more and more money from you. trust me.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Small businesses ,,,, stay away!Home-based businesses … I am approved bending transforming my home based business to some stand alone business (I just need a small office in my basement to operate my business). If I keep my home based business, then I have no chance of getting approved!!! Chase has a different definition for home based business that will not get you approved till you comply with their conditions. Their condition will require your business to transform your home based business to an actual business location. Like you have to change the utility bills to the business name, the rental agreement to the business name, the insurance to the business name. I enjoy my home based business as it is. No thanks! Your services are not needed!Please stop saying that you support small businesses like home based businesses!The emails that I received from your representatives and their credit managers shows that you have nothing to do with such small businesses. I am sure you have different definition for home based business than municipalities, or your incompetent representative does not understand and/or have the courage to tell you what you need to do from first meeting or phone call!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Tom/Amad/Merchant Maverick –
After reading your reviews of Chase Paymentech with such high praise and 4.5 rating I was seriously considering using their services. BUT, having read all these NEGATIVE comments I’m about to run from PT? All the comments are negative so how can such a high rating be given? I understand it is primarily about customer support nut customer support is the backbone after signing a contract and making your commitment with a company. It seems there is a huge misunderstanding/comparison between user comments and your high reviews?
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Scott,
Chase Paymentech is a huge company so naturally they’re going to have a large number of complaints. We take several factors into consideration, not just the sheer number of user reviews. For example, how many complaints a company has compared to their size (ratio) matters more than the number. With that said, if during our update, a decrease in rating is necessary, we won’t hesitate.
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I am a small business owner. I have never in my life experieced worse customer service in my laugh. Some of them even laugh when there is a serious issue as they know they can do nothing about it to help us. They hide things such as important information from you, when you are signing up to take credit card payments, they don’t tell you things such as that you are signing up for a 3 year contract, that there are penalties for withdrawling their services. None of this informaton is conveyed . It is “burried ” in a 19 page legal document. When I asked why they don’t tell new customers of this information when they are signing up they tell me it is in the legal documents. That isn’t answering my questions. I escallated to a manager. He has given me no information, except emailed me a copy of my contract. Thanks. I had that already. Absolutely, no response from anyone, to tell me how to get out of my contract, when I can get out without paying 300 dollar penalty or any other information. NOthing. AS I mentioned, worst compnay I have dealt with in any situation, not just banking/credit card processing . STAY AWAY!!!!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
So why didn’t you read your contract before signing it?
I just got their contract. I didn’t realize it came with a 3 yr term or cancellation fee. But I do now because I read the contract I was signing.
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Today I disputed a transaction fee over a fairly large Discover charge, which was a miskey to begin with, and was reversed immediately. Chase Paymentech, refused to adjust the fee for the reversal, and insists it is valid, which I totaly disagreed. They pocket the fee, and blame it on Discover Card policy!
Imagine all the transactions entered simply by touching a key in error, and fees or better say Penalties these Merchant Processors will collect from Merchants. I call it a rip off!!
I strongly believe that these processors are abusing the system.
Marsha Ghodsi/ Business Owner in Manassas, Virginia
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Worst company I’ve come to. At first I did liked how everything was going but when I wanted to change my money put into a different account it was one of the most stressful thing to do. I called customer service and they kept transferring to different people. They made me fax documents to them 6 times saying it was their fault. The service is rude and they have kept my money for the past ten days. Do not associate with chase paymentech if you have small businesses.
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Our company has been using Chase PaymentTech for past 10 years. Overall, we’re pretty happy with their customer service and it’s been a positive experience. There has been times where we were reaching their customer service line and their wait time was unreasonably lengthy and our queries go unanswered. This most likely happens because they are a large company. Other than that, we had issues with our supplied POS terminals and their support team has been reasonable and prompt but again, having faulty POS terminals is a hindrance when we rely on most debit/credit transactions.
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Over all not much trouble with Chase payment tech, but they had a clitch with a keyed in transaction for $290.00 which was rejected with a certain internal code, even though we received an approval code at time of purchase. When we looked into it, they checked everything we did and it was all correct, we received an approval number and on second look with one of their techs, they acknowledged that it was system error on their part. They will not pay us until further investigation on their part, our customer wants the product they purchased from us on Tuesday, of this week. They said they may not be able to give us an answer til Monday or Tuesday of Next week. Yes I said $290. dollars. We did $598,000 with them last year. $290. means a lot to small businesses, it was your system that made the mistake not us. Taking too long to resolve such a small problem.
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The most disorganized, unstable, or unprofessional thing about my business is the Chase Paymentech card reader. The fees are outrageous to behin with and every time I update my OS I lose all username and passwords, have to call in and re-establish the bond between the app and my phone, and now with the latest OS it doesnt even scan cards. I look 100% pro until I whip this thing out to scan a card and then I look like a bumbling moron. I’ll be paying the $350 fee to get rid of this .(feels like a beating you take to leave a gang you never shouldve joined in the first place!) People with square readers are making me look behind the times!
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The verifone vx 680 paymentech uses has an extremely small font. I could not get it to work wireless. I spent hours on the phone with tech support. they have sent me 2 terminals and want me to try a third. They tell me this is an extreme rarity.Has anyone had a similar problem. I have been on the phone with tech support an hour and a half as I type this. Has anyone experienced this incompetence ?
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I have a carpet cleaning has a carpet cleaner . I now required the service of a terminal use. How do I go about getting one for service?
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Hi Jermaine,
Thank you for your inquiry, I am happy to help you with this. I would recommend taking a look at Square. I hope this helps and if you have further questions please let me know.
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as a developer i would not recommend chase whatsoever. it has taken months to get all the proper info in their format and i had to speak to 5 different people in 2 depts to even get a list of what they need. i was up and running with 3 other gateways in this time (beanstream, paypal and moneris)
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Customer service is the worst over the phone. When ever a manager or supervisor was needed to sign off on an issue, I was told there was none on duty and that i needed to call back. Payment tech could not handle my business when my transaction went over 300+ Made me jump through hoops to get my money for over 7days+. That kills any small business. Stay away from them
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Beware – If you request to close your account Chase Bank will leave the account open so it collects a Debt, then they will sell the debt to a collection agency.. Fraud!!!
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I’m Daniel, I have an Insurance Agency in Van Nuys, CA – Ive been in business over 7 years now – I am with Paymentech iTerminal, and I processed average 25-35 transactions per month.I was with Paymentech for almost 2 years – The 1st year and few months everything was flawless, I had the iTerminal – Very simple to use. My issue with Paymentech is the dispute/chargeback Dept.My very 1st cahrgeback with Paymentech was in the amount of $330 – I charged my clients card twice, 1dt it declined, then it was approved…2 months later Paymentech drafts the money from my account and said my client disputed this claim with his bank – CitiBank…After sending me on a wild goose chase, months later I found out Paymentech actually made the mistake – Turns out, if you charge the same amount in one day, the 2nd charge is automatically approved by PT…2nd time was for $1750 – My client called his bank to ask them what the charge was for – PT drafts this money from my account and tells me my client made the dispute – After talking to my client, he signed a document stating the mistake was his – but Paymentech never refunded my money to me…Only now – Paymentech stuck me in a reserve program – For 6 months they kept 10% of every transaction I made…After 6 months, they had $6300 of my money which they assured me they would refund…When the 6 months were up – They gave me back $1300, and kept the other $5,000 because I had too many chargebacks! They said they were going to stick me with another 6 month hold period, at the end of which they might give me back my money, or hold my funds for another 6-12 months.I even asked if I would get my money back if I cancel my services, and they said they would keep my money for a minimum of 1 year, max 2 years just in case my clients call 2 years later to make a dispute – Even though the standard time frame for making disputes is 3 months.I had no choice, I continued my business with them -Then I had a 3rd chargeback – This was finally a normal one where I was notified. I send in my response about the claim, and I was refunded my money ($1400) 2 months later PT withdraws the money from my account again, and says Visa asked them for their money back so they gave it back…I would have to take it up with VISA, even though I would not stand a chance!I could not take it anymore – I cancelled my services – So a week later, I get another notice saying my reserve period is being reset for another 6 months – The 2nd 6 month period was supposed to end this December, 2014…Now they gave me until March 2015.So I just started the process to take these guys to small claims court.I would suggest to anyone working with paymentech to be very careful about this reserve program. If they sign you up in the program, stop your transactions immediately -You will never see your money again..
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Chase Paymentech is a company not helpful to small business owners but only wants to make money out from them. First, they charged me monthly fees when the contract says waived. Secondly, they charged me monthly fee when I was not using their service, and the fee was not discussed when the Sales tried to set up our account. Thirdly, Chase Paymentech did not settle my credit card charges promptly. For more than two months, Chase Paymentech did not notify me anything. When I called back, the customer service representative was very unprofessional, and the excuses they used was “the business owner is responsible to settle the charges… the business owner needs to check the money every day…” and they promised “if a charge back happens, someone from Chase Paymentech will contact me to solve the issue”. Since that day, I never heard back from them. And no one in Chase Paymentech was willing to discuss my lost of those charges denied because of the credit card was expired some time after 5/30. What they really care is how to take money out of my bank account.
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I have had nothing but good experiences with Chase Paymentech. In fact, much better service than my previous processors. For instance, my previous processors enforced monthly processing limits; and they were overly risk averse; they both terminated my account as “high risk” after some industry developments. Yet I signed up the exact same business immediately after termination with Chase with no problems whatsoever. Chase also covers almost the entire cost of Authorize.net (as in no setup, no monthly fee, and no per transaction fees for first 200 transactions or so). Every time I’ve called customer service I’ve gotten courteous replies that answered my questions. They’ve given flexibility in renaming my business DBA. I called about high transaction amounts and they simply told me what to do to make sure there is no hold. They told me they always work with merchants and communicate with them versus terminating accounts without warning. I have two Paymentech accounts. Great rates, great service; I feel confident using them. I REALLY hope my experience is not an anomaly (knock on wood!) but I honestly am surprised to see the negative reviews here.
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DO NOT USE CHASE PAYMENTECH!!! When you are a customer, they treat you fine. When you make a change, they keep charging you for their own mistakes!
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I am sure this company even deserve 1 star rating. They were worse to begin with and finally after 1.5 year working back and forth with them we realized that the stupid sales rep hasn’t setup our virtual orbit completely and that caused a lost of over $2,000 worth of charge backs which could have been prevented if the account was set up correctly at the first place. They do realize how devastating is to small business owners to pay out that much money for someone mistake. If you would like to burn the same way my company did then this is a company you need to use for your merchant service. Please be advise that there is no support/security or basically anything with this company. DO NOT WORK WOTH THIS COMPANY. THEY ARE JUST CROOKS SITTING THERE AND CHARGE YOU FEES TO CREATE A VULNERABLE ENVIRONMENT FOR FRAUD. I already report the to bbb and our attorney is working hard to get our money back from them. I also let the media know how screwed this company is and I would do anything to bring them down.
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I’m sorry but we can not agree. We’re a small business. Chase Paymentech charged us $37.95/month for the privilege of their being able to charge us more money for actual credit card charges. Then when we had a few actual credit card charges, they came in at 3.9%. That’s a crime, but so is having to pay $37.95/month for nothing monthly.
We called to cancel and suddenly the $37.95/month “minimal charge possible†was offered to be reduced to $15. We cancelled anyway and went with another vendor that charges for their actual services (credit card processing), not just for the availability of services. And the new provider offers a straight charge of 2.9% per credit card processing plus 30 cents. That’s easy to remember and it’s almost fair. What a bad experience to work with these merchant processing companies. It feels like they’re shysters printing money for themselves. We actually have to provide real value to our customers.
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Chase Paymentech has somehow made changes to how they take their discounts & fees from my bank accounts. They say I requested these changes but I did not. They did not send any notification to me of change. They have been unhelpful and somewhat rude to me. I had first noticed withdrawal changes late last year and had them undone, now I see they have made withdrawal changes to my accounts again (3 months later) which do not follow my wishes. Exactly what they do is to take discount fees, admin and lease fees directly from 2 different accounts I maintain. Somehow they seem to change the accounts they withdraw from with no instruction from me.
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What merchant services have the lowest rate of witholding funds? I’m running into alot of problems with these merchant services
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Hi Jason,
If this is a recurring problem for you across a number of processors, it may be that your transactions have a higher risk level in general and thus are more prone to being withheld. You can learn a little more about why funds are held in this article.
In terms of which processors are best, I would recommend any of our highest rated providers. You should try to steer clear of any aggregating processors and mobile processors, as they have higher rates of withholding funds.
The real best advice I can give is to communicate your processing habits as completely and accurately as possible on your application, and pay close attention to any transaction limits your processor has placed on your account. If you foresee a change in the type of transactions you will be processing, contact your processor to make the necessary changes on your account.
Thanks for reading and good luck!
-Tom
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
You state in the above that Chase recently cancelled their cancellation fees & its not true as I have been battling with them to cancel an account with them that I had since 2006 and they charged me a cancel fee. How do I fight this?
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Pat,
The cancellation fee was removed for recent contracts only. Since you signed back in 2006 the cancellation fee was still in effect. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get out of paying that fee unless you switch to a new processor and have them pick up the tab.
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Wow, if I had only searched this site. I recently signed with Chase Paymentech as they are partnered with our accounting software provider Sage Accounting (Formally Simply Accounting). Risk Management in Florida called and spoke with staff and stated that we are exceeding our estimated credit card processing dollars. This was 12 days ago. Since then they have withheld our money to the tune of $59000.00 plus dollars. After many calls by my bookkeeper with over 4 follow up calls by myself to “Risk Management including a Canadian office referral to escalate my calls to a manager in Florida, I still have not heard from anyone. Wow, is this company for real???? perhaps I have been scammed out of $59K ugh, can someone please comment if they have experienced the same?
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We have a small pizza shop and recently, to our horror, discovered chase paymentech is withholding 14,000 dollars. We have called every day for a week with no call back. The one time the rude woman actually got on the line, she blamed it on our bank and hung up on me. The bank told us the truth, which is that paymentech are pulling fees out and not depositing our money. This company is a huge fraud and we are currently trying to gather other victims of this scam and get this all over social media and the national news. If something doesn’t change immediately, we will go out of business. How can they do this to hard-working people and family owned establishments? What an atrocity
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I am in for the lawsuit!!! here is my story:
Oh wow. where to start.. I met my wife Dec. 2012. We fell in love and I decided to move down from Portland to Southern Oregon. Shortly after the move I went ahead and moved my long time company of 13yrs down here as well. She was banking with Chase and said that she had never had any issues with Chase in the 3 or so years she was with them. I was a little worried about moving my business banking to chase because of all the horrible experiences I went through 15yrs prior. But, started to think that perhaps this bank changed their policies on how they treated their customers and left US Bank for Chase.
It was what it seemed to have been a good smooth move and even signed my company up for Paymentech merchant services. This is when it all got bad and ruined my company.
September 7th 2013 my California office received a reservation on a large group shuttle service for 28 passengers flying in to the SFO. They originally only booked the 7th, through the 9th and required two vans which we had to pull one van out of Oregon to help with this service. A minute before my driver was leaving to drive the 5 + hrs to SFO they canceled the weekend service without giving us the minimum notice of 24hr prior notice to any cancellations. Anyways, this group did use our services with two vans but then changed up the schedule to include allocating additional 22 days for more shuttle services. So, I went ahead and charged their corporate credit card the deposits required to hold those days on the calendar and blocked out the rest of our customers for Sept.
My company sat for the entire month of Sept. Turning away major money and customers waiting on this group. When the group flew back to their country, I received a phone call from Chase Paymentech chargeback department. They indicated to me that a gentleman in this country had submitted a chargeback because he claims he never took any of our services nor did they every submit a reservation for such a service. This angered me and I fought back. I supplied the audio video recordings from the vehicles. The actual reservations they submitted. The billing invoice showing a detailed summary of services and hours spent on this group as well as the gas receipts on our fuel and what did Paymentech do? THEY GAVE THEM THEIR MONEY BACK and said that we had no legal recourse and because they are in another country that I couldn’t sue them!!
The next day after this chargeback, we were waiting for moneys transacted from our Oregon customers to be batched out to our bank accounts. When no money was transferred, I called Paymentech once again and they transferred me around and placed me on hold for 25 minutes at a time then a risk manager came online and advised me that my company has been suspended from its merchant processing and that we were no longer allowed to except our customers credit cards. They further stated that Chase had placed our accounts on “MATCH” system which is like a Chexsystems for companies so the company could not get any other merchant accounts at anywhere else. This was infuriating as I and my wife and my company had never been placed on such a black list system in the 20 + years I have been self employed. This was a major blow to my company and my company is now somewhat closed after millions of miles of service, and hundreds and thousands of hours behind the wheel in my career in this industry and now we are helpless and struggling to pay our bills and debts. Funny thing here is that this was the one and only chargeback we got from a single customer and according to Chase, we had multiple chargebacks from multiple customers and when challenged on that statement, they switch it up by saying it was only one chargeback that caused them to close us down!
I found out yesterday that my wife’s SSN and her name was entered into the MATCH system as well. Not just the incorporated company which we now understand is illegal. I called Chase Paymentech and advised them to take us personally off of the MATCH system. If they do not do this then a lawsuit will ensue!! It is illegal for any institution to place a private individual in liability of an incorporated company debts. Incorporated means a separation of personal finances to the financials of a company and therefore can not be held liable to any company debt that may exist. Well they did that. To no surprise I got the run around again and then told that their legal dept will be calling me back. That was funny because its Saturday and this was Friday and still not call back at the end of the day.
THERE ARE MANY GOOD SOLID COMPANIES OUT THERE THAT ARE REALLY GOOD TO THEIR CUSTOMERS!
HOLD ONTO YOUR BUSINESS AND CUSTOMERS BY STAYING AWAY FROM PAYMENTECH Chase……………
I will be sueing Chase aka JP Morgan and I will be broadcasting this information to get a class action against them for ruining our lives and good name as well as my companies ability to operate with fairness.
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I am a self employed plumber. I have two other employees. I have been in business for 33 years. I have accepted credit cards for our services for 33 years. I have changed Payment Processors twice in 33 years. The reason both times was just being sold on better fees and better equipment. Never did I leave because I felt cheated or had a problem getting my money or because of terrible customer service! NEVER have I been considered “high risk” or had a fraudulent transaction! NEVER in 33 years of accepting VISA, MasterCard, Discover and American Express until Chase Paymentech!! I have never been considered “high risk” or had a problem getting my money from a credit card customer or my own Payment Processors until Chase Paymentech!! How do these people get away with Approving a credit card charge, taking the money from my customers but hold on to MY money, keeping it from ME, asking me to basically jump through hoops to get MY money from them for over ten days! Asking for a copy of the invoice, I send it. NO MONEY! Call them back, because they never call me, I have to play phone tag with these people to ask WHY I still don’t have MY money in MY acoount! New excuse is the address was not correct. But the correct address was on the invoice along with the customers phone number, they just didn’t see it, WHAT?? If you suspect fraud, call the customer! This one charge has been held from me for 10 days so far! And four others are now on hold for no reasons given!! My own customers can’t believe I am going through this, especially when they have already been charged on their credit card and no one has questioned these charges!! WHY?? THEN they decided to try to take back a $9000. credit card payment (three weeks later) that they actually did approve and deposit into my checking account and they are “FREEZING MY CHECKING ACCOUNT!! Is this legal? HELP!! I have NEVER been so upset, disappointed, angry, flat out MAD at the unprofessional, positively unethical behavior of my own bank of 30 years (I was with Bank1 at first)!! Shouldn’t this be illegal? HELP, HELP, I honestly don’t know what to do! YES, YES please include me in a class action lawsuit!!
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The same thing happened to our small business. You would think they would want to support businesses that are trying to grow. It would only benefit them if they were smart instead of greedy. We might be looking elsewhere if this is common practice and a lawsuit might be in sight as well.
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Please include me in any lawsuits you would file. I am as disappointed and angry with their service and setup and chargeback rules. They are making money out of every transaction regardless whether is a chargeback, regular transaction and so on. I am ready to take these basters to the media as well.
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This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I too am shocked to see this company rated so highly when you see the long list the common complaints. Chase Paymentech should not have such a high rating, shame on you BBB. The $300.00 termination fee is excessive for a small business. They also automatically sign you up for an additional 3 year term even if you are trying to cancel your contract at the end of the term. I did not have any equipment to return to the company and I had been with them for 3 years -yet – trying to terminate the account required me to pay the fee and fill out paperwork while they extended my contract without my consent. The reason that there are not more complaints is that most people in small businesses do not report this company. Let’s band together and create a web presence to let small businesses know about this shameful practice by Paymentech. Tweet, blog, post!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
“Chase used to have an early termination fee, but they’ve recently eliminated it for all small business merchants (see “Cancellation Fee” for more info).”
So why are they charging my wife $300?!
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
The rule applies to accounts that were activated after the policy change. Older accounts will still be charged an early termination fee because the contract was signed prior to the change.
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I usually don’t put comments out, but I’m so beyond frustrated with this company I have to get it off my chest or I might explode!
October 1, 2012 I got out of the blue a fax from Chase, cancelling my merchant account. They based it on a refund transaction they had issues with, but when I talked to the (very rude) person who had send me this letter to clear this issue up, she basically told me that Chase is just not interested in keeping me as customer!! I know I’m a pretty small business, but I always paid my fees, never had a chargeback so wtf?!? But ok, fine, I tend not to want to be where I’m not wanted and found a new merchant service provider with Elavon without a problem.
Since then though I’m fighting to get my money! Chase didn’t deposit over $2,000 of my sales into my account (quite a large amount for a small business like me) with the reasoning that they would have to hold these funds for six months or longer in case of chargebacks. Although they are within their rights to do that, I had several issues with that I wanted to discuss, e.g. why hold for 6 months or more, when most cc companies state that disputes about charges must be filed within 60 days of the credit card statement, or why hold over $1,200 in debit card transactions where there can’t be any chargebacks (plus, again, I never had ANY chargebacks on credit cards before)?!?
And here comes my biggest complaint about them – their customer service!! Since mid-December 2012 I am trying to talk to a person who actually has the authority to release my funds, but so far I’m only getting the runabout. I talked to my case worker, who gave me a phone number for customer service, who gave me a number to reach the Security Risk Department……are you starting to get the picture?!? I have left numerous messages and sent emails asking for somebody in charge to get back to me – nothing!!!
I believe that Chase is so big a company, they couldn’t care less about their customers – especially the smaller ones! If you by any miracle manage to get a person on the line, by my experience 4 out of 5 are extremely rude and are not even trying to help. Getting a callback is damn near impossible!! So I definitely can’t recommend this company and would never, ever do business with them again!!!
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Terrible experience, I signed up with Paymentech because my bank rep recommended them, I had a machine, they tried programming it remotely, processing never quite finished, they said a tech would call me in this regards, nobody called, after a few weeks I called, they said they would give me free machine, 3 months later no machine, no machine programmed and then I check my bank account and they have been charging me $34.95 for service never received, I called back and they said we’ll give you a free one and waive the fees but sign this new pape work, I read the fine print and it read $100 set up fee, I called the rep back and he said it was the only way to reverse the fees for service never received, now they want me to wait 5 to 7 days to see if they will reverse fees, i think they are just waiting until the first of the month to charge me again, I’m going to CHASE to cancel my bank account before they charge me again.
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While I think this company may work well for larger business, I have a seasonal business with a low credit card transaction rate. When I added up the regular monthly fees and the fees I was charged when I didn’t process enough transactions per month, the price per transaction was ridiculous. Overall, I had good experiences with customer service when I had a technical issue or question about my bill. However, I had several problems with my terminal and kept being transferred to their sales department. Each time that happened, I was lied to about my options for getting another terminal and pushed to spend $500- $600 for a new one. The first time my terminal died, it was because the tech support guy installed the wrong software; they didn’t admit it was their fault until I pitched a fit. The second time it stopped working, I was told I could only purchase a terminal from Chase. When I told them I knew I could get a used, older terminal for much cheaper, they told me they’d charge $150 to set it up. I specifically asked if I could process transactions without a terminal and was told that I couldn’t, which was not true; Chase has online-only processing. I still think that their system and their (non-sales) support is good, and I might still recommend it for a large company that wants the dependability of a large corporation and who can shrug off the additional fees, but their focus is definitely on the money. I wouldn’t recommend it for a small or seasonal business.
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The worst service ever experienced. I told them my website is supported by godaddy.com. They promised me a rate at first and after I finished all of the contract I found out the merchant ID they provided me can not be used. I called them many times they said it must be something wrong from Godaddy.com. Then wasted me about 1 week to go back and forth to solve the problem. Then they found out, within chase paymentech, there is a godday.com-chasepaymentech department especially deal with the account for godaddy.com. Then this new department within Chase paymentech gave me a new offer with much higher rate. I told them I do not want their service anymore. Then after 2 months, I found out two charge about $50 on my bill from chase paymentech. I called and they told me this bill can not be reversed because there is a contract between us. WTF, I want the merchant ID I can use on GODADDY.COM, they gave me a merchant ID which can not be used at all and they still charge me the money?!!!!!!! YOU GUYS DID NOT SELL ME WHAT I WANT TO BUY, If someone BROKE the contract it is CHASE!!!!!Then I told them I want to cancel this contract and I want to reverse the money, they said they will have someone who is responsible to make the decision and call me back, however, until now it already another 3 weeks and I did not receive anyfeedback from them, when I call them no one even other the phone now !!!!!!!The worst service ever!!!!
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We are not totally satisfied with the customer service and pricing and have a seasonal business and have not been happy with the service nor the pricing for our accounts. i have spent much time each season setting the contract up and closing it in the fall so decided to keep the terminal through the winter and because it was not used very much, I was still charged the same monthly fees so am going to cancel my contract and go somewhere else where I am more satisfied.
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Chase Paymentech’s customer service is among the worst I’ve experienced from any provider of services in recent years. They are slow to respond to customer needs. They promised me that I would up in five business days, then were unresponsive when it took them two weeks, delaying the launch of our website. I definitely get the “I don’t need you” feeling (but I’ll take your money anyway). Working with them has been a very frustrating experience.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
Is that true that you can get some benefits from leasing a terminal? I am being told that I can get 100% tax deduction and cut down tax bracket for my business beside having new equipment? Give me some suggestion on purchasing or leasing terminal. Thanks
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Hi Larry,
I would not recommend leasing a terminal. Most of the contracts and promises are not legitimate and will end up costing you much more in the long run. This article will give an in depth explanation.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.
I had a similar experience. I was promised a shorter lease term and in the haste of setting up my business missed that the contract said 3 years. Cancellation processes are byzantine in their complexity. It’s a real tar-baby if you’re not the sort of person who can yell at customer service people.
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I had a similar experience except my contract is five years; shame on me for not reading the fine print, but I have grown used to companies being up front about their policies, which is not the case with Chase Paymetech. Their customer service is terrible; I’d say they simply don’t care about the customer’s needs.
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I’m with Paymentech through the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) and after going through the nightmare known as Pivotal Payments, I must say Paymentech is very good. Their terminals are rock solid hardware and software-wise, funds are deposited in a timely manner, and they have never played games with rates after you sign up.
How much does this have to do with my protection from the CFIB is unclear, but in the 2.5 years I have been with Paymentech, I have yet to call their customer service department to signal a transaction problem or billing issue.
I avoid leases when it comes to terminals now… these machines get outdated rather quickly and acquirers rarely issue software updates to terminals that they no longer sell or rent.
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I’m shocked to see this company rated so highly when you list the common complaints. Those are huge to a small business owner.
I was verbally told by my rep that I had a one year contract with $10 fees per month (plus transaction fees), but of course he wrote up a contract for 3 years at $35 per month, with that early termination fee of $350. My first month using their service, they took 40% of my sales. That is not a typo. I’m trying to find info for a class action lawsuit on these guys; they did the same thing to another cottage industry business that I work with. Shame on them.
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Thank you for your comments Sarah. It’s exactly these types of user experiences that make Merchant Maverick better for everyone. 🙂
You’re absolutely right, they’re extremely important. The main reason why I gave Chase Paymentech a higher rating is because of how frequently, or infrequently in this case, those common complaints have shown up. Chase Paymentech is a huge company. As you can see, I’ve reviewed nearly 100 companies as of now. For a processor as big as CP, their complaint count is actually pretty low, and that speaks volumes. I’ve reviewed companies with three times the complaint count at one-third the size of CP, so I definitely consider the “size-to-complaint count ratio” of a merchant account provider when giving them a rating. One would expect larger companies to have more complaints.
The common complaints themselves were not good by any means, but the low frequency is what prompted me to give them a better rating.
With that said, my ratings are always in flux Sarah. As I mentioned before, your experience is invaluable to everyone on this site, so believe me when I tell you that I will definitely consider your comments during the next rating update.
Best of luck to you. Feel free to contact me if you ever need help in the future.
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I signed up with CP in 2008, shortly after the relationship with First Data dissolved and caused much confusion. I received emails advising me that First Data will be managing my account, when I had originally signed up with Chase Paymentech. The rep that signed me up had also moved over to First Data and there was no contact person at Chase Paymentech to confirm the details of my account. I tried for months trying to contact someone.
I was charged for things that were suppose to come with the service such as newly encrypted pin pads and free supplies. This was offered to match the previous service provider’s services. Plus, there was suppose to be no decline fees on EBT cards or monthly service fees. These are all being charged, in addition to the regular rate increases. The addendum on the contract was not honored by Chase Paymentech nor the charges that were not suppose to be charged.
They advised me that I could cancel my services at a with a cancellation fee (this was also suppose to be waived at the sign of contract, as proof of their high quality service).
I am also charged for batch out fees that were suppose to be waived; not only one charge per batch out per night, but 3-4 levels of batch out cost per terminal.
It is useless calling into their service center.
Be aware when signing up, ask to speak to their supervisor, have another contact other than your rep. Once signed up, they will be out of reach.
This comment refers to an earlier version of this review and may be outdated.