More important to our day to day practices we have a high percentage of product returns which is common for the crafting industry. Working with our Merchant Warehouse account rep has been great. He is always helpful, and the service has been exemplary. It’s the little details that make the difference in our business success, and the Merchant Warehouse team has taken care of is when it counts and that is why I am happy to positively review them and recommend them to other business.

It took between 4 and 5 phone calls to get all set-up and I didn’t even have a terminal (I was using a Blackberry device to accept credit cards).

The company isn’t available 24 hours so when you have a problem (other than credit card processing – they have a 24 hour service for this) you can’t call them until Monday and then through Friday (during business hours).

The service works fine…I processed a whopping two transactions (one to test the service and one actual transaction) during the entire year I was with the company. Everytime I called to cancel (I run a seasonal art business and only sell at artshows – taking mainly cash) someone talked me into keeping a “seasonal account” because it would only cost me somewhere around $7 a month (which turned out to be 9.94 with fees) then I could re-instate my account when I needed it. I wanted to accept credit cards or be able to for the few I might actually accept through-out the year so I kept it.

The company over-charged my account several times in the first months of “seasonal account” holding. They were good about it, paying fees that accrued because of their mistakes in my bank account and fixing the problem but, I still had this problem.

The final straw was when I recieved a notice that my bank account was overdrafted over 100 dollars(a bank account I had only to connect with this credit card company – transferring only money to pay the monthly fees, when needed). I called the bank because I didn’t know who would have caused a fee (the only money that is withdrawn is from Merchant Warehouse and I didn’t know about any money that should have been taken out – other than the monthly fee). The bank verified that it was indeed Bankcard – Merchant Warehouse. I tried to call Merchant Warehouse to fix the problem but they weren’t open (not within the normal business hours).

When I did get in touch with Merchant Warehuse they explained that they had to charge me that 99 dollar fee to get me compliant with some credit card processing switch. Really, as a customer based business shouldn’t that company cover this fee? And, if there is a substantial fee shouldn’t they make a phone call and tell the business owner about it? Anyway, they first explained (after over 20 minutes of being on hold) that they would refund 40 dollars of the fee. I told them I wanted to cancel (I was sick of the problems) then they wanted to refund all 99 dollars. I asked that they refund the bank fee of $34 and the $99,they wouldn’t. I asked to speak with a “manager”. I was sent to a “manager” and that person wouldn’t even listen to why I thought I deserved a refund (they continually cut me off until I asked if that was how they usually treat a customer). Yes, I was frustrated but as most of you might think, I was not yelling or unprofessional. That person asked if I wanted to talk with his “supervisor” so I said sure. That person wasn’t available but I was able to leave a message. This problem has yet to be resolved.

I guess the moral here is that you will be issued fees for everything. Those fees are probably worth it if you have a larger company that uses the service. If you have a small business that doesn’t use a lot of credit card services you might want to stay away.

Hopefully my situation helps you to decide if you want to use Merchant Warehouse. I’m not telling you not to just telling you to think about it!

Thanks

Billing is a nightmare in the sense that they can not and ill not tell you what your charges are in advance. Nor can they tell you when you will be billed. So if you have a decent month you will need to plan on having a large sum of money in your account for a period of about 10 days (because they pull the money right out of your account of course). Then after they have taken what they feel is right you can call and try to dispute it if there is an error.