So we just opened today at 11am, and what do ya know, credit card problems, Host Unavailable 004099 from Mercury.
This is the 2nd time in the last month this has happened. We try calling customer service… busy signal… busy signal… busy signal. Can’t make any money to pay for having to upgrade hardware to the new version POS even though we just received the card swiper from them guys in Dec. because we have to pay for the new Credit Card swipes… but whats the diffrence if Mercury never works. Loving it. The Point of Success system and Mercury are nothing like they were a few years ago. Being a customer for the past 6 years means nothing. Seems like it’s time to move on.
The POS and Merchant Processing jungle has always been a beast. Although not the best, my solution (8 years ago) is stilling churning along, while I’m in total control over it (hardware AND configuration). While missing a few bells and whistles, its a malleable workhorse. As for Merchant Processing, after considerable testing last year, I switched to SQUARE full time this year. While perhaps a tad more expensive than some of the ‘listed’ guys, its completely transparent and a low cost entry (especially those with bad credit and no need to enter into a $3000 +leased+ contract for an external reader worth $75 scam). Have a smart phone? Presto, you’ve got a processor. Upgrades? No problem, EMV, and Apple pay available shortly. No huge surprise when upgrading your computer systems, especially with proprietary vendors like Revention (ughhhhh). Nothing like being forced to buy a $1000 computer that’s only used to enter an order… and then upgrade it for new PCI compliance, while not even owning the software!@#$#!
Okay, rant done. There’s a lot of ways to go, that have been mentioned and promoted constantly. Consider ditching the integrating merchant processing and giving Square a roll. Heck, open up an account just for standby… you could use it while the other is down.
I switched to Square many, many years ago…and have never looked back…in the long run, from a convenience & cost point, nothing better on the market for a DelCo…true, it may not interface perfectly with P.O.S., but its easy to work around…
Weird. I’ve been using Point of Success for 3 months now with zero problems that weren’t of my own doing. And even then, support was great at bailing me out. And we’ve been with Mercury for several years with no issues. In fact, I was glad to find they were the prefered provider for Point of Success. Made for a seamless conversion. Basically, my experience with both companies has been the exact opposite of yours. I hope you get up and running quickly.
Mercury has been having issues the past 24 hours. I’ve had 1 failed settlement and was 3 for 3 on the settlements having errors where 1 or more of the tickets did not settle last night. I assume it’s pretty widespread and they must be getting hammered on their help lines.
Thanks guys! We actually DO have Square as a back-up just incase this problem occurs… we’ve even had problems a couple weeks ago where the customers cards were declined by Mercury, but processed PERFECTLY fine with Square. And mercury blamed it on ME for not entering the CCV correctly… right… OK. Even though we entered it 4 times for MPS and only 1 time with Square and it was all good. Clowns.
As for the Credit Cards:::
How are you guys working with Square as your full credit card processor? I also have a Paypal reader just in case as well. Are you giving your drivers each a Square reader so they can just swipe it right at the customers home? How are you checking the card processes at the end of the night and adding tips and such?
As for the POS:::
Never dealt with Prism/Microworks, I’ll have to check them out. How have they been with their customer service and workbility with their software? I like to try and program everything from the ground up… I should actually look into just making my own system. hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…
I’ve got well over a dozen Square readers…all my driver’s are assigned one when they get their bank…we treat the Square report just like another form of cash…easy peazy…customers luv it…
I use POS/Merc and I have also had two times in the last 6 months where we couldn’t get some or all credit cards to process. I believe in some cases it was due to the bank being unreachable but I could be wrong. I have a square reader that I use as backup and it works fantastic in those cases. I like Merc because their integration with POS and free gift card processing. You need to negotiate rates but they have had great customer service in my experience.
We had once a couple months ago where the cc server went down for a couple of hours. That’s the only issue we’ve had in the 4 years or so we’ve been with them. I’ve not been having any trouble closing batches the last few days.
Weird,
We have been using the POS/Merc combination for years, and the only problem we have had is our ISP having issues. The few times I needed phone support to fix a cashiers error, I got a live person immediately who was always very cordial and solved the issues expediently .
Now Square on the other end, they really ticked me off, the are the ones responsible for me gladly migrating to Mercury
I have not upgraded to Ver.3.5 yet, I am still on 3.11 because I have not purchased 3 new encrypted MSR’s yet,
Integraoligist, what other issues are you having with Point of Success?
I ask because we have many customers using them and we have incredibly high customer retention and satisfaction. I imagine we could easily iron out any issues you are having and we offer very competitively priced 24/7 365 support.
We can probably turn your experience into a positive one for less than 1/20th the cost of a new system.
I PMd you our contact info, feel free to reach out anytime.
Just got the request to pre-order Square EMV/Apple readers (1 free per account & $49 ea). I requested 2 free and 10 purchased. I suspect by next year the price will rise for these and similar products. I also think for those with integrated systems, you’ll be mandated to upgrade operating systems, hardware, and attachments (so be ready for a price shock).
GotRocks, your post about Square resonated with me. I signed up for a ‘business’ account for both my locations, but after switching to ‘full’ processing with them, received a notification to convert to a ‘commercial’ account [Corporate EIN, etc…). I think they’re initially setup for people to people, or flea market, etc… Once our monthly CC sales surpassed $40K/month, we were converted to ‘commercial.’ We had to agree to the standard Merchant Agreement, like you do with all processors. Before then, it wasn’t required. Just thought I’d share that.
I set mine up as a corporate account from day one, but a few months in they demanded my personal SSN, I would not agree to that because we are an S-Corp, and I do not use my personal SSN for anything business related. I need to keep corporate and personal liabilities/assets completely separated in case of any future legal issues pertaining to me or the business, I cannot have one affect the other. Lets say for instance that I get personally sued, I cannot have that affect the Biz, and vice versa.
What really got me upset with square; I needed to issue a partial refund due to a cashier overcharging a customer, I found the mistake at closing time, long after the customer was gone, Square would not allow me to do a partial refund, they would not share the name of the person for me to contact them to tell them they have a credit, and for me to apologize for the mistake the cashier made, I got a weeks worth of form letters from square before I ever got a personal response.
And, we run three terminals, try reconciling which cashier ran what card on what terminal each night when your transaction volume is 350-400 card transactions daily. There was too much room for cashiers to make mistakes with square, having card services imbedded in my POS stops stupid data entry mistakes before they can happen
PIZZA2007: When we signed up for Square to use as a backup, we initially started it with an EIN and no SSN just like GotRocks. Never had an issue… but never had to refund anyone either so it’s a crap shoot there.
We did have to refund a couple people a few times with Mercury… and again a PITA as they could not find the transaction by the info I had on the stock POS signed slip and it took them 2 days and who knows how many people to figure it out. So the customers got their partial refund back almost a week after purchasing… never seen the customers again.
Another issue we have with Mercury is the face that we had to sign a “new” new contract, because our other contact that was signed 4 months earlier didnt have all the extra fees that they were charging us without us knowing. So when confronted with the fees they send us this new contract to go through which waves all the fees, which is $420 a year, but raises out monthly statement fee. And after finally agreeing to sign the new contract because we’re suppose to get the $240 back they jacked us with the previous month… it’s been almost 2 months and we STILL dont have that refunded. Always on the ball this place is.
I got an email from Square today asking me to come back (form letter) and stating they have phone support now (Limited hours, and when I probably wouldn’t need them.
So, since I still have all my readers, I may use them for our delivery only to see if they got their act together better.
I do miss the next day deposits, and knowing exactly what my fees are without hacking into the NASA or MIT mainframe to calculate them
This morning at 11:31… Card 1 attemped, Card 2 attempted, Card 1 attempted again… then Card 1 attempted and passed the 3rd time. (Which we then removed from payment because our backup SQUARE, processed it the FIRST time through).
Awesome.
What are the thoughts this time? MPS going to say that I didnt put the # in correctly again? Nah, I copied and pasted the Card 1 the 3 times… Maybe the CVV is wrong again? Nah, we removed the CVV request the last time this happen so thats not even an option.
