Mar 28, 2012

Why a Payment Gateway is Better Than PayPal

[caption id="attachment_393" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Why a Payment Gateway is Better Than PayPal"]

[/caption] Recently on our blog, we discussed just how important it is to utilize a payment gateway to accept debit and credit card payments on your website. Not only does it offer a more convenient and professional payment option for your valuable customers, your business and bottom line will experience significant benefits as well. But if you are using PayPal to accept payments, there are a number of issues and concerns to consider. Customer Service So let's say you need assistance from PayPal, where do you turn? Well, first off, the PayPal website directs you to browse for your answer, ask their online community, or chat with their virtual agent, Sarah. Here’s how she greets you online: Hello, I'm Sarah and I'm here to answer your questions about PayPal. Even though I'd like to be a real person, I'm not. I'm programmed to answer your questions. How can I help you? Sure, Sarah is friendly and available 24/7/365, but she's just an answering bot (isn't that sweet that she would like to be a real person? Like Pinocchio!) What happens when you want to talk to a real-life person? Can you pick up the phone and call them? Let’s give PayPay credit in that their customer service department can at least be reached toll-free from 4:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night Monday through Friday (and 6:00 am to 8:00 pm on weekends). But that’s not the 24/7/365 service that you will receive from NewtPay if you need someone at 2:00 in the morning when you see a discrepancy while you are balancing your books or a deposit didn't go through properly. So how about sending PayPal an email if it’s afterhours? Click below to send us an email. We do our best to get back to you within 24 hours. Well, within 24 hours is nice, I guess. Customer Disputes So what happens if you have a dispute with a customer over a purchase? Maybe they didn’t like your product or claim they never received it. PayPal offers their infamous mediation service that represents both you and the customer. This seems fair until you realize that PayPal freezes your funds until the dispute is supposedly resolved for both sides (but usually until the buyer feels satisfied since they generated the dispute). Your funds will even be frozen until their investigation is complete. This could be a few days, a few weeks, or in some cases, 180 days or more. Just type in ‘PayPal Horror Stories’ into any search engine for some fun reading! My favorite tales include the one where the creator of the video game MineCraft had over $760,000 frozen, and a more recent story where PayPal instructed a buyer to destroy a rare violin to get their money back. In the latter case, the seller was out $2,5000, but did receive a nice photo of the destroyed violin that dates back to World War II. Do like getting paid on a regular basis for your company’s sales? Your account can also be frozen if PayPal receives a chargeback, feels your account is high risk, or for any other unspecified reasons that they come across (like a withdrawal they feel is suspicious). While disputes with customers can happen, our NewtPay service is concerned with a resolution that gets you funded properly within days, and not months later. Our concern is to help you increase revenue, reduce expenses, and minimize risk…and not increase it! Further Reading: Learn more about NewtPay and NewtPay Pro, our flexible and affordable merchant accounts. Our Knowledge Base offers more detailed information on ecommerce, including shopping carts and SSL. The Escapist: PayPal Freezes $750K in MineCraft Dev's Account CBS News: PayPal Makes eBay Customer Destroy $2,500 Violin, Seller Left Empty Handed