Avoid at all costs.
Written: Mar 22 '03
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: None.
Cons: Business practices bordering on fraud, terrible customer service.
The Bottom Line: Do not do business with this company under any circumstances. Their business practices border on outright fraud
|
|
|
| sephira's Full Review: Authorize.net |
I will attempt to be fair in writing this review, which will be difficult because I am intensely angry with Authorize.net.
I should have cut my losses during the process of signing up for a reseller account. My experience began by completing an insanely long application, having multiple discussions with an account representative, then finally receiving login information for my reseller account. Shortly after that, I was contacted by e-mail and told that I would need to pay a $500 fee for the privilege of reselling Authorize.net’s merchant accounts. After quite a heated exchange with a reseller representative, the $500 fee was waived.
I began offering Authorize.net’s services through my web and graphic design business. A number of my clients signed up for merchant accounts, and things were going smoothly for about 1 month. At that time, I checked my bank’s online statement and discovered that Authorize.net had debited my account for over $1000. Luckily, there was little other activity on the account, so I was not overdrawn. I contacted their customer service department, and explained the situation. The telephone representatives are neither knowledgeable nor helpful. My issues always needed to be passed along to someone in management or finance, who would contact me within “x” time period. Of course, these return calls were never made.
After about 1 week, the money was returned to my account. During this week, I discovered that they did the exact same thing to one of my clients. I went through the same procedure to have her account corrected, and my hours lost dealing with this company began to pile up.
Thirty days later, the same thing occurred again. This time, my account was debited over $1500. Again, calls, return calls, follow-up calls. More hours lost to Authorize.net. This time, I had a number of overdraft fees. After some wrangling, and faxing of documentation, these fees were returned in addition to the original amount debited in error.
Thirty days later… guess what? That’s right, another multiple thousand dollar debit. Only this time, I had a multitude of other checks outstanding, and it took longer for me to be informed of the situation. Twenty-plus overdrafts. Half a dozen bounced checks, including checks for licensing and other fees with state agencies. At this point, I am into dozens of lost hours dealing with this situation.
I submitted a letter to Authorize.net explaining the situation and my lost time. I also demanded a letter written to my bank, explaining that the overdrafts were Authorize.net’s fault. Their legal department responded that they had no responsibility to compensate me for lost time, or to write a letter to my bank, or to take any other action other than return the exact amount plus overdraft fees. They even refused to wave monthly fees for a period of time as compensation for my difficulty.
At this point, I am considering taking legal action, as my business’s reputation has been damaged with the community, with vendors, and with creditors. I have lost thousands of dollars of time dealing with these issues, which Authorize.net has gone out of their way to make difficult to rectify.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
sephira
|
|
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.