Today I joined 2CO, tomorrow I cancel

[mgm_03]

For my first experience setting up a simple e-commerce solution for a few products, I chose 2checkout. I know there have been a number of threads about them negative and positve...just like Amazon book reviews.

Their account management interface is unreliable and clugey IMHO. They have a great deal of FAQ but often use terminology that is not explained. After trying to type a user name 5 times, they finally tell you it should be a mix of upper/lower case w/ a space or digit....c'mon what happened to user testing?

Trying to set up a username the error message said it must be 3 or more characters..."Larry" has 5 using the arithmetic I learned. I realize this sounds nit-picky but other problems with just logging in as well irritated the crap out of me.

I did a site search here on webmasterworld and found many more threads from people fed-up, disgusted, and burned by 2CO. A few comments suggested some people have been lucky.

Hopefully, I will get my $49 back but it sounds like that is wishful thinking. I will be looking into Paysystems and Worldpay or any others....?

[digitalv]

Why not just get a real merchant account and install your own shopping cart? Wells Fargo is now an Authorize.Net reseller - you probably won't find a deal than them, since they're an actual bank there is no middle man making a percentage of your transactions.

[blaze]

The only problem I have with 2co is that they seem to drop customers more than I would like.

I haven't had any problems with support (been pretty good to me) and everything else is pretty smooth.

[mgm_03]

well unless things have changed, merchant accounts require monthly minimum sales and involve statement fees...I know BofA has a $300 application/setup fee (or last time I checked). For a small site selling a few products occasionally, the monthly costs can cancel the profits. Sometimes there may be no sales for a month or more. Some sites are run by part-timers ...ie. it's not how they make their living. In this case it's a music group selling a few cds and advance ticket purchases for upcoming shows.

I realize a good argument is "find ways to make sales" otherwise just use PayPal if you don't have a marketing bugdet, time, or both. Unfortunately, the only press that PP receives is never flattering.

[nalin]

One of my sites is in a similar predicament...it receives only a handful of token visitors a day.

Its hosted on OScommerce and I use the paypal payment module to process...does it kill potential customers - probably, do I care - no. I eat the loss because theres a bigger loss with authorize.net until the site gets some traffic. The moral of the story is that there is a solution out there.

[JonR28]

I'm on 2CO. Not too bad for me. Thinking about switching to a merchant account now that sales have reached around $100-$200 a day. Thats enough for a merchant account right?