Forum Moderators: buckworks
On the surface they look pretty good. A real merchant account, not a shared one. Fees start as low as $49 per year with no additional monthly fees. Transaction charges run about half what 2CO and PS charge. And the parent company is a merchant account service that has been around for over 10 years.
Now, the bad news... there is very little information on the forums (here and elsewhere), especially personal testimonies about the service. I emailed PayQuake twice (once to their "info" address, once to their "sales" address) and got zip. Not even an acknowledgement.
Going on the advice of a recently signed PayQuake user, I gave them a call. The operator took my name and number and within 20 minutes I was called by a woman claiming to be a PayQuake sales rep.
She couldn't answer most of my questions and seemed very unsure of herself. She didn't know the hours for tech support or how to contact them. Claimed PayQuake has been in operation for 2 years and was currently overwhelmed with business while the sales staff was short-handed. That was her excuse for no replies to my email. She didn't explain exactly why she was calling me from her home in Arizona when the office is in California.
I asked if it would be possible to talk with a couple of clients about their experiences with PayQuake and she suggested I search Google for a forum where they discuss the service (like I hadn't tried that first!).
I'm beginning to wonder if the few recommendations I have found online are shills planted by PayQuake to attract business. Sounds very suspect to me.
Anyone out there have any experience, insight, or opinions about PayQuake?
Third, In the event that, for some reason, you are not be approved for a standard payQuake merchant account, payQuake will try its best to get you set-up with one of our "specialty Merchant Account Providers". The terms, rates, and fees may differ for the specialty merchant account placement partners. This is due to the fact that payQuake is the only provider of merchant controlled "Dynamic Merchant Pricing Technology". Rather than just decline you, we feel it is our job to try and find a payQuake partner who "specializes" in setting up merchants who might not fit the standard merchant account set-up criteria. You will be informed of the pricing differences if the use of one of our partners becomes necessary.
"You will be informed of the pricing differences if the use of one of our partners becomes necessary." ;) Didn't happen here. :) They even threatened I'd have to pay $150 for cancelling early. It was a nightmare... Anyway, anger is a waste of energy, so I'm over it. My advice is to read the terms very carefully and ask lots of questions. Get it in writing if you want clarification on a clause.
Was fairly painless and I'm on the pay-for-play plan (at least, at least, that's what my materials all claim.)
I had a bit of trouble getting them to get Amex set up on my account, but other than that, no real problems.
The transactions are all handled by authorize.net, with PayQuake just being a sort of middle-man in the deal.
Everything *seems* to be working - but I don't have enough history with them to really recommend one way or another.
There was nothing I could do because this clause:
Yep... that clause is still there. Not a good business practice to peform a bait and switch.
Got a reply from the "sales rep"... she informed me that tech support is available from 9-5 weekdays. Very unimpressive.
The rest are mostly people asking about PayQuake and getting little useful information. A couple of messages are obviously PayQuake resellers shamelessly plugging the service and providing their reseller link.
Guess I'd better look elswhere for trustworthy, reliable, resonably priced merchant accounts.
if they are hard to get ahold of, and when you do, they don't know what they're talking about, just wait until you actually are signed up and have a question, or some charge back issues to deal with...
Customer service being king and queen, it doesn't seem anyone signing up for payquake is getting much of any royal treatment, and you are a potential client.
Just my 0.03
If you're not worth the time of day (or a knowledgeable sales rep!) as a potential client/customer, your status will surely only degrade as a paying client/customer, particuarly if you've locked yourself into a restrictive contract.
Their "pay for play" plan is expensive, but at least for me, it came as advertised. When my wife and I started our online store, we had no idea whether we'd sell $50, $500, or $5000 in the first month. We weren't willing to risk any capital on service providers, and PayQuake was free to get into.
We received our first statement in early December and the rates and fees were as advertised.
As it turns out, our volumes were much higher than we expected, and so its time to move to a different program. Not sure whether we'll move to a different PayQuake plan or a different provider, but at least for us, the service was as advertised.
I'm reading the woes and tribulations in working with PayQuake, and my question to you all is, why bother?..
Way ahead of you. I gave up on them after the initial phone call. If they can't do any better than that in sales, then I'd hate to see how they handle tech support!
I've stumbled upon another service that offers a genuine merchant account with no setup fees, no termination fee, and their other fees are very competitive with other merchant accounts.
Since I have a client desperate to dump 2CO, we're going to give them a try. Good vibes so far... all emails and calls have promptly replied to with thorough and intelligent answers. *keeping fingers crossed*
CompWorld
There are literally dozens of other providers doing the same basic thing for roughly the same cost.
The only thing remarkable about PayQuake is that they offer a plan where you can get a merchant account for no money upfront, no monthly subscriptions, and no monthly minimums.
If you believe your volume might be tiny, its a good deal. If you think you are going to have more than a few small transactions, there are better alternatives.
If you believe your volume might be tiny, its a good deal. If you think you are going to have more than a few small transactions, there are better alternatives.
Which is why I was very hopeful about using PayQuake. I do have a couple of clients who aren't doing much volume yet and the plans looked ideal.
Unfortunately PayQuake doesn't answer email and the sales rep I talked to couldn't answer the most fundamental of questions about their service. Very bad.
CompWorld
Authorize.net themselves do not provide any merchant accounts directly (at least, not to my knowledge).
On the authorize.net reseller links page, you won't find PayQuake, but you will find US Merchant Systems. US Merchant Systems is the parent company of PayQuake.
Everyone from tiny little companies you've never heard of, all the way up to Wells Fargo utilize authorize.net as their payment gateway (there are a few other major players in the payment gateway space as well).
There are at least dozens of merchant account providers you can find on the net, and the number jumps to hundreds (if not thousands) if you start counting their affiliates and resellers.
Realistically, PayQuake is probably no better and no worse than the majority of them. It took a couple of days for them to set my account up, and things have operated fairly smoothly since. I'll likely switch to another provider for 2004, as my volumes have increased to the point where PayQuake no longer makes as much sense as it did when I had no idea if anyone would buy anything.
Their are also some gold-standard names in the Internet merchant account business (e.g. Wells Fargo, Verisign) that you can go to. Their rates are higher than the various companies you've never heard of, but surprisingly, not as bad as you might expect.
As many others on these boards have noted, it isn't a bad idea to have multiple merchant account providers so that you have some backup in the case of an emergency.
