Applied Merchant Services dumps T&C Store

[AnthonyDeAngelo]

Well, if your merchant account was taken over by Applied Merchant Services recently and, you have a store that pushes porn... there's a pretty good chance that they will be pulling the plug on you if they haven't already.

Our account was previously with Card Service International and had been in EXCELLENT standing for the past 7 years. However, when Applied Merchant Services bought out the above, they decided to dump porn.

The rep told Cameron on the phone that our account had been sold in a "bulk deal" and that our account had been in excellent standing with ZERO charge backs and ZERO problems for seven years. Cam was told that the account had been closed "due to the nature of our adult products."

We will re-direct all of our store purchases to our distributor, The French Connection, until we have a new merchant account/processor in place.

and this is no April Fools - we are seriously looking for other merchant services to provide processing for our store - any takers out there?

[gaydemon]

I'm so sorry to hear that. I had a similiar issue here in the UK. Suddenly my bank said we dont want to have anything to do with you.

PM abostonboy, he mentioned to me about some bank services he saw advertised at the Phoneix forum.

[basschick]

have you talked to netbilling?

[gaybucks_chip]

I've heard nothing but positive things about Mitch and know he and his team have some great connections.

I also heartily recommend Victoria at ECSCommerce.com. She (along with Mitch) is about the only merchant account rep I've ever met who is both BS free and really knows the ins and outs of all the major banks, who's taking what sort of accounts and at what volume, etc.

Physical product is a lot easier than membership sites to find processing for, and there are a number of options there... just be careful because one of the issues we ran into years ago was an incompetent rep who was basically sending apps out everywhere (including to banks that had long since stopped processing for physical adult product) and all the sudden I had a dozen hits on my credit, which scared away some of the merchant providers because they saw all these others that had declined to take our business.

[AnthonyDeAngelo]

I've heard nothing but positive things about Mitch and know he and his team have some great connections.

I also heartily recommend Victoria at ECSCommerce.com. She (along with Mitch) is about the only merchant account rep I've ever met who is both BS free and really knows the ins and outs of all the major banks, who's taking what sort of accounts and at what volume, etc.

Physical product is a lot easier than membership sites to find processing for, and there are a number of options there... just be careful because one of the issues we ran into years ago was an incompetent rep who was basically sending apps out everywhere (including to banks that had long since stopped processing for physical adult product) and all the sudden I had a dozen hits on my credit, which scared away some of the merchant providers because they saw all these others that had declined to take our business.

that's all such great advice - we've even in touch with CCBill to see if there's something they can do for us as well

meanwhile, ACHHHHHH! what a huge waste of time it all is

and to make mattters stupider if possible, the lady who Cam had talked to earlier called him back again, to ask again... "what do you sell in your store?" and Cam said "we sell videos" and she asked again a couple of times and he repeated again a couple of times...

I guess that this was one time when the "phone support" didn't mean diddly shit...

[tombarr]

Signature Card Services also can help you with a merchant account for products in addition to those mentioned above.

[gaybucks_chip]

Signature is one of the companies repped by Victoria. If I remember correctly, they are essentially the underwriting/processing arm of some other bank, name of which escapes me, but they actually have looser underwriting rules than the bank they're processing through. Go figure.

There's a lot of politics involved; a given merchant bank is only allowed to have a certain percentage of high risk (which includes adult physical product, even though it's not high risk) and so their willingness to take on new adult merchants, and the volume they're willing to approve, is all dependent on what else is in their portfolio at a given time. And there's stuff like knowing exactly how the risk department at each bank looks at certain types of businesses; they are all different and sometimes it's the mood of the person in the risk department that determines whether or not you get approved. That's one of the places where a really well-informed merchant sales person can be really helpful.

Not to mention, as you discovered, the issue of a merchant acquirer being bought out by another company. We went through that with Ipayment right after they were bought by Chase and dumped all adult processing.

[abostonboy]

that's all such great advice - we've even in touch with CCBill to see if there's something they can do for us as well



i don't believe CCbill processes for physical products. Even if they did the rate would kill you vs a merchant account.

[AnthonyDeAngelo]

we're talking risk here? the processor that dumped us told as that we had been totally problem and "risk" free for over 7 years - with NO charge backs...

damned if you do everything properly and by the book - and damned if you don't

no wonder the banking system is so incredibly fucked these days

[AnthonyDeAngelo]

we're working on it - thanks everyone for your advice