Technology for Fundraising

Re: Problems with the NPC credit card offering - BEWARE

jtmerch — Wed, 20 May 2009 18:16:39 GMT

That's tough and very unfortunate. Especially since you've received so many different answers. It could have been user entry error or a terminal error but if you were Host based and ran a successful transaction you should have received all your funds. Many Non-Profits and regular businesses (especially those using a standard terminal) that I've helped setup were placed on a Host based system with a backend Auto batching feature so that you don't have lost transactions from the point of authorization to batch settlement. Not sure what your specific problem was but if everything was run as a sale on a host based system then you should have been safe unless your terminal malfunctioned somehow.

I'll continue trying to respond to posts on TechSoup's forum in regards to payment processing or feel free to email any questions to msinfo@merchantseek.com or info@donorcharge.com

Joe

Re: Problems with the NPC credit card offering - BEWARE

keenfinance — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:20:01 GMT

Another event, another set of problems. We had another fundraiser on Friday and to date we still have not received all of our funds. There was some problem with the card terminals the night of the event. It may have been something one of our volunteers did wrong, or it may have been an error with the terminals themselves. We've called tech support roughly 10-15 times between Friday night and Monday afternoon, and have received a different explanation and a different set of instructions each time we've called.

I finally called and demanded a supervisor in the tech support department today. It took an hour for a supervisor to return my call but we definitely saw results from that point on. We've faxed all of our batch reports to NPC and they are processing the remaining charges for us (roughly $12,000 worth). They are also taking steps to ensure we won't be charged additional fees for late settlement or manually entering the transactions, since we swiped each and every one of the 50+ cards we processed that night.

We have one more event this week and then will likely cancel our contract. It is not worth the additional hours so many of our staff and volunteers have spent on this mess.

Re: Problems with the NPC credit card offering - BEWARE

rweiner — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:14:13 GMT

Thanks, Joe.

Readers who are curious about what your company does can read your introductory message at http://forums.techsoup.org/cs/forums/t/27567.aspx

Robert

Re: Problems with the NPC credit card offering - BEWARE

jtmerch — Sun, 17 May 2009 00:23:36 GMT

I'll just say that there are alternatives that work just as good for Non-Profits. As an FYI I'm only trying to answer your question above that mentions suggestions on "comparable services" so I'll do my best to help and hope that this post isn't removed.

If you would like help finding alternative payment processing or ecommerce solutions that also work well for Non-Profits email me at msinfo@merchantseek.com or info@donorcharge.com

Joe

Re: Problems with the NPC credit card offering - BEWARE

rweiner — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:12:53 GMT

Dear keenfinance,

I'm sorry to hear you've had such a difficult ordeal. Thank you for describing it so thoroughly. It's a great education about credit card processing.

I will alert TechSoup Stock so they can look into the matter.

Robert

Problems with the NPC credit card offering - BEWARE

keenfinance — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:24:09 GMT

I want to give a warning to those who are considering the discounted credit card offering through NPC. We were initially drawn to this option because we could deactivate our account during the months we don't have events, which is ideal for us. We have silent auctions and various other fundraisers throughout the year but would not need the credit card service year-round. After a lengthy phone call with a sales rep at NPC we decided this was the program that would best meet our needs.

It has been a disaster. The card terminals arrived with absolutely NO instructions. I asked if there was a training video, "dummy" cards we could use for practice (both of these are frequently offered with other services I have used) and was simply given one card number we could manually enter to practice error codes, and was told to "search on YouTube" for training info. I could find nothing but one video produced in Spanish. I spent hours playing with the machines and sitting on the phone with tech support to figure out how to use everything prior to our first event, and I wrote up detailed instruction sheets for our staff and volunteers.

At our first event, a silent auction, we processed just over $17,000 in credit card charges. We had been told that funds are typically deposited into our bank account within a couple of days. Instead, we received a call from NPC's risk management department saying our funds were on hold. Apparently they expected us to build up a history before we charged that amount, even though we clearly explained at setup that we are a nonprofit organization and our payments would come in sporadically. It took us three days and countless phone calls to argue with NPC until they would finally release our funds.

Additionally, we received a lecture from the risk management representative about improperly entering card numbers by hand. She said if we had to enter a card number by hand for any reason, we must make an imprint of the card at that time using a manual imprinter. Again, none of this was explained to us up front. We were left to figure out everything on our own. I called the supplies phone number to purchase an imprinter and was told I needed to call customer service. I called customer service and was told we didn't need an imprinter. I called back to risk management and was told we absolutely must have an imprinter. I finally called our sales rep who didn't seem to have an answer for me either way but suggested having the imprinter on hand wouldn't be a bad idea. They sold us one for yet another charge we weren't expecting of $18.

Before we signed up for the service, I explained to our sales representative that we would be using the card terminals at events in different cities and would like the receipts to reflect the local information. I was told that was not a problem at all, that we could simply call tech support anytime and have that change made for us. Now I have discovered that is not true. We can change the footer (where it typically says "thank you") but not the address information. It makes perfect sense that we cannot change the company name, but we were specifically told we could easily change the other identifying information to reflect the address and phone number of our local office. After spending hours dealing with this we have been told we can't do that unless we complete paperwork to change the billing address on our account. We do not want to change our billing address, never mind the fact that NPC says the process would take 2-3 days to complete. Our next event is in three days.

Overall we have been incredibly disappointed with the whole package from NPC. If anyone can suggest a comparable service for us, we are definitely interested. We are primarily looking for on-site credit card processing but if we could get a good price for packaging that with online processing, we would be interested in that as well.

I hope anyone considering NPC does their homework and that you have better luck than we have had with their nonprofit program.