THANK YOU FOR FAST COMMUNICATION REGARDING MY WEB-SITE
We had a merchant account with 2checkout for 6 years...then suddenly they closed the account. No information on WHY, but some silly generic email. Since March 2003 they can only handle payment through Paypal, how sad is that? Probably because Paypal is now also doing their "risk management" they will close many merchant accounts soon which they just do not like, especially in service related industries.
So you have been warned, open an account with 2Checkout-Verifone and its just a matter of time when they will close it and just sit on your money. I have already seen many negative reviews on other well known "merchant services" websites and its only getting worse and worse since they have been acquired by Verifone.
They have destroyed many small businesses already by closing their merchant accounts for no valid reason at all. We have been in good standing all along, no where near 0.5% chargebacks and practically no refunds. But that is not important for 2checkout-verifone, they will close your account and now we have to wait 180 days to receive the remaining amount of money in our account. The worst thing is that we have read already that many other businesses were not able to get their money back after that 180 waiting period. Utterly disgusting bunch of corporate thieves and scammers.
Update august 9: The 180 days were already passed since end of june. The expected payout date of our remaining funds keeps changing every week. I have sent several emails to wich 2CO only replies with generic answers that their risk team is reviewing the account for the final closure and that they will pay the remaining funds as soon as possible. Well, it's now august 9 and their latest email they tell me to wait a few weeks more...really? How is that for typical US based fraudulent behaviour from corporations outright stealing money from their merchants? Their support is based in Romania and is completely useless, all they do is cover their own "behinds". The 2co rep that some times answers reviews here is nothing more than for show and NOT providing help at all. We will now be filing official complaints at authorities in the EU that monitor financial companies. 2CO might think they will be immune to this because they are located in the USA, but their partners in the EU which they use to send payouts will be notified by the authorities where we will file the complaints. Unlike in the USA, these complaints are taken VERY seriously in the EU, especially regarding financial institutions.
To the 2co rep: you have one final chance to fix this illegal actions from 2CO.
I bought a one-year subscription for Bitdefender antivirus, one year ago, and it was obviously done over "Avangate" (which takes care of the selling).
This year, I was surprised to discover that Avangate simply took money from my paypal account without my permission.
I wrote them emails, and I NEVER received any other answers but these ones, that are simply bad jokes and a total MOCKERY to the client:
(update below)
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Sehr geehrtes Avangate Team,
Bez. Ihrer automatischen abbuchung eines betrages von meinem paypal-konto,
Ersuche ich Sie, mir zu beweisen, wann ich Sie denn dazu autorisiert habe?
Datum: (,,,), abgebucht von paypal konto (...)
Ich habe Avangate nach meinem wissen nie für automatische verlängerung von verträgen autorisiert.
Sollte da von Ihrer seite keine antwort kommen, werde ich bei PayPal diese zahlung reklamieren.
Mit freundlichen grüßen,
(,,,)
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Your request was marked as solved.
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This is a bad joke!
How did you mark my request as resolved, without answering anything to me?
If you further refuse any serious answer, I will have to forward this case to the consumer protection from my country.
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Hello,
Did we help? We'd love to hear your thoughts on our customer service.
How would you rate the support you received?
Wie würden Sie den erhaltenen Support bewerten?
O Gut, ich bin zufrieden.
O Schlecht, ich bin unzufrieden.
Here's a summary of your request:
I warn you for the last time to answer my question!
***
UPDATE: After opening a case in paypal, they wrote just this, and denied to pay back the sum they simply stole from my paypal account:
"Thank you for contacting us. Regarding this issue please contact the software publisher.
Software publisher contact details:
Support Email: http://www.bitdefender.com/contactform
Support Phone: *******655 (US); *******405 (CA)"
To ALL Sitejabber community members (Please be warned!),
I received a disturbing email last night (Wed 7/15/15). It was from the company where I purchase my 'Antivirus software'... the email said (Copied):
"Just Sit Back And Relax!
Your license will automatically be renewed!
A while ago, you made a smart decision and started using Bitdefender Total Security 2015, declared Best Antivirus of 2014 by industry publications. You can rest assure that your PC files, online banking details, and even your digital identity are protected!
This is an auto-renewal notification to remind you that your
Bitdefender Total Security 2015 license will expire on August 15,2015 and has the "auto-renew" option enabled. This option saves you time, effort and risks by automatically renewing your license when the time comes.
This means that Avangate will automatically renew your license for the amount of 89.95 USD, using your registered information. Just make sure that your payment details are up to date and that you have enough funds in your account on the transaction date.
A separate email with the transaction details for this recurrent billing will be sent to you on the expiration date."
My reply to them said (Copied):
"Subject: Your "UN-AUTHORIZED" visa card withdrawal!
To whom it may concern!
I just received your email explaining how you ( Avangate customer service), would "Attempt" to make entry into my bank account without my permission or authorization! If someone from your company would have asked me, I would have told them that I already have a one yr contract for 'Anti-virus' protection! How do you ASSUME to decide for me where I spend my money; "this is totally inappropriate!" This is the last thing that I would expect from a company that I have contracted to protect my Identity and personal information! Because of your attempt to make an UN-AUTHORIZED withdrawal, just know that the 'Loss Prevention Authorities' at, My Bank, and PayPal, have ALL been notified of your plan to extort, and of your underhanded, 'Totally Dishonest' business practices, and will be handling this matter from here on. Your letter to me (email) has been passed on to these authorities for their records!
Mr. G."
Because I didn't know just what payment information Avangart had from me, on file, I had to call my bank's customer service dept., and PayPal (at 1:00 A.M.) to prevent Avangart from gaining access to any funds! One thing that I do want to make 'Crystal Clear'... I actually love the product. I've used "Bitdefender 'Total Security' 2015" to protect my privacy and my computer's health for the last three years; it's a great product. This company "Avangart customer service" (NOT a part of the Bitdefender brand) is a company that manages the "Shopping cart" purchases for many online software companies and has nothing to do with the Bitdefender line of products. The reason that this is so disturbing to me is... Not only did Avangart sign me up to be renewed automatically without my consent or knowledge, they also raised my contract to the higher price level... I NEVER pay $89.95 for antivirus protection. I usually pay about $43.95 to $49.95/yr. But Avangart saw an opportunity to exploit my vulnerability and so they took it!
"My warning to you"... When you're buying software products online find out who is managing 'YOUR' "Shopping cart" (if it's Avangart be extra, extra cautious), and make sure that there are no 'tics/check marks' in the box next to an "auto-renew" option. You must do this BEFORE you "Place your order"!
PS: I'm giving Avangart 'ONE STAR' for their un-ethical business practices and unconscionable behavior!... This has nothing to do with the "Bitdefender antivirus" product. "If this were about Bitdefender, I'd give them 5 STARS"! Sincerely,
~g~
DO NOT make the mistake of signing up with 2checkout, unless you want to suffer like me!
I consider myself a typical internet marketer selling my own digital creations such as ebooks, templates, etc. I have been in business with this company as a vendor for the past 5 years. All of a sudden they make my account inactive and I lose my sales. This they did without any prior warning at all. I discovered this on my own when I found all my order links showing a 'parameter error'! When I inquired, they told me that my website was missing a number of documents such as privacy policy, refund policy etc (which is of course b. S; the link to all policies is right there on my homepage and salespages; maybe the person reviewing my website was a blind man!). I gave them the links to these policies and then they insisted that these links must be right on the order page (How am I supposed to do that? Since 2checkout really offers me a payment link redirect and not an order page). I insisted that these links are indeed ON the salespages from which customers would be ordering my products (in fact, not a single customer has raised an issue about these, in all these 5 years btw!).
When that was over they insisted that my salespages had no 'real marketing' at all. I asked what they mean by 'real marketing' since I indeed do the marketing required to sell my products.
At last they insisted that I give them access details to my customer areas (including membership login areas) so they can take a look around. I refuse this, because not only this would violate the privacy of my customers, I also don't trust them enough for that (ever seen a PayPal staff asking you for any kind of 'password/login information'?). This is the only thing I refused them and due to that they permanently set my account to 'inactive' status first and then to dormant status!
That over, I asked them to close my account and give me the remaining $54 balance I had in my account. 2checkout has a different 'release level' for each payment option they offer, in case you don't know, and if your balance is below that release level, then you won't get the money, no matter how much you beg. They said that:
'The minimum release level for a wire transfer is $300, for Payoneer is $20 and for Air Mail check is $100."
Based on the above, my only option was Payoneer. And on top of that - it is not the 'direct bank transfer' option of Payoneer, mind you (which is what I asked for because it is free but again was refused by 2checkout), but instead the MasterCard option which would actually require me to invest around $25 just to get the card! Didn't make any sense to me to spend $25 to get $54 back, so I decided to leave the balance in my account.
I thought (and requested too) that they would make an exception in case of account closure and send me one last air mail check! But NO! They are not humans at all! They are just working machines without any sense of empathy in them!
I am writing this so others know that they treat their customers like dirt, regardless of how long you are doing business with them! STAY AWAY from them! Even Paypal, as bad as they are, is still much better than 2checkout!
Oh, and did I tell you that they no longer offer services to internet marketers, although they are hardly explicit about this stupid rule! After all, they would tell you everything BUT the truth!