Heartland Payment Systems stole a weekends worth of credit card sales! Princeton, New Jersey

Dear Lucky Stars,

I find it highly suspicious that you are just a customer of HPS.  First, why do you care that this person "ranting" (your words).  Even the most dedicated customer is not going to care if someone is complaining about their vendor. Second, just b/c you've had nothing but good experiences with HPS doesn't mean it's not possible for someone else to have one.  If HPS is such a big company that your surprised they would even accept business from someone who only has "tens of thousands" of transactions, then the chances are very high that a portion of their clients are not going to be 100% satisfied.

Anyone has the right to say what they want, and this website is specifically available for ppl to express their bad experiences and opinions.  And, your beloved HPS, has a bunch of complaints against them unsatisfied customers.  Some of them may be duplicates or triplicates (is that a word?), but the majority of them seem legit. Your opinion was very rude and, like I said, it's seems funny that someone would get so bent out of shape over someone's "rant" if you didn't have some other connection to the company.

 Even the ex-employee was kind and professional when giving their advice. Sounds to me like someone doesn't want other ppl to read any bad reviews on HPS b/c it might hurt their sales.  But, if HPS is as big of a company as it appears they are.  Then, some bad reviews shouldn't hurt their sales, that much.  Then again, every sale you lose is that much less your making.  A real salesman wouldn't like that.

You're explanation seems odd given your own statement of the facts.  If you have used heartland for years and have done tens of thousands of dollars in transactions, why do you still need help using your terminal?   Why didnt you just do things as you have before?   Why did you even need to call for help?   It just seems suspicious.  You can now buy iPod attachments that enable you to process cards in real-time.  I believe that heartland sells the app and iPod device.

Cemonroe, although I work for a competitor of HPS, I can verify that using BAM can be a "risky" decision for a number of different reasons, although the experience you have had is new to me.  I will also agree with their suggestion that if you are not using a wireless terminal, either smart phone based or GPRS, you should definitely invest in a good ol' fashioned "Knuckle Buster" to imprint your clients cards.  The imprint copy will help you prevent fraud, chargebacks, and ensure events like this one do not occur in the future. 

The HPS rep who responded to your original post gave you 2 solid pieces of information, however, they missed one key ingredient...that being accountability.  They were glad you were able to recover some of your monies, but took no responsibility for causing the complication in the first place.  While it is true that HPS would not have had any of your client's information, transaction info, etc...they should have at least taken responsibility for your loss of sales (and maybe they have, but it does not appear that way in the text above).

Lastly, to Lucky, although I can appreciate your fervor and passion for your processing company (as I would hope my clients have for me) I even found your comments to be rude and insulting.  Testifying to the outstanding performance of HPS is one thing, but demeaning Cemonroe with phrases like "your little rant" (which was his opinion to express) and "I'd thank my lucky stars you are able to even work w/Heartland if "10s of thousands" annually is all you do"...really?  I'm sure you wrote that "in the heat of the moment" and probably think, "wow I really sounded like an insensitive jackass when I wrote that.  I know Heartland treats each of their clients as their most important client, regardless of their annual volume, much like I care for each of my patrons who eat in my restaurant, regardless of their annual salaries."  Ironically you did have a great point, that being, that it's human nature to not want to take ownership of one's mistakes...and in this case (if all the facts are on the table) then it was the HPS Help Desk's fault for losing the sales when batching out the BAM sales and yet there was no accountability, simply the "Let us know if you need further information".

Hopefully they have made an attempt to mend their relationship with you and are back in your good graces.  If not, and you want to explore your options with a different processing company please let me know and I will be happy to send one of my local reps out to see you.

Cemonroe, Were sorry you have had this issue, and we are glad you recovered some of the monies by contacting your clients. Heres what happened and what you can do to avoid this in the future:

You had your terminal in batch authorization mode (BAM) which allows you to store card transactions offline until the terminal can be plugged into a phone line. When a merchant removes the terminal from BAM mode, he connects it via a phone line and sends the transactions for authorization and settlement. In your case, the batch was deleted before it hit our system for authorization, which is why we have no record of the transactions.

To protect yourself against this in the future, take manual imprints of payment cards at the point of sale and avoid using BAM whenever possible so you can ensure cards are valid at the point of sale. In BAM because transactions are not authorized at the time of the sale, theres the added risk they will be declined when you attempt to settle them. The best option is using a wireless terminal that enables you to process card payments in real time.

Let us know if you need further information.

My question for you is, if you had the card information to input the first time and HPS walked you through it, then where is the information that you used the first time?  Why wouldn't you have it to input the second time?  That is why it didn't make sense to me.  I understand you are frustrated and I am trying to help.

All we are left with are the signed slips and the batch out sheet. This isn't enough information to retrace the sales and Heartland says that the information is gone. Also, each state that they do business in has their own "team" that you must deal with. I appreciate that others have had a better experience.....that has not been the case recently with us and we have been with them for over 5 years.

As I don't pretend to know anything about your foodservice business I would assume that you also know nothing about mine. Unless you were present when the Heartland mistake transpired I suggest you  limit your aggressively, rude comments to a subject matter that you are familiar with.

That doesn't make any sense at all.  If you had all of the information to input the first time, then you could do it a second time as well, if in fact it was all erased.  Also, Heartland's service center is not in Michigan. 

I have also been a loyal customer of Heartland for nearly 6 years now. In that time, besides NEVER having a fee increase, I've had amazing, timely, in-person service around the clock...which is important as a restaurant owner. I firmly support the Merchant Bill of Rights, as does Heartland. I logged on here to check out the reputation of a bank in my area that ardently professes to be able to help me. While I found bad information on the bank, I was surprised to actually find something (your little rant) on Heartland. I understand no one likes to own up to their own mistakes--that's human nature. But to attempt to scar someone else's good reputation as salve for your psychological wounds is uncalled-for. If I were you, I'd thank my lucky stars you are able to even work w/Heartland if "10's of thousands" annually is all you do.