Why InstaMerchant.com and FirstData.com are bad for small business

My experience with Instamerchant.com and FirstData.com has been overall quite a disappointment.It's cost me way too much time, and way too much money just to accept payment through credit cards.

Sign Up.With instamerchant and firstdata it's a lengthy process that takes days not minutes. The process included a credit check, and literally pages of forms for me to fill out and fax. If I sign up for PayPal.com or the new SquareUp.com, I'm done with the forms on a webpage in a few minues. Every service I've tried has a verification period to do some test ACH deposits and withdrawals. Those take a couple business days- that's across the board. The aforementioned instamerchant / firstdata combination took close to 30 minutes just for the paperwork and faxing. You need to download various forms, put your personal information on them, then sign and fax them to the proper numbers. Why can't that process be up to date like Google's, PayPal's or Square's??

Contracts. With instamerchant and firstdata there was a 6 month contract. When you sign up, you get hit with a fee, and again when you want to cancel, there's a "cancellation fee" of $30! With Paypal, Google, or Square- no contract! This will be a no-brainer after reading this article.

Fees This is the biggest game-killer of all the reasons not to sign up with Instamerchant / First Data.
The fees for a small business that does a low volume of card transactions are HUGE. The last month (April) Broadview accepted CC payments through Instamerchant / First Data, there were $536.80 of transactions run through this (dis)service, and a total of $110.00 in fees taken from the company's account (before the cancellation fee was charged). $110 is 20.5% of the gross sales. Add a $30 cancellation fee and now the total fees charged becomes 26% of the gross payments! This is outrageous and just plain ridiculous.

Paypal, Google, and SquareUp charge FLAT RATES. If you don't use the service, you don't pay for it!!
Paypal fee percentages do vary from 2.9% down to 1.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. Google Checkout fees also vary from 2.9% down to 1.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. Square Up fee percentage for swiped transactions is a flat 2.75% for a swiped transaction, OR 3.5% plus 15 cents for a manually entered payment. NONE of these services charge "gateway fees"(for the privilege of using the service?), "statement fees" ($9.95 to mail you a statement?? Stamps are only 44 cents right now I think, paper is 3-4 cents per page, ink is another penny or two per page, the computer that generates the statement works for FREE- minus electricity), "customer service fees"( to maintain the call center in India?). this was not a comprehensive list of all the reasons these people can conjure up to take money out of your small business' bank account.

More Fees. Recently another fee has come in to play. The PCI compliance fee- another $20 a month until you sit down for an hour long phone conversation with a company called Security Metrics Inc contracted to FirstData to ensure PCI compliance of all its customers. I repeatedly told the rep I'm canceling the service yet he seemed to ignore that and kept calling. The calls were similar to dunning like a bill collector to complete this unnecessary interview. I think all in all I wasted about an hour and 15 minutes listening to this guy jabber on asking questions about if and how credit card information is stored. After the third call I started just hanging up on the guy, then another day and I received a call from a supervisor. I told the supervisor the same thing- I'm canceling the account. He stated the rep didn't relay that information to him and apologized for the calls. I haven't heard from them since.

The effects of all this time and money wasted on paying unnecessary fees and wasting time on documentation will vary according to what type of business you have. But trust me, it's surely better spent on more constructive activities. I will never again sign up to do business with a payment gateway service that runs under an antiquated model such as this. I regret ever signing up to be gouged like this. And I will never recommend doing business with either firstdata or instamerchant to any friends- or even worst enemies.

Disclaimer- None. I don't work for Paypal, Google, or Square Up. I see they're doing a good thing for small business. And I wish them the best of luck in their business ventures. Two of the three are already wildly successful, and I think the third is on its way to join the others.

Large file transfers

Anyone need to transfer large files that you just can't quite force feed to your email server?
Well check out a great free online service called Dropbox!
www.dropbox.com

What's all the Ruckus?

What's inside the Ruckus MM2211 Metro Broadband Wireless Gateway? Two PCBs, one for the main board, and another for the antennas. Here's how I disassembled mine and what I found inside.

**Broadview Technology Solutions, LLC and or myself take NO RESPONSIBILITY for the safety of you or your equipment. Do not try this with your own device. Perform these steps at your own risk.**

Here's the front view of the Ruckus ..


First, peel back the edges of the long sticker on the rear of the device. Remove them with a size 10 security star bit. That's the only tool you'll need to open this device.

Next, gently peel up the orange / white sticker on the front top center of the device and remove another screw.


Gently pry off the top portion of the cover to expose the antenna PCB. (Shown is both a front and rear view of the antenna board)


Then flip it over and pulled off the two front pads which cover the last two mounting screws.


Remove the screws and gently lift off the bottom part of the case to expose the radio PCB.

Now all the internals are loose to lay out and have a look at. Here are the two PCBs displayed. There's an 8 pin ribbon cable between the two boards, and an U.FL end of one cable that connects to the radio board. The onboard memory is an Etron Technology EM639165TS-6G 8MB chip. Under the silver plate, there's an Atheros AR2315A-001 IC which provides the access point functionality (32-bit MIPS R4000-class processor, Wireless MAC and baseband processing engine, 10/100 Ethernet MAC, High speed UART, 16-bit configurable local bus, Integrated analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, SDRAM and serial FLASH memory interface, with a PCI 2.3 host interface). Next to the Atheros chip cover there's also a 5 pin header most likely for programming the onboard NVRAM. Between the RJ-45 port and the 10 pin header (8 pins seem to be used) there's a Delta Discreet LAN Filter LFE8563. Near the right edge there's an ST branded 25P64V6P 64Mbit low voltage flash memory chip featuring an SPI Bus compatible serial interface, 50MHz clock rate (max), and boasting 20 yr data retention.

The customers I've done work for that have one of these devices are generally unhappy with the speed, and reliability of them. The latency and ping time leave much to be desired. But hey- it is after all "wireless internet". There are a few other wireless providers (ahem-TMOBILE-ahem) that frustrate me to no end with the huge 4 digit ping times and intermittent data service.
I think the general population expects some of that.

Any comments are welcome, please share your experience - positive or negative with this device. Thanks!

New Office!

We've got a new office at 1000 E 146th St in Burnsville! A little more elbow room never hurt anyone did it? We've got more space to work on PCs, TVs, and store inventory!

To celebrate the move to our new location, the firm is currently offering “Free support Fridays”, where computer owners can bring their systems in and get free help with basic computer problems that they're having. Do you need some memory installed? Another hard drive installed in your desktop? Need the inside of your PC or laptop cleaned out so it runs cooler? Need your registry cleaned? Broadview Technology Solutions will give you 15 minutes of free computer support (longer if no one is waiting) to help cure what ails you and your computer. Free Support Fridays are held at the Broadview Technology Solutions office every first and third Friday of the month.

Have an awesome day!

First Android Phone Virus!

So yes, you might consider that antivirus program for your Android phone! Ok so far it's only struck people in Russia... most likely that's where it originated from, and the author of the code just released it in to the wild.

Here's the story...
http://www.fastcompany.com/1680011/android-gets-its-first-ever-virus-youre-a-mandroid-my-son