Chase PaymenTech merchant support – not

Good support to merchants is worth noting. So is bad support. This one is bad; outrageous, in fact.

Fairly recently, we moved our brick and mortar store. Not a big move, just the street address. City, state, and zip didn’t change. We gave notice to our acquiring bank. They took care of the address change and informed me that I’d need to contact our payment processor directly to get our POS terminals reprogrammed. Fair enough!

We have two POS terminal, a 12 year old Tranz-380 and a three year old Exadigm DX-2000 wireless that we use for shows and backup for the Tranz.

I contacted Chase PaymenTech and gave them the information. They acknowledged the change and told me that I would have to call back in two days to have the POS reprogrammed. They said it could take that long for the folks that do the terminal programming to catch up with the address change. I find it strange that a computer would take 48 hours to catch up with the information that they just keyed in, but OK, no problem.

I gave them an extra day and called to get the programming done. Like a good little merchant, I used my cell phone because the Tranz-380 uses the voice line in the store and I knew they’d need to use the line for programming. After pressing a half dozen numbers I got to the right person. He punched in the assigned case number and bingo, he knew what I needed, gave me a couple of keystrokes to press The POS told me it’s downloading and the deed was done.

Now remember that I started by saying this wasn’t a pleasant experience. So far, so good, and I’m a happy camper but we need to change the programming on the Exadigm wireless. That’s a different department, I’m told, but they can transfer me. They hang up instead.

Time on the phone so far, four or five minutes. I call back on the land line.

Getting to the right department takes another 3 or 4 options, but I’m there fairly smoothly. They even have the right address on file by now. What they do NOT have is a record of the fact that we have an Exadyme. I give them the Serial Number but that doesn’t seem to help. I’m on hold now so I go outside to have a smoke. And then another one.

They come back on line with some potentially good news. Even though they don’t have a record of it, they can reprogram it for me. They ask for the model number.

I’m sorry. We don’t support the Exadigm DX-2000 any more. You’ll have to upgrade to the DX-2100. Would you like me to connect you to sales?

NO! I want my DX-2000 reprogrammed. They can’t do that, I’m told. They don’t support it any more.

I pose what seems like a logical question, “How come you can reprogram the correct address into my 12 year old Tranz-380 but you can’t support my 3 year old Exadigm?” They don’t know, sir, they just don’t support it.

Now I’m getting like ugly on an ape.

I point out that I’m not looking for a major reprogramming here. It’s not like I’ve changed a lot. Just my street name and number. I get the same response. They don’t support it any more.

I ask if this is a support line and I’m informed that it is so I ask them to escalate the call to a supervisor. Another cigarette later a supervisor comes on the line. I’m writing down names now and I make sure she knows it.

I explain what I want, tell her what I’ve been told, and explain that I’m not about to buy another $650 POS terminal to have the street address changed. I make some reference to being scammed and as to how PaymentTech isn’t the only game in town. I also point out that I’m not about to terminate the call until my DX-2000 is reprogrammed because I’m just not accepting the fact that they don’t support it any more. I get lots of apologies – and put on hold.

When the supervisor comes back on line I get a few more apologies and told they just support the DX-2000 any more but would I like to be transferred to sales? “No, and if you can’t reprogram my DX-2000 you damn well better connect me with someone that can – like maybe the folks over in IT.”

Another several minutes on hold.

Eventually Ms. Supervisor comes back on line. There’s just no way they can reprogram the DX-2000, only the DX2100, but she gives me the number for Exadigm support thinking maybe they still support it and can do it from there.

OK, I’m still madder than a cobra in a mongoose den but I give Exadigm a call, trying hard to remember that none of this is their fault. At least not yet.

I explain my situation and what I’ve just been through.

“I can help you with that,” he tells me. “Press the down arrow key once so Admin is highlighted and press enter.” I do it. “Now press the down arrow key three times until you see header highlighted and press enter again.” I do it. “Now press enter until you see your street address.” I do that too. “Now use the left arrow key to delete it and put in your new address just like you enter text on a cell phone.”

Really.

I thank him profusely. I not only changed the Street address but added a couple of lines to the header and a “Thank you for being our customer” at the bottom.

Is it just me or shouldn’t PaymenTech been able to give me the simple information that I could change it myself? If I had listened to them, I’d be $650 poorer to change the street address that I could do myself in a minute and a half.

I paid a visit to my bank, one of those smaller regional ones. They went ballistic and I got a phone call from a big shot at PaymenTech the next day. This isn’t over. I hope that when it is, there will be some changes in the PaymenTech support desk script and a few people will get some training. When you threaten to leave a small bank and take at least 6 accounts including your mortgage with you, they actually listen.

The lessons:

Kudos to Northwest Savings Bank. A big FAIL to Chase PaymenTech.