Yourpay vs Braintree vs Authorize.net?

[linniedarling]

Hi Folks,
I've got a fairly new install of Zencart and I'm happy as a clam with one exception. My credit card processing.

My old ecommerce site only used Paypal so I've not had to deal with the ins and outs of getting credit card acceptance set up.

I applied for an account with Authorize.net and I swear I must have gotten the most obtuse account manager on the planet - long story short it's been a month and still no account and it looks like we're starting from scratch because he accidentally deleted the partially setup account that was started.

I started poking around to see if there were any alternates and apparently ZC has Yourpay/FirstData native. I've also heard of Braintree.

Can someone familiar with either of these, something else, and/or Authorize.net provide some comments? Cost? Ease of setup? Support? Weirdness or oddities?

Many thanks!

[MikeTheMerchantGuy]

Hi Folks,
I've got a fairly new install of Zencart and I'm happy as a clam with one exception. My credit card processing.

My old ecommerce site only used Paypal so I've not had to deal with the ins and outs of getting credit card acceptance set up.

I applied for an account with Authorize.net and I swear I must have gotten the most obtuse account manager on the planet - long story short it's been a month and still no account and it looks like we're starting from scratch because he accidentally deleted the partially setup account that was started.

I started poking around to see if there were any alternates and apparently ZC has Yourpay/FirstData native. I've also heard of Braintree.

Can someone familiar with either of these, something else, and/or Authorize.net provide some comments? Cost? Ease of setup? Support? Weirdness or oddities?

Many thanks!

Hi Linnie!

Your problem, unfortunately, is not unique. Authorize.net seems to look at its customers as adversaries for some reason. They go through cycles where they realize this and fix things for a while, but then it seems to go back to the old way.

Here is the bottom line: The industry (processing and payment gateways) does a terrible job of explaining the process to folks, so it becomes a horribly annoying deal. In your case, you're going to need a merchant account and a gateway. If you're going to Authorize.net directly, then you're going to have to get a processor as well, and then the processor is going to need to integrate with Authorize.net and the whole process can really get muddy and take weeks. I would urge you to stick with Authorize.net if only because they are the 800 pound gorilla in the industry, and most shopping carts are built with Authorize.net in mind. Using an alternative to Authnet can sometimes make your life even more miserable. I would urge you to try and find a processor who offers a pre-integrated merchant account/authorize.net tool so that you can save time with one-stop shopping. This will likely save you money too!

It's too bad that this is such a headache because it simply does not need to be this difficult.

Good luck!

Mike Faulkingham
[email protected]
207-699-5958

[andilyn]

Hi Folks,
I've got a fairly new install of Zencart and I'm happy as a clam with one exception. My credit card processing.

My old ecommerce site only used Paypal so I've not had to deal with the ins and outs of getting credit card acceptance set up.

I applied for an account with Authorize.net and I swear I must have gotten the most obtuse account manager on the planet - long story short it's been a month and still no account and it looks like we're starting from scratch because he accidentally deleted the partially setup account that was started.

I started poking around to see if there were any alternates and apparently ZC has Yourpay/FirstData native. I've also heard of Braintree.

Can someone familiar with either of these, something else, and/or Authorize.net provide some comments? Cost? Ease of setup? Support? Weirdness or oddities?

Many thanks!

I too have gone through this nightmare! I started with Authorize.net and after 3 months of being double billed without refund I gave them the boot. PayPal has a direct processing option, but it can be a pain to set up. I've recently switched to BrainTree and couldn't be happier.

[linniedarling]

Many thanks to those folks that responded.

I wanted to post my final solution so as to help others stuck in the morass of getting credit cards accepted on their site.

First off, some explanation.

First Data is a huge credit card processing company. They sell their services through many channels. This is important to realize since the initial contact point with First Data makes a difference on how or whether you'll be able to take credit cards.

The same is true of Authorize.net. Both companies have leagues of highly competitive salespeople that make a commission on any account they bring in.

In order to get credit card processing you need two types of accounts. Yes, two, not one! One is a gateway account and one is a merchant account or underwriter's account. The gateway is the vehicle that takes the cc data and handles the back and forth between your site and your customer. The merchant account is essentially loaning your website money for microseconds and/or guaranteeing that the customer's credit card, once verified as valid, is good for the purchase, and/or guaranteeing a charge back will be covered in case you default.

When I got completely frustrated with the lack of support from Authorize.net, I closed my account there and opened an account with First Data; they mistakenly created a GGe4 account for me. After a week or so of futzing around there I found the number and contact information for LinkPoint/Ignite. I called LinkPoint (866) 913-3220 and spoke with Oscar (ext. 803). LinkPoint is a reseller of both First Data and Authorize.net. As far as I could determine, LinkPoint does not do any cc processing themselves.

Oscar at LinkPoint explained to me the difference between the gateway and merchant accounts and pointed out that, at present, there is a bug in the First Data GGe4 suite that makes it unworkable with Zencart 1.5.x out-of-the-box. In other words you need to do some hacking to get GGe4 to work.

After closing my GGe4 account (they cannot be converted), I reopened a new gateway account through LinkPoint/Ignite with FirstData, i.e. Oscar. It is their plain Global Gateway account, not the GGe4(!) Oscar then set me up with an Authorize.net merchant account. It took about three days, start to finish (compared with two months with my prior attempts). Once I got the confirmation email, Oscar called Authorize.net and one of their people and Oscar conference called me and waited on the phone while I set up the various keys. Only after I had successfully completed a test purchase did they get off the phone with me. It's been about a week and things are smooth as pie. My customers are using credit cards, sales are up, and I get a little email when a charge is successful.

When I compared the pricing (about $29/month + 1.99% transaction fee + $0.23) this wound up being the cheapest way to go that I was able to find; there may be something cheaper out there, but at least I'm finally up and running.

Note that the date of this post is late April, 2014