I have found that for us, our best bet was to work with our bank.
Over many years of using a portable machine on the road, we never
had any trouble, either with the machine or the service. Maybe it is
a half a percent more per transaction. But what we get for that is
pretty great. Our branch has some very dedicated ladies who gave us
great customer service during our show days. Now that we have a
store with a dedicated credit card machine, we continue to have great
service. And the money flows into our account quickly, usually
overnight. Also, when machines have needed to be upgraded or
replaced, our local rep at the bank has always helped us out so that
we didn’t get socked with major fees. Yes a local rep, live human
being who actually knows who we are! For us, there’s no point in
messing around with 3rd party providers, they’re everywhere, and
they don’t come close to providing the kind of service that we want.
For us, it’s not worth compromising our business over such a small
amount of money.
Our philosophy is to get a good banker, accountant, attorney, etc.
Let them do what they’re good at so we can concentrate on what we’re
good at. We don’t need to be spending time programming a credit card
machine or fighting with the processor.
Peggy Wilson
Harbor Jewelers