Dealing With a Pain in the Ass Client

It blows my mind that so many people running a real business are actually using PayPal to get paid.

Why don't you just get your own branded payment gateway? (with a service like Authorize.net for instance). Here are the benefits in case you're wondering:

1- More money will end up in your bank account (PayPal is raping you in fees right now)
2- You'll look more professional
3- You won't have to juggle with sixteen different payment platforms. 1 platform for all motherfucking clients, whether they're in Texas, Iceland, or in Papua New Guinea.
 


avatar33 said:
It blows my mind that so many people running a real business are actually using PayPal to get paid.

Why don't you just get your own branded payment gateway? (with a service like Authorize.net for instance). Here are the benefits in case you're wondering:

1- More money will end up in your bank account (PayPal is raping you in fees right now)
2- You'll look more professional
3- You won't have to juggle with sixteen different payment platforms. 1 platform for all motherfucking clients, whether they're in Texas, Iceland, or in Papua New Guinea.
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Have you ever run the following split test on a lander you run?

  • your own branded gateway
  • your own branded gateway + paypal
  • just paypal
 
^What? What's there to split test? This is not an affiliate offer I'm pushing. I do accept PayPal as a last resort, but only as a last resort.

Truth is, all big clients use credit cards, bank transfer, or check. From my own experience, only peasant clients that spend a couple hundred dollars a month will ask to pay through PayPal.

I remember when I got my 1st big client in Toronto a couple years ago (I didn't have my merchant account then), and I was so proud of my branded PayPal business account with my logo on top of the invoice and shit... when I sent them the PayPal invoice the director got back to me saying: "We're a multi-million dollar company here, we don't use PayPal to pay our providers. What other methods of payment do you offer?" ... I felt like a super noob, and got a merchant account + payment gateway that same day.
 
avatar33 said:
^What? What's there to split test? This is not an affiliate offer I'm pushing. I do accept PayPal as a last resort, but only as a last resort.

Truth is, all big clients use credit cards, bank transfer, or check. From my own experience, only peasant clients that spend a couple hundred dollars a month will ask to pay through PayPal.

I remember when I got my 1st big client in Toronto a couple years ago (I didn't have my merchant account then), and I was so proud of my branded PayPal business account with my logo on top of the invoice and shit... when I sent them the PayPal invoice the director got back to me saying: "We're a multi-million dollar company here, we don't use PayPal to pay our providers. What other methods of payment do you offer?" ... I felt like a super noob, and got a merchant account + payment gateway that same day.
Click to expand...
Thank you for sharing this. I'm looking at getting this situation corrected this week, and I'll come back with my results to see if I'm doing it right.
 
avatar33 said:
^What? What's there to split test? This is not an affiliate offer I'm pushing. I do accept PayPal as a last resort, but only as a last resort.

Truth is, all big clients use credit cards, bank transfer, or check. From my own experience, only peasant clients that spend a couple hundred dollars a month will ask to pay through PayPal.

I remember when I got my 1st big client in Toronto a couple years ago (I didn't have my merchant account then), and I was so proud of my branded PayPal business account with my logo on top of the invoice and shit... when I sent them the PayPal invoice the director got back to me saying: "We're a multi-million dollar company here, we don't use PayPal to pay our providers. What other methods of payment do you offer?" ... I felt like a super noob, and got a merchant account + payment gateway that same day.
Click to expand...

You implied that all people running a "real business" shouldn't use paypal, hence my response. If you're only using it for high value transactions -- that's a totally different ball game.

If you're selling stuff like links or content on WF you'll kill your conversion rates by not accepting Paypal when people order.

If you're billing big businesses for high value stuff there's much more cost effective ways to go about it anyway. Bank transfers or Gocardless, for example. No CC processor is getting 1-2.XX% of £XXk from me.

Based on the contents of this thread, this guy is not trying to bill multi-million dollar companies. In fact, the guy buying is probably a "peasant client" as you'd describe him. A russian guy buying casino/poker content for his affiliate site(s). When you sell that kind of stuff, you have to have paypal. If you don't, you're throwing money away.
 
avatar33 said:
"We're a multi-million dollar company here, we don't use PayPal to pay our providers. What other methods of payment do you offer?" ... I felt like a super noob, and got a merchant account + payment gateway that same day.
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isthisreallife.mov

lol

edit: don't want to leave you completely hanging but I think it's more likely that guy was just a prick. Small ticket purchases are fine with PayPal. You would of course get some strange looks if you sent an invoice for 25k+ through PayPal, yea. Big company or not. Not talking out my ass here.
 
avatar33 said:
It blows my mind that so many people running a real business are actually using PayPal to get paid.

Why don't you just get your own branded payment gateway? (with a service like Authorize.net for instance). Here are the benefits in case you're wondering:

1- More money will end up in your bank account (PayPal is raping you in fees right now)
2- You'll look more professional
3- You won't have to juggle with sixteen different payment platforms. 1 platform for all motherfucking clients, whether they're in Texas, Iceland, or in Papua New Guinea.
Click to expand...
Thanks, your post has given me a lot to think about. I will be looking into Authorize.net. Which other branded gateway services are recommended?
 
BlueYonder said:
Thanks, your post has given me a lot to think about. I will be looking into Authorize.net. Which other branded gateway services are recommended?
Click to expand...

You are putting the cart before the horse.

Get a merchant account, then find a gateway for it, not the other way around. From my experience (limited albeit) the company providing you with the MID will have a few payment gateways they work with already. When shopping for an merchant account, elgordo recently put a nice post with some tips on what to look for/watch out for.
 
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avatar33 said:
^What? What's there to split test? This is not an affiliate offer I'm pushing. I do accept PayPal as a last resort, but only as a last resort.

Truth is, all big clients use credit cards, bank transfer, or check. From my own experience, only peasant clients that spend a couple hundred dollars a month will ask to pay through PayPal.

I remember when I got my 1st big client in Toronto a couple years ago (I didn't have my merchant account then), and I was so proud of my branded PayPal business account with my logo on top of the invoice and shit... when I sent them the PayPal invoice the director got back to me saying: "We're a multi-million dollar company here, we don't use PayPal to pay our providers. What other methods of payment do you offer?" ... I felt like a super noob, and got a merchant account + payment gateway that same day.
Click to expand...

You first reaction wasn't to send him your bank details so he could wire you, but instead you rushed out to setup a merchant account and gateway?

I've never heard of a company that pays invoices with a credit card. Maybe some startup floating the whole show on credit might but serious companies all do bank wires. Company credit cards are typically used for making bookings online, lunches, travel expenses, entertaining clients, etc. I have a merchant account and could process client's cards if required, but I've never been asked to take a single payment that way. Everyone just pays me by bank wire which is how their accounting departments are all set up to operate.
 
1. ditch the client unless he pays and pays well.
2. The First Chick. The second one will give you a race to the pantry not the bedroom for a shag.
 
In my experience...Russian clients have a shit ton of money to spend on content, but their personalities are usually a little out there. I'd suggest giving him some time to make good on his promises. Of course, don't do the work until money is in hand.
 
Update on Payment Methods:

Apparently there's some kind of issue with confirming my identity. Some asshole used my SSN on some shit without it being verified, and now I'm having to deal with Equifax and the other credit cocksuckers to straighten that shit out. I also tried getting a new checking account recently for something, and they weren't able to do it either for the same reasons. I guess I'll update again when this shit is straight since I had to mail in a bunch of papers.
 
potentialeight said:
Update on Payment Methods:

Apparently there's some kind of issue with confirming my identity. Some asshole used my SSN on some shit without it being verified, and now I'm having to deal with Equifax and the other credit cocksuckers to straighten that shit out. I also tried getting a new checking account recently for something, and they weren't able to do it either for the same reasons. I guess I'll update again when this shit is straight since I had to mail in a bunch of papers.
Click to expand...
Send them a Cease and Desist via email, giving them 30 days notice to provide you with evidence for each credit mark or remove it. That got rid of all the searches on my credit report, with Equifax and CallCredit. Didn't need a lawyer or anything, and they were off within days. Experian would've, but they wanted me to log in to their site and note each one, and at that point I didn't have an account with them (had previously used a trial). That worked for all credit searches, including ones authorized by me.
 
-joe- said:
Send them a Cease and Desist via email, giving them 30 days notice to provide you with evidence for each credit mark or remove it. That got rid of all the searches on my credit report, with Equifax and CallCredit. Didn't need a lawyer or anything, and they were off within days. Experian would've, but they wanted me to log in to their site and note each one, and at that point I didn't have an account with them (had previously used a trial). That worked for all credit searches, including ones authorized by me.
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I appreciate the advice, and I'll see about going that route if they give me any shit.
 
Client update:

I was going to be sending this guy between 3,000-5,000 words of content per week. He had very... meticulous (to be nice about it) guidelines that he wanted me to follow on a sentence-by-sentence basis. After the first week's batch, these guidelines changed and he wanted it all written again to reflect those changes, without payment of course. I refunded his money and washed my hands of it.

I definitely learned a lesson here. In the past, I would do every bit of work I could get because I was trying to get established. I'm somewhat established now and work full-time writing for this particular industry. The lesson is that I have to change my frame of mind if I want to keep moving forward.
 
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