Download the January/February 2010 PDF - Pond Trade Magazine

y Sarah Martinez
Managing Editor, Garden Center Magazine
The guy said he could save them a ton of money. We’ll
just call him Mr. X. Earlier this year, Mr. X called upon
Bob Sickles, owner of Sickles Market, a gourmet grocery
store and garden center in Little Silver, N.J. Mr. X assured him
that he could save the business 30 percent on credit card
processing fees. Sickles was understandably skeptical, but
decided to hear him out.
The next day, Mr. X arrived right on time to deliver his
pitch. He met with Sickles’ seasoned controller. She pointed
out numerous flaws in his written quote, which wily Mr. X
ultimately wouldn’t let them keep. After he departed, Sickles
and his team did some additional digging online and found
several bad reviews of X’s service.
“Needless to say it was a waste of time,” Sickles said. “I can
hardly believe I fell for it, but these people will say and do
anything to get the account. They have no scruples whatsoever.
Unfortunately, I feel there are a lot of them out there—it’s so
easy to rip people off this way.”
Armed for Battle
Experience taught the folks at Sickles Market to go into
the meeting with Mr. X armed with the right questions. As the
saying goes—once burned, twice shy. Sickles learned the hard
way how a friendly credit card-service wholesaler can quickly
become combative once a retailer starts asking questions.
Eight years ago, Sickles noticed something fishy on his
processing statement. It seemed like his fees were on an endless
upward trajectory. Something was definitely amiss. Sickles
watched as the ratio of payments to the processor went up in a
way that didn’t jive with the store’s revenue and credit card
transactions. It turned out he was caught in a web of fine print.
Hidden fees and surcharges were beginning to take a toll on
his bottom line. And there was nothing he could do about it.
Sickles ended up losing $11,000 as he remained stuck in the
processing contract.
“Generally small retailers
find this out when there is a
slowdown in revenue growth,
but their monthly fees keep
going up—and the reality that
Hidden fees and
surcharges were
beginning to take a
toll on his bottom line.
they are getting hosed sinks in,” he said. “It takes a very good
numbers person to figure this out. Many ordinary bookkeepers
cannot figure it out, or want to spend the time doing it.”
Once Sickles Market was free to shop around for a new
provider, they went with Heartland Payment Systems, a
company they’ve been very pleased with.
“But,” Sickles added, “we still check our statements
constantly.”
Fee Nomenclature
Dissecting a processing-fee statement is a tiresome exercise.
Retailers often have to dig deep to figure out exactly what
they’re being charged and why. It seems like a lot of work to
save a few pennies. But as
Dissecting a processing-fee more consumers turn to
statement is a plastic for payments, these
tiresome exercise. pennies become a significant
cost of doing business.
Don Wilczynski, a sales manager for Radiant Payments,
has seen this first hand. Wilczynski works closely with Radiant
Systems, a point-of-sale provider that frequently serves
garden centers.
January/February 2010
POND Trade Magazine
9