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of governing ourselves. Programs like CPP are a step
in the right direction, but training alone isn't enough.
We need stronger accountability, better oversight and
a culture that rewards doing what's right for the mer- In this case, the merchant did not do their homework
chant instead of simply closing the deal.
We should be sharing best practices, mentoring the
next generation of agents and calling out behavior
that hurts the reputation of our industry. If we don't
hold ourselves accountable, someone else eventually
will.
Allen Kopelman CEO
Nationwide Payment Systems Inc.
1. Let's be honest about ONE thing: people do not
read contracts. Merchants should read contracts, and
today it is easy to evaluate a contract, upload to AI
and ask it a few questions: how long is the contract, is
there a cancellation fee, is there anything in the con- the money and we took a loss. The only solace in it
tract that should concern me?
Next, when you are signing up for a POS system and
it is FREE is it really FREE? The only free lunch is in
the mouse trap. When a POS is installed, I hope you
read the contract and understand the fees!
Understand this: the days where the POS provider is
processor agnostic are over. I wrote about this, did a
webinar and did a session two years ago at the SEAA.
Today the software provider is also processing your
payments, and if you cancel your contract or violate
the terms business owners are going to get sued.
Example: You buy XYZ POS. You think you are be-
ing over charged on fees and install side terminals.
Next you get a legal letter stating you are violating
the terms of the agreement, and XYZ POS is suing
you for the profit times the remaining months.
There are sales reps who know merchants are in a
contract and sell them a new POS. Then the merchant
gets sued by POS #1. Nothing is free. Free POS means
you will be paying high monthly fees for the SaaS
I get calls from local attorneys all the time with varia- each other on the back.
tions on this scenario: My client, Mr. X, has a restau-
rant. He had an ABC POS System. He didn't like it. So
he went out and got XYZ POS System. Now ABC is
suing Mr. X and his restaurant. He got free hardware,
was on dual pricing, and the lawsuit wants to collect
24 months of SaaS fees. And, based on the previous
three years he was processing, the lost profits for the
next 24 months left on the contract was $50,000.
Mr X never complained to company ABC about the
PoS missing any features, etc. There were no custom-
er service calls, tickets opened etc. In the end, they
settled the issue out of court.
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We never see these cases go to court because the legal
fees would exceed the money they owe.
before switching. I read the contract. He was locked
in, and he didn't complain, or explore whether they
would have let them leave. Instead, he got a new POS
and now is paying for two POS systems and process-
ing fees times two. Costly mistake.
Do I feel bad for the restaurant owner in this case?
Not really.
We had a customer buy a POS from us. The POS was
programmed and installed. They used the POS, and
bam someone came in, gave them a free POS. They
made us come over to pick up all the equipment, and
then we had to fight with them because they threw
out the boxes, and the machines had been used for
two months. And it got ugly. We returned some of
was that they went out of business.
I had a rep tell me he gave a merchant five free Clo-
vers, kitchen KDS, printers, etc. He drove two hours
each way, stayed there for three days, costing him
thousands of dollars in equipment and expenses. A
few months later, the merchant tells him to come pick
up the POS or he will throw in the dumpster. The rep
made some money, but in the end he lost thousands
of dollars.
So while merchants can complain about what ISOs
and agents are doing, merchants are not being good
customers either.
Many years ago, we had a business take $3,000 worth
of equipment we gave them for free to get the pro-
cessing. The business then had the equipment repro-
grammed for another processor, because you could
do that back in the early 2000s. We had to take them
to small claims court to get our money.
2. Has the industry done enough? NOT AT ALL! CPP
is just a bunch of companies who belong to the ETA.
They get all the employees to take the test and pat
The ETA does nothing to promote CPP. If they really
wanted to promote it, it would be on the front page of
the ETA website, and they could act like the BBB for
the payments industry and have a website just like
BBB—this company gets an A; this company gets an
F and has 29 complaints—and promote the site. ETA
will never do that, and ISOs will not like that type
of program. That is the only way to clean up this in-
dustry.