Following the news the record should be set straight on some points rather than allowing this to break loose in any which direction:
1) The site went offline for 3 days last week- 1&1 could not confirm why, although the server was online.
2) We received a spate of 8 chargebacks covering a two day period. Of these 2 were defended as shipped. 1 was defended as being less than 30 days from date of order. 1 was on hold pending a quote for an increase in oil shipping to Northern Europe, and this went to chargeback before asking for refund. A Mr. Brown was issued a refund on 31 Jan and did not reply. We sent numerous updates since then to ask if the order could be released. A Miss Fell has a parcelforce tracking number. Another has an interlink express tracking number.
We submitted defences for all but 2 claims.
I sent this to our merchant bank:
"
Lack of contact recently due to our shop site being down multiple times over the last 2-3 weeks. Most notably w/c 27 Jan. This impacted on
A) Customers being able to log in to check their order and read messages. The separately hosted 'self service area' was offline.
B) We were unable to access the order management of the site (also based online)
C) Customer fear that something had happened to the company.
I attach some recent emails to our hosts, 1&1 – my most recent email to them – you’ll see in my opening line I say “once again”, as this had been on-going. I also have other emails I can send, plus twitter support messages to prove that I believe our shop being repeatedly offline has caused some of these problems. "
We traded with our first merchant account from day one for approx 4.5 years with no issues until we took on a mass market electronics product and our turnover peaked in Dec 2012. Merchants view the seasonal period as high risk and we were re-assessed on this basis. We were under review until June 2013. The bank and my company elected to part ways as we could not agree that the business should be penalised throughout the year on the basis of seasonal trade- which would not be repeated.
I was naive and should have kept the account open. Once you terminate an account a domino effect ensues. You have quarterly reviews on trading style, product range, order values. Our second account was set up in haste by a salesperson and should have been more closely scrutinised prior to set-up. It lasted only 3 months.
It is unheard of to have three accounts. On the basis of the above downtime coinciding with a 3 monthly review almost exactly accompanied by a batch of chargebacks received combined with people being told to go to chargeback on this thread, they closed the account on the basis of risk.
Merchant banks take risks in supplying card services- however we invested a security deposit into our merchant account of a substantial sum of money. This will not be released for 120 days and remains in place to cover chargebacks.
We enjoyed very strong Christmas sales this year and a busy January. We received 8 chargebacks totalling £511.00. We had the facility in place not to charge cards, and most of these were only charged as they had been sent, part sent, or were pending delivery or refund for cancellation/return. Prior to these 8, the company received only 3 chargebacks from November. Companies are expected to receive a high number over Christmas. 1/3 were successfully defended.
"(Proviation) has been slow or unwilling to make refunds" Refunds failed after termination of our second account in October as the merchant refused to allow refunds. We processed them and they sat in limbo. We had to send cheques or bank transfers,effectively paying twice. In these instances unscrupulous customers could have also filed chargeback claims and received money twice over. We still issued the refunds, nonetheless.
"They also claim that false reviews have been posted on TrustPilot" We claim to have been 'set up' on a few occasions. We got wise to 'customers' ordering very small items shipping to fake addresses.
We attracted many good reviews recently which Paul Kerry did not want you to see. He blocked them. However Trustpilot re-instated them once customers had surrendered their personal and order information.
"all it would have taken would have been to come here and post honestly in response to any problems". I would have said the exact same thing, and I did post responses when this thread was young. I came to be eaten alive and resigned myself to think I couldn't possibly say the right thing. I was told my language was flowery, or that I was talking 'BS'. The occasion where we handled a Dynon D2 repair and commented on this stands out in my mind. We tried to explain the unit had to be checked and inspected before a return could be made. We arranged UPS to collect it. We turned it as fast as possible but not fast enough.
"Just a thought - Does this mean that the "trade-association" of only one member is now going to be a trade association of none?"
I didn't have time to pursue AEAS. It was designed so that manufacturers could sign up in order to agree to respond to customer feedback if ever a product was deemed unsuitable for use in aviation, or required modification. It was to be a reassurance that members would only sell products to customers that met high standards, and collectively would withdraw products from sale which did not meet certain criteria or received complaints. As an unregulated sector in terms of products, it came to me as an idea to start it.
"The page can be reported to the site operators for removal and if enough people do so they will hopefully act" The checkout is offline and there is a notice in red writing at the top of each page. There needs to be a place to assist customers affected- Pprune is not this place. Our news page needs to remain live.
Sorry but I cannot replace the site with a generic page yet but it is being worked on. This only happened 48 hours ago so you'll need to bear with me.
"Congratulations to Paul Kerry and others" For closing a business? I'm sorry but regardless of the length of this thread, we did continue trading successfully. Our shop is too old to integrate with any other merchant services gateways, and regardless of this, we cannot source a new account. It is actually this simple. Clearly we have bills to pay and outgoings whereby we cannot take a 6 week break without a merchant facility as happened in October. This event last year was the catalyst for what has occured now.
Lastly, since people can speculate on my background and call me various names I had never, ever, expected to be called in my life (mug that I am for starting a company in this industry); take note that Paul Kerry is most definitely not who he says he is. If he is working, then he is doing so illegally. I have nothing to gain from giving you this information- just to suggest that I am not the one aiming to deceive.
I wanted to post to wrap up some final comments since the closure announcement and will now close-off. Thank you.