Complaint Review: Sterling Payment Technologies

Sterling Terminates all employees in California effective 9/30/10.  East Coast headcount will be reduced as well.

If you are a Merchant looking at Sterling as a processor beware - read the 2nd half of this information.  Sterling claims that their name is their reputation "Sterling" Look at the way they treated their employees and ask yourself is this a company you want to do business with. If you want to do business with Sterling tell them you will only pay Cost Plus 10 and you want the Early Termination Fee waived and you want a free terminal otherwise you don't want to speak with them. They will have to change their policy or they will go out of business. You have the power you just don't know it.

If you are a Dealer and have been approached by Sterling realize that the only reason they are approaching you is because their sales are low and they are hoping you will forward leads to them so they can close deals.  They will tell you that it is a partnership but the reality is they are struggling and they hope you will forward deals to them.  They have nothing to send your way.  Although they will offer you a 20% residual split they will give you 50% but you have the press them for it.  Trust me when I say this you will not have local support everything will come from Tampa via phone support.

I had the unfortunate opportunity to accept a position with Sterling Payment Technologies.  I was flown to Tampa Fl to spend a week at their headquarters and really felt that I had found a dream job.  In the sessions everything they said sounded great.  I returned home to start working and thats when the realization began. 

I was told and given a compensation plan that said I would receive an $1800 bonus for selling 8 new accounts and $3300 bonus if I sold 10 new accounts.  It wasn't until I sold the 8 accounts that I was told that the accounts had to have a total of $600 gross profit to get the $1800 and $750 to get the $3300 bonus.  Sterling claimed that their average gross margin on accounts was $96 per account and they were looking for an average of only $75.  I checked with everyone on the team and no one was getting accounts that had that level ove margin.  They also were told that the bonus was paid on app count and nothing was mention about gross margin.  I was with the company for 5 months and really worked hard but things were not adding up.  Mid September 10 it was reported that there was a hiring freeze because they wanted to focus on developing Dealer Relationships to allow us to have more leads to make more sales which sounded wonderful.  Maybe my concern was not justified.  Well less than 2 weeks we were notified by our Director of Sales that Sterling was discontinuing operations in California.  They were afraid of the Employment Laws in California and did not want to risk a law suit.  So now people who were actively recruited away from other companies are now out of work in a very difficult economy.

Merchants beware

Sterling will tell you that their Rewards program will bring in more customers but the reality is they still have not gotten this service to work.  I sold locations and 6 weeks after the sale the merchant was still not setup.  There was no compensation to the Sales rep for this sale and Sterling could not understand why there were not many sales.  To drive sales Sterling offered $125 cards free to merchants as a promotion but there was still a $39.00 setup fee, $9.95 to participate in the Announcements, and for each announcement you send out it will cost $.07 for each communication to your customers.  So if you want to send an email to all you customers it will cost you to do so.  Sterling wants you to sign up for their Rewards program and Gift Card program because if you do you will not be able to move to another Merchant Processor if you want to keep that service.

I was not able to save merchants very much money on their accounts but if I got your statement I could send this in to Sterling and get an Analysis which showed me the savings as well as the profit on the account.  I was told to never show the customer the full Analysis because they would then see how much more they could have saved.  Insist on seeing not only the Merchant Proposal section but also the Estimated Profitability tab as well so you can confirm that you have the best deal

After 3:30pm Pacific there is no support for the West Coast.  You may be able to reach someone in Technical Support.

Bottomline Sterling will charge you a $395 early termination fee on their 3 year term.  They do not provide free equipment so if your terminal is not PCI compliant you will need to purchase a new one.  You will pay $70 or $150 annually for PCI compliance although you can pay monthly for this fee $8.95 or $13.95.  If you are not compliant there is a $19.99 month fee.  $5 statement fee and a $20 monthly minimum.  If you want to use the virtual terminal "SPOT" the cost are $79.00 setup fee, $12.50 monthly fee and $.05 for each transaction.  Anything above these numbers is pure profit.  The application has $399 hard coded which they will never charge they just show that so when the Account Executive tells you they will save you money and cut that in half you believe they are doing you a favor. 

Yes I am disappointed in Sterling but mostly I am disappointed in myself because I should have taken a harder look at Sterling before joining.  I trusted my director and I trusted the Sr. Director of Sales Richard Cruz.  Now I never trusted pony tailed d**k Williams but I digress.

Buyer Beware