Complaint Review: XpressPay.com Systems East Inc

Dear Jeanne,

We're sorry your experience with the site was disappointing to you. Please allow me to address your concerns individually.

Accuracy of your routing and account number: While we do provide a place to type this information and a second place to type it again to verify accuracy, we cannot possibly determine if the numbers you entered were in fact representative of your bank account. We have found that sometimes, visitors may incorrectly type the number the first time and then use the copy & paste method to propagate an error into the second area. While we endeavor to provide mechanisms to improve accuracy, we cannot possibly ensure it.

Retention of account numbers: Whether a credit card, debit card, or bank account is being used to pay a bill, we do receive your account number, but as our terms and condition state and for your privacy and protection, we do not inform the merchant of the account number used nor do we retain it. We do retain the transaction ID echoed by the financial network and associated with payments that are successfully submitted, and that can be used to later trace the transaction through the financial network if necessary. 

eCheck clearance: As you have found, in the case of eChecks, the fact that your submission was accepted by the financial network does not means that it will ultimately clear. Whereas eChecks are based on routing and clearance process as paper checks, they can also be returned for a number of reasons. The Federal Reserve System has simply not kept pace with technology in this regard. 

Account funding: If your bank charged you $15 for a returned check fee. that would seem to imply that the correct routing and account number was entered, but the account did not have sufficient funds to cover the payment.

Contact information: Our site has several links throughout the process through which we may be directly contacted. We encourage you to use them in the event that an issue or problem arises in the future.

Tracing the origin of the problem: As noted above, we retain the transaction ID to facilitate tracing. If you would like us to ascertain the exact reason that your check did not clear, I invite you to contact our Support Department (support@xpress-pay.com) for the details. They would be happy to assist you in identifying the issue.

Fee for services: We provide a valuable service to our clients and their customers. As our Terms & Conditions state, operating a payment site on the Internet comes at a very high cost. We are obligated to comply with industry standards and security requirements that are all designed to protect you. the combined cost for programming, equipment, security, and the staff to support all of this is substantial, and we do charge a fee for the service we provide. Our services are also optional. All of our clients accept payments through other means, including an old-fashioned mailed check, however even that is associated with the cost for your time, an envelope, and a stamp. 

We do thank you for using Xpress-pay.com and wish to note that assist thousands of satisfied customers every day. I will also thank you for pointing out your concerns. We cannot address an issue that we are not aware exists. thank you for the opportunity to do so.

Most sincerely,
James L. Buttino, President
Systems East, Inc.

We've had a business arrangement with Xpress-Pay.com for years now.  We went through an exhaustive and quite comprehensive comparison process between Systems East and their competitors and found their services to be superior in terms of payment processing knowledge, flexibility, security and PCI compliance, fairness of fees, and customer service.  The Systems East staff is responsive and professional and take concerns and security quite seriously.  We've been quite happy with the Xpress-Pay.com service and would not in any way shape or form consider it a rip off .. quite the contrary .. they are one of the best companies in the field.  As a professional in the IT field for more than 15 years having dealt with many companies and financial institutions (including some I don't care for personally) I find it shocking that anyone would consider Xpress-Pay.com and Systems East as anything but a good, responsive and professional company and I firmly disagree with any persons assessment that they are a "rip off".  I sincerely doubt the original reporter is as careful as they claim as they did not even get the company website spelled correctly.

Hi Jeanne,

We're sorry that you had a negative experience with your payment. Xpress-pay.com is a secure Internet payment facilitator for many firms and municipalities across the nation. These entities hire us to supplement their other payment channels with secure Internet payment services, and doing so comes at a cost.

In the interest of your security, we are required to accommodate stringent laws, industry regulations, and provide secure servers and related equipment. We also have to develop and maintain all of the programs required for a secure and effective interface with the respective financial networks behind the scenes.

When you provide your payment information, we submit the transaction to the appropriate credit card, debit card, or electronic check processor, who then notifies us if the transaction was accepted. If so, we notify the entity you paid that the payment was processed. For your security, we do not convey your account information to the merchant, nor do we store it on our servers. This way, your sensitive personal information stays with you and not every merchant that you pay.

In the case of electronic checks, your payment information is submitted to the ACH clearing process, which can take as long as four days. Like a paper check, only after the clearing process will it be known whether  or not your check actually cleared. A failure could occur if incorrect account information was provided, if sufficient funds did not exist at the time of clearing, or several other reasons. The unfortunate reality is that the entire check processing network is far older than the more contemporary credit/debit card network, and they need to update this to operate in real time. Only then will we be able to immediately advise you whether or not your eCheck will clear.

Please note that we provide the information to the processor as it was provided by you. The mechanisms in operation are reliable, do not manipulate the account information you provide, and cannot detect if you made a typographical error. In the case of eChecks, we have visitors type their routing and account numbers twice for verification. If either is typed incorrectly and then a copy/paste is used to complete the retyping, the verification mechanism could be compromised. We have no way of controlling how our visitors enter information into our online forms.

In all cases within our site, our fee for providing this service is presented before you enter any account information, again on the confirmation page, and is repeated on both the on-screen receipt and the emailed receipt. We do this to ensure that visitors are making a concious decision as to whether or not they wish to use our services.

As I hope and trust you can see by this thorough response, we pride ourselves on providing the highest degree of service to our clients and their customers. In this electronic world and as many have discontinued their land lines in favor of cell phones, most people prefer emails. Note that www.xpress-pay.com is a web payment product owned by Systems East, Inc. of Cortland, New York. If you ever wish to contact us directly by telephone, our number is (607) 753-6156.

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this explanation.

Best Regards,
James L. Buttino, President
Systems East, Inc.

Jim,
Your response to your customer was merely a reiteration of what the women said had happenned and she clearly stated that her account had sufficient funds.  Your response was lacking of any kind of sincere concern, rather drone like.  With regards to a finance company not using telephones to conduct business is utter nonsense.  I have yet to do business with any financial institution that I can't call up and resolve an issue or at the very least get clarification of how their system works.

But really what inspired me to write this e-mail is the fact that I used your "service" for the first time today to pay my municiple water & sewer bill.  I was completely taken back by the fact that your service tacked on almost 10% to my purchase.  Wow, I have been doing business online for decades; this seems a bit extreme.

We regret that you encountered difficulty with your payment. A returned check can occur for two reasons: 1) the routing and/or account number was invalid. Even though we ask you to type and retype each, an error can still occur if you type it incorrectly and then copy/paste it into the "retype" field; 2) the checking account used to pay the bill had insufficient funds, i.e. the eCheck bounced.

To avoid either scenario in the future, we recommend that you type and retype both your routing number and your account number. Also, be certain that the account has sufficient funds to cover the bill being paid. Note that even though you may think you balance is sufficient, deposits may still be outstanding, or funds may be reserved as the result of other active transactions. Your available balance is not always what is indicated in your checkbook.

As far as customer support, we pride ourselves on offering prompt, high quality responses, but we do so by email only. Since we deal with finance, we maintain a record of all dialog with our visitors. We have many support/FAQ links throughout the payment process, and we are available through a simple Google search for Systems East, Xpress-Pay.com, or a number of other keyword combinations. If you ever need to contact us directly, please call our headquarters at (607) 753-6156 or email us at mail@xpress-pay.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this rebuttal, and we look forward to serving you in the future.