Marketing
BlueSnap does not fill its site with a lot of gimmicks and flashy language, which is an honest approach to promoting its services. BlueSnap uses its website and its numerous strategic partnerships to market its services. Its marketing strategy appears honest, straightforward, and transparent. This is impressive, considering many in the industry do the opposite. Though active in social media, it uses Facebook, Twitter to rehash contents on its blog not really promote anything. It also uses YouTube to promote how-to content.
Honesty
BlueSnap does not use any deceptive rate quoting or any other dishonest practices, however, it is important to remember how the business operated priority to it being sued and changing its name. BlueSnap may have put all of this behind it and turned over a new leaf, but it is worth thinking about when it is times for you to choose a processor. There are plenty of other similar processors out there without the same baggage. Since BlueSnap lists its other charges, it seems really odd and deceptive that it fails to list that customers who are inactive for a few months or do not process a certain amount each month get hit with a $75 maintenance fee.
Sales
BlueSnap uses an in-house sales team, its partners, and its website to get new customers. It does not use any independent sales agents or resellers, which is good news. Using these agents result in deceptive practices, including misleading terms and hidden pricing. Also, we did not turn over any complaints of these tactics.
Support
BlueSnap can be reached by phone, email, and by submitting an online ticket. However, live support is only available during U.S. business hours, which can be a real problem when you operate with nearly 180 other countries. BlueSnap also offers an extensive online help and support center. Based on the number of complaints about lackluster customer support, BlueSnap would benefit from offering a live chat option.
Staff Responsiveness
We have found reports that customers receive emails from BlueSnap within 24 hours of submitting it. We did not have this experience. The one and only email we received came after four business days. We consider this way too long and a very poor way to do business.
Staff Education
It is impossible to gauge the education of the team since we were unable to make contact with a person. However, it is important to note that if you look for it, you will be able to find answers to most of your questions online. We guess this is better than nothing at all, but certainly not the best way to gain or keep customers.
Staff Interaction
All we can say is that it is really good that BlueSnap offers a thorough, informative help and support center and FAQ section. Otherwise, we would not know anything. After submitting several tickets and trying to call and email the company, we were unable to make contact with a live person. During our call attempts, the calls were dropped or we just kept getting prompts to move on and wait. We did notice that BlueSnap does appear to respond to negative feedback and comments on sites, like the BBB. The responses are pretty cut and dry, but at least they make some effort.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, BlueSnap is clear and upfront. If you are a business with a UK legal entity, you pay:
· 1.40% plus £0.20 for Visa and MasterCard
· 2.90% plus £0.20 for Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and Diners Club
· 3.30% plus £0.20 for Non-EU transactions
BlueSnap charges no monthly fees during the first 12 months or if you process less than £2,500 per month. Some customers have complained they were charged fees of $75 per month for those who processed less than that amount. BlueSnap does not disclose this fee anywhere on its site. To find out the costs if you exceed this amount or after the first year, you will need to reach out to BlueSnap directly. BlueSnap does offer discounts for high volume merchants, but it is does not state the volume threshold on its site.
Finally, it charges no set-up fees or additional fees for processing Google Pay, Apple Pay MasterPass, or Visa Checkout. Custom pricing is available for charitable organizations and businesses with high sales volumes. Contact BlueSnap for a custom quote.
Early Termination Fees
Since BlueSnap is a pay as you go processor. It operates on a month-to-month contract so it does not charge any early cancellation fees. This is great considering many processors require lengthy terms, some as long as four years, and often include automatic renewal clauses that are nearly impossible to end, when needed. In some cases, merchants actually have to buy out the remainder of their contracts to get out of agreements.
Hardware Costs
BlueSnap does not provide any services for bricks-and-mortar businesses, so it does not rent or sell any point-of-sale machines or other equipment.
Complaints
During our search, we found quite a few complaints about poor customer support, sudden account closures, and that BlueSnap operates as a “scam” throughout the digital space. Currently, it has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) with 19 complaints. Some of the complaints have been resolved, but most of the complaints have nothing to do with BlueSnap. The complaints should be directed at the merchants they made purchases from. Unfortunately, the BBB does not make this distinction. We also found similar complaints on the Ripoff Report and other places on the web. When you dig a little deeper, you will find a whopping more than 100 complaints filed under its former brand, Plimus. They touch on similar issues that we previously mentioned.
