Marketing
Verifone provides merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service payment systems for multiple industries, including the retail, hospitality, and financial sectors. The company’s solutions are used by merchants, processors, and acquirers in developed and emerging economies worldwide. Verifone’s offerings also are promoted through these entities. Its strategy is straightforward, direct, and trustworthy. We did not detect anything deceiving about it marketing efforts.
Honesty
We did not find or hear a single instance of dishonest behavior or deceptive practices. We also could not find any complaints of that nature either. Overall, we found it promotions, brochures, and claims to be above board.
Sales
Verifone sells its point-of-sale equipment through an in-house direct sales teams. It also expands its customer base by making its equipment available via suppliers, resellers, and other payment service providers. We found no complaints about unethical or suspicious sales practices. There are some complaints floating around about extraordinarily bad lease agreements and terms, but those are set by third-party resellers. When that occurs, it can sometimes muddy the reputation of the product maker, but that has not been the case with Verifone.
Support
Though Verifone is a large, international company, customers find it problematic that most of its employees are located in the United States. Many of its UK customers have reported that they find it difficult to reach Verifone’s customer service. When they do reach people, it was after nearly hour-long waits on hold. When they have reached team members, customers said they were unhelpful, dismissive, and unenthusiastic.
The poor customer service may be the only reason to consider getting a Verifone card machine through a local supplier or merchant account service provider. By going this route, there is a better of chance of having access to simpler, more helpful, 24 hour per day, seven day per week support.
Staff Responsiveness
Overall, we found Verifone to be unresponsive. Not a single email was answered, and we found calling to be ridiculous. We eventually did reach a person but it was after many tries and one too many delays.
Staff Education
After several attempts and at least one hour-long wait, we reached a person. The person was unenthusiastic, disinterested, and unhelpful. He could not provide additional information about its payment gateway and other payment solutions. He could not provide price ranges or any other pertinent information. The education level was disappointing to say the least.
Staff Interaction
As previously mentioned, there was very little interaction. We reached automated prompt, after automated prompt during several attempts without ever reaching a live person. When we finally did, he gave one-word answers, didn’t make sense, and didn’t try to seek additional answers. For a major, international company, we found this interaction embarrassing.
Pricing
Verifone does not list any pricing for its payment gateway and related services on its site. To get these details, merchants must contact Verifone directly.
Hardware Costs
Verifone offer many different card machine models in all point-of sale categories, including chip and PIN, mobile and portable, countertop, multimedia and unattended. The exact price paid depends on the model of each specific piece of equipment.
Countertop machines range in price between £108 and £350. When it comes to mobile offerings, Verifone only offers one mobile machine in the UK, and it costs between £320 and £485. Its portable machine models range between £230 and £380. PIN pads range between £260 and £365, while multimedia machines £598 and £1,065.
Important Features
A noteworthy feature offered by Verifone is that it permits merchants and retailers to gain insights into their transactions whenever they want. Its cutting-edge reporting and data intelligence capabilities, it is able to monitor transactions, capture data from all channels, summarize it, and, then, share the information with merchants and retailers.
Most importantly, this features allows merchants to filter their transactions to better discover and understand when, where, and how customers make purchases. These types of capabilities drive better decision-making, improve business performance, and enhance security.
Early Termination Fees
Since it only works in direct sales, Verifone does not offer contracts. Many other major payment providers do lease Verifone equipment through third parties. Leasing equipment can be much more expensive than buying it. When looking into leasing equipment, ask about early termination, service, and replacement fees before signing.
Complaints
There are few reviews of Verifone in the digital space except for on TrustPilot, which is not always the most reliable review site because, in some cases, merchants can take ownership of their profiles. In this specific situation, the information is likely correct because it has a poor rating and only five reviews. All of the complaints are about malfunctioning equipment and poor customer service. One reviewer went as far as to state that customer service was “very poorly trained, their processes extremely cumbersome, and their level of satisfaction laughable.” After our attempts to reach Verifone, we would have to agree with that assessment.
