Greater Giving Merchant Services 2023: Reviews & Complaints
(800) 276-5992 Company Overview
Greater Giving is a merchant account subsidiary of Global Payments that is specifically dedicated to debit and credit card processing solutions for nonprofits. Founded in 2002 under the name Auctionpay, Inc, the company grew rapidly until 2009, when it was acquired by Global Payments and rebranded as Greater Giving.
Greater Giving’s Credit Card Processing
Greater Giving’s principal service is its credit card processing capability. This feature enables non-profit organizations to process a wide range of card payments in a secure manner. It ensures a seamless payment experience, enhancing the trust factor for donors, thereby potentially leading to increased donations.
Event Management Services by Greater Giving
Greater Giving offers event management services, an essential aspect of which involves transaction processing. This service helps organizations plan and execute fundraising events, including the management of ticket sales, registrations, and auctions. In doing so, it plays a critical role in maximizing fundraising efficiency.
Mobile Bidding Services from Greater Giving
In addition to traditional auction methods, Greater Giving provides a mobile bidding service. This service allows donors to place bids using their mobile devices, facilitating remote participation and potentially increasing the scope and success of auctions.
Greater Giving’s Online Donations Services
Understanding the widespread use of digital platforms for donations, Greater Giving offers online donation services. This enables organizations to accept donations via secure online payment processing, broadening the avenues for donor engagement.
Greater Giving’s Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Greater Giving also offers peer-to-peer fundraising tools, which allow individual fundraisers to create personal donation pages and share them across their networks. This service helps non-profits expand their donor base and increase donation amounts by leveraging personal relationships and networks.
Security Measures by Greater Giving
Given the sensitive nature of donation transactions, Greater Giving prioritizes security. They employ advanced security features, including encryption and fraud prevention mechanisms, to safeguard transactions and protect the information of donors.
Location & Ownership
Global Payments is a registered ISO/MSP of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., and of BMO Harris Bank, N.A. Greater Giving is headquartered at 2035 NW Front Avenue, Suite 205 Portland, OR 97209. Jeff Jetton is the founder and CEO and James Balazs is the GM of Greater Giving.
Video Summary
Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: Appears to offer a one to five-year contract with a liquidated damages-style early termination fee and…
- Complaints & Service: Has received fewer than 10 public complaints regarding…
- BBB Rating: Has an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received 0 complaints and 1 review about…
- Sales & Marketing: Appears to hire independent sales agents but has not received any complaints about its…
Greater Giving Customer Reviews
Here's What Their Clients Say
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Total Online Complaints | <10 |
| Live Customer Support | Yes |
| Most Common Complaint | N/A |
| Recent Lawsuits | No |
Low Complaint Total
There are only a few negative Greater Giving reviews to be found across non-BBB consumer protection forums, most of which are listed in the comment section of this review. Complainants mention limited functionality and general overcharges, but the company’s customer support receives praise for its availability. Another slightly negative Greater Giving review about the company can be found in the forum where its contract terms (above) were posted. There is also a negative review posted by a former employee, but this particular complaint appears to have little relevance to a nonprofit organization’s potential experience with the company. If you have your own Greater Giving review to make, please do so in the comments below.
Greater Giving Lawsuits
We have not found any outstanding class-action lawsuits or FTC complaints filed against Greater Giving. Dissatisfied clients who wish to pursue a non-litigious course of action against the company should consider reporting it to the relevant supervisory organizations.
Greater Giving Customer Support Options
Greater Giving offers phone support, email support, and user guides on its website.
Greater Giving Customer Service Numbers
- (866) 269-8151 – Toll-Free Customer Service
- (800) 276-5992 – General Number
- (800) 276-5992 – Sales
Other Support Options
- Support email at [email protected]
- Live chat support
These channels are fairly comprehensive and could help Greater Giving’s support department compete with the top-rated payment processors for great customer service.
Greater Giving Online Ratings
Here's How They Rate Online
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| BBB Reports | 1 |
Clean Complaint Record
Greater Giving currently has an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau and is not showing BBB accreditation. The company’s profile has 0 complaints in the past 3 years. It has also received 1 negative review, although it should be noted that these reviews are not always subject to verification by the BBB.
What Merchants Say
Greater Giving has also received 1 informal review on its BBB profile, which is negative in tone. The only review filed by a client cites dishonesty with Greater Giving’s sales staff:
You get what you pay for, nadda! Do not trust anything the sales team “pitch” to you.. most of it is either a paid for add on or does not work at all.
An “A” Performance
In light of the company’s clean complaint record, we agree with the BBB’s rating. Clients should be aware, however, that there are reasons to be skeptical of the BBB’s rating system.
Greater Giving Fees, Rates & Costs
A Closer Look at The Contract
| Item | Result | >
|---|---|
| Cancellation Penalties | Yes |
| Monthly & Annual Fees | Yes |
| Processing Rates | Variable |
| Equipment Leasing | Yes |
No Contract Disclosure
There is very little up-to-date information regarding the standard Greater Giving contract, and the company’s website does not divulge any specific pricing details about its online payment platform. However, a 2010 post on an auction-oriented forum does provide some insight into Auctionpay’s contract terms around that time. These terms may have been exclusive to auction-style businesses or even to the single client who posted them, but they do provide some insight into the company’s standard pricing at one time. According to the information in this post, the company’s pricing was as follows:
Complete Event Suite $2,595 – 1-Year Term = $1,295 & 5-Year Term = $795
Event Payments $395 – 1-Year Term = $395 & 5-Year Term = $0
Event Software $1,195 – 1-Year Term = $295 & 5-Year Term = $295
Online Edition Add-on $595 – 1-Year Term = $595 & 5-Year Term = $595
Online Payments $695 – 1-Year Term = $695 & 5-Year Term = $295
Virtual Terminal Only $195 – 1-Year Term = $195 & 5-Year Term = $0
An Event Service Fee also applied to in-person payments collected at fundraising events:
B2.1 The Service Fee for the Auctionpay Event Payments service is based on the total of Approved Event Charges processed through Auctionpay Event Payments services for each Event. Service Fees for the Auctionpay Event Payments services are deducted from the proceeds of your Event Charges.
Total Approved Event Charges for Each Event Service Fee Number of Terminals Included
Less than $25,000 – $495 fee Up to 3 terminals
$25,000 – $99,999 1.99% Up to 4
$100,000 – $199,999 1.60% Up to 6
$200,000 – $299,999 1.30% Up to 6
$300,000 – $399,999 1.10% As needed
$400,000 and above 0.90% As needed
AuctionPay 2010 Per-Transaction Rates
Under that contract, the following credit card processing fees applied to Greater Giving users:
B3.1 All approved Event Charges will be subject to the following pass-through fee to cover the cost of processing the transactions, in addition to the Service Fees listed above. Pass-through fees are deducted from the proceeds of your Event Charges.
Type of Credit Card Event Payments
Visa, MasterCard or Discover 1.75%
American Express 2.25%
[…]
B4.1 All approved Online Charges processed through the Auctionpay Online Payments services will be subject to the following processing fees. Processing fees for Auctionpay Online Payments services are deducted from the proceeds of your Online Charges.
Type of Credit Card Processing Fee
Visa, MasterCard, Discover or American Express 3.45% plus $0.35 per transaction
Multi-Year Contract
In addition, the Greater Giving contract terms referenced in the link above outline an automatically renewing one-year or five-year agreement with a Liquidated Damages early termination fee equal to the remaining annual costs multiplied by the number of years left in the contract. Neither the per-transaction fees nor the other one-time fees in this document are competitive for the industry; in fact, their combined costs could potentially exceed those of nearly every known processor. One complaint found in the comment section below this review confirms that the company offers five-year contracts, which is as long as contracts get in the credit card processing industry.
Few Contract Complaints
Given the lack of current details about Greater Giving’s pricing, we will only lower the company’s grade to a “C” at this time. It should also be noted that there are only a few publicly available complaints that mention excessive fees charged by Greater Giving. Despite this, it seems unlikely that Greater Giving’s pricing is competitive with that offered by the cheapest merchant account providers.
Greater Giving Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs
Should You Work For Them?
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Uses Independent Resellers | No |
| Telemarketing | Likely |
| Misleading Marketing | No |
| Discloses All Important Terms | No |
Inside/Outside Sales Approach
Greater Giving appears to make use of the Global Payments advertising and marketing network in order to acquire new clients. This means that the company’s sales strategy could include anything from web advertising to independent sales agents. At this time, we are unable to locate any complaints about Greater Giving that allege misrepresentation or nondisclosure by the company’s sales team. This indicates that the company does not suffer from the sales issues that plague its parent company, Global Payments, from time to time.
No Deceptive Rates
Additionally, the Greater Giving website does not list any “teaser” rates or unrealistic promotions. A 14-day free trial of the service is available for prospective customers who want to explore its potential impact on their business. We therefore award it an “A” rating in this category. If you suspect that Greater Giving is sneaking hidden fees into your monthly bill, you can double-check your pricing with a third-party statement audit.
Our Greater Giving Review Summary
Our Final Thoughts
Greater Giving rates as a solid donor management solution and credit card processing provider for non-profits. The company’s contract terms do not appear to be especially competitive for the industry, but it is also not showing any public complaints related to its pricing or sales tactics. It appears that most Greater Giving users are satisfied with their service, but NPOs are advised to compare the company’s pricing to that offered by top-rated merchant services providers in order to get the best deal.
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Laurie Zagon
We are currently using Greater Giving for our annual fundraiser. They have terrible tech support. We have spoken to over 10 tech support people in the last 2 weeks who don’t seem to know their own program. We are told there are no managers to speak with. We are worried that there will be no tech reps that know what they are doing the night of our event.
Last year we used Silent Auction Pro and had great service and support.
We will go back to them for 2024
Joe Reems
We have been locked into a contract with these people for five years, just throwing money away each year. We don’t even use their product because it is terrible and it takes FOREVER to set up! Also the reporting features are worthless. The person who signed us up for this thing was actually fired, so that should give you an indication of how we feel about Greater Giving.
Patty Weston
Completely agree with UtahRed. I only use Greater Giving to set up web pages for events (others in our organization handle the data functions) and I find it very NOT user-friendly. There are separate screens where you can manipulate the look and fields of your web page, but the HTML-based settings you made in the “back-end” will override the other changes. Meaning you set up your page on the ‘front-end’ interface, it all looks good, you go in to the ‘back end’ to make a slight change to say, the receipt wording, and wham–your artwork o the web page just disappeared or your categories are now out of order. Why have it so changes can be made in two different screens, if making changes on one end can affect the other without seeing what you changed? The customer service reps are friendly and they seem readily available (no wait times), but they’ve clearly been trained to never concede how badly designed the interface is for web page building.
UtahRed
You haven’t located one negative review about Greater Giving? Well here is one. I’ve been using Greater Giving for over six months and I can’t wait to get rid of it. Many issues: reports don’t add up, you can’t add or delete fields, you can’t add your own field names or instructions. The website building module is a nightmare with all sort of hoops you have to jump through to get the page looking the way you want. I don’t like the way the pages look in the end anyway – very immature design. You don’t have control over the ugly black footer bar with their logo. It’s slow. Editing your contacts is so much more labor intensive than it needs to be. And it’s expensive.
Good part: Great customer service with quick response.
loe thompson
since the last invoice we received we have being trying to cancel our terminal but it is imposible to get anyone who can give the right information to do this this company is a disgrace run by muppets who have no idea what there doing.all they want to do is to charge large amounts of money and nothing in return dick turpin wore a mask you are a disgrace one month on and still not cancelled and yet more large bills come through even when the terminal is not being used sort it out or we will be taking legal action