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PayVida Review

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Maintained Since: May 28, 2014

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PayVida
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D
2/5
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PayVida (payvida.ca) is a merchant account and point-of-sale (POS) solutions provider that appears to be headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company provides traditional retail processing, mobile payment acceptance, and a virtual terminal to merchants. PayVida is a reseller of Talech's iPad-based point-of-sale products, but it appears to attach its own merchant account to its various POS solutions, making it similar to most traditional payment processors.

Legal Trouble

On May 31, 2014, we were contacted by a third party regarding allegations of unethical and possibly criminal behavior regarding PayVida's former president and CEO, Robert Ronning. It appears that Ronning may have formerly operated under, or could still be operating under, the aliases of "Robert Zoost" and "Robert Raymond." According to three articles published in 2008 by the Vancouver Sun (one of which is found here), a real estate agent named Robert Zoost (whose realtor profile can be found here) was publicly accused of misrepresenting his sales achievements in order to obtain a competitive advantage over other realtors. These Vancouver Sun articles also claim that Mr. Zoost had been suspended by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia, was the subject of lawsuits related to unpaid advertising expenses, and had repeatedly lied about his client base and sales record to the media and on his website. A blog post from May 2008 (found here) contains a user comment filed in August 2013 stating that Robert Zoost had changed his name to Robert Ronning and is now working in the payment processing industry. The commenter explicitly names PayVida as Robert Zoost/Robert Ronning's new venture. There is also some evidence that a Robert Ronning spent time in the intervening years working at Federated Payments  and Dominion Card Services (according to three Ripoff Report complaints). As additional supporting documentation, we were able to locate civil cases naming Robert Zoost (screen capture here) and criminal cases naming both Robert Zoost (screen capture here) and Robert Ronning (screen capture here) within the British Columbia Court Services database. Dominion Card Services, PayVida, and Robert Zoost's real estate agency are currently or were once based in British Columbia, while Federated Payments operates out of Ottawa, Ontario. We reached out to Ronning regarding these allegations and he neither confirmed nor denied their accuracy. We consider this information to be unrelated to the quality of the products and services offered by PayVida; however, it is relevant to this review because the CEO of a payment processing company has access to sensitive personal and financial data of its customers, and this sort of behavior could be reflective of the company's overall culture. As an additional note, PayVida was the subject of a lawsuit filed by POS provider ShopKeep in January 2015. ShopKeep alleged that PayVida knowingly utilized ShopKeep's trademark, promotional materials, and website content on its own website without authorization. The outcome of the suit is still pending. Details of the case can be seen here.

Purchase and Restructuring

In April 2019, Victory Square acquired a little more than 30% of PayVida in February 2018. PayVida has since relaunched their website; however, we believe most of the PayVida leadership has migrated over to the new company, RAYL Innovations. Please read our RAYL Innovations review for more information.

PayVida Payment Processing

PayVida process most major credit and debit cards. They offer Virtual-terminals, eCommerce solutions, API, recurring payments, invoicing, tokenization, crypto, and POS solutions. They also offer the P3 payment platform, rapid-action delivery, the PayVida card, the PayVida Core online management tool, the PayVida mobile app, and PayVida Check Please, which allows multiple semi-integrated smart terminals to provide intelligent table payment and ordering with hospitality POS systems.

Location and Ownership

PayVida is a registered MSP/ISO of the Canadian branch of U.S. Bank National Association and Peoples Bank & Trust, and it is headquartered at 1350 Burrard Street, #182, Vancouver, BC Canada V6Z 0C2. Key Points
  • Sales & Marketing: PayVida appears to hire independent sales representatives but has not received any complaints about its sales practices.
  • Costs & Contract: PayVida appears to offer month-to-month contracts with interchange-plus pricing and no early termination fees.
  • Complaints & Service: PayVida has received fewer than 10 public complaints.
  • BBB Rating: PayVida currently has an "A+" rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received 0 complaints in the last 3 years.
  • Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With PayVida

Customer Reviews & Sentiment

Low Complaint Total

We are able to locate fewer than 10 negative PayVida reviews, most of which are found in the comment section below this review. Most complaints are related to negative experiences or impressions of the company’s executive leadership, which we don’t interpret to be a direct criticism of the product. Other complaints cite poor sales experiences, excessive fees, and poor customer service. None of the available complaints describe the company as a ripoff or a scam. PayVida formerly offered phone support, but now appears to only offer a contact form on their website, which is not up to the standards of our top-rated providers for customer support. PayVida’s relatively clean complaint record has earned it a “B” in this section for the time being.

Industry Scores & User Ratings

Online Ratings Summary
Product & Service Complaints0
Billing & Collection Complaints0
Advertising & Sales Complaints0
Guarantee & Warranty Complaints0
Delivery Complaints0

PayVida has an “A+” with the Better Business Bureau and has not received BBB accreditation. The company is showing 0 total complaints in the last 3 years. PayVida has also not received any informal reviews on its BBB profile, but it should be noted that these reviews are not subject to verification by the BBB. Given the company’s complaint total, we agree with the BBB’s rating at this time.

Processing Rates & Fees

PayVida Contract

PayVida lists three pricing tiers on its website: “Retail + Hospitality,” “eCommerce/Cloud,” and “Online + In-Store.” The Retail + Hospitality plan costs $11 per month and includes a conventional terminal, online reporting, daily deposits, and free terminal replacement. The “eCommerce/Cloud” plan costs $25 per month and includes an e-commerce merchant account, a virtual terminal, subscription billing, digital invoicing, hosted checkout, e-commerce plugins, and a developer API. The “Online + In-Store” plan offers all of the features contained in the other two plans. All plans come with an unspecified PCI compliance program (that may involve a fee), a statement fee, no monthly minimum fees, no termination fees, and no equipment leases.

No Long-Term Contract or Early Termination Fees

A PayVida representative has also stated that the company does not require that merchants sign a long-term contract and does not charge early termination fees or monthly minimum fees. The only costs of PayVida’s service appear to be transaction fees, setup fees, hardware costs, monthly fees, PCI compliance fees, and a $5 monthly statement fee.

No Contract Complaints

These costs seem competitive when compared with the majority of processors, and we’ve found no merchant complaints indicating that the company’s claims are exaggerated or false. However, merchants should be sure to inquire about all possible costs and understand what they will be expected to pay before signing up for service (see: “Fee Sweep”).

PayVida Competitors

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Bottom Line

PayVida rates as a reliable POS option for merchants according to most available information. The company is showing very few complaints across all consumer protection resources, and its contract terms appear to be reasonably competitive. PayVida’s score is not negatively impacted by the histories of its executives, but merchants are encouraged to conduct their research about the company before signing up.