The Engine That Powers Payment Platforms
Founded in 2008, WePay is a merchant account alternative that first started as a competitor to services like Stripe. The company has been assimilated into the Chase Merchant Services brand. The company’s primary focus is providing online platforms with the ability to collect payments from customers and donors (for example, through websites like GoFundMe.com). WePay allows virtually any website to integrate an account to collect payments from participating users via ACH bank transfers and credit cards. The service has no setup fees, no monthly fees, and no service length requirement.
Is WePay Holding Your Funds Right Now?
Thousands of merchants have had their payments frozen by WePay. If you’re one of them, then you might find these resources helpful:
- How To Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
- How to Fight Chargebacks
- Best Merchant Accounts for Non-Profits
Shifting Its Focus Away From Small Business
Over the last few years, WePay has changed its branding to present itself as a white-label payment platform that can be integrated into an existing e-commerce store or utilized as the backend platform for an online marketplace or fundraising system. This makes it less of a peer-to-peer or business-to-consumer service and more of a backend software solution for payment-oriented businesses and startups. In fact, the company is considered one of the top payment processors for online marketplaces. This newly emphasized function makes the company less relevant for most types of small business owners. In October 2017, JPMorgan Chase acquired WePay.
Headquartered in California
WePay’s headquarters are located at 350 Convention Way, Redwood City, California 94063. The company’s CEO is Bill Clerico.
Key Points
- Costs & Contract: WePay’s pricing and contract terms will vary depending on the WePay partner a merchant works with.
- Complaints & Service: WePay has received more than 250 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: WePay has an “A” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received 102 complaints and 67 reviews in the past 3 years.
- Sales & Marketing: WePay does not market directly to merchants and has not received any complaints about its sales practices.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With WePay
WePay derails MealTrain
WePay handles the funds for MealTrain accounts. Of course, when I say “handle”, I mean steal – at least in my experience. I have spent HOURS trying to track down $27 that was donated to my wife and me when we had our child almost 5 years ago. WePay has only made this process more difficult and we have yet to receive the money. TERRIBLE service. Just terrible. Avoid this company like the plague. You have my sympathy if you have no other choice – as was the case with us.
STAY AWAY – They will cost you money!
If you value your business I would stay away from WePay. In 13 years of business I’ve had three change backs. The first two I provided the same documentation I always do with proof of service delivery and won my case. We switched to WePay (via Freshbooks) in early 2019 and had one charge back with them. Then came the issues:
1- Their charge back system has file size limits that don’t allow you to submit all of your documentation.
2- They don’t read your notes section in their system when you submit your documents (where we said we had 47 pages of of proof of delivery).
3- They don’t respond to your requests to provide the additional documentation
4- They say you lost your defense because you didn’t provide proof of service delivery
5- When you email them to point out their lapse of care for their customer they tell you “I know this can be frustrating but our system doesn’t allow you to provide the documentation we tell you that you need to provide, so sorry but you’re out of luck.”
You can do everything exactly right, exactly what your attorney tells you to do, everything that works in all other cases, and WePay doesn’t care. I would go as far to say they have a breach of obligation in their processing of charge back defenses.
Stay away from this company. They don’t care and are negligent in their operations.
Wepay sent us this email yesterday..
“Upon review, we have determined that we will no longer be able to process payments for your WePay Payments account. All pending payments have been canceled and any existing payments will be refunded to the payers.”
I filed a ticket requesting to know the reason and received this..
“Regrettably, we are no longer able to process payments for your account. Our banks and processors hold us to a strict guideline on what we can and cannot process through our site. As this information is proprietary, we will not be able to offer more information about these guidelines.
We wish you and your efforts the best, going forward.
Best wishes,
Mira”
We are in retail selling handcrafted Italian leather bags. I guess that’s now prohibited, banned by Wepay. I’m going to follow up and see how long it takes for Wepay to process the refund. A real payment gateway (even Stripe) would flag a transaction suspicious, but not close the account without any warning. Wepay accepted all our documentation in order to open the account, and now it gets closed without any explanation. If Wepay is not a scam it is as close as you can get without crossing the line. Don’t touch this business, not even with a 20 ft pole.
Hello, I created a campaign using GoFundMe and have had already 2 donations cancelled. WePay appears to be responsible for money matters. The reasons for the cancellations are not convincing. As you indicated their customer service is very poor. It is slow and appears at times mechanical (repeating what was said in previous messages without addressing additional questions). Also, it is a struggle to have them pay back the donors after they cancelled their payments. I am considering cancelling my GoFundMe campaign if that continues.
Thanks for your good work.
Kamel
DO NOT USE WEPAY! The absolute worst! No customer service line. it’s all done by emails. they explain nothing and they can refuse you service on any sort of basis, and then not explain why. The worst online company I’ve ever dealt with. They waited to tell us they wouldn’t work with us until we had a large check in their system. Been fighting to get it ever since….
Use Stripe, PayPal or any different vendor!
There are several reasons I am dissatisfied. 1-I opened this account a while ago before I had clients and when I ran my first transaction after two days of waiting for the money I was advised that you couldn’t work with me. It would have been nice to know before I ran a transaction as I opened the account one month before the first transaction. 2-It took a REALLY long time to get a response from support, over a week! There is no phone number to call either. 3-Support was unable to give me a reason you couldn’t run my transactions or work with me.
WePay is horrible. We signed up as a new customer. We have been in business for 11 years but wanted to try a new invoicing system. To continue to allow our customers to pay online, WePay was one of the merchant services that was integrated with the system we chose. We decided to try it. Our very first invoice, a payment was made from a client of ours in excess of 2k. WePay took the payment form my clients AMEX. I received the notification I was paid. It all looked to be fine. But here is the kicker…they haven’t released my funds to my linked bank account. So they have my clients money, took their fee and will not release to me.
There is no way to contact them outside of “support” tickets which they do not answer timely or at all.
Finally got to the “review department” and they sent me an email asking these questions:
• What services or products do you provide? Please be specific.
• How do your customers find you?
• What’s your website and do you have any online reviews (think Yelp or LinkedIn), please provide the links?
• Are you a sole proprietor or LLC?
• If applicable to your business, please provide copies of the following: licenses, permits, surety bonds, insurance documentation.
• If you have registered your business with Secretary of State, could you send documentation of your filing?
• Do you have any paperwork from the IRS about your incorporation (for example, registration of your EIN number), if yes, please provide a copy?
• How much payment volume do you anticipate on a monthly basis?
Now I am all about security, but I already had to verify my identity with my SSN. And I feel this should have been part of the set up process not after they collected money and hold it.
I cooperated and sent them my State Articles of Organization and well as my EIN and my licenses etc. They are still holding my funds and haven’t even responded.
This appears to be a scam. I have written a letter to the Acquiring Bank- Chase, who I am a BUSINESS customer off to inform them of this. Sent via fax to the Executive office. We will see what happens. I am doing all my due diligence before lawyers gets involved.
At this point, it is really nothing short of theft/fraud. I will give them 2 more days to release my funds. Then we will escalate this matter.
Please run from WePay.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
WePay is demonstrates extreme unfair business practices. They continue to hold funds that have cleared and even after the fee is collected. Basically they pay themselves and keep your money. Horrible customer service. They do not respond to “support” tickets yet there is no other avenue to contact them.
If you are looking for merchant services, Run from WePay. They are thieves. I have reported them to the BBB and plan to file a suit against them.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
We had integrated WePay with our Zoho books and after a client paid, the process to get paid has taken over two weeks. They did everything possible to hold on to over $4000. When I asked about this they blamed Zoho books and then offered to helped with a request for six months of my transactions for to get one transaction. I cancelled their service. Don’t waste your time with this company if you are small business.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
Wepay is awful, do not use, it should be called wedontpay they held a large sum of money for over a month without notifying me anything!!! i had to do all communication through freshbooks, no phone number. when i was finally able to email with them they were rude !! and did not resolve the problem. eventually refunding my buyer for merchandise he had already for 22 months.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip