Merchant Maverick Reviews 

Reply from Merchant Maverick

Aug 17, 2020

Hi Alexander,

Thank you for responding to our review invite (even if it was tough to read)! It looks like you signed up for our promotional newsletter specifically, but that's an easy fix! Our promo emails are for readers who want to receive discounts that we occasionally negotiate with reputable 5-star vendors but we are in no way selling services- not even our own. More on that here: https://www.merchantmaverick.com/merchant-maverick-money/

You can definitely update your subscription preferences at any time if promos are no longer appealing to you. We have a Retail/eCommerce newsletter that may be more suited to your interests if you wish to remain subscribed. And if not, our website has a wealth of information on starting and operating an online retail business, including free downloadable guides and in-depth reviews of providers and services. These can all be found in the eCommerce sections of our website and blog.

We ALWAYS welcome reader feedback, good, bad, or indifferent (you can usually find this invitation at the bottom of our emails: 🙂😐🙁). So if you have any specific content requests, we'd love the opportunity to address them in a more meaningful way. Our #1 goal is to help small business owners, so to say we are bummed to receive this review is an understatement! We hope you'll give us the opportunity to change your mind!

Best,
The Merchant Maverick Team
"Our mission is to guide and empower business decision-makers with honest, accurate, and actionable information."

Reply from Merchant Maverick

Jul 16, 2020

That's amazing to hear! Thank you so much for this review, Patty! You are spot on- you don't know what you don't know. That's why we do what we do and this is exactly the outcome we strive for! Thank you for being a loyal Merchant Maverick reader and for sharing your experience so other small business owners can make sound business decisions like you.

Reply from Merchant Maverick

Jun 23, 2020

Hi Paul,

Thank you for this candid feedback. I really appreciate that you took the time to write it, and I’m sorry to hear that you left our site with a negative feeling about how we operate.

We try to be transparent and clear about how payments do and do not influence the content on our site as well as how we maintain editorial integrity, but your feedback is evidence that we need to do a better job of putting this information front and center.

I would like to clear up a few things about how we evaluate vendors and how we choose our partners.

1. Vendor Rating and Scoring: Our editorial team evaluates vendors solely based on merit. This is not controlled by our partnerships department whatsoever. A vendor’s status as an advertiser has zero bearing on the section ratings and the overall score of a review. Honesty and fairness are foundational values for Merchant Maverick, and we are committed to being a trustworthy resource that tells it like it is.

2. Partner Vendors: Some vendors listed on our site do pay us. These vendors are invited to become partners based largely on our editorial team’s ratings. We do not partner with a company unless our editorial team endorses it first. A vendor that has a negative editorial review is not eligible to become a partner.

3. Vendor Promotion: There are places on our site, such as our sidebar, where we display promotional content for our editorially endorsed partner vendors. We only allow high-quality vendors to appear here, and we have full control over what these placements look like and which vendors we list. There are also times when a partner may appear ahead of a non-partner on a list of vendors, but only when both are deemed to be good options by our editorial team. We will never promote a vendor to you unless we honestly believe that it has a high-quality product.

Unlike many similar websites, we refuse to use automatic banner ads to monetize our site because we cannot in good conscience allow low-quality products or services to be advertised on our platform. We maintain an invite-only marketing platform that is always guided by the ratings of our unbiased editorial team. These writers receive no bonuses relative to the ratings and rankings they determine and are free to rate vendors as they see fit. We take their feedback seriously when determining which brands to partner with.

Based on your feedback, we are going to make sure this information is more readily accessible to our readers. I know we can do better here and I truly hope you’ll give us another chance.

Thank you again,
Amad Ebrahimi - Founder/CEO

Reply from Merchant Maverick

Jun 23, 2020

Thank you Iain! I'm so happy we were able to find you a solution, and I really appreciate your kind feedback.

-Jessica

Reply from Merchant Maverick

Oct 28, 2019

Thank you for the feedback and my apologies for the delay in response. It's never easy to hear about a negative experience from someone that has used our reviews to make a buying decision. I cannot speak to your direct experience with Payment Depot, but I assure you that we do our best to maintain accuracy and honesty when we do our research. We do not get paid for rating someone highly on our website. Our mission from day one has been to fairly assess all credit card processors and find the best providers out there. Every once in a while, a business owner may not have the best experience with one of our recommendations. Sometimes even the most well-intentioned providers drop the ball every now and then. This seems to be one of those cases. I really do wish that you are able to come to a resolution with PaymentDepot and I would love to hear how that turned out for you.

Regarding the comment that you left on our website, I had a chat with our team and it's possible that your comment may not have met our user review and comment policy guidelines as outlined here (https://www.merchantmaverick.com/user-review-comment-policy/). Just as a reminder, we have some requirements for submitting user reviews, simply because we tend to get a lot of fake reviews and we need to ensure that they don't sneak through the cracks. If you resubmit your review, I will gladly take a look at it myself.

All the best,
Amad Ebrahimi - Founder/CEO

Reply from Merchant Maverick

Jun 24, 2020

Hi Bob,

Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know your thoughts!

We do realize PayPal is not everyone's cup of tea. However, we have to follow the same rating criteria for all providers we review to remain consistent and fair. We make every effort to remain unbiased and transparent and our goal is always to provide the most accurate information to business owners so they can make informed decisions.

We are sorry our review left you feeling frustrated. That's not at all how we want our readers to feel - we want to be a trusted resource. Our editorial team regularly updates our reviews and will continue to be on the lookout out for any changes at PayPal - good or bad.

Here is a link to our rating criteria if you want to see how a score is determined: https://www.merchantmaverick.com/rating-and-scoring-system/

Thanks again!

Reply from Merchant Maverick

Apr 19, 2019

Thank you so much for the positive feedback Deborah. We are so glad to hear that Dharma worked out for you. Please let us know if we can help with anything else.