I have signed up with two companies that use Bill.com. I was contacted by Bill.Com that a payment would be coming and if I wanted full payment, I should sign up for direct deposit. No problem. Did it. Miniscule expected payment arrived via Direct Deposit. Then last month I worked for another company that pays via Bill.com. Got notified today that my CHECK would be mailed (less $2.00). So I go on my phone to Bill.com and now it wants me to get the app (I tried just going to the website) I have to enter my banking info AGAIN. So now I'm on the laptop checking and low and behold a DD payment from the first company is shown as OVERDUE. Oy Veh. Do I want to send an email to the company? I don't know, do I? My invoice showed a date of 11/16. It's showing as accepted but not yet approved. No mention of the check from the second company.

What is everyone else's experience? Other companies manage to pay via direct deposit just fine (keyword 'direct') without using a clearinghouse/intermediary. Really leaves a bad taste in my mouth to work for either company again.

I agree, I don't know why they don't just do direct deposit without Bill.com. I also find Bill.com confusing. Especially since one e-mail deposited my money two weeks after the due date and the latest one says they are depositing my money 24 days BEFORE the due date.

An e-mail from this morning:

Hi XXXXXX,XXXXX

The money will be in your bank account on 11/30/17. The payment is for these invoices:

Invoice # Due Date Amount Payment Amount
42 12/24/17 $28.50 $28.50
Total: $28.50


=============================================================================
An e-mail dated 8/3 said:

Hi XXXXXX,XXXXX

You've received money in your bank account from Ath Power Consulting Corp. for these invoices:

Invoice # Due Date Amount Payment Amount Process Date
7/14/2017 07/14/17 $55.00 $55.00 08/02/17
Total: $55.00

I know it's only $2.00 but it really BURNS me because I was obviously registered with Bill.com for direct deposit (have the bank statement with the $0.01 transfer to verify plus the first payment.) and when a new company tries to pay me it defaults to a CHECK?? Am I right in thinking it's Bill.com I should go after for my two bucks?

Well now I'm really annoyed. "Support" on bill.com is out of date. All search requests for chat tell you how to find it,but the info is 3 years old and there apparently is no longer a chat. I sent an email. Next, I went back to the email stating I was getting paid which came from bill.com and has a phone number at the bottom for Sentry Marketing iff you have questions about payment. So I call. A recorded message tells me they won't give support for payments over the phone; I have to send a ticket from my shop log.

I'm thinking I'm going to solve this problem by letting the same job which is now bonused and they're begging for someone to do just sit there. There's work from companies that pay me directly, even by check, without shorting me. It appears I now have something to contribute to the "Why Does People Hate Sentry?" thread.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/2017 07:07PM by kryswyn916.

wrosie - You will be happy to learn that we will be migrating to direct deposit without bill.com in the next 30 - 45 days. We will be using Dwolla to process direct deposit payments.

kryswyn@aol.com- being paid check is optional. Direct deposit via bill.com is our standard payment method and there is no cost associated with this payment method.

Sentry Marketing - good on you for migrating to true direct deposit! My question in my email is how to opt for direct deposit with you since I wasn't offered a choice? If we can fix this before the check is mailed, I'll sign up for that shop.

Hi again Sentry Marketing. Apparently, the problem is that even though I'm all signed up for direct deposit with another company, I'm supposed to sign up AGAIN and invite Sentry, as one of my "Vendors" to join up with me and ask for vendor number and ...forget it. Bill.com is a HUGE PITA and also, the other company I'm signed up with that uses bill.com has authorized a payment 10 days ago, but bill.com has not paid yet. So I told them to keep the $2.00, it's not worth my time, and I don't feel I should have to be the one doing the heavy lifting here.

So when your company switches to Dwolla, please be sure to announce it here on the forums and I'll be sure to keep an eye out for more shops from Sentry.

@kryswyn916 wrote:

So when your company switches to Dwolla, please be sure to announce it here on the forums and I'll be sure to keep an eye out for more shops from Sentry.

Julie with ACE can probably comment on that, along with some ACE shoppers. ACE tried Dwolla and dumped it. Dumping it was a good. move. I'm okay with direct deposit, PayPal, and, reluctantly, now that I've discovered how easy direct deposit and PayPal are, checks. I stay away from bill.com, Dwolla, and definitely PayQuicker.

Since Dwolla is another third party vendor, it is not direct deposit. DD would come straight from the MSC bank account to ours.

@LisaSTL wrote:

Since Dwolla is another third party vendor, it is not direct deposit. DD would come straight from the MSC bank account to ours.

Yep. Best to stay away from anything that is not DD or paypal, or paper check if those are not options. I work with a few MSCs that send paper checks and they are always on time. But you're right Lisa. And when there's a third party, I stay away. I wonder why Sentry won't do DD. Makes it so much easier for everyone involved.

I am unaware of any major financial institution that offers a cost and time effective way of processing ACH payments in volume. We chose to process direct deposit payments (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_deposit) using Dwolla over Paypal after our pilot with Paypal revealed significant issues that would have resulted in frustration for our shoppers.

Paypal is a third party vendor. Also, major financial institutions use third party vendors. For example, Bank of America uses Bill.com and Chase uses Zelle.

@LisaSTL wrote:

Since Dwolla is another third party vendor, it is not direct deposit. DD would come straight from the MSC bank account to ours.

My response was to the incorrect comment stating Dwolla would be considered direct deposit. It is not and the distinction could be important to anyone with a bank that waives fees based on direct deposits. Funds received from an internet payment provider may not qualify regardless of which one is used. Obviously which banks use which services is irrelevant in this case. My main function at my last "regular" job was transferring money both domestically and internationally. It gave me a modicum of insight into electronic transfers.

Interesting.

I would suggest people check with their financial institution to determine the rules for their account(s). My quick research found banks that waive fees for "electronic deposits" that did not include any exclusions.

I'm not sure why someone would suggest that using Paypal is preferred over Dwolla or another processor. Our experience with Paypal tech support was quite frustrating and I am certain our shoppers would not have enjoyed interacting with them in order to collect their payment.

I signed up for Bill.com for a payment from Sentry for a household goods store. Then when I did it gave me like ten different Sentry Marketings to choose from and I could not figure out which one it was. It says if I need more than one company to send me I'm supposed to pay. I'm with you guys, I've stayed away from this household goods store since then. and I still have not received my payment and reimbursement from the first one. (13.50/15)
wish there was a better way....

Paypal is good. The majority of my MSCs send me payment via Paypal and I've never had a problem with them.

Dave, since apparently you missed this. I used the words, "may not" qualify rather than "will not" qualify. I was also addressing direct deposit which is very specific rather than electronic deposits which covers a wide variety of transfers.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

Chase uses Zelle.

There are lots of problems with the Zelle app. My son was using Clear Exchange to send me money monthly on a repayment he owes me, with no problems. Clear Exchange has switched over to the Zelle app. After reading reviews of the Zelle app, (rating 1.5/5 of over 1000 reviews), it's evident there are many, many issues using this third party app in both sending and receiving funds. My son is going to use Paypal to send me money, since there has never been an issue with Paypal.

I remember reading about the problems ACE had when using Dwolla.....time will tell how this works with Sentry. When Dave mentioned that Sentry was switching over to DD, I thought he meant TRUE DD, that is, from the MSC to the bank. Since this will not be the case, I will yet wait some more before trying any shops with Sentry. I don't like to chase after my money.

Shoppers do not need to sign up for a bill.com account to be paid for their shops. When a shopper signs up to be a shopper with us, a bill.com profile is created and an email is sent. The email lets shoppers know that if they want to be paid via direct deposit, then need to update their bill.com profile by adding their banking information. If a shopper does nothing, a check is processed.

I was not endorsing the Zelle app, rather, I was using it as an example of how large financial institutions use third-party apps to process payment. Your example of Clear Exchange is a good example. Another example is the many banks that use Fi-Serv to process their bill payment checks/drafts.

I apologize for using "direct deposit" in the generic sense. Perhaps I should have stated that we are moving to payment by ACH using Dwolla as our processer.

There is a significant difference in using Paypal for a single transaction versus using it to process a large group of transactions. I have also used Paypal to make individual payments. The fact remains that when we used it to make group payments, we encountered the difficulty that Paypal was unable to resolve. Our experience with Dwolla has been very positive and we have received very positive feedback from payees.

I am not sure where the concept of "true" direct deposit or how using Dwolla to process ACH payments is somehow inferior. As I stated previously, there is no cost-effective (time or money) method to processing large numbers of transactions directly from our bank to shoppers.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

Paypal revealed significant issues that would have resulted in frustration for our shoppers.

That's odd. Because the vast, vast majority of MSCs use PayPal and the nearly every shopper has nothing but positive experiences with PayPal. Their system works great and they have very responsive customer service. Not that it is ever needed.

Perhaps you should chat with other MSCs who use PayPal about their experiences. Many MSCs send out 100s or 1000s of PayPal payments at once with immediate effect and without any problems visible to the recipient. How is it that they are able to have good experiences with PayPal but Sentry wasn't able to replicate?

You might also want to chat with those few MSCs who offer ACH direct deposits rather than using PayPal and see how their transactions are processed and who provides their financial services. There are far fewer of those. Off the top of my head, they include Ardent, BARE, BestMark, Market Force, Maritz, Mintel, Second-to-None, Superior Product, and SteriCycle. None of these firms require that shoppers interact with any third-party processor. Shoppers do not want to interact with the likes of Bill.com or Dwolla. I might be mistaken, but Sentry is one of only two MSCs which require their microvendors to deal with these third party sites.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

there is no cost-effective (time or money) method to processing large numbers of transactions directly from our bank to shoppers.

Perhaps the problem is that you are using the wrong bank. Have you gone bank shopping?

It is also a bit odd to suggest that your firm needs to have a “large number of transactions” processed. There are many, many companies and organizations which have 100,000s of ACH transactions each and every day and some with millions of ACH transactions each day. What does Sentry have, several thousand each month?

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

I was not endorsing the Zelle app, rather, I was using it as an example of how large financial institutions use third-party apps to process payment. Your example of Clear Exchange is a good example.

Zelle is a trade name of clearXchange.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

I am not sure where the concept of "true" direct deposit or how using Dwolla to process ACH payments is somehow inferior.

People do not want to interact with their interfaces. If Dwolla can offer you processing without requiring that the shopper ever know that they exist, fine. But, if the shopper, must interact with Dwolla, even once, that is a burden. One which shoppers ought demand compensation for, say an extra $50.00 one-time payment to each shopper who agrees to establish an account with Dwolla.

We will be migrating shoppers payments to electronic deposit and those payments will be processed by Dwolla. Shoppers will be required to specify what account they want their funds deposited. The setup takes about five minutes and requires a few pieces of identifying information. The setup only needs to be completed one time.

We'll be sorry to lose shoppers who decide they don't want to be paid by this method. Alternately, we'll welcome those shoppers who prefer the new method of payment.

The suggestion that shoppers should demand a $50 payment for setting up an account to be paid for their assignments is ludicrous.

I do not think setting up our payment with a third party should cost $50. that is overkill of the situation for real. we all set up pay pal, mine was set up long before I started shopping. I for one hope that payments are done quickly and efficiently with this new method. But my question for the bossman is this:
will this enable you to be able to pay the following month? instead of the 2nd month? for example: my shop was done in Oct. I have to wait until Dec to get paid. Will this new method of payment enable you to pay in November the shops that are done in October? I think herein lies one of your biggest downfalls. I have heard many a shopper complain about waiting so long, and I have not been around very long. I would "prefer" to get paid the following month, I would. I had a boss once that paid me the second month like this. (commission based 1099 as well (my roots in F & L TeleComm) when I think about it now-The biggest difference between then and now was that he was willing to "advance" me a portion of my earnings if I needed it. Of course, we knew each other face to face and he had more commissions coming than what he gave me so he knew he would get his money back.But If I know that I know that I will be paid time isn't quite so critical. What three questions I ask myself when I take an assignment: Is will I get paid? Will I be charged to be paid? (i,e. bill pay asking me to pay, or be charged a 2 dollar fee for a check) Thirdly, What is my profit margin? For example, I will not do a 10 dollar shop in order be charged a 2 dollar fee to be paid. Not cool. But would I take a 100 dollar job and know I will be charged 2 dollars? maybe I will. But I have to go in with my eyes wide open. I have to be able to afford to wait. I have to be able to afford to be charged. again, many times it's easier to just not deal with it.

OP here updating. A member of bill.com support has reached out and will be calling me Monday to resolve my problems blemish.

Meanwhile, this discussion has proved very educational.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/02/2017 03:06PM by kryswyn916.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

The suggestion that shoppers should demand a $50 payment for setting up an account to be paid for their assignments is ludicrous.

Almost as ludicrous as your disdain for PayPal.

@Rousseau wrote:

Zelle is a trade name of clearXchange.

Slightly off topic here....Zelle may be the trade name for Clear Exchange, but as of Dec 8th, Clear Exchange will no longer be used for transferring monies....only the Zelle app will be used. There are LOTS of complaints about the app in the Google Play store....rating it only 1.5 stars out of 5 with over 1000+ reviews.

I don't have disdain for Paypal. In fact, Paypal was our first choice to process shopper payments. A lack of tech support was the issue we changed processers to Dwolla.

@Rousseau wrote:

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

The suggestion that shoppers should demand a $50 payment for setting up an account to be paid for their assignments is ludicrous.

Almost as ludicrous as your disdain for PayPal.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2018 09:11AM by Sentry Marketing.

@Rousseau wrote:

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

Paypal revealed significant issues that would have resulted in frustration for our shoppers.

That's odd. Because the vast, vast majority of MSCs use PayPal and the nearly every shopper has nothing but positive experiences with PayPal. Their system works great and they have very responsive customer service. Not that it is ever needed.

Perhaps you should chat with other MSCs who use PayPal about their experiences. Many MSCs send out 100s or 1000s of PayPal payments at once with immediate effect and without any problems visible to the recipient. How is it that they are able to have good experiences with PayPal but Sentry wasn't able to replicate?

Agree 100000% here.

I've used Chase QuickPay (which is part of the ClearExchange network) to make hundreds of payments without an issue.

@guysmom wrote:

@Rousseau wrote:

Zelle is a trade name of clearXchange.

Slightly off topic here....Zelle may be the trade name for Clear Exchange, but as of Dec 8th, Clear Exchange will no longer be used for transferring monies....only the Zelle app will be used. There are LOTS of complaints about the app in the Google Play store....rating it only 1.5 stars out of 5 with over 1000+ reviews.

@Sentry Marketing wrote:

I've used Chase QuickPay (which is part of the ClearExchange network) to make hundreds of payments without an issue.

@guysmom wrote:

@Rousseau wrote:

Zelle is a trade name of clearXchange.

Slightly off topic here....Zelle may be the trade name for Clear Exchange, but as of Dec 8th, Clear Exchange will no longer be used for transferring monies....only the Zelle app will be used. There are LOTS of complaints about the app in the Google Play store....rating it only 1.5 stars out of 5 with over 1000+ reviews.

Yup....but here's the email I got about it all changing over to Zelle on 12/8:
================================
The clearXchange service is becoming Zelle® and is now available through the Zelle mobile app. As part of this transition to Zelle, your profile with clearXchange will be deactivated on December 8, 2017. To continue to receive money after this date, you will need to enroll with Zelle through the Zelle mobile app.

What do I need to do?
To avoid any delays in payments, we recommend that you deactivate your clearXchange profile and enroll with Zelle today. Here's what you need to do:

Log in to www.clearXchange.com - you will be prompted to deactivate your clearXchange profile.
After deactivating, you can download the Zelle app on iOS or Android devices and may enroll using your U.S. mobile number and a debit card linked to a U.S. checking account. You can also add your email address to the Zelle app under Settings.

By enrolling in the Zelle app, you can receive money from (and send money to) millions of people who have access to Zelle through their bank or credit union.

What happens if I don't do anything?
If you do not deactivate your clearXchange profile, your profile will automatically be deactivated on December 8, 2017. You will no longer be able to receive money through clearXchange after this date. If someone sends you money on or after December 8th, and you have not enrolled with Zelle, you will receive a payment notification prompting you to enroll with Zelle to receive your money.

If you have questions about deactivating your clearXchange profile or enrolling with Zelle, you can contact our customer support team at 1-866-839-3488. You can also learn more about this transition to Zelle in our blog post - clearXchange is becoming Zelle.

Thank you,
clearXchange
www.clearXchange.com
===============================
And if you want to see the reviews on Zelle, just go to the Google Play Store, and check out the Zelle App. You'll see the B-A-D reviews for it there.

Bossman:
You obviously read these posts. Why did you skip over my question regarding how long it takes us to get paid? Why are you not even willing to acknowledge that that is an issue for shoppers?

We don't have any changes to announce at this time as it relates payment timing.