If you are a merchant, you already know this: the phone never stops ringing.

Every day, a new company promises you "better rates", "exclusive offers" or "guaranteed savings".

But nobody really explains where all these calls are coming from... and why they are becoming increasingly aggressive.

The reality is simple: the payments industry has become extremely lucrative.

And when an industry is lucrative, it attracts resellers from all over the world.

Today, anyone can present themselves as a "100% Quebec-based" company when in reality they are just reselling the services of giants like First Data, Chase, Global Payments or Elavon.

This is telemarketing, not customer service.

Here's what's really happening:

• There are international call centers that call merchants in rapid succession.
• Resellers use several different company names to appear more credible.
• they deliberately create a sense of urgency or doubt
• They know that most merchants don't understand their statements.
• They take advantage of the ambiguity to sell rigid and rarely advantageous contracts.

Since Desjardins Monético sold all its merchants to Global Payments, the situation has worsened.

About a quarter of the merchants refused to transfer to an American company.

Those who stayed had additional charges added to their bills…

The result: the market has become a huge hunting ground for resellers.