{"id":21866,"date":"2024-12-12T07:55:39","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T13:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/?p=21866"},"modified":"2024-12-12T07:55:39","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T13:55:39","slug":"shift4-apparently-acquires-eigen-so-more-merchants-can-be-homeless-this-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/12\/shift4-apparently-acquires-eigen-so-more-merchants-can-be-homeless-this-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"Shift4 Apparently Acquires Eigen So More Merchants Can be Homeless This Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We reached out to Eigen and they didn&#8217;t provide comment on the article, but there&#8217;s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shift4.com\/eigen-upgrade\">convenient link<\/a> that would seem to buttress our position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a whistleblower site of sorts, we had a number of Eigen merchants write in to ask for our assistance in parsing some recent Eigen communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These communications, some of which are pasted below, can be summarized as such:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Eigen is increasing rates on its merchants<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>If the merchant moves to Shift4, they &#8220;get value&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Everybody with a brain knows precisely how Shift4 (aka Shaft4) makes money, here&#8217;s how they would explain it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Induce merchant into an agreement<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ensure that <a href=\"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/30\/shift4-should-just-rebrand-to-shaft4-to-be-consistent-with-their-merchant-abuse\/\">the one-sided agreement forces the merchant to waive claims for any damages<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Increase fees on merchant in perpetuity (<a href=\"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/?s=shift4\">unlimited evidence<\/a> if you care to look)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Repeat<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So a merchant can experience a little displeasure with Eigen now, or an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbb.org\/us\/pa\/center-valley\/profile\/credit-card-processing-services\/shift4-0241-235983222\">eternity in hell under Shaft4<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"770\" height=\"514\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.04.45-PM.png?resize=770%2C514&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21867\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.04.45-PM.png?resize=1024%2C684&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.04.45-PM.png?resize=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.04.45-PM.png?resize=768%2C513&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.04.45-PM.png?resize=1536%2C1026&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.04.45-PM.png?resize=370%2C247&amp;ssl=1 370w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.04.45-PM.png?resize=270%2C180&amp;ssl=1 270w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.04.45-PM.png?resize=570%2C381&amp;ssl=1 570w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.04.45-PM.png?resize=740%2C494&amp;ssl=1 740w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.04.45-PM.png?w=1620&amp;ssl=1 1620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are some of those Eigen communications. Note that while they look the same at first blush, the rates are different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Who the hell knows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe they&#8217;re A\/B testing a new greed feature?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We love the consistency though: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Tell the customer they&#8217;re <strong>valued<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Send the communication after the clock has already started on the fee increase (i.e. the communication was sent in December for a fee increase starting in&#8230; December)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mention all the great table stakes &#8220;features&#8221; the merchant will get from Shift4 <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Completely gloss over how hard the merchant will almost assuredly get boned given Shift4&#8217;s precedents. If the merchant thought 5 bps and $150 was high, boy are they in for a surprise<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"743\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.07.52-PM.png?resize=743%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21868\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.07.52-PM.png?resize=743%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 743w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.07.52-PM.png?resize=218%2C300&amp;ssl=1 218w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.07.52-PM.png?resize=768%2C1058&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.07.52-PM.png?resize=370%2C510&amp;ssl=1 370w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.07.52-PM.png?resize=270%2C372&amp;ssl=1 270w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.07.52-PM.png?resize=570%2C785&amp;ssl=1 570w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.07.52-PM.png?resize=740%2C1020&amp;ssl=1 740w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.07.52-PM.png?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 743px) 100vw, 743px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"729\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.08.18-PM.png?resize=729%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21869\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.08.18-PM.png?resize=729%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 729w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.08.18-PM.png?resize=214%2C300&amp;ssl=1 214w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.08.18-PM.png?resize=768%2C1079&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.08.18-PM.png?resize=370%2C520&amp;ssl=1 370w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.08.18-PM.png?resize=270%2C379&amp;ssl=1 270w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.08.18-PM.png?resize=570%2C801&amp;ssl=1 570w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.08.18-PM.png?resize=740%2C1040&amp;ssl=1 740w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.08.18-PM.png?w=874&amp;ssl=1 874w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 729px) 100vw, 729px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The best part is that Shift4 doesn&#8217;t even wait to increase fees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just look at how they rolled out<a href=\"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/10\/shift4-cranks-fees-on-givex-merchants-while-ink-dries-on-acquisition-paperwork\/\"> their fee increases after buying Givex<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And don&#8217;t get us started on the <a href=\"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/14\/rip-revel-let-the-feasting-being\/\">Revel merchants who are reporting fee increases<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eigen merchants need to start scouring the streets for empty petroleum barrels before it gets much colder: they&#8217;re going to need them to keep a hobo fire going for the Yuletide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We reached out to Eigen and they didn&#8217;t provide comment on the article, but there&#8217;s a convenient link that would seem to buttress our position. As a whistleblower site of sorts, we had a number of Eigen merchants write in to ask for our assistance in parsing some recent Eigen communications. These communications, some of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p81nA2-5GG","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/reformingretail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Screen-Shot-2024-12-07-at-1.08.18-PM.png?fit=874%2C1228&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21866"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21923,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21866\/revisions\/21923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reformingretail.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}