The World Is A Mess

 Many thoughts come to mind when I think of all the hate and evil that's now in this world. It's as if we are coming to the end of life here on earth. In no time has such divisive action merited such course and recourse. 

However, I am not afraid. Truly, I am calm. I know I can protect my son and wife. I am not afraid. I can be the monster needed to make it in this world, and I have a lot of monster friends. 

It's been a real joy living this life, so much I've been able to explore. So many wondrous things I've seen and shared with those I love. Hoping it doesn't end, but ok if it does. 

I'm about to embark on my most dangerous adventure to date. A path of unity, of faith, and of change. All the marbles are in on this one, and God will decide on if this is the right path or not. 

Until next time my friends... 

Flagship Merchant Services Review - Terrible Service, High Fees and Delayed Payment

Terrible Service, High Fees and Delayed Payment

It is amazing to me that I'm now 0 for 2 when it comes to processing transactions for my Live Action Products business. What started out as fast service, great processing and seemingly low fees has turned into a nightmare.

Payments - 

At first I would get my batched transactions in a timely manner (under 48 hours) but then it was over 48 hours... then over 72 hours and some I didn't see for up to 7 days... 7. Ya, how do you pay for things people order when you don't have the money for up to 7 fricken days. That was unacceptable. 

Fees - 

Setup was easy but then I started to see $50+ in end of month fees that I A. Couldn't figure out what transactions they were for and B. it seemed as though they would hit my account at different times. This caused overdrafts and bank fees. Turns out when I closed my account today I was unknowingly getting charged a $35/month non compliance fee though my site was secure and all data was passed for taking cards. Furthermore, no one called me about this, no emails... nothing.. it was just rolled into my monthly end of month fees that I couldn't figure out. 

Service - 

On hold for 20-45 minutes per call when something is wrong or you have a question... all the time. Again, sales is lightning fast to set you up but support is "we'll get back to you when we feel like it". Sorry flagship... that won't do. 

After constant delays, high fees and no service I'm done. I would warn anyone to stay away from flagship. Ive been retailing online since 2002 and the last 2 merchant providers have been the worst I have ever dealt with.  

I'm now with securenet and they seem to be ok thus far.

Live through the broken wings.

Some people ask, some people wonder... I fail... a lot. What makes me different is though I rage and spin out of control... I won't give up. I refuse to let others tell me I can't. You can bend and break me, I'll lose it but I'll also dust myself off and stand taller after.

Life... the greatest adventure starts from within. Some have the drive, some don't. I have to move on. I have to keep going up or fail trying. I just can't stand in a holding pattern forever.

Don't just live... survive.

Personal Blog Views

Just a short note to say thanks for those who are viewing my blog!

I can't understand why you'd want to read this stuff but anyway...

Thanks!

Evolution Bankcard Merchant Services Review *Bad news*

I couldn't find a place for a review so I'm writing one in my personal blog... I've been running webstores since 2002 and have used a number of different merchants. I wanted to report on one that I hated but couldn't find a good place to submit to.

When I signed up they looked like they had good rates and awesome tracking but as I went through the process it became a nightmare and even shut down my store for a few hours. 

It took forever to get through underwriting and emails back and forth. Was unclear when I was approved or what else was needed. Signed up as bankcard but then everything else as Commerce Payment Group which is confusing and frustrating. I called many times, sometimes I was on hold for up to 20 minutes and couldn't get a good response on things. The tracking never worked and everything had additional steps. I signed up with Flagship (a competitor) in like 5 minutes and was ready to go the next day and always got a hold of someone right away. 

I do not recommend this company.

Negative posts to larp on youtube To Arms!!!

Caution - contains swears -
I usually just wipe dumb comments from the youtube videos but sometimes I get mad about the comments that are left. This is one of those times... in our crude but helpful video below -

and the offensive user posting was - bboyPhatPat who posted this:

holy shit nerd fucking central i thought going airsofting was a little nerdy but this shit right here makes airsofting look badass as fuck lmao jesus

I'm sick of people who leave comments like this. If you don't like something don't watch or search it. Coming in and ripping on someones past time is such a waste of energy.

So on this one I'm calling larpers to arms! Go to this guys youtube channel and dislike his 20 some odd videos. We are a force and have thousands of members... 

let's see how many dislikes we can get. 

Pirate flag and an Island girl....

http://youtu.be/IqIRpnsUvP4

we need something modern like this with a larp adventure wrapped in it so it looked cool not an ounce of dork in it...

Ya I know what we do is geeky but as I said in other posts...it doesn't have to be. We want the epic people who can run games that are not nerdy or dorky... those who make you feel like you are really in the adventure and you'll just sit back and remember that time till the end of time... 

I try and raise the bar... I'm not a nerd... I'm not a geek...I'm a Larper... look at me wrong and I'll bust ya in the chops lol... ok a little extreme but I think you get my drift... we always complain about not getting enough people to games... well ya... step back and look at your games... what image do you portray? If the image is too far away from your target market (errhmmm... more people) then you might have a problem. 

Point is we need to keep it fun but always try and raise the bar. Everyone can do it differently but I can tell ya, I'm not going to be satisfied until my games have hundreds of people in them. When we get a thousand entries... I'll die happy.