BigCommerce Dropping VCS Support Across All S.A. Stores

[akuma]

I've been pulling my hair out over a week to get this right. I'm posting this for the benefit of any of you that have stores on BC. It looks like we need to rally to get the attention of BC's devs/engineers/management to pick up and offer support for VCS again. There is a thread here on their forums.

Update: Vote here (registration required) for VCS support to be reimplemented by BC.

Here's a summary of my efforts:

---

Subject: Adding VCS.co.za as a Payment Gateway

Reasons for contact

- the client would like to use the (Virtual Card Services, based here in South Africa) they also know of several S.A. based companies that use BC and parse payments through vcs.co.za, so it's definitely possible. One of them is www.**********.co.za

** BigCommerce:

Proposed Solution:

Hello L******,

Unfortunately we no longer allow customers to connect their stores to Virtual Card Services. It was deprecated from our list of available gateways. If B********* is using their service, then it is because they were connected to the service before we deprecated it from our list of payment gateways.

If you have any further questions about this issue, you can reply directly to this email.
Have a good day.

** Me:

THIS IS DEEPLY UPSETTING AND UTTERLY UNACCEPTABLE. I've spent the LAST 2 MONTHS developing a store on BC with the understanding that I could use VCS as a payment gateway like so many other South African based BC stores. If I can't then it renders my whole store useless. I need someone to re-enable VCS as a payment gateway option otherwise it will have all been a waste of time and you'll lose me as a customer. I'm begging you: PLEASE.

Regards,
- L******

** BigCommerce:

Hello L******,

I definitely understand your frustration. Unfortunately we have decided to no longer continue to work with Virtual Card Services for new clients. We don't have a way to change that fact, but we do have several payment gateways that work in South Africa. You can choose from any of the following:

2Checkout
Authorize.net
eSELECTplus
eWay Australia
NAB
PayPal Payflow Pro
Sage Pay/ Protx
VSP Form
Skrill
WorldPay

If you have any other questions regarding this issue, please reply to this email directly.
Have a good day.

** Me:

Hello,

That does not help me!

I use VCS as a gateway because they support Secure 3DS card authentication from the major banks here in South Africa, which is a prerequisite to avoid fraud liability (rampant here) with the merchant services that we utilise for our online store.

The options you've presented are no good for this. They're general gateways that don't cover these specific requirements.

Also, can you please explain to me why VCS is still listed here (2nd last option):

https://developer.bigcommerce.com/api/payments/payment_method

vcsdivertccform Virtual Card Services (Hosted)

... if it's no longer supported?

Could you not, at the very least, contact VCS and help them develop a plugin or app that would re-enable gateway support for BigCommerce?

Please let me know.

Regards,
- L******

** Me:

Hello,

I have spoken to VCS and they have said that they're willing to work with BigCommerce to reimplement gateway support.

Can you please let me have some positive input in this matter?

Thanks and regards,

- L******

** BigCommerce

Hi L******,

Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately that payment gateway was deprecated in our system in 2015. Stores already using this Payment Gateway are allowed to continue using them but it is not available to be setup as a new payment gateway in a store. There is no way for us to change or revert this as this was an engineering and development decision last year. Eventually even that option will go away for those stores using it as well.

---

Then I had the following exchange over live chat this morning:

Thank you for contacting Bigcommerce. My name is Christie, how may I help you?
( 19s ) L******: Hello,
( 21s ) Christie R: Hello L******!
( 34s ) L******: I see that you offer the following options as payment gateways on BC:
( 36s ) L******: * 2Checkout * Authorize.net * eSELECTplus * eWay Australia * NAB * PayPal Payflow Pro * Sage Pay/ Protx * VSP Form * Skrill * WorldPay
( 1m 20s ) L******: I'd like to know if Sage Pay covers support of Sage Pay South Africa, which is where I'm based: https://sagepay.co.za/
( 2m 33s ) L******: The reason I'm asking because I'm still getting no joy from a previous support ticket I opened #02622779 and I need to find alternatives.
( 2m 44s ) Christie R: I see.. I will be checking on that for you
( 3m 14s ) Christie R: As I do know how important this is for you. But first, may I verify if this is for the store: http://*********.mybigcommerce.com/ ?
( 3m 20s ) L******: Correct
( 4m 41s ) Christie R: Thanks L******! Please do allow me a few minutes to check on this...
( 4m 46s ) L******: Sure
( 5m 18s ) Christie R: Thanks L******!
( 9m 16s ) Christie R: I appreciate the patience L******!
( 10m 6s ) L******: No problem
( 11m 19s ) Christie R: Upon double checking this SagePay in this article, it seemed it is not yet covering South Africa: http://screencast.com/t/iCeTZyE3
Sorry for the inconvenience though...
https://support.bigcommerce.com/articles/Public/Available-Payment-Gateways
Please do check that support article to find other alternatives you can use that is connected/available to your country...
( 14m 1s ) L******: I see. That's annoying, it means that my only option is 2Checkout. If you look here: http://www.2checkout.co.za/ clicking sign up reroutes to here: https://www.2checkout.com/checkout/purchase
( 16m 6s ) L******: I'm still hoping BigCommerce comes to its sense and resumes support for my existing service provider Virtual Card Services: https://developer.bigcommerce.com/api/payments/payment_method (2nd option from the bottom)
( 17m 25s ) Christie R: I see... It would be nice to voice out your concern as well in the forums where our engineers and management can see your suggestion/idea about this concern
( 18m 11s ) Christie R: Of course, I will also take note of your situation of this case since I do understand the frustration you have when there are not much option for you in the settings..
( 18m 40s ) L******: I have been in constant contact with VCS and they have told me that their developers have been trying in vain to contact BC to try to resume support. They have many BC clients that depend on their services as well.
( 19m 35s ) L******: I AM VERY FRUSTRATED. I HAVE SPENT 2 MONTHS DEVELOPING A NEW SITE WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT VCS WAS SUPPORTED. Now I've been told "too bad" and not given any more options. Frankly, it's not good enough.
( 20m 47s ) Christie R: I see.. I do apologize for the inconvenience L******... I do hope there'd be more options for you about this payment gateway issue... For now, what we can do is file a feature request for the integration or/and post this concern in the community forums https://forum.bigcommerce.com/s/ as a suggestion...
( 22m 8s ) L******: Yes, please do so + tag my account for updates on the matter.
( 22m 52s ) L******: Also, if you can escalate the issue to the attention of the relevant parties to action a solution, that would be very much appreciated.
( 26m 6s ) Christie R: I see... As of now even if I escalate this ticket to our senior support, they may not have much to do for you since it is the management and the engineers that work together with regards to integrations with Bigcommerce. That is why it is best to file a feature request and/or go to the forums to voice this out...
( 28m 31s ) L******: Okay. Keep in mind that VCS is currently still in use as legacy support for the accounts that signed up when it was an option. If it's discontinued, that will cause an outcry and I have it on good authority that there are many South African stores on the BC platform. Please post a detailed entry and let the community know appropriately.
( 30m 42s ) Christie R: I will be supporting that L******! And you can go and post it as well in there for others to see, that a lot of people are actually wanting VCS in the payment gateway.. If the suggestion/ideas come from the clients itself, then it is much more attention-grabbing for developers/engineers/management~ But no worries, I will be taking note of what you said, word by word...
( 31m 7s ) L******: Many thanks.
( 31m 37s ) Christie R: Thanks for your kindest patience and understanding L******...
( 32m 11s ) Christie R: And I do apologize for the inconveniences this has caused you and your fellow merchants in South Africa..
( 32m 57s ) L******: As long as the cloud has a silver lining eventually.
( 35m 16s ) Christie R: Yeah, I agree
( 35m 40s ) Christie R: With that though, would there be anything else I could possibly assist you for today?
( 35m 55s ) L******: No thanks, please keep me posted on discussed developments.
( 36m 42s ) Christie R: If there are any progress or new updates about Payment Gateways, all merchants will be informed through email...
( 37m 33s ) Christie R: Again, thanks again for your patience in this L******! I bid farewell for now and I do pray that you'll get what you wanted and requested sooner than we think! Have a magnificent day!
( 37m 51s ) L******: You too, cheers.

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[neo_]

Wow, I would die. And they don't even provide an adequate reason as to why VCS is no longer supported? That's just bad business...

My email account and I have been waiting for that [seemingly, maybe] inevitable email from Stripe. Hoping like hell they release in SA with 3DS support.

 

[akuma]

Wow, I would die. And they don't even provide an adequate reason as to why VCS is no longer supported? That's just bad business...

It is and the worst part is they're willingly dropping clients as a result. It doesn't make any sense to lose money from extra users when you could be allocating part of it to keeping them.

 

[halfmoonforever]

Er....

https://wordpress.org/plugins/cart2cart-bigcommerce-to-woocommerce-migration/

There you go. Now move over to Woocommerce and don't worry about the months of development you put in, add your choice of payment gateway and be done with it. They obviously don't want your business

 

[halfmoonforever]

It is and the worst part is they're willingly dropping clients as a result. It doesn't make any sense to lose money from extra users when you could be allocating part of it to keeping them.

You'd be surprised. 80/20 rule applies here. 80% of your business comes from 20% of the clients. 80% of support requests comes from 20% of your clients (which is usually 20% of your business). I did a study on that a few years back.

If they dropped support for something you use/want to use and they allow current clients to keep using it before the decision then there is a clear strategy in the background and the amount of VCS users are probably less than what you think they are. Ive worked for a company that had so many issues with 11 clients (out of the almost 9000 they had) because they kept supporting 1 specific product no one except them bought. Eventually exco decided to discontinue the product even though the remaining clients were very vocal about it.

At the end of the day, if it costs you more to support/maintain than what you make from it, business decision needs to be made to focus your efforts on where the money is, instead of keeping the small amount of people who might want to use it, happy.

 

[akuma]

Er....

https://wordpress.org/plugins/cart2cart-bigcommerce-to-woocommerce-migration/

There you go. Now move over to Woocommerce and don't worry about the months of development you put in, add your choice of payment gateway and be done with it. They obviously don't want your business

Thanks, I'll keep that on the back-burner. VCS will be notifying their various BC customers of developments with a call to action; I want to see how that pans out first.

 

[akuma]

At the end of the day, if it costs you more to support/maintain than what you make from it, business decision needs to be made to focus your efforts on where the money is, instead of keeping the small amount of people who might want to use it, happy.

Yes, I am aware of the practicalities behind the Pareto Principle. It doesn't explain why BC don't allow payment gateways to offer support to their clients via an app. There would be little-to-no cost on the part of BC, aside from publishing updates to the developer section of their site, which they do already for a bunch of other apps.

 

[halfmoonforever]

Yes, I am aware of the practicalities behind the Pareto Principle. It doesn't explain why BC don't allow payment gateways to offer support to their clients via an app. There would be little-to-no cost on the part of BC, aside from publishing updates to the developer section of their site, which they do already for a bunch of other apps.

The cost comes in the form of support and maintaining the API (development) required to use the gateway. If it was as easy as just giving people the ability, then they would literally support any payment gateway out there.

 

[akuma]

The cost comes in the form of support and maintaining the API (development) required to use the gateway. If it was as easy as just giving people the ability, then they would literally support any payment gateway out there.

Fair point. There's also the obvious security risk of allowing any gateway. That means the only reasonable hope for resumed VCS support is sufficient numbers requesting it.

 

[JackWhite]

I too have been setting up shop with BC and only recently realised VCS is no longer there. It seems a bit too late to turn back now and thus I am seeking other alternatives within BC. Has anyone managed to get the Paypal Payflow Pro working? There isn't much documentation for us SA's and so far everything requires a US billing address

 

[akuma]

I too have been setting up shop with BC and only recently realised VCS is no longer there. It seems a bit too late to turn back now and thus I am seeking other alternatives within BC. Has anyone managed to get the Paypal Payflow Pro working? There isn't much documentation for us SA's and so far everything requires a US billing address

2Checkout are the only option for S.A. customers at the moment. They are my current fallback option, despite not being ideal.

 

[JackWhite]

2Checkout are the only option for S.A. customers at the moment. They are my current fallback option, despite not being ideal.

I applied at 2checkout, however they require dropshipper agreements for the products I wish to sell. I do not have these in place.

 

[halfmoonforever]

I too have been setting up shop with BC and only recently realised VCS is no longer there. It seems a bit too late to turn back now and thus I am seeking other alternatives within BC. Has anyone managed to get the Paypal Payflow Pro working? There isn't much documentation for us SA's and so far everything requires a US billing address

That's a psychological state, most commonly known "The Sunk Cost Fallacy" (https://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/03/25/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/)

Instead of choosing something that is better for you, you're emotionally invested in making this work, and will stick with it even though it costs you more time and money to make work.

 

[JackWhite]

Well the Paypal thing is a dead end. BigCommerce only allows the Payflow Pro account for ZAR, and Paypal only allows US citizens to have a Payflow Pro account. The two conflict and BigCommerce don't give a damn.

 

[Thor]

Never liked BigCommerce @ all

I tend to use a CMS that integrates with payfast

 

[JackWhite]

Does anyone know anything about I-Pay? Its mentioned on the BC thread but I don't see it as payment options.

 

[akuma]

Does anyone know anything about I-Pay? Its mentioned on the BC thread but I don't see it as payment options.

http://instanteft.i-pay.co.za/paymentplugins/bigcommerce < I've just contacted them, waiting on a reply.

 

[JackWhite]

Have also requested information from them. I have no hope that bigcommerce will come through anytime soon so for the mean time am moving over to shopify.