Protx down again....

[DBurrows]

Since moving to protx it has been a non-stop nightmare. At least once a week you can expect them to go down due to a DDOS attack. These are happening so frequently now it makes implimenting a PSP pointless as we still have to arrange manual transactions with the customer.

Does anyone that uses other PSPs have regular problems like this or is it just Protx that have an unusually high downtime due to attacks?

[Froogle]

Since moving to protx it has been a non-stop nightmare. At least once a week you can expect them to go down due to a DDOS attack. These are happening so frequently now it makes implimenting a PSP pointless as we still have to arrange manual transactions with the customer.

Does anyone that uses other PSPs have regular problems like this or is it just Protx that have an unusually high downtime due to attacks?

I agree I am sick of the downtime

I am looking at Secpay as an alternative

[johking]

This is rather discouraging as about to go live with Protx. Hmm.

DBurrows - when you say you have to arrange manual transactions with your customers, how do you do this?

I am worried that the customer will come to the end of the shopping cart, click the bit that says you are being transferred to Protx, and then nothing happens... How can you get round this? Does the (fed up) customer then have to return to the site and email you? Or do you see somewhere that the transaction has failed and you get in touch with them?

I would be very grateful if you could spell it out for a newbie.

Thanks very much

Jo

[pinbrook]

It seems that all PSPs are targets of DOS attacks.

We use Worldpay, which also has suffered, but over the past year the disruption has been relatvely minor

[shibe]

what kind of billing?

Are you guys doing tangible good transactions or software and content?

[taliesyn]

I have every sympathy with you. We also use Protx, and even though its through no fault of their own, their constant downtime is still a pain in the neck and causes us no end of trouble

If I had the time, I'd look around for another PSP.

Depending on the resolution of the current situation, I guess I may have to.

[DBurrows]

This is rather discouraging as about to go live with Protx. Hmm.

DBurrows - when you say you have to arrange manual transactions with your customers, how do you do this?

I am worried that the customer will come to the end of the shopping cart, click the bit that says you are being transferred to Protx, and then nothing happens... How can you get round this? Does the (fed up) customer then have to return to the site and email you? Or do you see somewhere that the transaction has failed and you get in touch with them?

I would be very grateful if you could spell it out for a newbie.

Thanks very much

Jo

Basically the customer sees the bounce page (you are being transfered..) and then end up with a "Page cannot be displayed" message that looks pretty bad.
Assuming they then press back and try again you end up the a duplicate order (this repeats as many times as they press back and try again). Some customers will then change payment method to complete the transaction,
others will simply leave your store.

In either case we have to contact the customer to apologise and then to manually take payment via our terminal. The idea of using a PSP was to cut down transaction time but with Protx this seems to be the opposite.

[Wedji]

Agreed, the dDOS stuff has been rubbish. This is the second major such event in the last year if I recall. And of course it's not their fault and they've done a lot to work round it, but ultimately you've got to think of your own customer experience and protect your own interests.

Having said that, I've definitely found Protx to be an excellent PSP, coming to them a good two years ago from Worldpay. Their whole product for the merchant as well as the shopper's great. They listened to wish list type requests and brought in a bunch of extra requested features last year and they don't seem to skimp in upgrading and evolving their hardware and software. Having used them for this long I've seen them evolve the already good service. I'd still recommend them.

The dDOS problem - I get around it by switching to manual card capture on the site and use the Protx Virtual Terminal to process. It IS a pain in the butt to not have it totally automated, but I'm happy enough as a customer to stay with them despite the attacks.

I understand the current attack is still ongoing, but as I type the service is working - just a little slow in returning pages. It still works because, apparently, they're using mitigation services in place to filter genuine packets from the crap rather than just roll over and die.

You'll notice I still advocate them despite it apparently being a problem at their end which was screwing up my V7 upgrade recently (another thread about that) and cost me chunks of hair for the last week. I'm STILL happy enough to stick with them for now.

All just my own opinion from using them for quite a time. Make of it what you will :-)

John