Paystack cost me my most valuable client, and I am leaving them for good.

The carelessness of support staff can have serious consequences for an organization and its clients. Whether it’s a customer service representative who doesn’t listen to a client’s problem or a technical support technician who doesn’t follow proper procedures, carelessness can lead to frustration, inconvenience, and even financial loss for those affected.

I started using Paystack in 2022 based on a recommendation. 

This company’s service was great, seamless, and easy to set up. I was so excited coming across it after years of using Interswitch.

My first payment on paystack came in pretty easily. It was paid out to my account without a flinch. It was quite fast and interesting. So were subsequent payments. After that, I got comfortable with paystack as my payment gateway. I heard about other alternatives but felt too lazy to start the registration process from scratch again. 

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Why need a second wife when your wife gives you sweetness from too good to be true service? So I stayed 100% loyal to paystack. 

Until they cost me my most valuable client.

I am not a writer, but I am forced to be one today. This is to show you how I don’t see why customers should suffer at the hands of service providers. While I don’t believe in the saying that “a customer is always right, ” it is true that a customer is king.

If you have a client whose name appears on your accounting books more frequently than your name in your business, then you should know the kind of client I lost. My client made a payment to my paystack account and needed the product/service immediately. 

With the confidence I had in paystack, I didn’t bother to use the funds I had to deliver. I used it to do something else. I waited for hours which turned into days. 

When the payout was kept pending for seven days, I ran out of patience and contacted support. They didn’t respond. I sent out an email. Two days later, I got this response;

Hi there,

Thank you for reaching out to Paystack!

Could you please provide your business ID so we can take a look at

this?

_Your business ID is the 6-digit number on the top-left corner of your

dashboard._

We’ll be on the lookout for your response in order to help out!

Regards,

Linda,

Paystack

I replied instantly. I was already frustrated as my client had also been pushing buttons on my neck. No one responded to me till midnight the next day. Here is what they replied;

Hello Ila,

Thank you for getting back to us.

You have not received your payouts due to a pending business confirmation on your business. Please see copy of mail sent by a member of reviews team a while back.

Hi Team,

Thanks for signing up with Paystack!

While reviewing your business, we were unable to correctly process some documents because:

·   only the details of one business director was uploaded on the Dashboard. As part of our KYC process, we require the details of at least two directors whose names are listed in the CAC document.

You can follow this link to update your information with the details (name, ID, and proof of address) of the second director – https://dashboard.paystack.com/#/compliance

If you’re having any difficulty submitting the compliance documents for your business, please reply to this email and we’d be glad to assist!

I’ll be on standby for an update in order to complete this review.

Warm regards,

Before proceeding, I would like you to understand that I hardly miss emails, calls, or texts.

I am always glued to my phone 24/7. I could swear I never got this email, but let’s even agree I got it and forgot to update my profile. I did the compliance and updated the documents. Still nothing from paystack! 

At this point, my client was already frustrated and left me horrible text messages. Then I got furious and started tweeting to paystack support. I was pissed. A day after, Paystack Twitter support sent me the following DM:

Hi there! I just saw your tweet about your experience with members of our support team and deeply apologize for this.

I just took a look at your business on Paystack and can see that your payouts are on hold due to a pending business confirmation.

I’ll like to help resolve this as quickly as possible. Please can you submit an alternative identification document for #######?

Also, kindly share a valid proof of address for ######## as well. This can be a statement of account that shows their residential address, a utility bill (power or water), a waste management bill for their property etc.

I’ll be on the lookout for your response so I can assist further.

I replied with the documents again via DM, yet they didn’t say a word. I didn’t hear from them again until after a while. Not even an acknowledgment of receipt of the documents. The next i saw all five tickets I opened on their platform, closed with no explanation:

This request was closed and merged into request ###### “pending payout”.

This request was closed and merged into request ###### “pending payout”.

This request was closed and merged into request ###### “pending payout”.

This request was closed and merged into request ###### “pending payout”.

This request was closed and merged into request ###### “pending payout”.

Yet, I am still not paid!

One of the main reasons for this behavior among support staff is often lack of training and supervision. When employees are not properly trained or given clear guidelines for their work, they may be more likely to make mistakes or cut corners. This is especially true in fast-paced or high-stress environments, where staff may feel overwhelmed and not have the time or resources to perform their duties properly. 

If you don’t have the resources, close shop! Don’t subject people to frustration.

Looking at responses and complaints from other people on SM about Paystack’s bad customer support, I finally decided to leave them for something else. As much as we think paystack services are good, if the support is bad, the service is bad itself. At the end of the day, all I’ll get is, “sorry, we apologize for the blah blah blah”. 

What is the fate of my most valuable client? Will they bring him back?

We need to start holding service providers accountable for such nonsense. Invest in customer support or close shop. We can’t rely on you to ruin our small businesses.