Heartland Payment Systems

Desventajas

I worked for Heartland for seven years under the "new" compensation plan. This review is written to address the issue of residuals.

When I was recruited I was told by management up and down the chain-of-command that we had two options:
1. You can sell your residuals back to Heartland for 30 months (2 1/2 years) worth of residuals in a lump sum.
2. You can keep your merchants happy and receive lifetime residuals on your accounts - and that this option was a wonderful tool for college planning, retirement, etc. I once sat with Bob Carr at a managers' lunch when he commented that this second option was far more profitable for the employee.

These options were also held up as an excuse for Heartland's lower-than-industry residuals.

When I became a manager, I was trained to recruit by presenting the residuals as life-long as well. "As long as a merchant stays with Heartland, you receive residuals - whether or not you were working with Heartland." That is the beauty of the retirement idea.

I went into semi-retirement in late 2013. I ran the numbers and made my decision based on the decent-but-not-stellar residuals for which I had worked long and hard. Just over a year later Heartland sold all of these residual back to me without my permission or signature - which means that in two years I lose my retirement safety net.

Let me be clear. I did not leave Heartland for another processing or payroll company. I semi-retired into the education sector. I have been honorable and impeccably honest with Heartland. I wish I could say the same for the company that claims to follow its "Salesperson's Bill of Rights."

I'm not naive and have some experience in the world of financial planning. I can say definitively that had I known Heartland would break its word, I would have made different choices during and and at the twilight of my employment.