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Heartland Filing Contradicts Its Own Statements About Abandoning Retail Customers

Written by Evan Schuman
November 4th, 2009
Proving that there's never anything so bizarre in payment security circles that some vendor can't upgrade it to surreal, Heartland Payment Systems and VeriFone this week issued dueling news releases. Each accused the other of either stealing intellectual property or trying to abandon Heartland's retail customers.

That was bizarre. But when Heartland issued a statement that directly—almost word for word—contradicted its own legal filings, the situation took an Alice In Wonderland twist that makes retail tech worth covering.

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3 Comments | Read Heartland Filing Contradicts Its Own Statements About Abandoning Retail Customers

  1. Alex Says:

    The first reaction that you have is that ‘when it rains it pours’ for Heartland and that they seem to be having a lot of bad luck, but then you think about it a bit more and you have to wonder about decision making…

    It seems like the problems that they are having lately are largely self-inflicted through poor or poorly thought-out decisions.

    I also don’t think it helps things when Bob decides that he’s going to be the one that comes out to discuss the problems, because he seems very focused on blaming anyone and anything for Heartland’s mistakes.

  2. Brian Says:

    I agree with Alex. Heartland has some real risk management issues, which have led to some really poor decisions. Not only did they improperly address PCI compliance by using a checklist approach, rather than a risk-based approach (Note to Heartland: Compliance is not security!); They’ve completely ignored the fact that they have a heavy reliance on a key supplier and they could find themselves out on the street if they alienate them, especially when that supplier is also a competitor.

  3. Tom Anderson Says:

    Bob Carr has developed a personality cult among his employess. However, he is finding that outsiders do not buy into his claims. And yes, I agree with above, all Carr does is play the blame game. I also am learning that Heartland has other internal problems as well. Their employee email system is as porous as a fish net. Their sales force is demoralized and underpaid and their service center is extremely disorganized. I also understand that that Heartland field techs are disatisfied and severly underpaid.

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