The Great American Heist is an exposé of how merchant processing quietly siphons billions of dollars from American businesses every year. As a former executive of one of the world’s largest processors, Robert L. Day reveals the deceptive billing tricks used to overbill merchants - and shows business owners how to keep their profits where they belong.
The Special Edition is written specifically for CEOs and CFOs, with the financial detail and reference tools leadership teams need to read their own processor statements and catch what is being taken from them.
It is the playbook Robert built over a decade on the inside, now in plain language for the rest of us. With a foreword by Kevin Harrington, original Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank, and lessons drawn from work alongside some of the largest companies in the world, it is a rare business book written to put money back in your pocket.
Every copy ordered here is signed by the author and shipped free, with a personal letter and keepsake packaging - finer materials, a soft-touch jacket, made to be kept, not just read. You can buy the book on Amazon for the same price, but that is the standard retail printing, not this edition. Same cost, a far finer book.
My mom called me into a room with my four older siblings crying and asked me to pick who I wanted to live with. My dad was moving out. So, from nine to eighteen (when I joined the Army), I got moved around 19 times. Getting shuffled from one family member to the next, I learned what powdered milk, meat out of a can, and government cheese was.
The lack of money puts intense stress on a family, and I wanted to fix mine, but I was helpless. As I grew up and became a man, I always had a heart for those less fortunate and developed a real passion for those being taken advantage of. I know money is one of the top reasons for divorce, so when I can save a company money, I believe I could be saving a job and a family.
While I was still working on the other side of the aisle, I was flying back home after speaking at a conference in LA. I happened to be seated next to a movie producer. She had just finished the movie The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise. After sharing her exciting profession, she asked me what I did; needless to say, I felt like I had nothing to share. What I do is boring, or so I thought.
After telling her about the lack of regulation and the rampant over-billing and deception, to my surprise, she told me she thought this would make a great, high-suspense movie! “Not likely,” I laughed. But it planted a seed… not just about this book, but the question, “Could I make a difference in this world?”
While sitting in a board room meeting, I had a little bit of a meltdown and said, “I got into banking to make my mother proud; now, I’m getting out of banking because I can no longer tell my mother what I do.” From there, weAudit was born.
I went on the Michael Gerber Show promoting this book in its first form but decided not to release it. I thought there were too many changes each year in the credit card processing industry ever to make a book that would be current. Credit card processors are constantly changing how they overbill merchants. Also, the firm was growing way too fast and took up entirely too much of my time to take on this mammoth project.
I got an opportunity to co-author a book with Steve Forbes and other up-and-coming entrepreneurs. I talked about how many businesses fail because they spend so much time perfecting what they do that they fail to see the competition is creating a whole different product - just like the 8-track to the cassette, then the CD to the jump drive, to the iPod to streaming. In order to survive, you have to keep recreating yourself to meet the demand, and if you have the attitude, “We have always done it this way,” well, that’s the beginning of the end.
Sadly, I see this same thing every day on the merchant processing side. Businesses could reduce their processing fees by up to 40%, and even get money refunded for the deceptive billing that has been going on for years - yet it goes unaddressed. Are they too busy? Or is it because, in many cases, it is not their money? Do they see it as just one more task piled onto an already overworked team member’s plate? I wish I knew. I hate seeing big banks and credit card processors take and keep businesses’ hard-earned profits.
Robert Day and Steve Forbes, Economic Summit in Times SquareThat same year, I was thrilled to share the stage with Steve Forbes, speaking at the Financial Summit in New York.
I got a call from an Amazon representative who, after seeing my first co-authored book, asked if I would be willing to write a book on my own. This would be about telling my story, as well as exposing the corruptive billing practices credit card processors use. After thinking about it for a few months, I decided that as I get closer to retirement, now is the time. If not now, it may never get written. If not me, then who will ever expose them?
It’s finally done. WOW! And while the book is not as massive as many other business books out there, it only took over six weeks to write and over a year to get all the details finalized. I feel good knowing that I walked away from the corruption and have made a difference.
Millions of merchants are overbilled each year, and millions of businesses will most likely never read this book. But, like the old Starfish story, even if most businesses never read this book, it will absolutely matter to the ones that do. My firm saves businesses hundreds of millions of dollars per year, but that is a small dent to the 200 billion dollars that we estimate businesses are being overbilled each and every year. Truly, the most gratifying thing for me is that I think my late mother would be proud of the man I have become.
I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Harrington from the ABC hit show Shark Tank. He’s recently been mentoring me and even agreed to write the foreword to my book. I love what he said after I first told him what I do: “weAudit is the only company that every company needs.” When you consider all the companies he has worked with over the last 30+ years, I could not think of a greater compliment from a more accomplished man than that. I am beyond blessed to have worked with, and been poured into by, two of the most iconic businessmen of the 21st century. What are the odds of getting to work with Steve Forbes and one of the original sharks on Shark Tank? I cannot wait to see what comes next!…
Robert has helped our company save thousands of dollars through the years. This book will be helpful to so many people like me that are not in the banking business and don’t understand the lingo. The book will be an awesome addition to my business library.
Thank you for writing this book to help educate business people so we can all understand the true nature of this segment of the financial industry.
This book is long overdue. If the banks and processors didn’t hate him enough already, they will for sure now!
As a merchant, I am very glad Robert has written this book to help us understand the credit card processing industry and the pitfalls that we face in our daily work. The knowledge gained here will help us better manage our card processing costs.
We have great trust in the service weAudit.com provides Kerusso. Time and time again, they have protected us from overbilling on credit card processing.
weAudit.com was able to decrease the rate we were paying our credit card processor by 1.5% (a 43% decrease), resulting in enormous savings!
I’ve used Robert to help with Kellogg’s, IBM, HP, and now Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Oculus. He sells himself short, but he has a team and resources to help small companies as well as the top five largest in the world! Do not overlook him.
The focus of this book is exposing deceptive billing practices used by credit card processors. By exposing these practices, Robert hopes to help businesses retain their profits. The book can be used as a reference for examining processor statements to help uncover any discrepancies or billing errors.