*The first part of our article is our review of Kratom Crazy.*
*For the 2021 Update on Kratom Crazy shutting down, scroll to the bottom*
Unlike lesser-known kratom vendors, Kratom Crazy is a fairly well-known website in terms of places that sell kratom online. We at Buy Kratom Bulk find it interesting to review popular kratom vendors to find out if they’re worth the hype, or just really good at marketing.
At first glance, Kratom Crazy seems to be a pretty good place to buy kratom—a quick Google search shows that it’s on several lists of “the best kratom vendors.” That being said, there are many overrated and underrated kratom vendors out there, and being on a list of top kratom vendors does not necessarily mean a store has the best kratom for sale for the best prices.
To find out if Kratom Crazy is worth its hype, we looked at the company’s website, customer service, customer reviews, transparency, and overall impression to evaluate the kratom vendor. So, without further ado, here’s our completely honest review of Kratom Crazy.
What is Kratom Crazy? The Company at a Glance
An initial inspection of Kratom Crazy’s website sets a positive start for our review. The web design is clean, and it’s easy to navigate its interface. Finding their kratom for sale is also an easy task—they don’t have any hidden menus for kratom as we’ve seen in other kratom vendors. It’s easy to access their kratom strains, kratom extracts, and kratom capsules for sale online.
Although we couldn’t find as much information on the company’s “About” page as we’d hoped, we were pleasantly surprised by the amount of information Kratom Crazy provides for their products. They have a dedicated FAQ section that explains where their kratom comes from—they inform customers that their kratom is sourced from parts of Indonesia or direct from USA wholesale distributors (similar to Buy Kratom Bulk USA wholesale kratom).
Looking at the website, we can already glean insights into the quality of their kratom for sale. We were delighted to find that Kratom Crazy uses the alkaloid percentage of the Kratom to determine whether it is ready to be sold. Each of their Kratom batches is subject to a microbial toxins test and a heavy metals test. They also guarantee a minimum baseline of 1.4% mitragynine in the kratom they sell. Furthermore, instead of focusing on different enhanced strains and infused kratom products, Kratom Crazy has chosen to prioritize classic versions of Kratom, such as the Bali Kratom.
Prioritizing these standard strains is an indication that they are earnest about their authenticity and do not want to play around with different kratom strain names until they’ve got their alkaloid profiles sorted out. We appreciate that by doing this, Kratom Crazy puts quality and customer transparency over marketing.
Kratom Crazy provides options for customers to buy kratom for retail and commercial purposes. Retail customers can purchase good quality Kratom for as low as $19.99. If you’re looking to purchase kratom in bulk, the prices can go as high as $424.99!
Kratom Crazy Product Range
Kratom Crazy is a vendor in the US that supplies premium quality kratom capsules, kratom extracts, and kratom powder. We were surprised to find in our Kratom Crazy review that the vendor has one of the best layouts for their kratom sales pages online.
Whether you go to buy Red Bali kratom, Maeng Da kratom, or any other popular kratom strain for sale there, you’ll find detailed information differences between kratom strains they sell, such as where it grows, its popularity, cost, and forms of the product available, and other details.
Kratom Crazy offers the following product varieties of kratom for sale on their website:
- Kratom powders (100g, 250g, 500g, and 1kg sizes)
- Kratom sample packs (pick 3 strains of kratom powder)
- Split kilo kratom powders (pick two kratom strains)
- Kratom capsules (250mg, 500mg, 750mg, and 1000mg packages)
- Kratom extracts (Green Horn Maeng Da kratom extract,
- Ultra Hush Kratom Liquid Shots (10mL bottles)
- 20:1 Kratom extract
Three of the company’s best-selling products are Maeng Da kratom powder, Red-vein Bali kratom powder, and White-vein Borneo kratom powder. They offer a wide variety of kratom strains available, including the most popular kratom strains like Green Maeng Da kratom and White Borneo kratom. They’re also a good place to buy uncommon kratom strains, such as Green Ketapang kratom, Red Riau kratom, White Sumatra kratom, and Red Betuangie.
Since they lab-test their alkaloids, there’s a good chance their rare kratom strains are actually different in their profiles and drying methods rather than just marketing terms. Other vendors might call a strain “White Borneo” without really knowing how different it is from their White Vietnam kratom.
Kratom Crazy’s Prices
Now that Kratom Crazy’s strain varieties check out as reliable quality, let’s look at their prices. Is Kratom Crazy a good place to buy cheap kratom for good quality?
Kratom Crazy’s kratom powder prices start at $19.99 for 100g. They provide better deals and discounts on kratom if you order more, so if you buy 1kg of kratom, it will cost you $89.99. That breaks down to over a 50% discount! The cost of kratom capsules at Kratom Crazy is $99.99 for 250g of kratom capsules and $217.99 for 1kg kratom capsule packs.
If you want to try a kratom strain before committing to the vendor, you can get a 3-pack kratom sample set for $31.99 and includes Red Bali, Green Maeng Da, and White Borneo kratom strains. When you buy this kratom sample pack, you can pick from three 50g kratom powder packs or 75 kratom capsules for each strain.
You can also buy large bulk quantities of kratom if you want to stock up. Their 5kg kratom powder pack for sale costs $424.99, which is a lot of money to drop at once—but the price per gram of kratom is cheap.
Upon purchasing your first product from Kratom Crazy, you’ll automatically join the Kratom Crazy Club, a customer loyalty program that issues a 5-20% discount on kratom for all future purchases. Overall, Kratom Crazy offers kratom for low prices on their website that are highly competitive.
Kratom Crazy Customer Service
For any brand review, it is essential to know what level of customer service the brand offers. Although offering top-quality customer service is the aim of any reputable kratom vendor, many vendors fall behind on this.
In our Kratom Crazy review of their customer service reputation, we found that they are pretty reliable at answering customer questions and providing support. Not only do they provide a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on their site, but they also allow their customers to send in any queries they have through a contact form available on the site. They claim to answer back within 2-4 hours in working days.
Furthermore, Kratom Crazy allows its customers a full 30-day money-back guarantee on all kratom products. They don’t even ask for the customer’s reason for returning a kratom order, but they do require that the product be returned to them, whether opened or closed. All you have to do is issue your complaint through the contact form and wait for their customer service to respond and make things right.
It’s wise of Kratom Crazy to prioritize customer service as much as their kratom quality, variety of strains, and kratom prices. After all, if you can’t send your customer home happy, why would they return?
The Problem with Kratom Crazy’s Payment Methods
Kratom Crazy’s biggest point of criticism is its payment method. Kratom Crazy has had trouble finding a trustworthy kratom payment service provider and has relied on untrustworthy credit card processors before. The reason why kratom vendors often change their payment processor so frequently is that it’s difficult for kratom to find a safe, legal way to process payments for kratom. Many kratom websites are forced to use an installment processor to accept payment, even though said processors are often glitchy or unsafe.
Customers noticed that Kratom Crazy started accepting credit cards again with few issues, after having a series of problems with their payment processor. Although we don’t know what exactly they changed, their effort to use a safer payment processor ultimately led to why Kratom Crazy shut down, as it announced in November 2020.
2021 Update: Kratom Crazy Ceasing Operations Immediately
In November 2020 and through 2021, Kratom Crazy customers noticed that Kratom Crazy’s website showed a scrolling banner that reads: “Ceasing Operations Effective Immediately.” Many are wondering, is Kratom Crazy shutting down? Why is Kratom Crazy going out of business?
Few people seem to know why Kratom Crazy is shutting down, but information has come to light. Before we get into the specific reasons why Kratom Crazy shut down, let’s discuss the problem of kratom vendors and payment processors.
The Problem with Credit Card Processors and Kratom Vendors
While any other legitimate business can pick from numerous credit card processors, it is much harder for businesses that sell kratom to find reliable payment processing services. Although kratom itself is legal on a national level, it still runs into the following problems with online merchants:
- Kratom is on the prohibited list from Visa and Mastercard
- Banks view kratom as a high-risk industry and won’t issue accounts
Many of these banking problems arose under Operation Choke Point, a program that gave the Department of Justice the power to limit various industries from accessing financial systems. In general, the “high risk” categories that fell victim to this enactment were firearms sales, fireworks sales, tobacco sales, herbs and botanicals, and payday loans.
Frank Keating, President, and CEO of the American Bankers Association, summed up his thoughts on the initiative:
“Operation Choke Point” is asking banks to identify customers who may be breaking the law or simply doing something government officials don’t like. Banks must then “choke off” those customers’ access to financial services, shutting down their accounts.” (WSJ Opinion 2014)
Without the ability to process payments, businesses deemed undesirable—especially online vendors—couldn’t survive. That being said, in August 2017, Operation Choke Point officially ended. The DOJ wrote a letter to congress calling the operation a “misguided initiative.” In their letter, the DOJ stated that they “will not discourage the provision of financial services to lawful industries.”
Although DOJ dismissed and criticized their own program before promising to end it, many feel that the government’s stance on kratom (the FDA and DEA still view kratom as a drug with a high risk for abuse and as a drug of concern, respectively) still discourages banks from working with kratom distributors who still struggle to find ways to safely accept credit card payments, despite being a lawful industry in most states.
Given that the FDA has called kratom a recreational drug of abuse it’s no surprise that many credit card companies won’t work with kratom vendors, despite the kratom sales being legal in all but six states and a handful of counties.
Payment Processors that Accept Kratom Businesses
Payment processors that accept kratom business and other “risky” industries often come with their own share of risks for the cooperating kratom vendor. Often, these independent payment processing companies shut down or suddenly stop serving kratom-related vendors, sometimes withholding funds from kratom businesses.
This is the case that happened in 2021, when Las Vegas-based company T1 Payments “disappeared”, withholding millions of dollars from CBD companies and other botanical vendors. For years, T1 Payments was the kratom industry’s only major credit card processor. When a kratom vendor loses its payment processing, these are the following options the company may take.
- Paypal, Square, Stripe: Merchant accounts like Paypal, Square, and Stripe are known as payment aggregators; they operate using their own underwriting on merchants, separately from regular bank-issued merchant accounts. It’s easier for kratom vendors to open merchant accounts with companies like Paypal and Stripe because they typically don’t do the same analysis as banks do when issuing a merchant account. The downside to this, however, is that their own internal algorithms can flag transactions and account activity, prompting deeper analysis from a human underwriter, who can decide if that account is processing risky transactions. If determined to be the case, it results in permanent termination with a minimum 6-month hold on funds. As a result, many kratom vendors that accept Paypal or other merchant accounts hide the fact that they do. Stripe payment services still restrict numerous businesses that would have been targeted under Operation Choke Point, including kratom.
- Offshore Aggregate Account Offshore aggregate accounts are notoriously risky; they offer a combination of regular domestic merchant accounts and Paypal. To abide by the law, they have to scrutinize every business they work with, and many don’t provide merchants with their own dedicated accounts. International aggregate accounts are the only option for kratom vendors because card schemes are less aggressive on banks in global communities. However, aggregate accounts are almost always fined or shut down, with few overseas aggregators lasting over 6 months before being shut down. Another major downside is that these accounts charge high fees and take a long time to process a payout. It’s a bad deal for kratom vendors, as well as a major risk for losing money—especially when these accounts get shut down and don’t return merchants’ funds.
- Lying to the Bank for a Regular Merchant Account: This is the most profitable option for kratom vendors to take, but it’s illegal. It requires a kratom merchant to apply for a normal payment processing account using a fake website selling goods that are not as risky as kratom. The bank approves the account due to the lack of risk associated with these other legal goods. Then the kratom merchant can process the transactions on their own website. Kratom vendors who take this option tend to use software to try to keep out of the bank’s automation detection tools. They can sometimes get away with it for a while, but they risk being charged with “transaction laundering,” a category of “money laundering” which can result in a felony of up to 30 years in prison.
Why Kratom Crazy Shut Down: Part I
On its website, Kratom Crazy stated that the third option, lying to the bank, “can be most lucrative and worthwhile for a kratom merchant, except for the fact it could be illegal.” They further stated the following:
Some have argued that it is not illegal if the products are legal. This is a fine line and scary thing to gamble with as all that needs to be proven is that the products are marketed and sold illegally. People have been thrown in jail for 30 years with this same principal. So as you guessed it, this option isn’t attractive to many merchants.p
It’s a little ironic that Kratom Crazy covered these topics on their website. Ultimately, when Kratom Crazy lost its payment processor, instead of finding a way to accept customer payments for kratom legally, it opened credit card processing accounts under the name of a fake business.
The FDA found out, that Kratom Crazy, Coastline Kratom, and Best Kratom (all owned by the same person, Joshua Fulton) were all shut down for this reason. Using civil forfeiture powers, the government seized all of the money that Kratom Crazy and the other kratom vendors had in the bank. The three sister companies, Kratom Crazy, Best Kratom, and Coastline kratom had $5.8 million collectively seized from them by the government for opening up credit card processing accounts under false pretenses.
Why Kratom Crazy Shut Down: Part II
The fact that Kratom Crazy shut down is, well, a little bit crazy—the troubles concerning kratom payment methods aren’t the only problems that led to why Kratom Crazy shut down.
The owner of Kratom Crazy, Joshua Fulton, owned and operated several businesses, including not only Best Kratom and Coastline Kratom, but also Proven Peptides, Absorb Health, Sarmsx, and Peak Nootropics.
The FDA does not allow vendors of unregulated botanicals to make any health claims about their products. Vendors of herbal products thus have to be really careful about the phrasing that they use to avoid lawsuits. We looked for health claims in our review of Kratom Crazy and it seemed to check out, but Fulton had problems throughout his other websites, which had medical claims and advertised health benefits from consuming unregulated botanicals.
According to his district court in Pennsylvania, Fulton made claims that his supplements would help with building muscle. He also made claims that his supplements were “not for human use,” despite knowing that people primarily purchased them for use. Among the products he sold were SARMs, synthetic chemicals that mimic the effect of testosterone, and steroids.
SARMs are prohibited for athletes, and the FDA cites SARMs as increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Despite the fact that they aren’t approved by the FDA, Fulton promoted health claims that taking SARMs can help you build muscle.
A Controversial Issue
Many feel that the kratom industry is under attack by the FDA since vendors offering kratom for sale in states where kratom is legal still face the same difficulties finding safe payment processing accounts that they did under Operation Choke Point, which the DOJ itself has called “misguided.”
Kratom vendors aren’t the only ones still suffering from being categorized as high-risk—nonprofits, which were also treated as high-risk, also struggle to process payments, with 42% of nonprofits carrying cash to make up for this
Some view that the kratom industry’s best bet is to start accepting crypto payments, such as bitcoin since they believe that the government won’t do anything to “de-risk” the kratom industry.
So, many may view Kratom Crazy as a victim, posing the question, is it really about credit cards and fraudulent banking? Or is it about getting kratom off the market using any trick in the book? After all, when one company, Nature Therapeutics, was seized for similar reasons as Kratom Crazy, US Attorney Eileen Decker said,
“Kratom is a drug that has very serious health effects on users. We will continue to partner with the FDA to protect the public from the distribution of unapproved and mislabeled substances like Kratom.”
We can’t give you the answer to what’s going on, but one thing is for certain, Kratom Crazy should have played it safer. Joshua Fulton needed to make a concise effort to avoid medical claims for substances that are not FDA-approved—not only for his own sake—but for the future of the kratom industry, its legality, and science-based integrity.
Alternative Places to Buy Kratom
Ultimately, what happened to Kratom Crazy is an example of how important it is for kratom vendors to understand the laws on kratom and how to provide information on kratom in an honest, transparent way without violating the laws. All in all, it is extremely important for kratom vendors to monitor their word choice to avoid getting in trouble with the FDA, but many kratom vendors continue to use medical language on their websites. In the upcoming years, kratom companies that violate these laws will continue to shut down.
In 2021, it remains difficult for kratom companies to find reliable payment processing services to offer kratom for sale to users, but it’s not impossible. Kratom vendors can still find payment processing services, even if they change all the time. If you are looking to buy kratom, Buy Kratom Bulk USA is a good alternative to Kratom Crazy and Coastline Kratom.
We source our kratom directly from farmers in Southeast Asia, and we strive to provide high-quality kratom for sale at low prices. We also strive to avoid making illegal claims about kratom since years back, we actually did run into issues from using words like “benefits” in poor context.
For more kratom brand reviews and kratom facts, visit our kratom blog section. We have numerous kratom brand reviews lined up for you so that you can find the next best place to buy kratom online.
