iPayment

My experience with iPayment has been horrible. After numerous failed attempts to work with iPayment, I gave up and cancelled my service with them. The next month, they billed me a cancellation fee of $350 and over drafted my checking account. I had a month to month contact that did not have a cancellation fee.

When I called to complain, the rep advised me that most of their contracts are for 36 months and have cancellation fees therefore their system automatically bills the fee regardless of what your contract states. (She said she could see the notes on the contract indicating there was no cancellation fee). They do not care how much inconvenience or embarrassment they cause you. Do not give them access to your checking or you will be sorry.

iPayment Incompetence Supports Internet Fraud.

In August of 2001, my small business received an order for $3,400 worth of our goods. This was a larger order than usual and received as welcome for the usual reasons. That's what we're in business to do: to sell and to grow.

We had employed iPayment as our credit card processor of choice from earlier in the year and to this time they had been performing as desired. This order came with the unusual instruction to use a particular shipper: Somotexz Freight, who we had never heard of, and this order was to be shipped overseas for a designated $3,700 and so the red flags came up. I found that we could make the same shipping via USPS at a much lower rate.

And so began our communications with iPayment that this was a transaction to monitor and record carefully. I began doing so. We went in to this with our eyes open. The transaction proceeded accordingly and the goods were shipped. My further investigation of this Somotexz Freight verified our concerns and so we withheld part of their payment in abeyance for future developments. They came to much unhappiness with us for not following their shipping instructions. That I had saved them money in the shipping was not acceptable. I even received communications from the receiving address (in New Zealand) that they had received our packages and What is this for!? They had no idea, but further related that they had been beneficiaries of mysterious and expensive goods for some long time. I have no doubt that handing our products over to whatever Somotexz representative would have resulted with these being in a dumpster somewhere.

And then the difficulties with iPayment began. They demanded all of the sale money to be returned to them on behalf of the card issuer. They would disclose nothing further to us. iPayment proceeded with a forced withdrawal from our bank account of all of the funds, which overdrew the account at that time. This was no concern to iPayment.

I submitted a complete transcript of our communications history with this customer to iPayment for their supposed Dispute Resolution through their Risk Management department.

A month or so went by with no communications and then suddenly iPayment made another forced withdrawal of the approximate $7,000 overdrawing our account again, of course! I tried and tried to get in touch with iPayment to little avail until I did eventually receive a return call and I told the representative what had happened. Eventually the money was returned, without recognition of the over-drafting and damage to our credit.

Another long month passed without any communication. During this time the fraudsters proceeded to cover their tracks by hacking our e-mails, resulting in these being summarily shut down by MSN. No communication from Microsoft, of course.

Now we are over 3 months along and then another forced withdrawal of $7,000 from our account! All of our phone calls were either ignored or answered by an iPayment rep who denied any and all of the previous transactions history.

We were now approximately $12,000 in cash deposit to iPayment and they again would not even return our phone calls. We had been as patient as possible in support of whatever process they had as we wanted to contribute to the collection of these fraud perpetrators. By now our hope of doing so was growing dim. I had submitted all of our information to IC3 which turns out to be of no value whatsoever. The FBI is not interested in this small transaction. So we are learning that this is the environment in which fraud is enabled by current enterprise internet SOP. I am absolutely certain that these perpetrators are still in operation right now.

And so iPayment is an enabler of such fraud. They have conducted any meaningful investigation and have not made any solution of this matter. Their methods are evidently disconnected. They make withdrawals as they desire without any internal coordination. Whether their contribution is by misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance makes no material difference. They support internet fraud by their lack of competence.

And so this is where we are right now: months and months of trying to be supportive only to be repeatedly slammed by iPayment with no end in sight.

My husband and I own a small business and opened an account with iPayment in April. First of all we had our own credit card machine and they charged $300 to our account for it! It didn't belong to them. How can they charge us for it? We noticed all the fees they were hitting us with, so in October we closed the account. We were told that within 10-15 days the $350 cancellation fee would be deducted. It took over a month until they took it. Now, even though the account has been closed over a month and a half, they just took $300 out of our account for a PCI compliance "annual" fee! They will not give us any answers and refuse to refund the money. Please don't ever get with this company, they are horrible!

2. I was told when I finally did get it closed, there would be no more charges.

Six weeks later, I was charged a $350 cancellation fee. "There are none mentioned in my contract." I signed up with them (as they were advertised on my web hosting site, "Fat Cow") because there were no fees for cancelling and low rates (ha ha)! I was charged triple what I even made from my sales in the six months I had their services. Three months were spent trying to get rid of them.

I never faxed my application to iPayment. Yet, it was approved. I was issued a merchant ID and charged a statement fee. I never activated this account! The person who misled/lied to me was Robert ** at **. When I called to cancel, I was never made aware of any cancellation fees (no problem, as I never activated the account, right?). $350.00 was taken out of my checking and I was charged $28.00 overdraft fee! Customer service advised me it may take up to 30 days for a refund! Do not even consider using iPayment!

I signed up for Google and canceled it the same day. Merchant Bank (iPayment) processed my account anyway and deducted $350.00 from my checking account this past week which I did not authorized. I called them and Efron said it was cancelled and I would get a refund in 3-5 days.

iPayment has put a collection agency on me to collect $99.95 from last January and February for "Annual fees" of $49.95 each month. I never received a bill, notice or any communication from them. There were no charges to my account and they now claim I owe them $149.95 for different reasons. I've talked to them and they cannot provide any clear answers to my questions on this matter and cannot provide a contract that indicates there is a commitment. In the ten years I was doing online transactions, there were intermittent charges to my account and only once was there an annual fee. This is totally confusing and appears that they just randomly charge me whenever they feel like it. I am still working on this and will let you know the outcome. So far, I'm very displeased with their actions.

I spoke to the guy William at iPayment as well. I had been processing with them for over a year, and had (and still have) no chargeback, none! Not one or two . . . none. I literally have a 0% chargeback rate. Most of my clients I have been working with for 5 years or longer. In November, at the height of my business' busy season, iPayment decided to suspend my account (and hold my funds for 180 days) because I was in William's exact words: "A high risk merchant". I laughed at first because I thought he was joking, and I mentioned to him that I had a 0% chargeback rate in the 19 months I had been processing with them. He said that didn't matter, and that my business model (I'm an online business consultant and help new and existing business owners get their businesses online or enhance their business presence online) was "risky" as he put it.

They of course dipped into my bank account for an additional $500 which they claim was to hold a "reserve" in the event of any chargeback, and as I mentioned I have a 0% chargeback rate! I told my clients what transpired, and they all agreed it was crazy. I of course, did the work my clients requested me to do at no charge to them, since they had already "paid" me via credit card and iPayment held the funds, but I wasn't about to penalize my clients for my processors insane actions. Instead, I went back to my old processor, who accepted me with open arms, and even matched the rates that iPayment was giving me, since it was the reason I left them in the first place. Avoid processing with iPayment at all costs. If you go through a merchant service provider, ask them who their processor is, and if they tell you it's iPayment, ask them to set you up with a different processor. You do have a choice.

iPayment is evil and full of deceit and lies! Avoid them! They charge super high annual pci compliance fees ($129), and then extra monthly fees for not passing their BS pci-compliance tests which they outsource. They did not notify me of my compliance. It was only after a few months, I noticed I was being charged extra fees every month (no explanation on the statement). So I called to find out why. They cannot explain to me why I didn't pass or how I could fix it. That I had to hire an IT person to interpret the garble on their report.

After complaining about their process and lack of communication, they finally told me I would be getting a refund for all the extraneous charges. I waited 7-10 business days and nothing came into my acct. I called back and spoke to a different person, and they too then promised me I would get my refund in 7-10 business days. I waited 2 weeks and nothing happened, so I called back again today and was told there was no record of any previous refund requests! After becoming irate, I demanded to speak to a supervisor and was told that there were none in today, that I would have to leave a voice mail.

I demanded a phone number and person, not a voicebox. after I had to yell and curse at the guy on the phone, "miraculously" the supervisor was able to get on the phone. I have now talked to the customer care supervisor Dan ** who again assures me that the charges are going through, but they offer no written documentation that this is actually happening. No receipt, no tracking number. I am just waiting for this credit to actually come into my account before I close my account. I keep my fingers crossed that they do not dip into my account after it is closed (as i have read other stories here). Do nt work with iPayment! If you are in with them, I would suggest moving to another provider as soon as you can, because it is only a matter of time that they will rip you off. I am extremely irritated that I have been strung along and lied to multiple times.

We had a large credit card sale of 23k. I had set it up with the customer that she would probably be receiving a call from my merchant account to verify the transaction. However, when iPayments risk management called, they not only wanted the invoice, and to contact the customer but also 3 months of my bank statements showing I had a balance of 23k at all times. If not, they would hold the money for 180 days.

I'm a small business; I don't have that kind of funds so I requested the transaction cancelled as well as my account closed (I left a message for Julie, emailed and sent a letter). I received a message from Julie that she would take care of it. Imagine my surprise when my customer called to state that they did not cancel the transaction and that she was being charged interest. I called Julie and she claimed never to have left that message (I have her message saved). She declined my offer to replay it. Now I'm waiting for the Risk management to return my call, after reading about other people's bad experiences I'm not hopeful.

This has been a customer service nightmare as well as I will be on the hook for any and all interest my customer is charged until I can get this matter resolved. She will not pay us the money that is due now because of this issue (which is understandable). I don't have to tell you all that cash is king and the subs that are working on this project will expect payment.

They pulled our PCI compliance certificate a month early then charged us for being non-compliant. Plus, they charged us for another year for PCI compliance. We faxed all our company certificates from McAfee that we hired to get our PCI compliance back. Yet, they refuse to refund our money. We filed a complaint with the BBB and they promised our fees back. But they still have not honored that.

My personal experience was they charged nearly FIVE PERCENT on all cards, they'd randomly insert extra fees ( oh, but they say you could have opted out IF you'd known/ been notified about them) and my personal favorite: Sending a letter with no date, to tell you about a pile of fees you were liable for in the two months previous . Mind you, this letter comes AFTER those months have passed, so there's nothing you can do to get rid of the fees. They'll tell you "It's in your contract. Too bad."

i am a small business owner in texas. my company opened in 2001. i have been with the same credit card processor for the past 8 years to which i have never had a single dispute. over the years my company has grown somewhat and was soon going over the monthly limit that my processor had originally set up. i thought this was a good thing for them since there making 4 1/2 percent off every transaction anyways.

in november last year (2008) we had closed out a large batch to the tune of about $26,000 dolloars however, not near as much as we had closed out the month before which they had no problem with. a few days later i recieved a call from mark with the risk management dept wanting copies of all the invoices, customer names and phone numbers. this was no problem since all the transactions are from just a few of the larger companies i deal with.

throughout the next week we were doing business as usual and had closed out another $5000 or so. after another few days had past. i was informed they would be hold my money for 3 months and they would review it again at that time (the entire amount). well my three months has past and im now being told it will be june before i have my money. again i am a small business owner in times which the economy is not helpin me much either, this will quite possibly put me out of business.

my company is seriously struggling and may be forced into bankruptcy over this rediculous situation.

I am well versed in how this whole scheme works since investigating for the last two months. Essentially I have a new machine in a box that I don't want and will not use because of promises made by the sales rep and now his company sais it's not their problem anymore. They said it doesn't matter what the reps say, it's all in the contract. This has got to be a national problem for small businesses. I a changing bank accounts tomorrow to avoid charges to my account as I dispute it. I need help..I'm thinking a class action suit is the only way to fight these guys...help. Call me and let me know what I can do!

So far they have $300 of ours. Luckily they screwed up before I set up my terminal and I am only battling the lease. I want to help others in the same situation and prevent this from being common fraud.

Since Sept of 2004 and up to early this year, we used IPayment as our online payment service provider, and chargebacks happened, Ipayment start ripping us off by taking money from our account as they like, they used our bank account as their company's account, they took money from us whatever and whenever they like, nobody can ever stop them as the bank said to us, they can not stop this technically.

We are in the darkness as to how much the REAL chargebacks were, as they did not want to give it to me no matter how many times I asked for it, and I see all our money in the account disappeared totalling more than $12000 during several months.

We lost our business, and closed down our business, due to IPayment rip off and theft. We have our suppliers now trying to sue us as all of our money were stolen by this Ipayment, we do not know how to protect ourselves, and we do not even have the money to go to the court, and they ignored all of my request, demand to return our money.

First of all, sorry for my broken English, its not my first language. Anyway go back to my case, I have a credit card processor account with this California based company Ipayment inc. I Signed up a credit card proccessor account with these guys on July 14 2002, and on the contract, they simply stated that 'We will hold the 10% eserve for 180 days. In the event that there is a chargeback, the chargeback will be taken from the reserve account rather than your checking account.''

But so far i have only 2 chargebacks which occurred in May and ipaymentinc took money from my checking account for chargerbacks. I also asked to release my reserve to payback the wholesale cost, it's May 27 2003, it has been almost 11 months, and they still holding it, they suppose to release it after 180 days, i call them in Jan, they said they will review my account in March, which they already violated the contract, after March they said will review in May. In May i have 2 chargebacks and they took money away from my checking account, which violated the contract again.

Now i have closed my account and they take 2 chargebacks I have in May as excuse to hold it for more than 90 days. Also I have filed complaint via BBB and the answer from Ipayment is they will release the reserve after 90 days if there is no chargeback, the only chargeback I received is in May, if thats case why not release my reserve in March or April when I was asking? Also he stated on the letter that As the merchant has experienced at least 2 disputes/charges month to date, the release of any reserve amount is unlikely. This is in accordance to the terms as negotiated by Mr.shi which is totally incorrect, they never send me any agreement regarding above, all I have signed is a paper with a sentence says that 'We will hold the 10% eserve for 180 days plus they took money from my checking account when there is chargeback instead of what they said from reserve, so what is the point to hold my reserve? Please advice. Thank you for your time and attention

citi credit card interest average $50 per month. $30 checking account decrease penalty.