As of 6/1/11, I cancelled my account with Merchant Services and they continued to charge my account for 6 months. After 16 phone calls and emails, the Bank Card company (BankCardUSA) finally facilitated an email and call to Authorize.net, who originally would not help as my account was closed, however, after another seven calls and emails, and multiple calls to both Authorize.net and BankCardUSA, my account has still not been refunded. I finally received a call on 2/3/12, wasting hours of my own time, stating that BankCard USA was informed that I will only receive a 3 month refund, not a 6 month refund. What kind of company is allowed to operate like this in the United States?
Consumer Complaints & Reviews
The sales reps didn't explain the fees involved with third party vendors. They made the offer sound unbelievably good. In Feb., I will have been able to offer CC services to my customers for only 1 yr. I moved in October because the building was being sold and I was renting. I called in Nov. to report my mailing address would not change but my bank account info needed to be updated. All the info was verified. In Dec., I received my bank statement only to discover no CC deposits had been processed. Today is Jan. 11, 2012 and I have been on 9 phone calls and have received no deposits since Nov. 1st, 2011. This has put me in a financial bind. My bank account is being service charged because balances have dropped below minimum. I can't pay the bills that my business has incurred.
I've been told bank my account info was incorrect and this caused a flag to be placed. This is impossible. I have verified this info so much with various people that even I know it by heart now. I have 26 years of banking behind me and I know about ACH deposits. They say ACH is the problem or flags on the account which prevents the monies from being released. I've asked why this issue isn't a priority with their company. Why would you email a department assuming they will make the correction? Should this not be handled immediately by a supervisor? One of the excuses was their paperwork was behind. If this was their money and had not been paid, they would have been knocking at my door and ringing the phones non-stop! I hope you will be able to help me because they haven't.
On 18 Dec 10, customer Lorrie ** came into our MetroPCS cellular phone store and purchased two android smartphones including new activations for both, a total of $584.18. Ms. ** made a stop payment on her credit card, and Merchant Services proceeded to return the money to the customer without notice and without us being in agreement. Metro PCS's return policy states that a phone can be returned if returned in new condition, within seven business days and with under 60 minutes of talk time. Ms. ** did not return the phones. Yet Merchant Services deducted the $584.18 from our account. I have pressed charges against Lorrie **, who has stolen those two phones from my store and, in fact, has resold them. I am filing this claim with Consumer Affairs to have the $584.18 returned to me for the products and services provided to Lorrie ** on 18 Dec 10.
On about 3/21/07, I contracted with Merchant Service Group to process credit card sales transaction for sales. I only used them one time to charge and then one time to reverse that charge. I have paid them about $30 per month. I decided to stop offering credit card as a payment method and therefore called them and was advised to fax a signed request to cancel. I did. The problem is that the original contract was for 3 years and that there was an early cancellation fee of $250 that I did not know about or forgot about. If they had been a solid, honest business, they would have told me to cancel on the anniversary of 3/21/10 and I would have owed 3 more months at $30 or $90. But they failed to refresh my memory of the early cancellation and charged me the $250 early cancellation fee instead. I am hopeful that you might be able to help me recover the $160 difference.
We are a very small floor covering company just barely hanging on. We were looking for any way to reduce costs. This is a credit card processing company who promised they could lower my monthly fees after assessing my previous 2 months charges. What I ended up with is more fees than they said there would be and an unbreakable 4 year credit card terminal lease through another company.
The sales person, Nancy, knew I had a working machine that was already paid for. So Merchant Services and their shady friend, MBF Leasing (of Ohio & New York) end up with my bank account information. After a couple of months, I realized the charges were outrageous and began making calls. After speaking with Nancy and her supervisor Brian **, I was told their team analyzed the paperwork and the sales person did nothing wrong. With credit card processing, you pay a discount percentage on the amount charged. Merchant Services discount amount looked great at 2.2%, but what they don't tell you is about non-qualified surcharges, PCI Compliance fee, batch header/closer fee, mid qualified surcharge and network transaction fees for different types of cards. The total for Sept. 09 we paid was $361.18, which equals closer to 5.7%.
When I realized what was going on, I changed the credit card machine back, as our old company was still billing us as well. Apparently, the letter Merchant Services sent to Bank of America that we were discontinuing their credit card processing was never received or acknowledged (much to my benefit). Now, I was aware of being cheated, so started an internet search for MBF Leasing. Lo and behold, this is a scam being run in many states. New York State Attorney General's office has a suit against them now, I believe. I tried to call different numbers to reach MBF - in Ohio and New York, but I wasn't willing to go through the customer service route where those answering phones have no authority to help. On October 26, 2009, I sent letters to Nancy the salesperson, her supervisor, Brian and to MBF Leasing. In the letter to Merchant Services, I used their statements and made a list comparing their "rate comparison sheet, dated 7/5/09" with those statements.
As of Dec 2, 2009, I ended the relationship with Merchant Services with headquarters in Irvine, California with a final payment and a letter. That was the easy part. Then I had to find a way to stop MBF Leasing from accessing my account. The only way to do that was to close the account. With a business account, that caused multiple hours of work and headaches. Mid-December, I began getting invoices and automated phone calls from MBF Leasing here at the office and at our home number. I wish I knew how to stop this craziness before getting our credit damaged.
We were told by there rep. we would receive better rates than we were currently getting.He had us sign papers what were not completely filled out.He said he would fax over the paper work when he got back to the office,when and didn't. We didn't receive papers after repeated calls.When we did it was completely higher than we were told.Also we tried to cancel and were told we signed a non cancelation form. we are stuck and in this economy we have no choice? There actual being robbed every month.
There office manager Denise was completely rude and well practiced at handling disgruntal customers. I am a small business owner can not beleave the way this company services its customer. I asked to speak with the CEO and was told he doesn't talk to merchants? A CEO who doesn't care about his customers? After repeated attempts to contact rep. for what we will be charged every month. We still haven't received numbers. I have filed this formal complaint to warn small business of this company and its terrible service.
They have removed over 500.00 from my business account and have not provided one transaction. They have caused my cuurent processing company to charge me with a 250.00 cancellation fee. Which has pulled 750.00 total out of my account. Also hours of running around trying to protect myself from my lawyers office to the bank. Total estimated damages including time $2500.00
When agreeing to sign up with Merchant Services as the credit card processing provider for my business in November of 2006. I then later sold the business in June of 2007 and they did not stop charging me the leasing fee of the terminal . THey charged me $495.00 for the terminal and then continued to charge 58.81 a month. I call numerous times and agents told me they would take care of it and then they get fired and nothing is resolved.
They finally told me that I had to take it up with the leasing company, MBF Leasing Equipment. Charges incurred and when I try to cancel/ buyout the contract they told me I had to pay it in full. I try calling a second time and was waiting for an agent for merely 30 minutes.
The loss of over $2500.00 for terminal processing center that I no longer possess or own, but still to this day still pay for.
I recently switched credit card services from Bank of America to Evo Merchant Services represented by Merchant Cooperative. This is possibly the worse business decision I have made in the 18 months I have been in business. They are the most difficult people to get on the phone. They sent me a machine not set up for American express service which they promised. They did not check to see if my existing machine would work with the new check processing machine and debit pin pad processor prior to installation. Which it did not. This resulted in the loss of 2000 dollars in retail, emabarassment, customer inconvenience, and agrivation on my part.
In addition, I have logged over 3 hours of customer support call which is valuable time I could of spent with clients, as well as the cost of the cell phone minutes to me. I can go on and on about how bad this service is but I will stop here other than to say this all transpired in the first 24 hours of service 7/3/08 9am EST to 7/4/08 9am EST. This service needs to be noted and the small business community at large should be warned not to do business with them.
Loss of $2000 in Retail. Personal time loss of 3 hrs est. Cell phone minute loss of 3hrs est. Frustration, embarassment and the overall poor representation of my business in the eyes of my customers. Loss of possible revenue due to the fact that I was on the phone and technically off line instead of dealing with my clients, scheduling deliveries ect for the 3 hours I was dealing with EVO and Merchant Cooperative. Lastly mental pain and suffering due to the horrendous ineptitude on the behalf of EVO / Merchant Cooperative resulting in loss of business.
