Payment Systems Corp

You know how you're not supposed to invite a vampire into your house? The manager of our family business (a paint-your-own-pottery studio) accepted a request from Merchant Processing Solutions dba Payment Systems (aka Payment Systems Corp.) to come to the shop and explain their credit and debit card processing services and rates. She did not realize she was in for an hours-long ordeal and wound up going beyond her authority and signing a long-term contract containing many errors and untruths. Since then, our story is the same as many others reported here. They have been bleeding our business dry. Our S Corp. is suing them in Duval County Small Claims Court, the county where the contract was signed. Their technique is to ask you to call and talk with them about the problem, but you will never be able to reach anyone who's in charge.

I, also, was scammed by these guys. They tell you that you will save money and it will cost you double. I sure wish I would have checked up on them (137 BBB complaints). But please, if they did the same to you, please file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission online. Let's make them hurt for their lies.

After speaking with a Payment Systems rep for almost two hours, I decided to switch my credit card processing over. He informed me that it would be 1% for all credit and 0% on all debit transactions. I was concerned about PCI fees, and I was also reassured that was included in the monthly fee. There was no mention of non-qualified cards. The numbers we discussed were clearly displayed on the first page of what I was led to believe was the contract.

When I received the first statement, the fees added up to about 4.5%. Certainly, there must be a mistake. I called immediately. I was told that the paper I signed was just an estimate. Now, I received a letter stating I will be charged a $150.00 Compliance Service Fee. Rather than saving me hundreds of dollars a month, this company is costing hundreds more. As a small business owner, this could be detrimental.

I have been leased to work for many fine companies in regards to sales. Unfortunately, I failed to do my research on Payment Systems. This company is one that does not value truth or customer service. I sold many clients only to find out that the pricing that company stated was not accurate at all. In most cases, I cost people money instead of saving them money because Payment Systems told me that they brought the rate below interchange and was only charging 1% for charge cars sales and 0% for debit sales. This is a flat out lie: they do charge interchange! Payment Systems are liars and lack truth.

As a new business owner, I was not familiar with the different options available for merchant card services. I received a call from Payment Systems which asked if I would mind if a rep came by to talk to me about saving money with the fees charged through my current provider. I agreed, because who doesn't want to save money, right? Long story short, I thought what they were offering sounded pretty good initially. I signed up, and the rep immediately went to a nearby office supply company to fax the contract in to their company.

As he was faxing, I called the store and asked them to tell the rep that I had changed my mind. Something about it just didn't sit well with me. For one thing, I was going to have to lease their equipment for what was going to be over $4000 over the course of the lease. And I already owned mine. He said he'd already faxed and came back to try to set my mind at ease. I left it at that, and he left.

The very next morning, I contacted him and his GM and told them that I still was not feeling very good about the transaction and that I wanted to cancel it. Again, I was schmoozed into keeping the contract. The very next day, as I still was not feeling good about the decision, I wrote a letter of cancellation as the contract stated there was a 5-day period in which to cancel. I faxed it to the GM, as it was the only number I was given.

I thought that was it, and I would be safe from any issues regarding termination. Wrong. I received a statement from the company stating that $54.95 would be drawn from my account. Fact of the matter is, it had already been drawn. I tried to call their customer service, and after several minutes on hold, I finally reached a customer service rep who informed me that there was no record of a cancellation and that someone from their cancellation department would be calling me within the next 2 business days. Of course, no one ever did.

With my hectic schedule, I didn't pursue it further, until I received yet another statement for another $54.95. It had been drawn from my account as well. I then began a long drawn-out process of trying to rectify this nightmare of a situation. Long story short, after several attempts to contact customer service, being transferred to and fro, re-faxing the letter I had faxed, and finally speaking to a "supervisor," I still was not able to validate the cancellation. I was informed that I only had 24 hours to cancel and that otherwise, I was still liable for the terms of the contract. They would only accept the letter for the cancellation of the lease of the equipment.

They had all of my bank information, and I had no other recourse but to close my account and reopen a new one. Thank God, I did, because they attempted to withdraw from my (then closed) checking account the termination fee in excess of $1700 for cancelling their services. First of all, the contract states their early termination fee is $250. They don't tell you it is that plus unpaid fees for the remainder of the contract! Now, I'm getting letters from them or a collection agency, I guess, trying to collect. I am not paying for something I am not using and properly requested to cancel!

Maine businesses, beware: a sales rep came to my business and we met for over 2 hours. He had a spreadsheet where he outlined what my fees would be if I signed with his company. I pressed hard on the validity of such low fees and he stated that his company made their money on the 4-year equipment lease, not the fees. After receiving our first statement, the fees are higher than I have ever seen—over 4 %. I have spent hours on the phone and all phone numbers are answered by customer service and they will not put any calls through to any managers, etc. Sometimes, they just keep transferring the call hoping I will hang up. Naturally, the sales rep left a week after I signed. This is a nightmare and will be very costly by the time it's done.

I'm not getting rates as I was promised. I am being nickel and dimed to death!

I was billed for a "TIN/TFN invalid fee", which is for my name not matching the federal tax number. I signed a contract with all my information on it. Whoever took that information and entered it into their system put my DBA name in and not my company LLC name, which is not my fault. They billed me $24.95 and told me it is an accurate charge and would not be refunded, billing for errors within their own company. I did nothing wrong.

I had a sales representative come to my business and look at the credit card processing company I was using and told me they could save me money. The only fees I had had from my previous provider was $99.00 PCI and $3.00 statement fee with no cancellation fee. I was told they would not charge fees and could save me this if I purchased their equipment. Also, they would save me money if I used debit over credit. The first statement I received stated they would be taking out an annual fee. I called and was told this would be waived. Then, the next month it was taken from my account. My fees are double what they were with the other company and they have a fee for everything they do. Of course the sales person I talked to no longer works for them. Imagine that. I am being told I have a three-year contract with them and cannot cancel. Of course the sales representative told me there was no cancellation fee, but then she no longer works for them. How convenient.

I am still waiting on a copy of my contract with them. Read every detail because they will tell you anything to get you to sign with them. Wish I had taken the time to read reviews, now I will be paying for this mistake for three years. Maybe I will just quit taking credit cards.

Non-cancelable Credit Card Terminal Lease: I signed up with this company because of promised low rates for 48 months. I did not know this meant 48 months of $93.85 payment for a credit card machine I did not want or need. I only process online, and I told them I did not want a terminal, but they said it was only back-up and needed for compliance, and would save me $10 a month. How I signed this lease is a mystery. Sleight of hand on their part, and gullibility on mine, I guess. I was truly shocked when after several requests, I was faxed the most unreadable pages, except for the lease, that was clear enough, and I do not remember seeing it. I have been scammed.

I am now in a battle with Payment Systems and Global Leasing. I will post more detail on my experience with these companies later but for now, I wanted to ask everyone in North Carolina who has had problems with these people, contact me at **. I would like to file a joint complaint with as many merchants as I can to the Commissioner of Banks in North Carolina and to The Attorney General's Office. These two companies need to be shutdown in NC.

They debited my bank account one month and when I realized their scam, I cancelled the accounts. They say they want to sue me and I hope they do. We as merchants can do a lot to get them out of our state. I also want to contact Wells Fargo and Visa/MasterCard since Payment Systems uses them to process credit cards. I have talked to the FBI in Greensboro and they said they would look into the matter to see what they could do. Every merchant needs to speak out. You can contact your local Representatives and state Senators and file a complaint.

I am a small business owner of a semi-truck and trailer parts sales store. I have been hit hard by the economy and am trying to cut back on expenses to keep the doors open. On July 15, 2011, I signed a three year contract with Merchant Processing Solutions d/b/a Payment Systems because they offered me a savings of $160.00 a month on my credit card processing. Once signed with them, I also had to sign a four year lease for the credit card terminal with Global Leasing Company. Payment Systems assured me that although I would be paying a monthly fee of $135.00 for the terminal that the contracts went hand in hand and the savings of $160.00 a month included this $135.00 fee.

Payment Systems also set up another merchant account through the same terminal for manually entered transactions ten days later. They claimed since I had a high volume of manually entered transactions that I needed this second account to get a special qualified rate of 1.79%. I agreed. Why not save more and help the business out. After my first statement arrived, I realized it was just as much for half a month as it was for a whole month with my prior processor. I called the agent at Payment Systems that had set me up and he asked me to call him back at the end of the next month, so we could review a full month worth of charges.

At the end of that month again, there was not a savings nor was I receiving the %1.79. When I did call him back he no longer worked there. On September 22, 2011, the agent that had quit came in Big Truck Parts. He apologized for what he had persuaded me into. After further looking into my complaint he realized he did not want to work for a company that advertised deceptively and didn't withstand promises. From then forward when I call Payment Systems for help with my account the whole experience is horrible. They cannot answer my questions. They lie to me to get me off the phone and lead me to believe the problem I call about is solved. The next month, when my statement comes I contact them with the same problem. They tell me I will be contacted, I never am. They have also hung up on me. I turned to Joe ** the General Manager for help in October 2011. He advised me that I would be contacted for a statement review and rate adjustment. No one has contacted me. My account is still in limbo. For the past six months, I am getting charged twice the fees because of this second account. I am also not being charged the 1.79% that I was promised.

I am being charged for annual member fees of $79.00 per account and PCI complaint fees of $150.00 per account that were not contracted upon. I was offered a savings of $160.00 a month which included the price of the monthly fee for the credit card terminal. I am actually paying $160.00 more plus the $135.00 a month totaling about $300.00 more a month, give or take, since Payment Systems has been my merchant. At the end of my lease with Global Leasing Company, I will have paid $6480.00 for a terminal that costs $300.00. This is unethical. Conveniently Payment Systems is located in California and Global Leasing Company is located in New York.

They did their homework when they partnered up and made a hand in hand contract impossible to protect the consumer. I have notified the Better Business Bureau on Payment Systems false advertising. It should be a breach in contract but they want me to pay something above and beyond the $299.00 early termination fee that is on the contract. They want me to pay over $1000.00 per account! It is really sad that Payment Systems is able to deceive their consumers and get away with it. They are able to tell the customer whatever they want just to get you to sign the contract. A contract is supposed to protect each party involved. Unfortunately the only party protected in Payment Systems contract is Payment Systems. Where are the consumers protected in this contract?

I had a rep come into my shop from payment systems, he said, they could beat my current credit card company since I have changed my credit card, charges are double what they use to be, when you call, nobody can answer your questions or they have to call you back, which never happens. I tried to cancel before the 3 months was up, she told me she would call me back, never happened. I am paying $59.00 a month for a pin pad that is not supported in my area, for 48 months. What is the difference of us breaking our agreement when they did not keep theirs, there should be a law against this, I am turning mine over to the BBB.

Was told when I signed up that I would save hundreds of dollars. I get all kinds of fees. I was told to use the new system at least 30 days before cancelling the old service. At that point, they would reimburse me $1,300.00 I had spent to cancel 2 previous services. I waited 2 or 3 months for the confirmation on my BofA account of fees paid, which they required to credit my account. I was told that I waited too long, that it had to be submitted before 90 days, which is not noted anywhere. I was told, to cancel would be $1,600.00 and can't cancel, the Terminal lease, which when I'm done at 48 months, I would have paid over $9,000 for this unit. The company is full of scam artists and is out to rip anyone off that answers their door to them.

A sales representative came into our restaurant to sell us their system and assured us that they were cheaper. At the time, we had a potential buyer for the restaurant, so we asked about cancellation fees and if selling the restaurant qualified in their list as acceptable reasons. Again, they reassured us yes, it would be no more than $250. We were under contract with them for 15 months, and when I called to cancel, the Head of Cancellations representative told us our cancellation fee was over $1000. I proceeded to ask for our contract to be sent to us. We officially sold the restaurant 11/30/11.

As of 1/16/12, we still have not received our contract in the mail, and every time I've called, each representative would tell me the same thing, "It was sent out the day before yesterday! " One representative said that she was printing the contract as we speak, but when I told her to fax the contract to me with me on the phone, she said that she couldn't do that, and that she would have to send a request to her supervisor and the supervisor would be the one to send out the contract.

They are still taking money from our account, but has not sent us the contract. Looking at our statements, I notice they have a lot of hidden fees, and when I questioned them about it, they say that because a customer's credit/debit card was deemed "at risk," we were charged for it as well as the customers. That makes absolutely no sense! This company is always making excuses and stories. Horrible!

I have the same problem with all of you guys. A rep named Michael ** from Payment Systems Corp. came to my restaurant at the morning of Nov. 11, 2011. He explained to me that I can save $200 or $300 if I switched from wise payment to his company. After we switched to his company, in the first month I received the statement, I have been overcharged for some unreasonable fee. I tried to contact them, but they just hung up on me. After all this, I want to cancel my account. But I have been told if I want to cancel the account, I need to pay for the non-cancelable contract fee which is $9600. But when I signed up with Michael, I have asked him what the early cancellation fee is. He told me just $299 for the early cancellation. He never mentioned about the non-cancelable contract. Also, I try to contract him. His phone always puts me into the voice mail.

I give these liars and thieves -10 stars. Sales Rep Larry ** came into my business on 11/1/11 and compared my contract with my current processing company and talked about the savings. Same as the other people on here I have no signed contract in my possession. It is 11/18/11 and they have yet to deposit my money into my account. They are currently holding about $2000.00 of business income. I've called numerous times and have gotten no clear resolution. Daisy, Susan, Rebecca and Angel are the customer service reps I've spoken with. I have requested General Manager and Regional Manager names and numbers. None of the contacts I was given on the sheet are even at the company anymore. If they ever really were.

A representative came into our business on 10/21/2011. Her name was Sara **. She proceeded to tell us all about how wonderful Payment Systems was and how much money we would be saving to switch to her processing company. She gave a quick run down of what she had to offer and even wrote it on a card, no annual fee, statement fee, or PCI fee. She also offered us 1% on all credit cards and 0% on debit cards. She ran down numbers and looked at our current provider and said she was sure she could save us around $20 a month and make us PCI Compliant which she said we weren't which is against the law.

She asked if we had a contract with our current provider and I said I wasn't sure. She told us that her company covered any and all cancellation fees from our provider if we switched. I had to leave so I told her to come back a different day and we would discuss it. After I found out about the cancellation fee, she then told me she was leaving town that night and if I wanted to sign up she would l just put it a zero and then when/if they withdraw something, we will change it. I told her to go ahead and explain everything to my secretary and sign us up. She said, "well I need you to sign some things first." She went through a stack of papers and I signed where I needed to sign. Allyson then spent the next 3 and a half hours talking with her. She went through details of the company and what we should expect, she never gave us a copy of the contract that was signed that day and nothing she talked about that day has been true and now no one at the company will respond to us.

- Charging a monthly fee for debit cards.

November 2-4: Attempted to call Sara's work phone and customer service with no success. I was only given voice mails with no one ever calling me back. I did get in contact with Sara on her cell phone on the 11/4/2011 after a receptionist accidentally gave me her cell phone instead on her work phone. Sara told me she didn't believe our cancellation fee could be $840 and that she would get the paperwork figured out and call me back. I have not heard from her since that day and now her phone has been shut off. After many attempts to call Sara on her cell phone and our processor Alison **, I started to try and get a hold of a manager, Joe Martin.

Nov.7-11: Calling customer service and leaving message still with no response. When you are on hold with customer service waiting for your turn to talk you get disconnected after 20 mins or so. On November 9, I finally got to speak with a lady name Lilia from customer service. She tried to help the best she could but still gave me the run around on the debit card problem. While I was on the phone with her Joe ** called my boss cell phone. (He has also been calling and leaving messages) since my boss knew I was on the phone with Lilia, he thought everything was getting worked out so he thanked Joe for calling him and told him we would be calling back if there was still a problem. Lilia had me fax over a copy of our bank statement where the $840 had been taken out, she said she was going to get it taken care of.

I was supposed to call her back the next morning when I had a debit card to run a practice sale. I have called back every day and left messages and still no response from anyone. The only lady I did talk to was Paulette who told me I was being rude and that she basically could do nothing, but when I asked to speak to her boss she said no so I hung up. I have also tried to call every manager on the handout they gave us and every time the secretary answers she says I dont need to talk to a manager. I then demand it and she gives me voice mail. This has gone on everyday with still no response from anyone at the company even when they say they will return your call in 2 business hours.

Nov.14-15: Still continuing with the phone calls but now also emailing with no response. I did get Joe Martin on the phone (his cell phone) on the 14th he promised to return my call in one hour and give me some insight on what was going on as well as a copy of my contract. I have yet to hear back from him. I still have no copy of the contract.

On 9/1/2011, a sales rep for Payment Systems came to my wife's store in order to get us to sign up with Payment Systems for our credit card processing. I was also present for the sales pitch. The rep told us her company rates and asked to see our current processor's monthly statement, in order to compare rates with Payment Systems. She told us that Payment Systems' rates were lower than our current vendor and that we can save money by switching to Payment Systems. Once we agreed that we favored Payments Systems' transaction rates and percentages, she informed us that our current credit card machine, that we owned, was not PCI compliant. We questioned this because we were never informed by our current vendor about the machine not being complaint.

She explained that older machines are not up to date and that our current vendor is probably charging us fees because we are not compliant. She stated that in order to sign up with Payment Systems, we would need to lease a new compliant credit card machine to ensure we are meeting regulations. She stated the cost of the machine would be $49/month. She did a cost comparison for us using Payment Systems' rates, plus the machine lease, compared to our current vendor rates. The comparison showed that Payment Systems' charges would be almost identical to our current vendor during slower months and would save us money during busier months. She also stated that we would now have a compliant credit card machine to protect our customers' credit card information. Since our service with Payment Systems has begun, we've come to find out that the credit card machine we owned is PCI compliant. We were also misled regarding the following aspects of our contract:

Termination fees: We were promised that the early termination fee was $299. In reality, it is $299 plus min. month fee times remainder of months in contract. Also, she did not disclose that we would be responsible for termination fees with Lease Finance Group for $49 times the remainder of our 48-month contract. Lease Finance Group is the contract holder for the credit card machine lease.

Fees: A $15.00 debit pin fee was not disclosed to us. We're also being charged $57/month for the credit card machine lease. To further prove that the charges were not truthful, our previous merchant charged us $78.03 for the month of July for $2,405.43 in credit card deposits. For the partial month of September, the total charges from Payment Systems and Lease Finance Group was $114.03 for $1,334.51 in credit card deposits.

Payment Systems did not cancel the previous merchant contract as promised. We have, to date, been charged $170.44 from Appstar because their services have never been cancelled. Payment Systems forged my wife's signature on a document, signing us up for a gift and loyalty card program. We cancelled the service and were charged a $221 cancellation fee. Aside from not signing up for the program, cancellation fees were not disclosed to us when we called to argue our case and cancel the program. We're also still being charged monthly for this.

This has not been explained to us. Payment Systems did not disclose that we were contracting with a separate company for the credit card machine, Lease Finance Group. I've complained to the company via email and phone calls for over 4 weeks, asking for them to terminate the contracts without charge. They randomly respond and appear to be dragging out the issue without resolution.

I was contacted by a Payment Systems Corp. telemarketer last year and was verbally abused, threatened, and called offensive names, etc. The telemarketer called back after our conversation just to threaten me. I told him that I would tell one of his managers what had happened and he laughed and said good luck since he was calling from a five-digit number and that there was no way that I could trace his call.

Well, I did. I filed a police report with the San Diego Sheriffs Department and contacted Payment Systems Corp. managers to let them know what had happened. She told me that she had tracked the call and that that employee had been terminated. I thought that was the end of their calls. Was I ever wrong about that.

I continued to receive calls from Payment Systems Corp. telemarketers now for the past year and every time I tell them to take me off the list (even though I had already given them my numbers and should not be on their list), I received the same treatment and was hung up on or laughed at and hanged up on.

A year later, the harassment continues. I wrote them a letter threatening to sue and all they did was forward it to their lawyer and now he said that he would threaten to counter sue me for malicious prosecution since he must believe I am making all this up.

The sales rep from Payment Systems Corp told us the credit card fee is 1% except for Amex and 0% for debit card. On our monthly statement, I found the average charge is 3%, there's a $15.00 fee for debit usage (not a percentage, but a flat fee), and they double charge us by taking a percentage out of every credit card swipe, and then a lump sum at the end of the billing cycle.

I called the customer support line but couldn't get anyone to talk to me; they kept putting me on hold and promising to call me back. They never did. This business is very shady. I'm under a lease contract with them for the equipment. I need to break this contract and go with a more reputable merchant service.

They signed us up. They said that the fee is only 1%. All other fees would be waived. Now, I'm paying monthly fees of over $350 when we only charged $2000. That's far more than 1%. They use false advertising. Bait and switch comes to mind.

I would not even give them one star. They started charging $99 extra each month as well as other various charges. Of course I contacted them and they claimed these were just errors.

I was given multiple dates in which my account would be refunded and now almost five months later, not one penny has been returned. I am awaiting $367.95 refund.

They will only take messages. You cannot talk directly with representatives. They very rarely return the calls. They have come up with various excuses why this has not been refunded, asking for canceled checks, which of course they have on file, blaming other organizations such as First Data. I have contacted First Data and they have no record of anything for my account.

I am sure Payment Systems is over-billing other merchants as well and may be getting away with it. I have filed a complaint with the Attorney General's office. In addition, while still owing me money, they debited my account again for additional fees.

Payment Systems Corp had a representative visit our facility in order to get us to change our credit card processing from Worldpay to them. After reviewing our account, the representative said she could save us $200-300 per month by using them. She gave us a 1% fee along with other charges. It came to be that a lot of the fees were not disclosed in the contract and we ended paying hundreds of dollars more a month.

We decided to close our business so we sent them a termination letter. They promptly sent us a letter saying we owed them a lot of money. Now, we happened to make a copy of the contract before the representative left, so when we received their letter we called and had them email a copy of the agreement they had. To our astonishment, the contract had been altered. We have been in contact with Payment Systems Corp/Ladco Leasing, but are not able to talk to anyone with authority. You can Google and find out other complaints similar to this. Unfortunately most companies do not get a copy of the contract prior to the representative leaving. We are very glad we did.

We are a small Chinese restaurant struggling to survive in this bad economy. We suspect that we were being set up in a fraud by David ****, a sales executive of Payment Systems Company.

In January this year, David *** walked in our restaurant and asked how many percentages we were charged by current credit card company, which was Blue Pay at that time. After David *** reviewed Blue Pay's three month's statements, he told us that Payment Systems program may help us save $300 to $400 a month, that total rate will be less than 2% of monthly volume, plus $114.60 first month credit card machine charge. We, manager, owner and co-owner, had confirmed with him again, again and again; he insisted that he was telling the truth.

After we switched from Blue pay to Payment Systems, we were shocked when we received the statement. For February, credit card deposits was $22,724.72 (Sales and Tips), daily withdrawal from our account was $260.25 , monthly charges withdrawn from our account was $814.38 , plus $114.6 monthly machine charge. The total was $1189.23, it is around 6% of the credit card income!

When we found out this set up, we called David *** many times, but he never picked up; We called Payment Systems customer service. The impatient answer was that the program is, if you switch to another company, the machine charge $114.60 per month was not cancellable for four years! It is a terrible fraud.

1) David *** promised 1% daily charge and no monthly charge. Not only were those promises not fulfilled, we are actually paying double more to Payment Systems than the previous company Blue Pay. 2) David **** did not tell us the credit card machine charge is on a monthly basis or a four-year not cancellable contract. After David *** left, we even could not find all signed contracts. We suspect he took it away for some reason! Just think: The credit card machine is worth around $200, they're leasing $114.60 per month, not cancellable for four years. That comes out to be $5,500. If it is not set up fraud, who would jump to this trap?

We have to the ask Consumer Affairs for help.