Complaint Review: BestMerchantRates

I received a solicitation in the mail from what I thought was Chase offering very low rates, a free computer, and promising no setup or cancellation fees. The sales rep, Patrick Martinez, quoted me that I would not be charged any monthly fees, only authorization fees, no batch fees if I settled manually, and no hidden fees.

That free computer they promised in the flier would only be given to me if I leased a terminal from them (at exorbitant cost), even though the flier said FREE TERMINAL.

He faxed me what was labeled a quote, but was just an ad listing free application, account setup, reprogramming, & supplies, no cancellation fees, & a "best rate guarantee" for life saying they would beat any competitors rates in writing or they would give me $1000. No quote. No rates in writing. I should have stopped right there. He also sent a pre-approval application which I filled out & signed. That is the only document I was given to sign. I never received a contract or any of the required disclosures.

Once they had my application, the problems started - I couldn't get hold of Patrick, just got his voicemail. The "next-day" approval took a WEEK of calling & bugging them. Frequently, no one from the company answered the phone, you would just get the voicemail.

I spent my first week open for business unable to take credit cards! Reprogramming my machine took hours & multiple calls to tech support. When I finally got it to work, the merchant account was set up with the wrong phone #. That took more phone calls to correct.

When I received my first statement, it was confusing, difficult to read, & filled with fees - interchange fees, batch fees, dues & assessments, pos-wats (whatever those are!). Plus they charged me for calling technical support to correct their error on the phone #!

After several phone calls, I finally got to talk to the only person who could credit those fees, Debbie, and bless her heart, she did. She said I was being charged those fees because my salesman set up my account wrong. I asked to talk to him to get him to fix it, but was informed he was out of the country.

The next month, there were all those fees again, literally doubling my processing costs, and this time, I couldn't get through to Debbie, just her voicemail. Subsequent calls went straight to a recording that the voicemailbox was full.

When I finally got to talk to her, she said she could only credit some of the fees (about 40%). She said the other fees were listed in my service fee schedule. I told her I never received any fee schedule. She said it would have been sent with my signed contract. I told her I never was sent a contract to sign, just the pre-approval application.

Oh, boy, did the attitude change then! She hurriedly put me on hold, then told me someone else would call me back. The woman who called back, Kathryn, told me she was sending me a copy of my contract to sign & send back. What I received was full of factual errors & the rates were not what I was quoted. I emailed her the list of errors (there were a dozen) and told her I couldn't sign them. She has never replied.

This month, same thing. Charged 31 authorization fees for 17 transactions, etc. Left messages for 2 days before getting a return call. I was told I could not speak to my sales rep because the salespeople don't take phone calls anymore after the account is opened!

When the subject of that non-existent fee schedule came up, I was hurriedly put on hold & then told it had to be "researched". I'm probably lucky I'm actually getting money deposited in my account, seeing how I don't have a signed agreement with them.

Does anybody know of a credit card processor that doesn't lie?

Racer
San Diego, California
U.S.A.