CardPayment Solutions Illegally took money out of bank account on multiple occasions Santa Barbara California
We were first contacted by CardPayment Solutions through a telemarketing campaign. I usually hang up on telemarketers, but at the time we were looking for a cheaper alternative to our current credit card processor. They represented themselves as being from Wells Fargo Bank, which was a lie. They are only an authorized processor for Wells Fargo, which I found out later on. They made an appointment for one of their sales representatives to come to our office and review our latest statement to see where we could "save money".
The sales rep, Elizabeth Mickelson, arrived and began to go through our account statement. I stated that if she could remove all of the Non-Qualified fees then we would consider switching. She said absolutely and that she could do so and said we would have a flat rate of 1.6% for all VISA/MC transactions. We then agreed to sign up with this company, a very bad idea. She ran through the contract very quickly, of which there was quite a bit of fine print that she did not allow me time to read. I also noticed she put our rate as 1.69% on the contract, probably hoping I wouldn't catch it. I signed the paperwork, and she left without giving me a copy.
Several days later we received the new terminal and also received a long list of fees! First, there were non-qualified and mid-qualified rates listed right at the top of the page! There was a sign-up fee, $25 monthly statement fee, $8.00/month "account club" membership, and we couldn't go over $25,000 in sales per month or we would be charged ~5% for all the transactions over that amount. There were a lot more fees, but I can't recall them at this time. We were really surprised by all these fees, because the rep, Elizabeth, never mentioned ANY of these to us while we were signing up.
We then proceeded to call them up saying their sales rep mislead us by saying we would not have any non-qualified fees and only a flat rate. She outright lied to us. Our previous processor didn't have any of these fees and they weren't saving us money at all. We cancelled the agreement.
The rep, Elizabeth Mickelson, then came back and picked up the terminal personally. Luckily, since we never activated our terminal, the contract was never put into effect and we were not required to pay a termination fee. But, they have continued to take money out of our bank account on a monthly basis for the statement and other monthly fees - $43 a month.
I have attempted to contact them numerous times regarding this and they still have not tried to contact me back whatsoever. We have had to contact our bank every month to reverse each of the ACH withdrawals. I'm thinking we might sue them in small claims court so that they might learn a lesson.
It is completely illegal to take money out of someone's bank account without prior authorization. My suggestion to any business out there is to immediately walk away from this company as they are all a bunch of low-life bottom feeding crooks with no remorse for their actions. Do not do business with this company!
Adam
Tucson, Arizona
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Honestjohn1961
Gloster,Mississippi,
United States of America
some reps are not well trained
#2UPDATE Employee
Tue, December 22, 2009
Dear sir,
I have been with Cardpayment for over 4 years and I can tell you when I was a new Agent I said some things that were also in error, and I had to eat crow. There is a lot to learn and regulations change weekly. On the bottom of your application on the first page printed in Big Bold Red Ink it states we are an ISO of Wells Fargo bank, which means we are affiliated with them but not owned by them. This was a misconception even I had at first thus wrongly stating this as well. It is a common error and I am sure was not done intentionally to bribe your business to us. The other things you state about the Qual fees being the same as the mids and nons is not a problem. I think were you may have miscommunicated with each other is on the rates them selves. The fees are different from the rates and it is normal to keep the fees the same across the board, but the rates is a whole another matter. No one would quote you all three rates at 1.60% since Visa and Mastercard charges us more than that. The part about no leaving you a copy goes against everything we are taught in keeping the transaction honest and earning your trust. I have no expalnation for thatexcept hopefully she was nervous or in a rush. The only way you were charged the $25 monthly minimum is if you had NO transactions to offset any of the charge. The $8 would be the statement fee which is normal, and the credit limit of $25000 should have been figured based on your credit score and current sales. If you did not give a copy of your existing processor's statement to Elizabeth with the initial application, then you took away one of our cjecks and balances we look at on evert new account. Thus making it easy to overlook a need to increase your credit line. All you had to do was furnish that or three consectutive months of bank statements and your limit would have been raised accordingly without the threat of a 5% penality even entering the picture. The application fee is normal also and is usual held by the company depending on the equipment agreement. so if you paid $43 a month and $25 of that was a minimum charge and $8 was the statement fee that only leaves $10. That is pretty reasonable for since you obviously didn't process much and you have a new machine in your possession with no lease payment. I am not saying Elizabeth didn't make some errors, but it appears you have some ownership here as well. I bet if you would have given her a chance she could have explained her mistakes to you and ya'll could have worked out these minor dealings instead of bashing a good company like Cardpayment.