COCARD Rob Washington This Company offers services that are not met. When trying to get in contact with them no one answers the phone. Calls are not returned until a week later. Pleasanton California
We are a small Automotive repair shop in south san francisco. This guy by the Name Rob Washington approached us with this marketing scheme. He was offering us merchant credit card services, website design and hosting, yellow page advertising, customer loyalty cards, search engine optimizing (he guaranteed us that our name will rotate to the top of the page 3 times a day whenever someone does a search), the first 2 months free, and he also said he would waive our current merchant service cancellation fee.
We signed up on February, its now July, 5 months later we still haven't gotten our first two months of free service, no website, no customer loyalty card, no yellow page ad, no internet advertising and no cancellation fee waived. The only thing we got from them is the credit card processing machine.
So whenever I try calling Rob Washington on the status of everything, he would not answer my phone call. I would leave numerous messages, he would not get back to me until a week later. When he does call back he just tells me they are working on it. Weeks go by, now months go by with no results. We are paying 157 a month for a credit card machine right now thats almost $1900 a year with no additional services he promised.
About 2 weeks ago they finally put me in touch with the web designer. Now i don't even know if she is even a web designer because she doesn't do this for a living, she has a different job and designs website on the side. Well she didn't even design our site I have to create templates and design on my own time in illustrator and photoshop and have her upload it to the site. What kind of web designer is that. I spoke with the so-called web designer once, since then she won't return my phone call.
Beware of this company COCARD, Rob Washington and his affiliates because once they get you to sign their contract and they get their money it will be impossible to get a hold of them for anything else. I'm trying to close my contract with them but got no answer. It looks like I have to pay $1900 a year for leasing a credit card machine.
If anyone reads this and have any idea as to what I can do to get out of paying for services not promised to me please let me know.
Daved70
south san francisco, California
U.S.A.
8 Updates & Rebuttals
vanillakokakola
California,United States of America
Rob Washington is the VP of COCARD, so it's a problem with the company
#9UPDATE EX-employee responds
Tue, June 19, 2012
In response to the current employee above saying this is a problem with the salesman and not with COCARD, Rob Washington is the Vice President of COCARD (and I believe he is also one of the founders of COCARD).
If this was just some salesman's office scamming people, that would be one thing and the person above would be correct. However, this is the VP of the company actively, knowingly and purposefully defrauding people, especially small business owners.
Ed
North Pekin,Illinois,
U.S.A.
It's not CoCard
#9UPDATE Employee
Thu, July 01, 2010
CoCard is not the problem, it is this salesman's office. Call the customer service number on your credit card statement. There are a number of divisions of CoCard across the country. I've know of CoCard firing persons for less than what this salesman did to this company. CoCard does not recommend equipment leases. I never charge a person an annual fee nor a cancellation fee. CoCard prefers to work on a month to month, cost plus basis points, the cheapest way for a business to accept credit cards.
vanillakokakola
California,United States of America
CoCard is a Scam - They actively participate in FRAUD!!
#9UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, May 15, 2010
I worked for Cocard for a few months a couple of years ago and I can say for a fact that they ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN FRAUD!! The owner, Rob Washington, would FREQUENTLY come back with forms that were signed by the new merchant but filled out incompletely and would have us fill in the interest rates, pricing, etc AFTER THE MERCHANT HAD SIGNED THE PAPERWORK!! He would also refuse to give merchants the "pink copy" (the one you're supposed to get after you sign anything) because he wouldn't want them to have evidence of the fraud!
He would also refuse to answer the phone. Literally, we were not allowed to answer the phone. Instead, he would have whoever the receptionist was transcribe the messages from the voicemail instead, and would respond to them whenever he felt like it.
Completely unbelievable. When I realized what was going on, I quit immediately. I couldn't handle transcribing any more messages from merchants sobbing over the phone about how their business was going under because they were paying more than they can afford. We would get phone calls like this on a biweekly, if not weekly basis.
Rob Washington is scum and CoCard is a racket.
vanillakokakola
California,United States of America
CoCard is a Scam - They actively participate in FRAUD!!
#9UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, May 15, 2010
I worked for Cocard for a few months a couple of years ago and I can say for a fact that they ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN FRAUD!! The owner, Rob Washington, would FREQUENTLY come back with forms that were signed by the new merchant but filled out incompletely and would have us fill in the interest rates, pricing, etc AFTER THE MERCHANT HAD SIGNED THE PAPERWORK!! He would also refuse to give merchants the "pink copy" (the one you're supposed to get after you sign anything) because he wouldn't want them to have evidence of the fraud!
He would also refuse to answer the phone, literally, we were not allowed to answer the phone. Instead, he would have whoever the receptionist was transcribe the messages from the voicemail instead.
Completely unbelievable. When I realized what was going on, I quit immediately. I couldn't handle transcribing any more messages from merchant crying over the phone about how their business was going under because they were paying more than they can afford.
Rob Washington is scum and CoCard is a racket.
Mike Keeney
Reno,Nevada,
U.S.A.
Actually, CoCard isn't the culprit
#9Consumer Suggestion
Thu, November 20, 2008
Sounds to me like you were totally ripped off, but you're probably hanging the wrong guy. I'm in the merchant services business and even though I don't work with CoCard, I do know this company and I doubt they're the culprit. CoCard is a processor that uses independent sales agents (who are not actual employees). CoCard doesn't offer web hosting or website development, SEO, or yellow page advertising.
Like any industry, merchant services has its bad apples. Unfortunately, it seems like we have more than our fair share. Just to be fair, I think the majority of independent sales agents are quite honest. We're business people too and it's reasonable for us to make a fair profit, but when I hear stories about people being tricked into a 48 month lease at $150 a month for a terminal that costs $350, it bugs the heck out of me. The only defense a merchant has against getting taken advantage of is knowledge. To help merchants understand some of the pitfalls to watch out for I have written a paper that explains how the industry works and how unscrupulous people can take advantage of you. To get the paper, (it's free), simply send an email to Mike@NVone.com. The paper is legit. I'm not going to solicit you, spam you, or contact you again, (unless you ask me to). It's not an advertisement for me or my company or any of the companies I represent. It just explains the industry in a straightforward way that gives merchants the knowledge to get the best service for their business and how to avoid the scams and crooks.
Mike Keeney
Reno,Nevada,
U.S.A.
Actually, CoCard isn't the culprit
#9Consumer Suggestion
Thu, November 20, 2008
Sounds to me like you were totally ripped off, but you're probably hanging the wrong guy. I'm in the merchant services business and even though I don't work with CoCard, I do know this company and I doubt they're the culprit. CoCard is a processor that uses independent sales agents (who are not actual employees). CoCard doesn't offer web hosting or website development, SEO, or yellow page advertising.
Like any industry, merchant services has its bad apples. Unfortunately, it seems like we have more than our fair share. Just to be fair, I think the majority of independent sales agents are quite honest. We're business people too and it's reasonable for us to make a fair profit, but when I hear stories about people being tricked into a 48 month lease at $150 a month for a terminal that costs $350, it bugs the heck out of me. The only defense a merchant has against getting taken advantage of is knowledge. To help merchants understand some of the pitfalls to watch out for I have written a paper that explains how the industry works and how unscrupulous people can take advantage of you. To get the paper, (it's free), simply send an email to Mike@NVone.com. The paper is legit. I'm not going to solicit you, spam you, or contact you again, (unless you ask me to). It's not an advertisement for me or my company or any of the companies I represent. It just explains the industry in a straightforward way that gives merchants the knowledge to get the best service for their business and how to avoid the scams and crooks.
Mike Keeney
Reno,Nevada,
U.S.A.
Actually, CoCard isn't the culprit
#9Consumer Suggestion
Thu, November 20, 2008
Sounds to me like you were totally ripped off, but you're probably hanging the wrong guy. I'm in the merchant services business and even though I don't work with CoCard, I do know this company and I doubt they're the culprit. CoCard is a processor that uses independent sales agents (who are not actual employees). CoCard doesn't offer web hosting or website development, SEO, or yellow page advertising.
Like any industry, merchant services has its bad apples. Unfortunately, it seems like we have more than our fair share. Just to be fair, I think the majority of independent sales agents are quite honest. We're business people too and it's reasonable for us to make a fair profit, but when I hear stories about people being tricked into a 48 month lease at $150 a month for a terminal that costs $350, it bugs the heck out of me. The only defense a merchant has against getting taken advantage of is knowledge. To help merchants understand some of the pitfalls to watch out for I have written a paper that explains how the industry works and how unscrupulous people can take advantage of you. To get the paper, (it's free), simply send an email to Mike@NVone.com. The paper is legit. I'm not going to solicit you, spam you, or contact you again, (unless you ask me to). It's not an advertisement for me or my company or any of the companies I represent. It just explains the industry in a straightforward way that gives merchants the knowledge to get the best service for their business and how to avoid the scams and crooks.
Mike Keeney
Reno,Nevada,
U.S.A.
Actually, CoCard isn't the culprit
#9Consumer Suggestion
Thu, November 20, 2008
Sounds to me like you were totally ripped off, but you're probably hanging the wrong guy. I'm in the merchant services business and even though I don't work with CoCard, I do know this company and I doubt they're the culprit. CoCard is a processor that uses independent sales agents (who are not actual employees). CoCard doesn't offer web hosting or website development, SEO, or yellow page advertising.
Like any industry, merchant services has its bad apples. Unfortunately, it seems like we have more than our fair share. Just to be fair, I think the majority of independent sales agents are quite honest. We're business people too and it's reasonable for us to make a fair profit, but when I hear stories about people being tricked into a 48 month lease at $150 a month for a terminal that costs $350, it bugs the heck out of me. The only defense a merchant has against getting taken advantage of is knowledge. To help merchants understand some of the pitfalls to watch out for I have written a paper that explains how the industry works and how unscrupulous people can take advantage of you. To get the paper, (it's free), simply send an email to Mike@NVone.com. The paper is legit. I'm not going to solicit you, spam you, or contact you again, (unless you ask me to). It's not an advertisement for me or my company or any of the companies I represent. It just explains the industry in a straightforward way that gives merchants the knowledge to get the best service for their business and how to avoid the scams and crooks.