Complaint Review: Electronic Payment Systems

Mr. Reggie Broussard representing Electronic Payment Systems called me at my home phone number on May 13, 2013 and offered his services in processing credit card payments for my small home business. He made the following promises over the phone which convinced me that I should use EPS’ services to save money over Paypal and Square (www.squareup.com) that I have been using up until that point. Here are the promises he made:

- no monthly charges
- no contract
- free credit card machine
- only 0.5% fees against the charges made on the credit card machine

The last item meant that for a $500 charge my cost would only be $2.50 instead of the $15 it costs via Paypal or Square. I was then transferred to Maria Hansford who showed me where to sign the “merchant application and processing agreement” via “Docusign”.

After plugging in the credit card machine and making 2 charges of $500 each, I found that EPS withdrew $43.23 out of my account to cover their fees. This amount was over 8 times larger that what was promised and 50% larger than what it costs me to use Paypal or Square. When I called their customer service on June 4th to complain I was questioned as to “who promised me 0.5% fees”? When I asked them to close my account, I was told all I needed to do was to send a request by FAX to (303)222-1957. I sent the fax immediately, along with an email request to customerservice@eps-na.com as a backup, in which I also asked for the mailing address where I should return the credit card machine. I never received any reply back from EPS, but found upon my return from vacation on August 1st 2013 2 withdrawals of $9.95 each and another one for $43.00 out of my bank account.
I made no use of of EPS’ services, or their credit card machine since my request for cancelation on June 4th. I called EPS customer service again on August 1st and was told that my fax “has not been received” and “there is no record of my trying to close this account”. I was then told to resend the fax. When I called again within the hour to confirm whether my new fax was received, someone else answered the phone and told me: “it doesn’t matter whether I sent them the fax or not. I am now locked in a 2 year contract until May 2015 and I will be sent to collections if I try to stop payments to them” ! She then showed me at the bottom of a form a stipulation that apparently I signed stating “… including the two (2) year processing term found in section 3.05 of the terms and conditions”. Reading the section 3.05 (c) I found the following:
“Merchant may terminate this agreement with a ninety (90) day written notice to EPS prior to completion of the initial temr or any renewal thereafter”.
Although EPS is claiming they are not receiving the faxes I have been sending, I can prove that I sent email requests repeatedly for the same purpose.

I have since contacted North Carolina District Attorney Office. They have open a case and tried to contact EPS on 3 different occasions: August 19th, September 11th, and October 23rd. In none of these cases anyone from EPS bothered to respond. Not only that, but I have received a letter from Mr. Blake Robertson (director of legal forwarding EPS) dated October 10th where I am threatened to be forwarded to the EPS collections attorney if I don’t pay them $1388 !

I n conclusion, I feel EPS misrepresented themselves to try to get me to sign and then they are trying to force me into a 2 year contract in a deceitful manner. They will then prevent me from terminating the contract by any means necessary. Unfortunately it looks like I am not alone. If you ever receive a call from or on behalf of EPS (Electronic Payment Systems), don't worry about coming across as rude. Just hang up! Don't touch these guys with a 10ft pole. Stay as far away as possible from this company as they are detrimental to your health. After my second phone call with them to try to resolve this issue, I realized I was about to have a stroke or heart attack. If you were ever mistreated, talked down to, or belittled in your lifetime and you thought it can't get any worse than that, I suggest you call your friendly EPS customer service rep. If you ever want to study the effects of bad customer service on your health or be robbed in broad daylight give the friendly folks at EPS a call and sign on the dotted line.