Complaint Review: Entrust Bankcard

I have a recorded presentation of their entire sales scam.  I have offered it the the Arizona AG, but they need more people to come forward.  There is strength in numbers!  There is legal action in  California already against one of their partners in crime.

I believe the original ripoff report because the exact same thing happened to me. Everything the sales person said to me was a complete lie. She said I would absolutely not pay ANYTHING over 1.99% for all transactions...all I had to do was pay a $59 "flat fee." the flat fee was indeed that lease for equipment that I said I did not need. but OK, let's say I'm willing to go with this lease lie to get the 1.99% rate. Woops! not even close to the truth. I just got my first statement and it is 5.12%. She literally said "you see these non-qual fees on your statement? You will not be seeing these anymore...these are just charges that you have no control over...with us, it is just the flat 1.99% - no additional fees. All for the flat rate of $59. There has not been one thing that she said that was actually true. And when I pointed this out, they said "DO you have any of this recorded or in writing? No? Well, then it is heresay from a legal standpoint. You signed so you can't get out of it.

Now they are trying to say the rep was new and misrepresented the situation and has been reprimanded....well then, as a CUSTOMER who would like CUSTOMER SERVICE, wouldn't it be wiser to SERVE me by cutting me loose and letting me go to another company? I have my hands tied now into a 5 year BS situation with the most scuzzy business I have ever been in contact with. I'd rather pay more to NOT do business with this company. I have filed a better business complaint and I would love to join a class action law suit for Entrust Bankcard's shady practices....which by the way, does not even show up on the merchant statement.

They are supposed to be in Mesa AZ (probably three people and a couple of phones) there's a lease company in Illinois, and the processing company in  Maryland. This is a virtual online scam  - nothing more.

Check out the following dose of justice ... http://da.countyofventura.org/12-030.htm and continue to pursue the head of the snake by letting the Attorney General know about your experiences at http://www.azag.gov/consumer/complaintform.html. 

If you really want to help, please contact the Arizona Attorney General's Office.  They are starting an investigation and need more people to come forward.

I'm an employee of Entrust.  How can I help?  The whole thing is a sham.  I'm tired of forging documents!

Anyone who works (or used to work) as an ISO, accounts specialist, etc. for Entrust Bankcard, Paradigm Direct, The Program LLC, Echelon, ICON, Ladco, Azura, MBF or CCA PLEASE take action.  Nationwide, these companies are stealing big money from small businesses & getting away with it because of the tiered structure behind their scam. They are constantly changing their names & the combination of leasing co. & cc processor sold in each geographic location to avoid prosecution. The DA's, AG's & the FTC are on to them, tho, & a growing number of attorneys are soliciting to prosecute v. their fraudelent practices. Cross over from the dark side & contact your City, State & the Federal Trade Commission to aid in the ongoing investigations.  I guarantee that there is an open file no matter where you live or who you work(ed) for...you can make a difference & be one of the good guys!

I am a former employee, I worked in the call center as an "Account Specialist".  We were given specific statements we were required to say, and only allowed to rebuttal using certain statements. We had to tell customers we were assigned to review their existing merchant account - Lie. We were given a list of phone numbers to call often without owner information aside from a business name.  Also, we were told to say a client was qualified for an upgrade, (qualified means we made sure you processed at least 5k in Visa/Mastercard). We had to guaranteed savings of 20-30% off processing costs, "Let me give you an example of the savings, on average what do you take in for a month in V/MC?" any answer above 5K we would say, "We can guarantee you at least 20-30% off your costs each month". Also had to tell them there were free paper and supplies, any costs associated with ending your old contract and upgrading to us "will be absorbed by the program", no charge PCI compliance upgrades.

At any time someone will come on your call and claim to be a manager, director... etc. That is rare, it's usually just someone sitting next to you doing the same job, but sometimes it is a floor supervisor. It is their job to get on the phone to try to rebuttal any customer who is not listening to the Account Spec. They aren't permitted but to give the same rebuttals etc... 

I was asked a question about our business by a customer, when I asked my manager for the answer, he told me "The answer is always yes, if that's what they want to hear." Flat out told me to lie to a customer to get them to agree to let us come to their business. I couldn't do it!

I walked out on this job, the sales are high pressure, not completely honest (which you don't fully understand until you see everyone in action). I've called the same business 3 or 4 times in a week and they have said, "Not interested, remove us" and the supervisor on the call would not allow me to mark the call as "DNC". We almost always were told to put the customer back in the call list even if they asked us not to call back.  I've heard the manager brag about pitching someone while the customer was recording the call.

Sales isn't for everyone, definitely not for me. You have to believe in what  you sell, and the company and any one that tells me to lie to gain business does not have my respect.

We were conned by the very same tactic and lies.  We also were told that we had to lease a terminal but that the savings would cover the cost.  When we asked how much the terminal was, we were told that it was "a couple thousand dollars or so" he wasn't sure.   We have since found the terminal is available from over 10 stores and ranges in price from $215 to $310.  The total of the lease is around $6,000.00.  These people are con artists and are very good at lying and deceiving.

Fortunately, our state has a very strict law against "Fraudulent Misrepresentation", check your state laws.  I am also looking into starting a class action suit against EnTrust.  I have seen many posts from others that have been scammed by the crooks.  I think it is time to put a stop to this con game.

If you're  "with" Entrust and this is the way you are reposnding, you're either a very ignorant person or a thief and a crook just like your slaes reps and your managemnt team. You all should be ashamed to have built a business on lies, and scams to rip people off. I was taken advantage of and scammed the excat same way as the person who filed this complaint, and I'm sure there will be many more to come. I feel a class action lawsuit boiling!

Apparently I touched a nerve, one of the owner responded immediately to my post. Lets start with the facts that are obvious: In his mind: 7 month is almost a year (which is a long time ago) and Entrust lied to everyone, but did not make anyone signing any contract, therefore it is the victims fault to believe Entrust.   The last sentence of his statement is so far off that even OJ would be ashamed of it. You can google <entrust bankcard complaint>. On top of the search result you should be able to find a listing from Better Business Bureau (bbb.org). Click on it and see if Better Business Bureau agrees with his statement.

Better Business Bureau revoked Entrust Bankcards accreditation on May 20th, 2011. Up till then, there were 44 complaints against Entrust. (this is the first time I see a company being removed from BBBs accreditation)
Go to www.complaintsboard.com and search for Entrust Bankcard or Paradigm Direct. You will see the same thing happened to many other small business owners.
Ok, lets talk about the fact that touched the owners nerve: the average rate, a simple concept that the owner of Entrust tried to discredit me upon. Credit card rates could be very confusing, but it also could be very simple, here is how you figure out your rate and compare: 1, find out how much you paid to the processing company including any fees (do not include American Express) for the moth: 2, find out the total amount you processed minus American Express for the same month. 1, (what you paid) divided by 2, (what you made AE) = you true rate (average rate).  1.9% to 2.06% was my rate before. This was how I found out I was paying more to Entrust. You dont need to know how to read a merchant statement to find out your average rate. It is the average rate that maters to your bottom line. By using this rate I found out Entrust was over charging me. Entrust agreed to my complaint and adjusted the rate three times.  
Do not try to defend yourself if you are doing something wrong. It is not going to work.

My goal of spending time to write the report is to trying to reduce the number of small business owners that walk into the trap.    

This is a false posting.  October 2010 was almost a year ago.  I am with Entrust and no one can make you sign up for a lease or make you do a call.  There is also no way you were paying under 2% without pin debit all together.  You obviously don't know how to read a merchant statement.  Entrust has one of the lowest rates in town and compared to other merchant services industries they have the lowest complaints.