Complaint Review: FirstACH

Where do I begin.

My business partner referred me to FirstACH when we were looking for a merchant service provider for ACH. We weren't interested in credit card charges, only ACH (although they offer it). We were impressed at the simplicity of the setup, the fees and their payment gateway which was the main reason we wanted to use them.

Fast forward to the first call and application. I filled out everything as requested, sent them the additional information that they needed to help establish what kind of account we are and then waited. I was then contacted by one of the underwriters, asking me for additional information, to which I provided everything they asked for and then some. I provided them with a full copy of our client contract, that spells out what we do and our refund policy CLEARLY. I sent them marketing materials so they could see what it is exactly we do so there was no question. Back and forths occurred for about two days, until finally I was told, "you're approved". I asked VERY specifically if the 'terms had changed, such as the transaction charge, discount rate or a requirement of a reserve'. I got a very simple response, "your account terms haven't changed". Ok, great, nothing changed.

Fast forward three weeks. I have 8 pending payments, three of which I cancelled because I saw the storm coming w/FirstACH. After much delay, funds were collected on most of the charges. I continued to call and find out each day (very politely), what was going on. Each day it was something different. First they were busy. Then the person that QC'd initial accounts wasn't in. Then it was, "this is the norm". I waited and waited and waited only to find out that the following happened.

They called one of the clients to do a 'spot check'. A spot check to me is, "did you authorize this charge", not to have someone that makes $10 an hour grill my client about what it is he purchased and from whom he purchased it.... which lead to this. My client, an elderly gentleman, did a very bad job of explaining what the payment was for. He referred to us as a loan modification company, something we are not, will not, nor have ever done, not even close. This prompted whoever called to label us as "high risk" imposing a 10% reserve. My average charge is almost $2k, we collect over 100 payments a month, free, through Bank of America and their invoicing system... so do the math at what, after their processing fee and the reserve would leave us with. A good deal of the charge is pass through costs and payments to third parties that we hire ourselves to help compelte the service we provide (all of this is detailed on our website, in our contracts and in our marketing materials - something they were provided at the very beginning).

I call a little miffed mainly because they charged the initial clients checking account on the 6th and it was now almost 20 days later and as far as he was concerned, he paid us (the client) and we were now sandbagging him... this made us look very bad to him, his referrals AND the employee who originated the business (an external employee).

Having said that. I spoke to someone whose name I can't remember on more than one occassion. What I do remember is her smug attitude, her constantly interupting me and her ability to be vague and not answer any of my direct questions. She said, again, that we were labeled high risk and because the one person they called to get said information was an elderly man who doesn't know the ins and outs of this business, only what his end result will be - we get imposed with a reserve requirement.

So back and forth progressed. I argued my case perfectly, but was ultimately told, "tough" and that if I didn't like it it really didn't matter.

Here is where I made my mistake. I told them that if that was the case, I did NOT want to be a customer of theirs. That I had read horror stories online, but just passed it off as the typical simpleton not reading his agreement or the TOS (all of which I did). That, or the person misrepresented themselves during the initial setup, something I was more than open with. Continuing on. I was then told that the other charges that they had paid would be returned to them and the $10k in charges in my reserve account would be returned to my clients. So not only did I already provide service for one of the accounts that they paid me on, only to have it reutnred to them, but I also had to go back to the other four individuals and ask them to pay via our invoicing system. Here's where I get pissed off.

One of the individuals noticed that we reduced our pricing that very same day, $900 a file... he said he wasn't interested in sending us another check UNLESS we reduced his fee, even though our TOS states very clearly, there isn't price matching (we aren't a Best Buy). So now, I not only look like my company is incompetent, but I also lost $900 from him and almost a MONTH in processing time for two of the individuals. By the time the fees are refunded, it will be May 1st and I still won't have the payment.

Not only have I already paid the employees involved with these deals, but I've also started work on the files, thinking, "the money is there, only a few more days". Had this been a product backed business, I would be out 5 individual products, thankfully, we are service based. That didn't preclude me however, from being required to pay my employees, thinking, "this money is in the bag" so to speak.

After all this, I tell them that I would file suit if we lost even a penny... well, we lost more then one, we lost 90k pennies. I'm told on the phone that she would be glad to let me talk to the VP (whom has yet to receive my call - but will) and that he could explain it in more detail. I explained to the CSR that I wasn't interested in having him spit the same rhetoric as her and that I meant what I said. I reminded her that they have a lot of BBB complaints and that it's my fault for not reading them, but would when I filed my complaint.

So not am I out $900 on one file, I'm out the time WASTED with this company. I'm out having to start over again with another processing company and I'm out the time required jumping through hoops like usual.

On top of that. The money they took back out of my account was exactly $200 MORE than what was charged to my clients but $250 more than they deposited (after the transaction charge). So not only have they done all listed above, but they're not stealing out of my account, as I assure you, less than what they took was deposited.

For the record. Their response to me is that we are high risk. My response to that is that they don't work in my industry and couldn't understand what it is we do, even though I explained it in great detail AND gave them countless pieces of company literature to explain it even more. Their further response could be that I didn't read my agreement... I assure you readers that I did. I'm highly educated, own two businesses and don't take things like this lightly. I was told one thing, only to have the opposite offered to me at a moment when they had over $10k of my charges. $10k that belonged to third party affiliates, employees and my business.

Needless to say. I'm aggravated if you can not tell and this is just the beginning. A million or two hundred and fifty dollars, it doesn't matter to me. Taking money, costing a business money, costing them time... just does not fly.