Complaint Review: Leaders Merchant Services LLC

I signed up with this company in May 2009. I called them every month to dispute the charges on my statement. They have random fees and charges they assess and tell you that you agreed to these when you signed your contract. They charge miscellaneous membership fees even though all these fees are waived when you activate your account. If you don't pay attention to your bank statement, they get away with murder.

I signed a 12 month agreement with them and wasnt able to cancel without a termination fee, so in December I changed the type of account I had. Within their system, this meant that they opened a new account for me. Unfortunately, they didn't tell me that the old account would stay open and I would continue to get charged fees for the account.

I finally had to get to the account closing dept where they wanted me to fax over a letter asking them to close the account, and even at that point, it would take 30 days to close the account - enough time to charge another month's fees.

Everytime I called about their exorbitant fees, they explained that we ran a corporate or govt card  (which they charge over 3% for), even though we deal with the average residential consumer. When I told them this, they told me that I was wrong.

I tried calling my sales reps, but they no longer answered the phone after the sale was closed. They don't even answer your emails. My reps were Chris Lopez and Anthony Herrera. Good for them that they are trying to make a living, but they are nothing in the line of customer service reps who try to keep their customers happy even after the sale. Just goes to show that this company doesn't really care about their customers.

When I had a wireless terminal, they didnt tell me that sometimes it doesnt batch out by itself, and if you miss the 24 hour window, they charge you 5% of your transactions. In addition to the 20 cents here and the 75 there for other miscellaneous fees.

I have called them every month for the last 9 months. I went with them because their monthly fee was $13 instead of the usual $20. For the $7 per month I thought I was saving, I spent hundreds more in their fees and wasted practically a week's worth of hours with them on the phone arguing about my bill.

I finally had it and cancelled my account with them and called my bank to let them know that they are not to allow any charges to come through from this company.

Do not go with Leaders Merchant Services. There are plenty of companies out there - you really dont want to do this to yourself.