Complaint Review: Northern Leasing Systems

First of all, the independent representative, Lew Ison, with Nation Wide Merchant Services, contacted me and told me our business merchant credit card processing system was not in compliance because our credit card machine was not hiding the credit card number on merchant copy. He also said that the credit card machine I was using (an Verifone Omni 3200SE) was not able to bring me into compliance and that it needed to be replaced with an updated machine. He said the Verifone Omni 3200SE had no value and that it might as well be used as a doorstop. After hearing this and believing him, we agreed to switch to another machine and a new merchant account. He presented a one-page contract in which he filled-in completely other than the signature fields. Therefore, I was not able to review the stringent and ridiculous terms of the agreement. I believe this was done intentionally. Later I found out there were supposedly three other pages I had never seen.

In the meantime, after this meeting and before he was able to connect the machine up to our system I did some researching and talked with several people and I found out the federal requirements on truncating the credit card numbers, and that I was indeed, in compliance. The requirements are that only the credit card number on the customer copy be truncated except the last 4 digits. Our Omni 3200 SE was in full compliance with not only Utah requirements, but also the more stringent requirements of Visa and MasterCard.

I called Lew Ison and told him I felt he deceived me with false information and deceived me into signing an agreement that was misrepresented and a service, which was unnecessary. I told him I no longer wanted the machine connected and to come get it. It was still in the box at our business where somebody dropped off and never told anyone it was there. He said he couldn't take back the machine and that the contract couldn't be cancelled, which was another lie he told me. So I sent it back to Northern Leasing the next day via UPS, which I tracked their acceptance of receiving it. I then wrote Northern Leasing a letter stating the circumstances of the fraudulent misrepresentation of their representative, Lew Ison, with no luck, the collection phone calls started coming.

I told their collection callers that I had no valid agreement with them and I never accepted the equipment and that it was never installed. They miraculously sent me a copy of a delivery and acceptance receipt, which was not filled out nor signed by me as it appears. Northern Leasing has apparently disregarded my comments and situation because the phone calls and collection correspondence keep coming. I wrote them a cease communications letter to stop the phone calls. We'll see if that works for now.

I have filed a report of communication fraud with the local authorities. Ironically, during my research phase I found that on Northern Leasing's website it shows the Verifone Omni Series credit card processing machine, which was apparently worthless according to their representative, Lew Ison.

Mike
Kaysville, Utah
U.S.A.