Complaint Review: TransFirst Merchant Services - Nancy Borkowski

There is one thing that everyone should know about TransFirst Merchant Services and that is they are a bunch of theives! They will look for any excuse to charge you fees, make up excuses to hold funds, rip you off, and charge you for items that you did not agree to.

If you deal with these con artists, get away from them immediately. This is what TransFirst does that no one else does!

-They charge you additional chargeback fees for 2nd chargebacks placed by a cardholder. Every single merchant company that we've spoken to and its over 15 of them, do not charge for another chargeback fee. NOT ONLY IS IT NOT DISCLOSED IN THE CONTRACT, they will find any excuse possible to charge you an additional chargeback fee and find an excuse for it.

-They will try to make you sign a document which was never disclosed in the contract. If they cardholder continues to dispute the charge, it goes to a PREARBITRATION. Transfirst crooks try to force to sign a document which will cost you an ADDITIONAL $100 ontop of the 2 chargeback fees in order for your documentation to get sent to the buyer's credit card company. Once again, no other merchant company does that! Visa imposes a $450 Arbitration fee if it gets sent to them, but TRANSCROOK wants to line their pockets with an additional $100. And if you dont sign the agreement they never send over your rebuttle!

-Regardless

Regarding Nancy Borkowski concerns. Her name came up when I did a search for Transfirst on RipOff Report.com. I have no way of knowing when she started working there, what her position is, or if she was in anyway involved with my account.  I am assuming that since said she was not involved, that she is telling the truth.  Transfirst refunded the money they took from my account.  As far as I am concerned, this issue is closed and reflects solely on Transfirst, Merchant Services, Lease Finance Group as a corporation and the corporations policies that were in place at the time we had this issue.  I would hope that they have reconsidered their communication methods and how they deal with customers both on the phone and by mail. As I said before, this whole situation did not need to happen. Had I been treated fairly, I would never have filed a complaint. When the issue was resolved, they asked me to write a response indicating the issue was resolved, and I did that. I will not apologize for writing the initial complaint as I felt we attempted to deal with their staff fairly and they blew us off.  It was through the BBB and Rip Off Report.com that we got their attention.  Had I not taken those steps, I do not believe they would have refunded the money.  Again, I consider this issue resolved.  Nancy's name can be removed as far as I am concerned.  Her name was already listed with Rip Off Report.com and that is how her name was obtained.   

I certainly understand your frustration as I read your detailed complaint/report.  I am, however very alarmed to see my name listed with your dispute.  While I do work for TransFirst LLC currently, I was not employed with TransFirst LLC at the time you stated your lease was signed in the year 2005, nor did I ever provide services of any kind in the state of Alaska or to any business called Northern Mist Gifts. 

While it appears that you have certainly had a very poor experience, I pride myself in providing superior customer service in the uptmost honest manner to each and every merchant and have received testimonials that confirm the level of service I provide.  I have been equally proud to work for TransFirst LLC since 2008, who has earned and continues to maintain an A+ Better Business Bureau Ranking.  They have consistently taken care of my merchant's needs, allowing me to offer customized products, services and bottom-line savings to fit businesses large and small, while working alongside me to provide the best service in the industry.

I am very happy to see that TransFirst LLC did take care of rectifying this incident for you.  However, I respectfully request that you clear my name personally from your complaint/report.  Although, I am uncertain of how you would have obtained my name, I am certain that if you look back to the paperwork you signed, you will see that I was in no way involved in this matter.

Feel free to contact me with any questions!

Sincerely,

Nancy Borkowski                                   480.695.5151                                                              nancyb@transfirst.com                                                                                

On April 20th, I received an email from a member of Transfirst staff advising "We have reviewed her account and agree with Ms. Reese that she had a leased terminal with a third party company which she had fulfilled her obligations with. Along with the leased terminal, she was given a pin pad from our company, TransFirst Merchant Services which was on a Free Use program. When Ms. Reese called into our Company on November 11, 2009 to inform us that she was closing her business, we processed her closure request in November and no further billing occurred. However, what the representative overlooked in her discussions with Ms. Reese was to notify her that she had a pin pad loaned to her that she would have needed to return it to avoid a fee. We sincerely apologize that this was not discussed with her at the time she called in to close her account."

A full refund was deposited to my account plus the fees charged in November of $66. 

I consider this problem to be resolved and advised them that I would post this information on Ripoffreport.com as I have now done.   

A request to have the manager over the first two individuals we spoke to call my sister was not responded to. They were advised we would file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau but apparently are not concerned.  The complaint with the BBB in Colorado has been filed. I plan to contact the credit union that our account was set up with tomorrow.

June of 2005, we opened a small gift shop and were referred to Transfirst by our local bank so we could accept credit cards in the store.  We signed a lease for four years for a rate of $31.61 a month.  In addition to that amount, they charged a % of sales and $20+ per month minimum, a statement fee and there was some kind of additional fee that was charged every six months.  All of which we paid faithfully every month.

In July 2009 we went out of business. We stayed open through June specifically because our lease was up on the machine in June.  When we leased the equipment, we were told that once the lease was up, the machine was ours.  After the shop closed, they continued to bill us the fees even though we notified them we were going out of business. 

In September, the minimum fee of $20 was increased to $50 without notice. So now we were paying $31.61 and $60+ just to accept credit cards for a business we were no longer running. Since my sister (my partner in the company) wasn't working, she handled the remaining business.  She tried to contact them several times, but they refused to talk to her. I finally got through to someone with Lease Finance Group who told me that they were continuing to charge the $31.61 because we had not returned the now five year old piece of equipment and that we would have to pay an additional $169 or return it.  They never mentioned the key pad was separate from the credit card machine. We decided to keep it in case we would open again and paid the $169. 

The lease fee stopped being charged and we thought we were all done with them when much to our surprise, without any notice at all, they cleaned out our checking account, charging us $400. I instructed my sister to call them. During the conversation their representative said they sent a letter. Her husband went out and checked the mail finding a letter stating they were charging us $400 for the pin pad that was not returned.  At first they guy on the phone agreed to send a label so we could return the pin pad and get our money back, but then he got on the phone and said because it had been so long they refused to accept the pin pad back and would not refund the $400.  The last lease payment had been charged end of January so we were looking at about 60 days.  I asked to speak to his supervisor who was also very practiced at saying "I am sorry, there is nothing I can do." I asked to speak to his manager. His response was that this person was not in the office.

Bottom line is we paid $1548 dollars to lease the credit card machine which apparently did not include the leasing of the pin pad allowing people to enter a pin number and use their debit card, plus at least $20 a month for 4 years and a month coming to $980 plus a percentage of our sales. But that wasn't enough, they also got $169 for a five year old piece of equipment that isn't compliant with new laws because it shows the entire credit card number on the receipt, and then charged an additional $400 for a pin pad that is about the size of a deck of cards that is also five years old and might be worth $10.  

It is because of companies like this that small businesses do not make it.  They lack any kind of morals or ethics and make their profits by ripping off the small businesses. All they had to do was spend 44 cents on a stamp and notify that if we did not return the equipment they would charge us the $400 but they did not. They just took every cent we had in our checking accounting left over after we worked hard for over four years.  They are your typical corporate business that only is concerned for their bottom line, not the blood, sweat and tears of hard working people. We need to let corporate America know we will not stand for this anymore.  I encourage anyone currently doing business with them to cancel your lease and if you are considering doing business with them, DONT.