Complaint Review: Wholesale Merchant Services - Lease Finance Group

On or about December 2nd of 2005, a Mr. Lance Ott of Wholesale Merchant Services came into my office and made a presentation regarding savings on my Visa and Mastercard processing. He promised a savings of over 50% on my monthly processing, which would amount to approximately $300.00 per month. To realize these savings, I would be required to lease new credit card processing equipmeny at $99.95 per month through Lease Finance Group. As this would provide a net savings of about $200.00 per month, I agreed and signed the lease. The equipment arrived, we set it up and began processing as agreed. At the end of the first month, I received my statement, and was greatly surprised to see that my processing cost had actually increased. I called Wholesale Merchant Services to find out why, and was told that they would do some reprogramming to correct my processing costs. This never happened. Month after month, I called and tried to get this straightened out. I finally realized that Wholesale Merchant Services could not reduce my processing cost as promised by their representative, Mr. Ott. I then told them that if they could not honor their representative's promises, that I was not intersted in continuing my lease. I was then told that the lease was non-cancellable, and that I would have to pay it in full ($4800.00) to satisfy the contract. I then reinstalled my old processing equipment and set up processing with my local bank,and moved my bank acount to prevent Lease Finance Group from deducting the monthly $99.95. This resulted in as many as ten telephone calls per day from Lease Finance Group harassing me about the unpaid contract. I explained repeatedly that the could have their equipment back and call it a done deal.They were not interested in anything but money. I researched the equipment they had leased to me, and found it can be purchased brand new for about $400.00. In short,Wholesale Mertchant Services misrepresented their ability to save me money, in order to trap me into a non-cancellable lease which would rip me off for about $4,000.00. Avoid these slick tricksters at all costs- tell them to take their lying carcasses to a lower and much hotter place.

Touringmandan
Matthews, North Carolina
U.S.A.