George S
Townsend,#2General Comment
Sat, September 10, 2011
Reading through the frustrations and outrages as outlined by Rita LaGrow brought back the several years of horrible memories of my own dealings with First National Processing. As stated by Ms. LaGrow, I can heartily agree that anyone who is looking for a credit card machine processor must stay as far away from this corrupt company as they possibly can. You will regret your decision from the very moment you receive your first monthly statement (statements which are incomprehensible, thus making it difficult to catch their mistakes). These people will lie to you, and believe me they are well trained at stringing you along with well-practiced narratives, excuses and reasons for the theft of your hard-earned funds. I laughed out loud at Ms. LaGrows mention of an agent named Josh. I spoke to him numerous times about continuing problems with the handling of my account by 1st National and he was the best of the ones I had the displeasure of talking to.
My very first monthly statement (several years ago) showed that they had overcharged my account by nearly 500%! It took at least a dozen phone calls over two months to get this overcharge corrected. Over the next three years I caught them overcharging again at least five more times (probably more if I could figure out the statements). Each time they blamed it on errors by others such as nondescript clerical staff or some other contracted 3rd party company (IPayment, IPay, IFart or something like that) that handles their customer service needs. I had to remind them numerous times that my contract was with 1st National not some unknown 3rd party entity. They never seemed to care. I was often required to call a 3rd party number anyway. Strangely, there was never a monetary mistake which was in my favor always theirs.
They will apologize for an obvious mistake (only after you can prove its obvious), refund your money (again, after numerous phone attempts) then turn around and hit you harder in two or three months. They will promise that your monthly fee will not be increased, then will increase it within three months with no notice whatsoever. When you must speak to them, they will sometimes sigh or even giggle when you show a little frustration in your voice. They must be racking in tons of money from unknowing merchants who do not bother deciphering the infuriatingly unreadable monthly statements.
I dont have the time to detail here all the difficulties and continuing lies I was forced to deal with. I could almost write a book on their ridiculous annual PCI charges and all the hoops a client must jump through in order to keep compliant. Please, again, if you are looking for an honest company to handle your processing, it might be advisable to go with your personal bank. It will be more expensive, but they are likely to deal with you honestly and in a timely fashion when you do have a problem. Do a simple Google search. Type in First National Processing or 1st National Processing. Maybe add the word scam or complaint.
Lastly, I had to laugh when I read through Mr. DiGiovannis response. You will note the many spelling errors, not to mention the obvious mind-set of his company placing the blame for everything on the customers actions. If he writes as sloppily as this, you can only imagine how he runs his company. He said that the refund documents had to be signed off and approved by several managers. Another time consuming trick used to string you along. He stated that Ms. LaGrow should have contacted him in the beginning so that none of this would have ever happened. Another laugh line. How could she have known this? Why didnt his customer service staff ever tell her this? It was obvious that she was doing everything as requested by his company. She had far more patience than I did. Still, they continued to rip her off until she contacted Rip Off Reports, the Federal Reserve and Attorneys General. Only then did he bother to get involved. About his staff he wrote: We like to sleep at night. I have had the misfortune of working with a number of crooks and thieves throughout my career. Somehow, they all seemed to sleep better than I ever did. Apparently its easy to do if you dont have a conscience.
Please, please stay away from this desperately dishonest company at all costs..
G. S.
Mike
Syosset,#3REBUTTAL Owner of company
Wed, September 01, 2010
Dear Sir,
It took me about a month to get her an entire refund, beacuse of the lenght of time she was having problems. She neglected to contact me beacuse she lost our welcome kit and contact info. Once she got a hold of me, I was all over the problem and got a full refund within a month. Extensive research had to be done and the refund had to be approved by several upper level execs at our processor. But I went to bat for her and got her the entire refund. I can assure you none of this would have happened if she would have contacted us as soon as she recongnized the problem.
smack12
United States of America#4Consumer Comment
Tue, December 29, 2009
Michael you need to tighten up! How come you never responded to this consumer for well over a month? You did nothing to resolve this situation this person is the one who resolved the situation because if you did you would of emailed them. Stay away from this company. I was looking into them to use them for our online business, but after hearing this I will definitely look elsewhere. To the person who reported this incident, thank you.
Mike
Syosset,#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Thu, July 28, 2005
My company is an Independent Sales Organization for First National Processing Inc. formerly in Henderson NV, currently in Calabasas CA. First National Processing Inc. was esctablished in 1987 and my independent sales office was created in 1997. I am Mike DiGiovanni the owner of 1st National Prcessing NY. Gallerio Ventures had been a client of mine since 04/02. The nature of our industry is to depend on many 3rd parties to provide multiple services to our cleints i.e. front end processors, back end processors, wireless gateways, settlement banks etc. All of these companies are huge organizations and have 100's sometimes 1000's of employees. These third parties provdie some of the services and also assist in certain aspects of customer service. Gallerio Ventures had lost my direct contact info so when she was having these problems with First National Processing Inc. I was completely unaware. Eventually she did locate my office and I immediately got involved and spoke to my underwriters who I have worked with for many years. I explained to her the complete mess that their Customer Service Rep had caused, and explained that I was very upset beacuse this had tarnished my unblemished reputation and cost me a cleint. I demanded that they do the rigght thing and issue the this merchant a refund. After gathering all of the paperwork from Gallerio Ventures I forwarded it to my underwrtier and the full refund was issued once it was signed off on and approved by several managers. Gallerio Vantures and I have always had a great business relationship. It really hurt to lose her as a client beacuse we truly value each and every one. Had she contacted me in the beginning none of this would have ever happened. My company strives to offer the most superior service and support in the industry. We go out of our way to make sure each and every one of our clients have all of our contact info. We even go as far sending out annual letters to remind the clients of who we are, that they are our client and we are the ones that can make all of their problems go away. We send these banks and processor alot of business and we demand that they treat our customers fairly. If they did not we would take all of our business elsewhere. I spend a fortune on marketing and adertising our cleints are extrememely valauable and I can't stand to lose even one. And, beacuse of our strict guidelines and dedication to service and support we rarely lose a client unless they sell their business or retire. Unfortunately it is impossible for me control all of the actions of customer service reps in the departments of the 3rd parties with which we works. All we can do is continue to stress to our clients that we are the ones that care the most and we are the ones to call if they have any problems, anywhere, whatsoever. All of our cleints are given my cell #, that of my partner & senior account manager and that of my assitant. Unfortunately we cannot stop them from losing our contact info or force them to call us. I have 1000s of clients who will vouch for my company and how we go abaove and beyond to offer them the best customer service in any industry. We are very fair. We always do the right thing. We like to sleep at night. There are no games being played here and there is no attempt to rip anyone off. EVER. The industry is entirtely to competitive to do that type of thing and it is tarnished by companies that are constantly doing just that. Ripping people off. All of our cleints know exactly what they are getting into from the start. Nothing is hidden. And if mistakes are made we refund the clients for any damages casued by our mistakes. Customer referrals are the best type of marketing and we get a lot of them Our goal is to build long term relationships with each and every client. We are very proud of what we do and strive to maintian our reputation. Should anyone have any questions regrading this incident I am available to speak to you personally at 516-921-9445 ext 11. Sincerely, Michael DiGiovanni President 1st National Processing 40 Underhill Blvd. #L101 Syosset, NY 11791 Tel: 516-921-9445x11 Fax: 516-921-9488 www.1nbcard.com
Rita
Scottsboro,#6Author of original report
Sat, April 17, 2004
I finally got this dispute resolved in Feb. 2004, it took RipOffReport.com and documents of the entire incident to FOUR different States Attorney Generals Offices. Lucky for me I actually KNOW somebody who works for the Goverment who gave this rip-off company a call and was able to secure what was owed to me. I have since heard from another poerson who saw the original report here on line and who contacted me becuase they too were ripped off by 1st National Processing (WHO NOW GOES BY THE NAME OF IPAYMENT INC - BEWARE!!!!) If you are offered a merchant account contract through "IPAYMENT INC." I would run as fast as possible in the OPPOSITE direction. I had to close TWO checking accounts becuase they kept taking money fraudulently from us, even a YEAR AFTER being notified of the problem! Even after that, when they agreed to pay me what they owed me, they wanted me to give them yet ANOTHER bank account number to "deposit the funds" into. I DON'T THINK SO! NEVER, EVER give this company any banking information or they will bleed you dry and ignor your phone calls. You've been warned.