Complaint Review: Stefan Worth - MLS Direct Network - Grover Beach California

I don't want to come across as trivializing anyone's complaint. I just have a hard time viewing this as a real complaint website.....This seems to be more of a smear website where anyone, under the cloak of anonymity, can say whatever they want without any validation or verification of the facts. Here's the facts from our side. 1) Stefan has never had a complaint while representing us until this ordeal. 2) We have only had two legitimate complaints in 5 and a half years. Both were resolved satisfactorily and neither involved Stefan. 3) The reason we have only had two compants in 5.5 years is because we do address issues like this very proactively. All calls like this would get escalated to me very quickly. The customer gets taken care of first and given the benefit of the doubt. The field representative pays for whatever cost are involved to make the situation right with the customer. That is their penalty for allowing the situation to escalate to my level. They generally don't let it happen more than once because they learn that I will side with the customer 99% of the time. This is why I know that Lisa never contacted us in this situation because it would have been handled quickly and Stefan would have paid for it. 4) Our attrition is about 8% in an industry that struggles with 20% to 30% attrition as a whole. You don't maintain that kind of attrition if you aren't taking care of your clients. 5) Our average representative has over 10 years of industry experience. You don't last 10 years in this competitive industry unless you are taking care of your clients. 6) Stefan has not activily represented us in over a year but that doesn't take away from the facts that have been outlined here. I still think the above listed complaint(s) are not legitimate and unless they want to call me with some facts that are actually grounded in reality then I'll continue to stand by this position.

This is exactly why a service like this can not be relied on for accurate info. Now we have a post from John "Doe" I guess because he also doesn't feel convicted enough about his claims to even mention his last name. Four businesses are listed but he doesn't mention if any of these are actually his business or is he just randomly throwing out other business names. None of these businesses have ever had merchant accounts with us that we can determine. Two mystery compliants from two phantom complaintants with no affiliation to our company, yet all the while our name is being slandered. The company mentioned here, US Merchant Services, is a totally seperate company from Stefan and a competitor of ours. He very well may have represented them. Infact Stefan may have represented several companies at the same time as sales agents typical do in our industry. If you have a beef with them then that is an issue between you and them, not MLS Direct Network. I do take issue with your statement that you hesitantly signed papers and unknowingly were signed up for a lease. First of all,as a business owner, shame on you for signing papers that you didn't read and understand. You even said you didn't have a good feeling about Stefan so that should have been your red flag to read what you were being asked to sign.Secondly it's very hard to causally sign someone up for a lease. These documents are required to be seperate agreements because they are going through seperate leasing companies. There is large bold print on all leases that warn the signer they are signing up for a non canceallable lease and the term and payments are clearly listed. Then there is a secondary confirmation process inwhich a third party verifier must speak to the signer once again going over the terms of the lease before the lease can be funded. In light of all this here's what likely happened. You were lulled in by the promise of a free terminal by a quick talking telemarketer. Stefan shows up and presents to you an array of savings and since he is saving you enough money he convinces you to upgrade and get the nicer terminal with the extra goodies and it's only going to cost you X per month but the savings will offset this amount. Caught up in the emotion of the sale you gladly signed the papers and awaited the arrival of your new terminal. You finally get your terminal and after a few statements you may or may not be saving as much as you had hoped but the emotion has worn off and you now regret doing a 4 year lease. It's doubtful, based on the exaggerations you have already written that you went to the trouble of trying to get Stefan back out to see if there was anything more he could do in terms of savings. It's much easier to file anonymous complaints on websites like this than to face the person that you now dislike and feel took advantage of you. Stefan may not be a boy scout but he has been in the industry for 10 years and according to you has only 4 complaints. He has hundreds of accounts yet only 4 complaints in 10 years. I've bet you had more than 4 unhappy customers in your buisness in the last 12 months. Perhaps you need to look yourself in the mirror, man up,take responsibiltiy for your actions and quit blaming the world for your inadequacies as a business owner. Just my opinion.

Hoax!! of course the Owner of MLS Direct Network would post this responce to protect one of its Agents and I do understand that. You have to wonder why he would keep an agent working for him if he had national complaints in the past as admitted to in his post. Read the post below about this agent found elsewhere on Rippoff Report. All I can say is Buyer Beware!! Last year, a telemarketer called me from 'US Merchant Services' in Grover Beach, CA asking me to partake in a free rate comparison from 'Visa & MC'. She told me that I would save lots of money and that her manager would give me the best deal ever! I was interested in saving money as my store could use any possible savings as I do not earn a lot of money. So, a rep Stefan Worth, came to my store and presented me with a 20% savings and a 'free' new terminal. Being in business for over 20 years, I know that nothing is free. Stefan did not let up and kept asking me to sign. I did not trust him and my gut told me he was just a 'sales person' and not to do business with someone like him. He pushed the papers to sign in front of me and continued to promise a savings. So, with much hesitation, I signed under the premise of saving large amounts of money. He left with my information and it was over 2 weeks before his office called me. The secretary (I think her name was Liz) told me that he would be out to give me my free terminal in a few days. He came 2 weeks later and installed the new machine. A month later I got a deduction on my bank statement saying I owed for a lease. Apparantly, there is a fee for the machine and Stefan did not disclose this to me. I am paying over $3,000.00 for a machine that costs $600 on the internet. I have called him many times only to speak to his assistant. I called the District Attorney's office and filed a complaint with the police station for fraud. I have also spoken to an attorney regarding the matter. To my dismay, I was shocked to hear that he has lied to other local merchants as well. We are all getting together to fight him and his deceptive sales tactics. DO NOT let him get away with this! Below are other business he has 'sold'. Anacapa Dive Center (They are in Santa Barbara according to the DA) Hundai of Santa Maria - Santa Maria Anamations Classic - Morro Bay Pacific Coast Kitchen - San Luis Obispo We are all upset and willing to fight this in court. We are powerful in numbers. If you have been misrepresented by him or lied to you must call the District Attorney's office in SLO County and file a police report. These are kept on file and can be used against him in court. Whatever you do, DO NOT use his company. Oh, I also found out that he is the owner of this company who uses 'US Merchant Servcies' as a type of franchise (the corp. headquarters are in Ventura County). When I called them, they told me that lost of merchants complain about him and told me to go back to my old company! Can you believe this!!! I also called the leasing company he uses and they said that they are investigating his office for fraud! This gives the term 'salesman' a new level of disgust for me! Watch out - Stefan is the worst salesman you will ever meet! John San Luis Obispo, California U.S.A.

It's very hard for a company our size to follow up on a complaint when no identifying information was given. We don't know the business name, business address or even the last name of the complaintant. We've only had one account in Grover Beach and no one there is named Lisa. The sales rep mentioned in the complaint also doesn't know of any merchant named Lisa that he has ever had in Grover Beach. We have not had any complaints on this rep in five years of him working with us. We've only had a couple of complaints nationally in five years if you search the BBB. Our cancellation fee is modest,about the same as a cell phone agreement cancellation fee so that also appears to be inaccurate as well. As far as the processing fees go they are all clearly spelled out on our schedule of fee page and she would have had to sign that page. All in all there doesn't appear to be any accurracy to this complaint. I am not sure what the benefit is of a service that allows people to make completely anonymous complaints in a national forum which encourages anyone to make up anything they want to damage a company's reputation, regardless of how baseless the accusations may be.