Complaint Review: Telecheck - Houston Texas

Walmart does use telecheck...it's there main check verification system along with their own database. Any questions about that call the Walmart Check Center, 800-866-0828. They work side by side with telecheck. I have to agree with the previous commenter. The stores are accepting the risk if they choose to accept the check despite the recommendation of a check verification company. Keep this in mind, they would prefer to loose the business of one person who gets the declined check, than to loose thousands in hot checks. The check verification company saves them lots of money in returned checks, forged checks or anything else that may arise. My grandmother had a run-in with telecheck a few months ago. Like most of the people on here, she doesn't make it a habit of writing bad checks, and has never bounced a check. She accidentally grabbed a checkbook on a closed account, and wrote a check to Walmart. It was only $35 for some little misc. items, but none the less, it was still returned from the bank unpaid, obviously, because the account was closed. We waited to receive a call or letter to pay the check at Walmart after realizing what she had done, and talking to her bank. The woman is 85 yrs old. It's hard enough for me of 30 yrs old to see the info on the check, much less her with her coke-bottle glasses. So I can understand her mistake. We went to write another check a few weeks later, and got declined...called in, and the check from weeks earlier was showing as an unpaid debt to telecheck. I'm grateful to telecheck for letting Grandma pay her check right then by phone with her correct account info. I had a friend who purposely wrote a bad check on a closed account to a little local convenience store, and he got a letter from the district attorney's office 3 weeks later advising of a court date. He got off with a fine, and court fees, but still, that store didn't even give him a chance to make it right. This company didn't know if it was done on purpose or not, but just went straight to the law. The same goes for Grandma. They didn't know if she did it on purpose or not, but gave her the chance to make it right. Unfortunately these businesses have no way of knowing if a check is good or bad when you right it to them. My grandma unintentionally wrote a bad check, and got it corrected, but there are lots of people who do it on purpose, and never correct it. That's why telecheck is as big as it is. As far as governing agencies, the Federal Trade Commission is the governing agency for telecheck. I called and asked them. I think it's funny how so many people want to file lawsuits and complain to someone, but so far, telecheck is still in business and has been for a really really long time. Doesn't look like they're breaking any laws, just protecting businesses from bad check writers. That makes them a hero to the merchant, but hated by consumers.

Yes, the store can override the check service decline and accept your check. However by doing so they accept all risk of the check themselves. by going througha service like Telecheck, the company is assured that if they follow all guidelines (get an ID, put appropriate ID info on check, accpet service decline, etc) and the check is returned unpaid then the verification service will assit in getting the money for the company and charging the check return fee. If the company does not follow the guidelines, say by accepting a check that has been declined, then th company has to initiate the recovery process themselves and the verification service will not assist in any way. Most stores would rather go by the guidelines and leave the recovery to the verification service.

To the employee explaining the innards of the infamous company mentioned in all these complaints, thank you. Still, it does not make sense if you have been purchasing at a particular store for years, paying with the same checking account, and get declined one day, approved the next and declined again the third day! This seems arbitrary to me and a bit fraudulent. When there has been a history of years of paying for purchases with the same personal checks, there is no valid reason to decline two out of three in three days! The pattern as you call it, has been established already for years. This merchant should have a way to bypass this arbitrary action and accomodate a loyal customer. Something is off with the way Telecheck process checks, I am so glad WalMart does not use you! That same week I paid with a check at that store with no problems, they have a different phone number for their EFT process company. TG! If the merchant is contributing to this madness by adding more "factors" to those of Telecheck, so that people are discouraged from using checks at their store, shame on them. I will go elsewhere and I will let them know why. As long as they use Telecheck and do not have a system in place to honor the loyal customers, they will not get my business. They should also loose the feeling of safety they might get from seeing all those code 3. It is not that telecheck found a fraudulent account and saved you from a bad check, it is all for show, and you are paying for it. I do think that a government agency needs to look into these complaints.

""This is absolutely rediculous! I said to her that in the year 2008 you cannot identify that it is me who is using my account and you cannot call my bank to verify that the funds are there?"" Few, if any, merchants will do this. Some small businesses might do this if they have the time (such as myself.) This is indeed 2008 and almost ALL check verifications/authorizations for large merchants are done via computers. ""but yet they wouldnt accomodate me with that service...as a consumer I have the right to write a check that is good ...."" Incorrect. There is no "right" to use a personal check when purchasing goods or services. There is no law or FTC rule that dictates that a business MUST accept personal checks as payment for goods or services rendered. Your indignation is misplaced. Businesses accept checks as a courtesy to their customers (and to promote business) but there is no requirement to accept personal checks. ""if they question who I am or the funds etc. then they need to take the correct steps to make that purchase happen."" No, they don't NEED to do anything if they don't wish to. They don't need to accept your checks. Equally, you don't need to patronize their business. ""and even if lets say...... a check number was out of sequence (which it wasnt) I could see them red flagging ( for my protection) asking alot of questions to make sure they werent stolen or something but they just ignored everything....."" They have no method of knowing if a check number is out of sequence and even if they did, it wouldn't be grounds for refusing to accept a personal check. ""And intend to write a letter to the FTC and the BBB this company is is a ripoff to the merchants...and not fair at all to the consumer. And should not be in business."" What do you expect the FTC and BBB to do? They broke no law or FTC rule by not accepting your check. You let the store know about the problem and that you will be patronizing OTHER businesses that do accept your checks. For the employee who rebutted: "all businesses use Telechek" Sorry to burst your bubble but all businesses do NOT use Telechek. Telechek is merely one of MANY businesses that process personal checks for merchants.

I would like to offer insight to the Telecheck services. Maybe to help you understand how they work. First off, Telecheck has nothing to do with debit or credit card declines. Those transactions do not go thru the Telecheck system for approval or decline. They go thru the company from which the card was issued (i.e. bank, credit card company, etc.) and/or the company where the card is being presented. When a customer presents a check to a merchant that uses Telecheck, that check is evaluated for acceptance. There are risk guidelines set into place by Telecheck & the merchant. It's not just Telecheck that sets the guidelines, but also the merchant so every store is different. The guidelines are to help in reducing the chances of having a returned check (hot check, bounced check) and to prevent forgery. One thing to keep in mind is just because you've never had a return check, doesn't mean you're safe from decline. Telecheck does not have access to your banking records, how much money you have, what your credit rating is, or anything else. The system only has access to your history of presenting checks thru the Telecheck system. So upon evaluating your check, the system is evaluating all kinds of historical data of your check writing. Plus it takes into account where you're writing the check to, what time of day it is, is this in your normal history for you to write a check at this place during this time....etc., etc. So let me give an example...if you're at Wal-mart at midnight, spending over $300, and your history of writing checks shows that you've never been to Wal-mart writing checks at midnight...most of yours are in the morning. And your history shows that you never write checks of over $100, there's a strong possibility it's going to decline that check. Another thing that the system looks at is where you are presenting the check. Abercrombie, like many other merchants of that type, has very strict guidelines....mainly because a lot of the fraudulant activity done on checking accts is done at places like that. They would prefer that the customer use a debit or credit card. Checks are very easy to forge, and can be easily altered. So if you don't have a solid history of writing checks in the system, it simply will not approve your transaction. Especially of over $100. Let me offer another example that may help in understanding. Let's say you own a business. And the more checks you accept, you begin to see a pattern in the returned checks. Let's say you see that more of the checks written on Saturday nights than any other day of the week are returned. Then you also see more returned checks have lower check numbers. Then you begin to notice that there are more returned checks when the check is over a certain amount. So you begin to not accept checks on Saturday nights of over a certain amount with low check numbers...just not to take the chance of that check being returned. But maybe you have a few customers that you know regularly present good checks, so you accept those. That's pretty much what Telecheck does, but on a much much larger scale. They've researched patterns and statistics that go with the probability of returned checks, and have set these guidelines to help reduce that. Unfortunately, they don't play favorites, and every check & checkwriter is treated equally in the system. Also, with increased amounts of forgery cases and identity theft in the last few years, there have been more measures put into place to try to reduce those incidences. Each is evaluated individually, at the time the check is presented. Believe it or not, I have caught many fraudulant checks coming thru the system by the same decline that you have received. They call in, just like you. They give all their information....but when it just doesn't look right to me, I offer to conference them in with the bank that the checks are being written from. So far, my gut feelings have always been right. Each time they hang up when I say I'm going to get the bank on the line to verify information. On the other hand, I also get the calls from the actual account owner who had their checks stolen, yelling at me, asking why didn't telecheck decline the checks that were written and forged. Well, the theives managed to make sure the checks fit into the acceptance guidelines. Which brings me to another point. Many want to know, "Specifically, what guideline did my check not meet?" I don't have that answer....no one does really. It's done electronically, we're not give the specifice reason. We're only given what it could be...and that's a good thing. If the person who stole those checks called in, verified all of the information on the account, and I gave him the specific guideline that the check did not meet, then he would just find a way around it, and write more checks....possibly on your account! Please keep in mind. Merchants have the right to refuse your check at any given time, with no reason whatsoever. Just as they have the right to refuse your business. You are given checks by your bank and writing checks is a priviledge, not your right. The decision to pay a check by your bank is made when the check is presented to that bank. That doesn't mean that the bank will always honor checks written. And overdraft protection is a courtesy banks offer...that doesn't mean that a bank will utilize it when you go into that overdraft.

They have no brains. I went thru something similar last week. I went to a gas station and used my card to get thru quickly since I drive alot. The card said "declined" yet I knew I had way, wayyyyy more than enough to cover it. So I went down the block, got my gas and oh my card WAS NOY declined, took the reciept back down to the first place and raised you know what! Hmm I spent $50 bucks at the 2nd store, so guess who gets my business now? I put on 60k miles a yr on my car, so yea, they are gonna eat this one!

They have no brains. I went thru something similar last week. I went to a gas station and used my card to get thru quickly since I drive alot. The card said "declined" yet I knew I had way, wayyyyy more than enough to cover it. So I went down the block, got my gas and oh my card WAS NOY declined, took the reciept back down to the first place and raised you know what! Hmm I spent $50 bucks at the 2nd store, so guess who gets my business now? I put on 60k miles a yr on my car, so yea, they are gonna eat this one!

They have no brains. I went thru something similar last week. I went to a gas station and used my card to get thru quickly since I drive alot. The card said "declined" yet I knew I had way, wayyyyy more than enough to cover it. So I went down the block, got my gas and oh my card WAS NOY declined, took the reciept back down to the first place and raised you know what! Hmm I spent $50 bucks at the 2nd store, so guess who gets my business now? I put on 60k miles a yr on my car, so yea, they are gonna eat this one!

They have no brains. I went thru something similar last week. I went to a gas station and used my card to get thru quickly since I drive alot. The card said "declined" yet I knew I had way, wayyyyy more than enough to cover it. So I went down the block, got my gas and oh my card WAS NOY declined, took the reciept back down to the first place and raised you know what! Hmm I spent $50 bucks at the 2nd store, so guess who gets my business now? I put on 60k miles a yr on my car, so yea, they are gonna eat this one!

All business use telecheck to protect them aganist FRAUD. Contact telecheck to see what the problem is before you shoot off your mouth and get sued.