MERCHANTS BEWARE
Our company signed a 3 year contract with Transtech Merchant Group. Unfortunately, being a busy business owner, I hastily scanned the contract which is self renewing if you do not contact them prior to the end of your term. THE MAIN RIP OFF HERE is: THEY DO NOT GIVE YOU A SET AMOUNT THAT THEY WILL CHARGE YOU TO TERMINATE! They state a MINIMUM of $300.00. In our case, the 3 year term had expired. I decided to go with another processing company, but was suprised to find I was under contract with them for an additional year. I decided to cancel anyway, but was told it would be $495.00.
I told the company that I had sent a letter requesting cancellation. They asked where I had sent the letter. They, of course, had not received it. I told them the address I used was the one on all correspondence from them. I was told that was their corporate office and not the right address. The next day, after cooling off, I called to request the address to send a certified letter requesting closure of my account, and was given the same address the original letter went to.
Ray At Tampabay Merchant Services
Clearwater,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, July 05, 2011
You state "The termination fee is no different from a cell phone contract, a satellite TV agreement.." The problem with your statement is your agreement has an auto renewal cause. Cell phones do
not auto renew and goes down over time, so this is not like as you state. Why is it necessary to even have a termination fee? As one who works in this industry it is because they want to make it painful for a business to leave. Also to cover the big commission they paid the sales rep. Trans Tech, Apex and American Payment appear to be the same company as their agreements looks the same. They
are the worst because of unfriendly terms for the business/ merchant. It states no less than $300. That means they can charge any amount. They can go up on any fee, IE monthly fee, transaction fee, batch fee just to name a few and you are stuck! These fees are independent of interchange. Businesses beware of this company!
Dizzle
USA#3UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sat, June 11, 2011
"TransTech makes every effort to ensure that a merchant fully understands the agreement"
- Original employee rebuttal to this post
As a former employee, I can assure you that comment is BS. Transtech does everything they can to have their employees fast-talk the customers and speed them through the signing process so that they don't realize that you could be signing your entire bank account away.
AMANDA91080
VERNON,#4UPDATE EX-employee responds
Sun, June 05, 2011
My team leader tried to get me to fill out the application while waiting outside the business..The guy didn't even know that he had an appointment! Team leader says, "Let's go ahead and fill out all these pages and if you can go inside and get him to show you his merchant statement then you can just get his info off of that then tell him where to sign and initial..He assumed that because it's in my hometown and I shop there that he would do it with no hesitation..I don't do crap like that to people and when I told the business owner, who is also my neighbor, he was TICKED OFF!! I still have all the papers and all and I don't know what I should do now......The people at this company are horrible and have NO MORALS!!
kerroppi420
United States of America#5Consumer Comment
Tue, November 03, 2009
Im sorry but anyone defending this company must be an employee. I think everyone is aware you should read contracts, so you're covered on that one. But what happens after you sign the contract, well thats different story. The customer service at Transtech is the absolute worse of ANY buisness Ive ever dealt with. After reading the above story, I saw I was not the only one falling victim to this stupidity.. Employees misinformed and giving out wrong information. Noone seems to have recieved the same training manual it would appear by all the inconsistencis in policies and address to it seems lol. These mistakes cost people time and money. Then to recieve such rude demeanors when calling "customer service". This company is the PITS!!!!!
Scooter B.
Plano,#6UPDATE Employee
Tue, October 13, 2009
There is no rip-off. All of the information was freely available and easily understandable if the merchant had taken the time to review the contract.
First: Both the termination fee and the automatic rollover are clearly specified on Page 4 of the merchants copy of terms and conditions. The termination fee is no different from a cell phone contract, a satellite TV agreement, or any number of other services. These fees are standard business practice.
Second: TransTech makes every effort to ensure that a merchant fully understands the agreement. The terms are spelled out in the most detailed contract in the industry. In fact, we require a merchant to sign a second document confirming that they understand the terms. After that, the merchant still has a 30-day cancellation period. As if that isnt enough, the merchant is contacted not once, but twice as part of our retention process. We value our customer relationships.
Third: It is crucial for business owners and individuals alike to carefully review any type of consumer agreement whether its a mortgage, building lease, insurance policy, rental car agreement, or any other type of contract.
This is not only good business practice. Its common sense.