Helper
Portland,#2Consumer Suggestion
Mon, December 15, 2008
Hi My name is Hassan I'm an ISO, I own Merchant Services Company Express MPS Group partner with Digital Financial Group one of the best company Sponsored by wells Fargo and First Data. WOW I'm sorry you got Ripped off, by these guys. Do not sign a terminal lease if it's more than $30 a month and more than 36month. AND DON'T BUY A FREE CREDIT CARD MACHINE.BECAUSE IT'S A RIP OFF. Dont let any merchant services pay off your Current lease,because they will put you on new lease,and that you will be paying more Read the contract very closely and keep a copy of it and tell the agent to wait for TOW days or comeback within TWO day so you have time to read the contract and look up their company @ www.ripoffreport.com when you decided to sign with them make sure you get your contract copy right a way. (it Means) go to the copy machine and make your own copy of the contract you signed. WE ALL LEARN FROM OUR MISTAKES This is some Consumer Guide on Merchant Services to help you choose your merchant service provider wisely. Merchant Services: Beware of Marketing Ploys Like any other business field, merchant service providers have their own jargon, inside information, heroes and villains. There are honest companies and those willing to say just about anything to close a sale. This is Consumer Guide on Merchant Services to help you choose your merchant service provider wisely. Don't Be Fooled By Marketing Tricks. In the field of merchant services, there are many price variables that can be manipulated to fool a customer into believing they are paying the lowest price, but in fact they are not. The merchant services industry is advertising a low discount rate. The discount rate can be temporarily manipulated through "introductory" offers which quickly expire. This is the rate that a merchant pays for a swiped card transaction, usually between 1.69% and 2.69% depending on credit, volume, product type and risk factors. Below are some marketing techniques and issues to be educated on. 1) "Merchant Accounts 1.09% 1.39% 1.59% and 1.64%!" When you see such an ad, click through and try to find the rate guaranteed and watch out when you see (guaranteed**) anywhere on the merchant services website. See if you can even find it ever mentioned again! Some advertising might grand-stand lower rates that are only given to extremely high volume customers. Once you have invested time into the application process, a savvy high pressure closer will explain with great charm and detail why your final rate wasn't as good as the one given to say, "A world wide fast food chain" but was still a great deal considering your risk factors. 2) "Free Merchant Account?" What does this mean!? The merchant account provider must charge a discount rate and per item transaction fee. Does that sound free? A free set-up fee can easily be exchanged with an "annual fee" or some other kind of hidden charge. 3) Hidden Charges: Another "switch" is simply substituting hidden charges that you won't discover until after you get your first bill. STEPS 1-Customer Service... Ask your sales agent what you can expect when you call their office for support. Who will answer the phone? Do they have one of those annoying automated system that takes you into a black hole, or do they have a live human answering the phone? What are the hours of operation? If you speak another language, do they have a translation service? If you have an emergency, is there a 24 hour telephone number? 2- Rate...You should not base your decision solely on price. Be weary of those that are offering extremely low rates. They may be padding the back end with additional fees. Qualified and non-qualified rates are determined by Visa/MasterCard. Look at their websites to determine what these credit card companies are charging your processor to run Visa/MasterCard transactions. If the rate is lower than this "set" rate, be cautious. Remember that your processor is a business, with expenses and employees to pay. 3 -Funding...How long will it take for your e-funds (funds from credit, debit, and e-checks) to be deposited into your bank account? The deposit or funding time is different with each processor. If your business needs daily cash flow to pay employees funding time could be very important to you. Processors fund anywhere from 24 hours to several days to even weeks. 4-Experience...How many years has the processor been in business? This can prove to be very important when a problem arises with your account or your equipment. Ensure they have the know-how to get things resolved, and fast! 5- Equipment...Long gone are the days of having to purchase costly equipment, or get stuck in a long lease. Leading processors are offering free equipment with new, approved merchant accounts. Understand that this is a free terminal placement while you are a current client of the processor. If you terminate the agreement, for any reason, you must return the equipment. Be cautious about processors who push new, costly, equipment. Unless you current equipment is not PCI compliant or network compliant, you should not have to upgrade. Do not sign a terminal lease if it's more than $30 a month If you have a lease and it's the end of the lease TERM make sure you call the lease company to cancel your lease, because IF YOU DON'T CALL THEM they will continue charging you. 6- Contract Term... Know if there is a contract term. If there is a contract term and you want to cancel the contract in the future what is the fee. Are there certain exceptions to this early-cancellation fee? TIP... Be honest with your processor about your business type, How much you process and the average ticket amount. Don't claim a $20.00 average ticket amount when your average ticket is around $200.00. This may see like a good idea to qualify for a "lower" rate but what will undoubtly happen is. After you run a few "abnormal" transactions, a red flag will go up at the risk department. They are looking for fraud. If your account has abnormal activity that might be fraudulent, they will freeze your account to minimize their exposure. Your account will be held until an investigation is completed. This can take months. Be honest and up front with your credit card processor to eliminate this hassle all together. WARNING Ask Questions. Be studious. Look at all contracts, really all the lines. Your processor can't realistically go over everything. It is your job to look the contract over and ask any questions you might have. Be weary of processors who are quick to get your signed without addressing all of your concerns. THANKS TO www.ripoffreport.com If you have any Question please feel free to email me
Gloria
Cottonwood,#3Consumer Suggestion
Mon, April 07, 2008
Hi, This is so typical. Independent Rep comes and makes a deal, and then somewhere along the line Lease Finance Group Comes in and says you have a Irrevocable Lease and it doesn't matter what the Independent Rep Told You. When in reality, the Independent Rep is supposed to abide by the rules and explain everything, but doesn't. So as I said, the trick is, It is always the Other Guy!!! Irrevocable Leases should be OUTLAWED. As a recipiant of this lease, were you told it was Irrevocable and at the time you purchased the equipment, where you given a Truth in Lending Statement of how much it would cost you over the life of the lease??? I don't know in your state, but in California, if a full disclosure is not given at the time of purchase, this is Fraudulent. I have been making this suggestion to many other people being RippedOff by CIT & Independent Reps. So far, I have received no additional calls since I did this plus told CIT that this was FRAUD & FORGERY. But who knows???? So check this out>>>> You may want to send a complaint to FTC (Federal Trade Commission). I did and received a response saying they don't do individual cases. However, if they log enough complaints, they will start an investigation and possibly legal action. So here is the link: https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01 to the FTC complaint forms. I've told many people about it, so you may want to do the same. Make sure you give specific examples or even let them know you have documentation of deceptive or misleading information. Please remember if things weren't CLEARLY disclosed at time of sale, this may be FRAUD in most states Also, you may want to file with your State Attorney General. I haven't given up, but it does take a while for the squeaky wheel to be heard. The lease finance group did file to the credit bureau as a lost debt. However, I recently refinanced my home. I showed the Financing Company all the correspondence I had with this company, plus the many RipOff Reports, and she had a great laugh and I got my loan at a very low interest rate. As far as CIT, here is their main site: http://www.cit.com/main/default.htm . Also, within this site, I found e-mails and have sent copies of my rip-off report, including a copy of all the complaints listed under Lease Finance Group in the Rip-Off site. Here are some e-mail addresses, you may want to send your concerns to: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Just to let them know how you feel about their fraudulent relationships with Independent Sales Representatives. I did get the Rip-Off Report Do-It-Yourself Guide and it did have some good steps to follow. However, it was a little lacking in the cyberspace rip-offs. I've been paralleling the thoughts or ideas in this Guide to try to apply them to the internet. For example, instead of sending faxes, send e-mails. So every web site I am interested in, I look for e-mails and make up a group listing & start bombarding them with e-mails and include my rip-off report, plus any other rip-off concerns. I hope this helps. Thanks, G for California
Customer Service
Tigard,#4UPDATE Employee
Thu, February 21, 2008
To Whom It May Concern, We have spoken to Jackie on numerous occasions regarding this issue. She was signed up for service with Wholesale Merchant Processing through a former ISO (Independent Sales Office) of ours, US Merchant Services. At no time did a representative from Wholesale Merchant Services meet with Jackie at her place of Business, Jackie's Hair Design. Wholesale Merchant Services never made any promises to Jackie, nor any agreements to pay for any fees from her old processor. Any and all agreements made to Jackie, in addition to the contracts she signed, were made by US Merchant Services. She has a copy of the Merchant Receipt Form that says US Merchant Services agrees to pay her the cancellation fee of her old processor. This is signed by Brian Bowles and Jackie Robertsons. Brian Bowles works for US Merchant Services, not Wholesale Merchant Services. No where on this document does it say Wholesale Merchant Services. We did not agree to pay for this. In regards to the shipping label, Jackie has yet to provide any sort of tracking number to us. We have offered to help her in any way we can. We even asked her to fax us a copy of the shipping label she used so that we can help her try and track down the machine, (which will show the tracking #), she sent us a cut off copy, that does not show any information at all. Jackie's complaints are not about her processing, so in turn should they need to be directed towards US Merchant Services and Brian Bowles. Any issues Jackie has about her processing, we are more than happy to help her with, unfortunately the "perks" offered, or agreed to separate from the contracts are not the responsibility of Wholesale Merchant Services.