Ok, i am so embarrassed. I read several comments and even emailed the sales rep about the complaints i had seen. But yet somehow i still felt comfortable with the sales rep - what a great manipulator. Felt so comfortable that i forwarded this reps contact information to a friend and they said "bill, you are a good judge of character" and went on to say that he did not trust them. Well i am now one of the people that have been abused by this company. Bbb even though i am not sold on their ratings) irst of all, i could not even see what they were charging me for a month because the login displayed "no transactions". Then after repeated request for information, finally sent correct login of course this was about 4 weeks after i started with them). Then i see all of the extra fee's which was not plainly noted in the contract nor in the emails from the rep. The manager continue to stand on a vague and manipulative contract that i questioned and the sales rep emailed me "that will not apply" to your agreement for several items. Manager attempted to manipulate me or make me feel like i did not know anything about merchant accounts. He even said "intuit merchant services was not a full merchant account and was for personal use only", which i said "what?". Now the manager did say he would try to waive next month fee since it takes them 30 days to cancel it) but said it most likely would not happen. Manager also stated "it was his decision if he charged a cancellation fee", but assured me that he would waive it. I had an email from the sales rep that said he was waiving the contract period good thing now as this would of cost us another $500.00). My fees ran about 10% of the charges because the rep setup our account as $10,000 per month average so the rate would be competitive to my current merchant account - which i did not say. We only run about $1,000 or so in credit card charges per month due to the cost of credit card processing. So part of my bill included a fee for not maintaining $10,000 in charges.
Then there is the "regulatory fee, batch header fee, fixed network cp fee, datawire fee, acqr processor fee" and then you get down to paying the low 1.49% or 2.99% for business cards. So i called again to find out why i was receiving another bill with service fees since i returned the cancellation form with terminal about a month ago. And of course this month was double of what last month fees were that was or first month) and we did about the same in credit card payments. I have yet to understand how this company can continue in business. They apparently have 18 employees from what i found. They have had two addresses:
Use to be at 101 hodencamp rd ste 203, thousand oaks, ca 91360-5835
Website shows integrated card services and address 5126 clareton drive ste 260 agoura hills, ca 91301
Not sure which one is accurate.
In closing, it seems this company gets you locked into a contract, setups up the account so they can draw more money from your account, manipulates the amount “you promise to charge” to get your rate into an affordable percentage, then attempt to make you feel like you are an idiot and should just pay the ridiculous fee’s just because.
So here i sit, screwed again by a vendor when i should have listen to other post. Regarding merchant account solutions, stay far away.
I started my small business and was looking for a credit card processing company so I can offer my clients to pay me with their credit/debit cards.
I have a few accounts like Paypal and Square but was looking into better, less pricy service as I am trying to grow my business.
At first, Merchant Account Service sounded wonderful.
The account executive Mr Logan Distefano told me that their rate is as low as $0.36 per swipe and %1.5 for other credit card company swipe.
I told him I only intended to use iPhone or iPad for the terminal. He said the company will send me a card swiper for free and did not mention about any fee might involve in the future.
I received a card swipe and as a test, I charged my own credit card twice with amount of $1 each, total of $2.
That month, I did not have any sales via card and my business account had $12.54 debited by the merchant account solution.
I had to call them and find out what was the breakdown of this $12.54 was
They told me
$7.99 = monthly account fee
$2.99 = federal mandatory fee
$1.34 = mid level qualifying process fee (Credit card, inputting number directly)
$0.30 = high level qualifying process fee (Credit card, using a card swipe device)
Plus, they deducted 6 cents from total of $2.
It looks really fishy and I started to doubt their legitimacy of the business. So I called their front toll free number and started to mention about my wish to close my account.
First, they told me that I have to pay $350. I asked why and they told me that those were terminal fees. I told them all I have is my iPhone/iPad card swipe. Now they said I will be charged if I don’t return the device. Naturally I will return any device that I don’t use any more. But they sales talk were “Free Devices”
Today, after I had to bug them a few more times to see how I can close my account, they finally sent me a Termination Merchant Account Request form via an email.
As I was filling this form and getting ready to get rid of the card swipe, I noticed that the subject of the email said “Early Termination Fee $545.00”
I quickly called back and spoke with an agent (Benjamin Hahn) who are helping me to start account closure process, (at this time, I talked to him 3 times already) and now they are saying that I have to pay early termination fee of $545.00.
I have not signed any documents physically and they never sent me any documents. They claimed that they have my e-signature on the contract but all I did was following the steps online while sale account executive, Mr. Logan was guiding me on the phone to enter my business information on their website system.
I had not been given any chance to see if there was any agreement nor contract that I had signed in there.
I strongly feel that they tricked me to setup merchant account with them and either way keeping the account or closing account, they created a system that they will get most money out of from small business owners like myself.
I started my small business and was looking for a credit card processing company so I can offer my clients to pay me with their credit/debit cards.
I have a few accounts like Paypal and Square but was looking into better, less pricy service as I am trying to grow my business.
At first, Merchant Account Service sounded wonderful.
The account executive Mr Logan Distefano told me that their rate is as low as $0.36 per swipe and %1.5 for other credit card company swipe.
I told him I only intended to use iPhone or iPad for the terminal. He said the company will send me a card swiper for free and did not mention about any fee might involve in the future.
I received a card swipe and as a test, I charged my own credit card twice with amount of $1 each, total of $2.
That month, I did not have any sales via card and my business account had $12.54 debited by the merchant account solution.
I had to call them and find out what was the breakdown of this $12.54 was
They told me
$7.99 = monthly account fee
$2.99 = federal mandatory fee
$1.34 = mid level qualifying process fee (Credit card, inputting number directly)
$0.30 = high level qualifying process fee (Credit card, using a card swipe device)
Plus, they deducted 6 cents from total of $2.
It looks really fishy and I started to doubt their legitimacy of the business. So I called their front toll free number and started to mention about my wish to close my account.
First, they told me that I have to pay $350. I asked why and they told me that those were terminal fees. I told them all I have is my iPhone/iPad card swipe. Now they said I will be charged if I don’t return the device. Naturally I will return any device that I don’t use any more. But they sales talk were “Free Devices”
Today, after I had to bug them a few more times to see how I can close my account, they finally sent me a Termination Merchant Account Request form via an email.
As I was filling this form and getting ready to get rid of the card swipe, I noticed that the subject of the email said “Early Termination Fee $545.00”
I quickly called back and spoke with an agent (Benjamin Hahn) who are helping me to start account closure process, (at this time, I talked to him 3 times already) and now they are saying that I have to pay early termination fee of $545.00.
I have not signed any documents physically and they never sent me any documents. They claimed that they have my e-signature on the contract but all I did was following the steps online while sale account executive, Mr. Logan was guiding me on the phone to enter my business information on their website system.
I had not been given any chance to see if there was any agreement nor contract that I had signed in there.
I strongly feel that they tricked me to setup merchant account with them and either way keeping the account or closing account, they created a system that they will get most money out of from small business owners like myself.
These people are incredible rip-off artist. They tell you how low thier fees are and provide a free swiper to use. Then each month they suck money from your account EVEN if you don't use. After complaining to them and wanting to cancel they told me I signed a 3 year contract and would have to pay $545.00 to do so.
I contacted the better business bureau to mediate, they returned and said there would be no cancelation fees, just return the swiper and form. After returning the merchandise and form with a tracking number they stole $55 more from my account. I tell you all stay away from this business, they are thiefs that hide behind common words. BUYER BEWARE!
In Sept 2014 I started my own online retail business, and I kept seeing all of these cool free merchant processor swipes on commercials, and all over town. I guess a lot of people with small or local businesses love these things! I even had a friend who had one just for her own personal use! She got hers for free and was basically only paying fees if she used it. I thought it would be so cool to get one for my business if I ever got a sale in person.
I found an ap on my phone that offered a free processor. So I downloaded the ap, and then from there someone at Merchant Account Solutions contacted me. I pride myself on asking a lot of questions and making sure I know what I am getting myself into. The people were really very nice and had a local number where they were located in Thousand Oaks, CA.
They made it seem so cool and it was easy to give them some information and have a swiper sent to me. I asked a lot of questions and at no point did they tell me anything about a "contract". They told me the swiper was free and gave me the rates for using it. Nothing was said about a monthly fee, or a fees for not using the swiper. They completely lied to me. The part where I screwed up was to give them my info and then "E-sign" and without reading the "contract" . Apparantly that is how they can get people to agree to this thing, by just not mentioning that it's a 3 year contract and then worry about it later. Once I received the swiper, I tried to activate it and apparantly it was not compatible with the phone that I currently have. I called them and they said they will find another model for me and have a manager call me back.
Well that was months ago and I never heard from anyone, and also never thought about it since. But this month I started seeing a $55 charge on my bank account that said "Electronic Withdrawal Bankcard". I always have a lot of transactions and thought that I just used my card somewhere. I decided to find out what that charge was.
It took a lot of research, but apparantly this was from this Merchant Account Solutions company charging me $55 for a swiper that was never used. I spoke to Benjamin in the cancellation department and he told me that I signed a 3 year agreement and to cancel would cost me $595!!! Well after more digging, I found out they have been charging me $35.90 a month, until the last 2 months I found charges for $14.95 and $55.85!!! The total they have stolen from me is $213.30!!!!
I guess now the best deal I can get is to pay them $20 a month for 9 months and then they will cancel after that. Which I'm not even sure if I trust them enough to cancel it!!
It really is unfortunate that companies can't just offer a service at a decent price, and communicate those prices to you and provide services for payment. It is such a novel idea!!! It's so sad that nowadays they can get away with not disclosing things when you outright ask them, but yet can get you to sign and basically say oh well you signed the contract! Why should they not be accountable for flat out lying to you! To me that should void out a contract!! I really just want to close my bank account, get a new one, and say the hell with it, but I just want this to be over.
Just remember no matter what, nothing is for free, and before you put your name on anything READ THE CONTRACT or assume it's a contract even if they tell you it's not and READ ALL THE FINE PRINT!!!!!!!!!!!! SMH!
I talked to someone on the phone by the name of (matt) before verbably agreeing to their services.
I was told by this individual there was No Contract I could cancel at anytime! I was also told that the fee would be aproxamatly $7.00 a month. I was told this conversation was recorded as well.
After I started using the service I occurred other charges my fee went up to $35.00 a month if I did not do a sale of at least $25.00 wich I was never informed of.
I decided I did not need the services any longer so from the bank I called (Matt) and I said I was closing my account at the bank and I wanted him aware I no longer needed their services. I was told everything was fine and someone in account cancelations would call me. I specifically asked if they were never gonna charge this account again. He said nope everything is good go ahead and close it.
This company then charged me anyway I called to straiten it out and was told there was a three year contract and I had to pay an early termination fee. I was told that this (Matt) guy could not have signed me up he never had that job! Then I was informed not all conversations are recorded when I suggested they listen to my conversation...they lied about everything it was possible to lie about! They sent me to collections! I am not happy!!
Merchant Account Solutions, owned by International Card Services LLC, dba Intergrated Card Services had called to set us, a fairly new small business that didn't use a lot of credit card services. We spoke to one person initially to see if we were even interested and then passed on to Bryan Pelto to fill us in on the details. He said the equipment is free, told us the rates were 1% for debit and 1.5% for credit, and there was a $5 monthly fee. I asked him over the phone if there were any other fees, such as minimums or any other fee that would apply and he said no. When we were discussing options on what machine we should use, I told him the phone/internet company had not set-up our lines yet and he said that it wasn't a problem because they had a wireless machine. He never mentioned that there was a monthly $15 wireless access fee. After confirming again that there were no additional fees, we said ok what's the next step. He then sent us a link to apply for approval. He walked me through the online application, where we submitted some info, and I gave him further info over the phone. He asked me what our sales were monthly and what we would expect to charge on the machine, but we never charged any cards before so I couldn't really give him a good guess, but he based it off what our monthly sales were and said it was fine and it could be adjusted later. We were never sent any contracts to sign or any info after that. I received a packet, which did not include any terms, minimums, or info on fees. It basically just told me what I had to do, such as register with the PCI Compliance, which I am now worried about. I will be looking further into that as well. I had thought after reading their info sheet about PCI, that it was a mandatory governmental compliance center that I had to comply with to avoid non-compliance fees. The packet also provided some info on American Express, Discover, and Visa. It also showed me how to log onto their online systen, iAccess, which I did, but there's not a lot of on there, just my account balance and activity pretty much. We then received a few emails saying that our account was approved and they have verified our TAX ID and we should receive the equipment in a few days. I asked Bryan through email again about the rates and fees and also if we could get some sort of written agreement. He just responded that the info on the fees and rates were correct. I never heard from Bryan again.
The first month, we had no credit card charges from our customers, and I noticed they had directly debited our bank account for $18. I was not aware that they were going to directly debit from our account. I decided to wait another month to see what the next statement was in case there was a mistake. The second month, we had one charge for about $250 and this time our account was debited $56. I then called Merchant Account Solutions to cancel our account. The first time I called, I was sent to a voicemail, which I had left a message. I didn't get a call back. The second time, same thing, except someone called me back. He was very friendly at first and didn't make it seem like a problem and went on about how he thought I should try to keep the terminal. He then mentioned that it was a $350 fee to terminate the contract (which I still dont' have a copy of). I made it clear to him that the salesperson never mentioned any of those fees, the termination fee, the wireless access charge, or any terms and conditions to me and he said that the salesperson isn't responsible for that and that he wouldn't have mentioned them either. I told him that it is very dishonest and that they are lying about what they are charging and are ommitting very important facts. I told him if I had known the truth I would have never even submitted any info to Bryan. He said that there was nothing he could do and my only option is to pay the $350 termination fee or continue to use their services. From the two months of having the option to pay by credit card for my customers, I already know that they would rather write me checks, so I have no way of meeting any minimums each month. I am tempted to just pay the termination fee and send in my cancellation form, but after reading other reviews, that may not even solve the issue and they may possibly continue to directly debit from our account.
I have gone over so many complaints/negative reviews about International Card Services and I do not understand how they are able to continue scamming consumers like this. This is my first time dealing with a merchant service provider and I have learned my lesson. I will do my homework next time and read every single review. It is so disappointing that there are people out there that are dishonest and outright con-artists. They take money that they do not deserve and continue to do so because the system has not done anything about it. I feel so vulnerable as a consumer and I am limited in terms of what I can do about being taken advantaged of.
Merchant Account Solutions Reviews
Ok, i am so embarrassed. I read several comments and even emailed the sales rep about the complaints i had seen. But yet somehow i still felt comfortable with the sales rep - what a great manipulator. Felt so comfortable that i forwarded this reps contact information to a friend and they said "bill, you are a good judge of character" and went on to say that he did not trust them. Well i am now one of the people that have been abused by this company. Bbb even though i am not sold on their ratings) irst of all, i could not even see what they were charging me for a month because the login displayed "no transactions". Then after repeated request for information, finally sent correct login of course this was about 4 weeks after i started with them). Then i see all of the extra fee's which was not plainly noted in the contract nor in the emails from the rep. The manager continue to stand on a vague and manipulative contract that i questioned and the sales rep emailed me "that will not apply" to your agreement for several items. Manager attempted to manipulate me or make me feel like i did not know anything about merchant accounts. He even said "intuit merchant services was not a full merchant account and was for personal use only", which i said "what?". Now the manager did say he would try to waive next month fee since it takes them 30 days to cancel it) but said it most likely would not happen. Manager also stated "it was his decision if he charged a cancellation fee", but assured me that he would waive it. I had an email from the sales rep that said he was waiving the contract period good thing now as this would of cost us another $500.00). My fees ran about 10% of the charges because the rep setup our account as $10,000 per month average so the rate would be competitive to my current merchant account - which i did not say. We only run about $1,000 or so in credit card charges per month due to the cost of credit card processing. So part of my bill included a fee for not maintaining $10,000 in charges.
Then there is the "regulatory fee, batch header fee, fixed network cp fee, datawire fee, acqr processor fee" and then you get down to paying the low 1.49% or 2.99% for business cards. So i called again to find out why i was receiving another bill with service fees since i returned the cancellation form with terminal about a month ago. And of course this month was double of what last month fees were that was or first month) and we did about the same in credit card payments. I have yet to understand how this company can continue in business. They apparently have 18 employees from what i found. They have had two addresses:
Use to be at 101 hodencamp rd ste 203, thousand oaks, ca 91360-5835
Website shows integrated card services and address 5126 clareton drive ste 260 agoura hills, ca 91301
Not sure which one is accurate.
In closing, it seems this company gets you locked into a contract, setups up the account so they can draw more money from your account, manipulates the amount “you promise to charge” to get your rate into an affordable percentage, then attempt to make you feel like you are an idiot and should just pay the ridiculous fee’s just because.
So here i sit, screwed again by a vendor when i should have listen to other post. Regarding merchant account solutions, stay far away.
I started my small business and was looking for a credit card processing company so I can offer my clients to pay me with their credit/debit cards.
I have a few accounts like Paypal and Square but was looking into better, less pricy service as I am trying to grow my business.
At first, Merchant Account Service sounded wonderful.
The account executive Mr Logan Distefano told me that their rate is as low as $0.36 per swipe and %1.5 for other credit card company swipe.
I told him I only intended to use iPhone or iPad for the terminal. He said the company will send me a card swiper for free and did not mention about any fee might involve in the future.
I received a card swipe and as a test, I charged my own credit card twice with amount of $1 each, total of $2.
That month, I did not have any sales via card and my business account had $12.54 debited by the merchant account solution.
I had to call them and find out what was the breakdown of this $12.54 was
They told me
$7.99 = monthly account fee
$2.99 = federal mandatory fee
$1.34 = mid level qualifying process fee (Credit card, inputting number directly)
$0.30 = high level qualifying process fee (Credit card, using a card swipe device)
Plus, they deducted 6 cents from total of $2.
It looks really fishy and I started to doubt their legitimacy of the business. So I called their front toll free number and started to mention about my wish to close my account.
First, they told me that I have to pay $350. I asked why and they told me that those were terminal fees. I told them all I have is my iPhone/iPad card swipe. Now they said I will be charged if I don’t return the device. Naturally I will return any device that I don’t use any more. But they sales talk were “Free Devices”
Today, after I had to bug them a few more times to see how I can close my account, they finally sent me a Termination Merchant Account Request form via an email.
As I was filling this form and getting ready to get rid of the card swipe, I noticed that the subject of the email said “Early Termination Fee $545.00”
I quickly called back and spoke with an agent (Benjamin Hahn) who are helping me to start account closure process, (at this time, I talked to him 3 times already) and now they are saying that I have to pay early termination fee of $545.00.
I have not signed any documents physically and they never sent me any documents. They claimed that they have my e-signature on the contract but all I did was following the steps online while sale account executive, Mr. Logan was guiding me on the phone to enter my business information on their website system.
I had not been given any chance to see if there was any agreement nor contract that I had signed in there.
I strongly feel that they tricked me to setup merchant account with them and either way keeping the account or closing account, they created a system that they will get most money out of from small business owners like myself.
I started my small business and was looking for a credit card processing company so I can offer my clients to pay me with their credit/debit cards.
I have a few accounts like Paypal and Square but was looking into better, less pricy service as I am trying to grow my business.
At first, Merchant Account Service sounded wonderful.
The account executive Mr Logan Distefano told me that their rate is as low as $0.36 per swipe and %1.5 for other credit card company swipe.
I told him I only intended to use iPhone or iPad for the terminal. He said the company will send me a card swiper for free and did not mention about any fee might involve in the future.
I received a card swipe and as a test, I charged my own credit card twice with amount of $1 each, total of $2.
That month, I did not have any sales via card and my business account had $12.54 debited by the merchant account solution.
I had to call them and find out what was the breakdown of this $12.54 was
They told me
$7.99 = monthly account fee
$2.99 = federal mandatory fee
$1.34 = mid level qualifying process fee (Credit card, inputting number directly)
$0.30 = high level qualifying process fee (Credit card, using a card swipe device)
Plus, they deducted 6 cents from total of $2.
It looks really fishy and I started to doubt their legitimacy of the business. So I called their front toll free number and started to mention about my wish to close my account.
First, they told me that I have to pay $350. I asked why and they told me that those were terminal fees. I told them all I have is my iPhone/iPad card swipe. Now they said I will be charged if I don’t return the device. Naturally I will return any device that I don’t use any more. But they sales talk were “Free Devices”
Today, after I had to bug them a few more times to see how I can close my account, they finally sent me a Termination Merchant Account Request form via an email.
As I was filling this form and getting ready to get rid of the card swipe, I noticed that the subject of the email said “Early Termination Fee $545.00”
I quickly called back and spoke with an agent (Benjamin Hahn) who are helping me to start account closure process, (at this time, I talked to him 3 times already) and now they are saying that I have to pay early termination fee of $545.00.
I have not signed any documents physically and they never sent me any documents. They claimed that they have my e-signature on the contract but all I did was following the steps online while sale account executive, Mr. Logan was guiding me on the phone to enter my business information on their website system.
I had not been given any chance to see if there was any agreement nor contract that I had signed in there.
I strongly feel that they tricked me to setup merchant account with them and either way keeping the account or closing account, they created a system that they will get most money out of from small business owners like myself.
These people are incredible rip-off artist. They tell you how low thier fees are and provide a free swiper to use. Then each month they suck money from your account EVEN if you don't use. After complaining to them and wanting to cancel they told me I signed a 3 year contract and would have to pay $545.00 to do so.
I contacted the better business bureau to mediate, they returned and said there would be no cancelation fees, just return the swiper and form. After returning the merchandise and form with a tracking number they stole $55 more from my account. I tell you all stay away from this business, they are thiefs that hide behind common words. BUYER BEWARE!
In Sept 2014 I started my own online retail business, and I kept seeing all of these cool free merchant processor swipes on commercials, and all over town. I guess a lot of people with small or local businesses love these things! I even had a friend who had one just for her own personal use! She got hers for free and was basically only paying fees if she used it. I thought it would be so cool to get one for my business if I ever got a sale in person.
I found an ap on my phone that offered a free processor. So I downloaded the ap, and then from there someone at Merchant Account Solutions contacted me. I pride myself on asking a lot of questions and making sure I know what I am getting myself into. The people were really very nice and had a local number where they were located in Thousand Oaks, CA.
They made it seem so cool and it was easy to give them some information and have a swiper sent to me. I asked a lot of questions and at no point did they tell me anything about a "contract". They told me the swiper was free and gave me the rates for using it. Nothing was said about a monthly fee, or a fees for not using the swiper. They completely lied to me. The part where I screwed up was to give them my info and then "E-sign" and without reading the "contract" . Apparantly that is how they can get people to agree to this thing, by just not mentioning that it's a 3 year contract and then worry about it later. Once I received the swiper, I tried to activate it and apparantly it was not compatible with the phone that I currently have. I called them and they said they will find another model for me and have a manager call me back.
Well that was months ago and I never heard from anyone, and also never thought about it since. But this month I started seeing a $55 charge on my bank account that said "Electronic Withdrawal Bankcard". I always have a lot of transactions and thought that I just used my card somewhere. I decided to find out what that charge was.
It took a lot of research, but apparantly this was from this Merchant Account Solutions company charging me $55 for a swiper that was never used. I spoke to Benjamin in the cancellation department and he told me that I signed a 3 year agreement and to cancel would cost me $595!!! Well after more digging, I found out they have been charging me $35.90 a month, until the last 2 months I found charges for $14.95 and $55.85!!! The total they have stolen from me is $213.30!!!!
I guess now the best deal I can get is to pay them $20 a month for 9 months and then they will cancel after that. Which I'm not even sure if I trust them enough to cancel it!!
It really is unfortunate that companies can't just offer a service at a decent price, and communicate those prices to you and provide services for payment. It is such a novel idea!!! It's so sad that nowadays they can get away with not disclosing things when you outright ask them, but yet can get you to sign and basically say oh well you signed the contract! Why should they not be accountable for flat out lying to you! To me that should void out a contract!! I really just want to close my bank account, get a new one, and say the hell with it, but I just want this to be over.
Just remember no matter what, nothing is for free, and before you put your name on anything READ THE CONTRACT or assume it's a contract even if they tell you it's not and READ ALL THE FINE PRINT!!!!!!!!!!!! SMH!
I talked to someone on the phone by the name of (matt) before verbably agreeing to their services.
I was told by this individual there was No Contract I could cancel at anytime! I was also told that the fee would be aproxamatly $7.00 a month. I was told this conversation was recorded as well.
After I started using the service I occurred other charges my fee went up to $35.00 a month if I did not do a sale of at least $25.00 wich I was never informed of.
I decided I did not need the services any longer so from the bank I called (Matt) and I said I was closing my account at the bank and I wanted him aware I no longer needed their services. I was told everything was fine and someone in account cancelations would call me. I specifically asked if they were never gonna charge this account again. He said nope everything is good go ahead and close it.
This company then charged me anyway I called to straiten it out and was told there was a three year contract and I had to pay an early termination fee. I was told that this (Matt) guy could not have signed me up he never had that job! Then I was informed not all conversations are recorded when I suggested they listen to my conversation...they lied about everything it was possible to lie about! They sent me to collections! I am not happy!!
Merchant Account Solutions, owned by International Card Services LLC, dba Intergrated Card Services had called to set us, a fairly new small business that didn't use a lot of credit card services. We spoke to one person initially to see if we were even interested and then passed on to Bryan Pelto to fill us in on the details. He said the equipment is free, told us the rates were 1% for debit and 1.5% for credit, and there was a $5 monthly fee. I asked him over the phone if there were any other fees, such as minimums or any other fee that would apply and he said no. When we were discussing options on what machine we should use, I told him the phone/internet company had not set-up our lines yet and he said that it wasn't a problem because they had a wireless machine. He never mentioned that there was a monthly $15 wireless access fee. After confirming again that there were no additional fees, we said ok what's the next step. He then sent us a link to apply for approval. He walked me through the online application, where we submitted some info, and I gave him further info over the phone. He asked me what our sales were monthly and what we would expect to charge on the machine, but we never charged any cards before so I couldn't really give him a good guess, but he based it off what our monthly sales were and said it was fine and it could be adjusted later. We were never sent any contracts to sign or any info after that. I received a packet, which did not include any terms, minimums, or info on fees. It basically just told me what I had to do, such as register with the PCI Compliance, which I am now worried about. I will be looking further into that as well. I had thought after reading their info sheet about PCI, that it was a mandatory governmental compliance center that I had to comply with to avoid non-compliance fees. The packet also provided some info on American Express, Discover, and Visa. It also showed me how to log onto their online systen, iAccess, which I did, but there's not a lot of on there, just my account balance and activity pretty much. We then received a few emails saying that our account was approved and they have verified our TAX ID and we should receive the equipment in a few days. I asked Bryan through email again about the rates and fees and also if we could get some sort of written agreement. He just responded that the info on the fees and rates were correct. I never heard from Bryan again.
The first month, we had no credit card charges from our customers, and I noticed they had directly debited our bank account for $18. I was not aware that they were going to directly debit from our account. I decided to wait another month to see what the next statement was in case there was a mistake. The second month, we had one charge for about $250 and this time our account was debited $56. I then called Merchant Account Solutions to cancel our account. The first time I called, I was sent to a voicemail, which I had left a message. I didn't get a call back. The second time, same thing, except someone called me back. He was very friendly at first and didn't make it seem like a problem and went on about how he thought I should try to keep the terminal. He then mentioned that it was a $350 fee to terminate the contract (which I still dont' have a copy of). I made it clear to him that the salesperson never mentioned any of those fees, the termination fee, the wireless access charge, or any terms and conditions to me and he said that the salesperson isn't responsible for that and that he wouldn't have mentioned them either. I told him that it is very dishonest and that they are lying about what they are charging and are ommitting very important facts. I told him if I had known the truth I would have never even submitted any info to Bryan. He said that there was nothing he could do and my only option is to pay the $350 termination fee or continue to use their services. From the two months of having the option to pay by credit card for my customers, I already know that they would rather write me checks, so I have no way of meeting any minimums each month. I am tempted to just pay the termination fee and send in my cancellation form, but after reading other reviews, that may not even solve the issue and they may possibly continue to directly debit from our account.
I have gone over so many complaints/negative reviews about International Card Services and I do not understand how they are able to continue scamming consumers like this. This is my first time dealing with a merchant service provider and I have learned my lesson. I will do my homework next time and read every single review. It is so disappointing that there are people out there that are dishonest and outright con-artists. They take money that they do not deserve and continue to do so because the system has not done anything about it. I feel so vulnerable as a consumer and I am limited in terms of what I can do about being taken advantaged of.