I acquired an account with Bluepay and Online Data Corp, not IPayment, but IPayment indicates that Online data Corp sometimes outsources their work. This account was acquired by virtue of my using ModernBill, under the ModernAuthorize program.
WhenI started this account, I was told that I was to pay $49 for opening the account and as long as there were no transactions, I would pay no fees. All my customers were using Paypal and I had some prospective clients who indicated that they didn't want to use Paypal, so I created the Bluepay gateway in case they wanted to.
Around the April time frame, $25 started getting deducted rom my account. I tried to contact the company, as I never heard of IPayment and was unable to make contact. I had sent email and left messages to have them call me back, no replies. After getting accessed the fee for the second month, I stayed online for more than 45 minutes and still no person to answer the phone. Someone would answer and I would be prompted to reenter the Merchant Account information or get a dial tone. I tried several more times and gave up. I contacted Bluepay and they informed me that IPayment was handling hte account and that they changed the contract to now have a minimal fee, transactions or not. I cancelled the service with Bluepay, but no go.
June... Get accessed another $25 fee and so I contact Bluepay who indicated that they were no accessing the fee, IPayment was. They put me in touch with a Julian Goldblatt. After talking to him, I had my account cancelled, despite my argument that my contract explicitly indicates NO FEES. He indicated that they changed the contract and since it took some time, they are entitled to the fees. I contacted my bank and they stopped payments on the fees.
On the 27th of this month, I get a letter from a collection agency who indicates that I have to pay fees to IPayment or suffer the consequences. They gave until the 28th to respond.
I called them and they (lawyers) indicated that they would put the account into dispute, but I needed to contact IPayment to have them determine what they would do. Tried to contact IPayment and after 30 minutes of rounaround, 3 trips to Customer Care (what a joke) and 4 to Merchant Services, finally got fed and demanded a manager, who gets ont eh phone and wants to know what is so important that I won't talk to his workers about. Explain the runaround, and he is completely unapologetic. I guess some companies feel this is the best way to handle customers.
Julian says the only way to resolve this is to pay the fees I OWE them for June. I again indicate that my contract is free of fees and he said that I would need to pay or... At this point in time, it is more of a headache than anything.
If you are going to get an account, use Paypal or someone who will NOT try to process your credit card through this rip-off company.
Since Online Data Corp uses this company, you ned to make sure that whatever contract you sign applies to anytone that they choose to pass you off to. I would really like a lawyer to consider a class action law suit concerning this. Surely I am not the only merchant being harrassed and assessed fees contrary to my contract.
I am linking this to Online Data Corps, as that is the company I actually have a contract with, but the company assessing the fees is IPayment, who does not have a link.
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