I've been a customer for several years processing small charges using Quickbooks. Then last month a client wanted to pay a large bill via credit card (about $6800), the charge was approved, but Innovative Merchants withheld the funds. I waited for days to find this out, then told me I had to fax an invoice, and I also gave them the clients name, address, phone, etc, to verify he is willing to pay the invoice via the credit card (that WAS APPROVED)
I don't hear from anyone for days, the money never appeared in my account. I called my client and he said the money was taken out of his account. I called the merchant back and for some reason the person handling the issue wasn't in. I sent an email, left voice messages, no one called back. I had to call again and ask for a supervisor. They said it was the Las Vegas branch that was handling it, and gave me their contact info. I sent an email, never got a response. I called the next day, left a voice mail.
Finally someone called me back, but they said they would not transfer the funds to me because some of the work on the invoice was older than 6 months. I argued that they could call the client and verify he is willing to pay the invoice. They told me it's against their policy to process charges for services older than 6 months, and that I had to issue him a credit. All this took over 12 days to find out, and only after a half a dozen or phone calls. I had to issue a credit back to the customer.
I then had to ask my customer to mail me check, that my merchant service wouldn't allow the charge (made me look unprofessional). He paid through his paypal account, which went through smoothly in a few days. Then, about a week or so late, he called me to complain that the original charge was never credited back to his account.
They took his money right away, held it for over 12 days, then took over a week to credit back his account. I lost the client because of this. On top of all this they charged me almost over $480 is processing fees (they took their fees coming and going). Even though Intuit never actually funded my account for the charge, they made me pay fees for the charge AND the credit.
A week later, another client wanted to pay an invoice. I processed the charge, it was approved. Again, they made me fax an invoice, this time it was for work done within 30 days. The charge was approved on 2/27, I faxed the invoice on 2/28. It is now 3/14 (over 2 weeks later), and I don't have the funds. I made about a dozen calls so far, and no one is giving me a straight answer. Again, they said the Vegas branch is handling it. I call and they're either out to lunch or at a meeting. I leave a voice mail, send email and get no response. I called today (saturday), they put me through to the vegas branch and the person answering sounded like he just woke up. He told me no one was there to give me an answer as to why they are witholding my funds AGAIN.
The people I spoke to were unprofessional, unresponsive, and didn't care the least bit how this hurt my business. Worst customer service I've ever encountered from the merchant service. I thought Intuit was a reputable business as the makers of a major widely used accounting program. This experience has changed my view dramatically.
It's absolutely unacceptable in how I am being treated and how they are handling these transaction in a completely unprofessional manner. They "claim" to fund your account in 48 hours, yet I had to wait 12 days to find out they withheld funds because an item on the invoice was over 6 months old, then had to return the charge, and they took a high percentage both times.
Now, I processed another "APPROVED" charge without any date issues, and it's been over 2 weeks and NO ONE has told me why the funds are being held again. The office handling never responds back with an answer.
Rich
Westbury, New York
U.S.A.
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