In May of my husband was approached by Gary Lee, a sales representative for Retriever Payment Systems and convinced him to sign with his company for credit card processing services. Mr. Lee was soliciting business in the north central region of North Carolina. The credit card processing equipment was leased through CIT Lease Finance Group, LLC.
The terms offered by Mr. Lee was a two year contract during which he stated, in his own hadwriting, that "approximately 1/2 of lease payments received apply to payoff machine. Machine price is 395.00. Early termination fee applies if terminated prior to 12 months." Again this was in his own handwriting. Therefore, there is no mistaking his intention to deceive my husband.
In April of this year, we decided to terminate our lease with CIT Lease Finance Group and notified them in writing to make no further withdrawals from our bank account and that we were satisfied that our obligation to them had ended. Apparently not. CIT continued to draft our account for the monthly rental fees.
CIT is not an easy company to get in touch with but after some diligent research, I found a number to the New Jersey office and got in touch with a customer (no) service representative who somewhat rudely informed me that not only had the company received NO letter from me/my husband, that we were required to return the equipment or pay the total cost of the terminal (395.00). I informed him that the terminal had been paid for according to the terms of our contract to which he stated that the terms were clear ON the contract. He impatiently led me through the fine print.in short, the Retriever sales rep had altered the terms of the contract and was not authorized to do so. I was so angry I ended the call.
After I cooled off, I reread the contract and realized the only thing we could do was return the terminal and consider this a lesson learned. I called CIT again and spoke to a very civil young man named "Zack" who informed me that CIT had indeed received a letter from me on May 6 and would continued to debit our checking account until the machine had been returned. He gave me instructions on where to return the machine - at my expense.
I have some advice for anyone considering doing business with private credit card processing companies.
1.investigate the company thoroughly before committing to a contract.
2. Find out the name of the company they sell/lease their equipment
from and investigate them as well.
3. Better still, deal only with the bank who handles your business acccounts.
They have a vested interest in providing you with good rates and
excellent service.
4. Read, read, read the terms of service very carefully! Ask your questions
BEFORE you sign on the dotted line.
So far this has not cost us a great deal of money, but I found the dishonesty I have had to deal with was in the employees not the companies as a whole.
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