I owned a small business, where I did not process a lot of credit card purchases (maybe 40 a month?) but many of my purchases were for $1000 dollars. An independent sales person came in - he was very professional, warm, and friendly. He offered to review my current contract and see if he could "help me out." I explained that my sales were often large, but not necessarily frequent. He said, "Percentages are probably killing you, huh?" (Which they were!) and he asked if he could review my current bill. This seemed a little odd, but he explained that the easiest way to "cut to the chase" and make me a reasonable offer based on what his company could do for me. I photo-copied the bill with my private info blocked, and he sat at the counter and looked it over. Immediately he said - "Oh no, look at this! You are paying way too much for that!" etc. He quickly worked up a deal for me, told me how much money it would save me. My time was limited, so when my lunch break came, we ate together while he explained it all to me! He told me that there would be a contract. I asked, "What if my business closes?" and he did say "Well, you can either sell your contract to someone else or negotiate a release." I knew that 'negotiate a release' meant I would have to buy my way out of it. I did not know that the buyout would be $1000 dollars - for a machine that is worth less than $100! Fast forward to now: I closed 5 months ago, and continued to let the draft come out while I tried to resolve this relationship with MBF. I talked to two different "Customer Service Agents" today - I use quotation marks because I'm just calling them that, that's not really what they are. "Customer Service" for MBF customers means some guy in his basement with a phone, access to my file somehow (scary!) and ZERO public relations skills telling me what I already know. After a lengthy discussion that seemed to go back to the beginning over and over, I asked him what my options were. He said, "LADY - you can PAY IT, or we will continue to call you and write you until you DO pay it." I pointed out that I was only one payment behind, and that was because I had to close my bank account to get the automatic drafts to stop, so that would could renegotiate my contract (after the first contact with MBF when the business closed, no one would return my calls before that.) And he starts screaming and saying "I've already told you, these contracts can not be cancelled! That's what NO CANCELLATION POLICY MEANS!" I told him - "Look, I know your job is hard. But seriously? My business is CLOSED. I no longer NEED this service or this equipment, and since my business is closed, I couldn't send you a $1000 check today anyway. THERE HAS GOT TO BE SOMETHING YOUR COMPANY CAN DO TO COME TO AGREEMENT WITH SOMEONE IN MY SITUATION." Long story short - you get the idea - I got the old "YOU"RE the one who signed the contract, that means you HAVE to pay the money" over and over until finally just ended the call. He was extremely impatient, used poor grammar, was rude. At one point he actually said "It's not our fault if you can't make good business decisions - that's your fault, not mine!" This led me to point out that, while I knew it was my responsibility to read and understand the contract I had signed, the salesman has assured me that any concerns I may have about the cancellation policy were not a serious worry. Which led HIM to point out that "that man was an independent salesman, there's no telling what he could have promised you!" At that stage I asked for his manager, for another agent, for someone else who could verify that what he was saying was true - only to discover that there is no office, there is no manager - he didn't even know the name of the president or the home city of the company! I told him that his company was in the business of ripping off honestm hard working people, and that I hoped in the future he could find another job where he wouldn't have to clean up someone else's immoral mess. At that point, he became so irate that I had to just end the call - there was no point in arguing further with some dude in his basement who had to authority to help me. It is also worth mentioning that when I called 411 to get a home office number for MBF, I used the return address on the envelope, and... You guessed it! There is no listing in NY, NY for any MBF agency.
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