In March I was contacted by phone by a representative of E-Commerce Exchange (Michael Drake) about setting up my new website to handle credit card transactions. At the time my website was only uised to sell my CD's (I am a musician). I signed a contract (sent to me by mail... No face to face contact) in April of in the understanding that I was leasing to buy a software program for 49.95 per month for 48 months.
Although not mentioned on the lease paper, I was informed that there were to be "processing fees" and "bank fees" that would be included, the total to be 100.00 per month. For 3 years I made the payment, sometimes going months with no sales... The CD's only sold for 15.00. Most months I paid the minimum processing/bank fees.in I opened a music store and had my website updated to accomadate and online store, and I began to process credit card sales from both through my website portal.innovative Merchant Solutions was my processing company, as had been agreed from the signing of the lease.
In March I was notified by Leascom, the leasing agent for my software, that I had fulfilled the obligations of my lease and that I was "free and clear". I was under the assumption that this freed me from the contract I had signed... After all, the only prices listed on the contract were for 49.95 for 48 months. I found out I was wrong! I was soon to find out that the "lease" and "contract", even though they are both on the same sheet of paper, are actually, according to customer service at Innovative Merchant Solutions, two completely different things! Paying off the "lease" did nothing to terminater the "contract", but this is not what was intimated by Michael Drake when I signed on.
In May of when a buyer from Singapore tried to make an 899.00 purchase through my website, I took down the card number, suspecting possible fraud. When I called Innovative Merchant Solutions, I was tod they coud not do anything, but they did give me the 800 number for Mastercard. Upon contacting Mastercard, we found the CC number to be invalid and MC pulled the number from their files. I called Innovative Merchant Solutions to inform them of this and I was assured that they would stop the process, since the bank was going to decline the charge.
I thought all was well until I got a letter from Innovative Merchant Solutions (9 days later) telling me to contact them immediatley about the 899.00 charge. When I did this, I found out I was going to be charged processing fees for the 899.00, even though I had been the one to initiate the process to stop the fraud. When I protested, the customer service rep threatened that, were I to try to stop them from charging my account, they would put me on a"black list" that would keep me from being considered by any other processing service company.
Needless, to say, I began shopping for another processing company. When I decided on one, I made arrangements to change my processing to them, and I notified Innovative Merchant Solutions to cancel service. Their customer service rep told me to fax this notice in writing to them, which I did. Nothing was said of the 295.00 that would be deducted from my bank account as a "cancellation fee".
When my bank statement arrived and I found out what Innovative Merchant Solutions had done, I called them and was told "It's on the contract you signed, above your signature. It's in bold type" This is simply not true. It is UNDER the signature box, in STANDARD type, not bold. The type is 1 1/2 mm, which is truly the infamous "FINE PRINT". They have actually included in their contract a sentence which states the following: "Purchaser understands that both the lease and this contact is noncancellable".
NONCANCELLABLE? Would anyone knowingly sign a contact that is "NONCANCELLABLE"? Webster's dictionary doesn't even list this word... It doesn't exist except here! I have spoken with other companies that provide the same processing service, and ALL of them have a specified time period where an "early disconnect" fee will apply (my new company is 36 months) after which time there is no fee or penalty. For Innovative Merchant Solutions to "reward" over 4 years of customer relations with a 295.00 penalty is nothing short of OUTLANDISH!
I do not recommend anyone to do business with this company, Innovative Merchant Solutions, unless you like companies that use terms like "NONCANCELLABLE" and use double-speak in their never-ending contracts. BEWARE!!!
Bob
Chuluota, Florida
U.S.A.
0 comments