In Oct. I received a call from eMerchant Middleman of Phoenix offering bonuses of $550 for each credit card processing terminal placed in a business through my account with eMM and 50% of the residuals from processing. I paid $40,000 for eMM to purchase 20,000 leads and call the prospects on my behalf.
Brian Davis told me that the conversion rate would probably be a minimum of 2%, but should turn out to be 4%. That would amount to 400 to 800 accounts.
He told me that part of the plan was that I would form an LLC and that eMM would help me get a line of credit to which I could transfer the unsecured debt that I took on to work with them.
My wife was very unhappy with me for taking this action and she insisted that I dispute the charges. I initiated the disputes, then decided to believe the representations. I told eMM I'd like to continue with them. They made me sign forms saying that I had had "buyer's remorse" (this was their language, not mine).
Mr. Davis told me to get an LLC and that that as soon as I had that and the EIN #, I should get the number to him. I did so, using a company that he recommended.
About a week after I started working with this business that helps people form LLCs, the owner of the company called and said that he would no longer be doing business with eMM, because he had heard some things that suggested that the company was not being honest.
Until I got the EIN# Mr. Davis answered my phone calls and voice messages. As soon as I got it, he stopped answering my calls. I did not hear from him again until Jan. Or Feb. Of after I wrote an email telling "Bill Stark, " the false name of a Mike %, that it seemed as if eMM was reneging on its promise to help me get a line of credit for my business. I made such a stink that "Stark" had to do something.
I kept calling and calling and sometimes it would be 2 wks before I'd hear back. Later "Stark" told me that he had instructions not to return my calls. Brian said the same thing in a phone call this evening (7 Oct.).
At the time that I started the disputes, Mr. Davis told me that I had already received a commission from my leads. That seemed suspicious and made me think that eMM was paying me out of the money I had sent them.
I received a payment of $1,100 in November.in December, I received an $800 "advance" on something that was not explained. I did not get the rest of the "advance" in January. The other $800 came in early Feb. I received another payment for about $350 in March or so. After that nothing.
I wrote and asked for my money to be refunded. I received a guarantee that eMM would purchase more leads to make up for the fact that the leads they had originally said they had purchased were not producing any results.
The guarantee looked like something drafted just in response to my complaint. My name is misspelled. This is not professional work.
I told "Stark" that I had not received any reports of activity in my account and that this was no way to treat an investor in his business. Despite his promises and promises from Victoria Wilmy that I would receive complete monthly reports on calls made, I have never received any reports. I told "Stark" that if his business were a stock brokerage, I'd get a detailed monthly report. I said that the businesses that supposedly got merchant accounts through eMM would be getting monthly statements, but that I wasn't even getting that. I wasn't getting what merchants were getting.
I said that I felt as if I were not a valued partner in this work. He said, "Oh, I wouldn't want you to feel that way."
I looked at the leads that had been purchased for me. I downloaded the list in March or April and later, after I was supposed to have received new leads as per the "guarantee, " The lists were identical. I complained that whatever new leads I had were the same as the previous list.
I asked Stark's successor, Chris Buckingham, for the original list from last fall. He said that wasn't possible because the list got used up in the process of making the calls or some other nonsense. Further, he did not repeat that eMM would honor the guarantee that had been sent to me. He said he would look through the leads and call about 100 of them, record the calls, and find out what happened to the leads.
In telling me this, he effectively changed the terms of the written guarantee from buying new leads to reviewing what went wrong with the old ones.
The number of leads on the list was 19,499, not 20,000. I told Mr. Buckingham that eMM should either add leads or refund me some of the money that I had been charged for leads.
He told me that I would receive reports. He spoke in impressive detail about all that my report would include. He mentioned that I should have received a CD of the leads last fall. I have never received such a CD. Set of 20k leads all at one time, because these leads were for new businesses.
Such a CD, moreover, would violate some of the terms that "Stark" described to me. Stark said that eMM didn't get the whole set of new business leads all at one time. New businesses open up all the time, so if we used a list that was, say, 6n months old, those businesses could well have already made arrangements for merchant accounts.
When I told Buckingham what Stark had said about ongoing purchase of leads, he said that isn't the way it works. He said that eMM needs to have a mix of new businesses and established businesses that might switch to eMM when they learned about the lower rates that eMM was supposed to provide.
Again, that story didn't match what I heard at the beginning.
I told him that I wanted my money back, either as a refund or as "advances" on future deals with merchants. Buckingham told me that the owner of the company was pretty firm about not giving money back and that he wouldn't pass my request on to the owner until he and I had finished talking about the issue. I never heard from him again.
The new contact person was Victoria Wilmy. She said we'd have a monthly phone call and that I'd receive a report of activity in my account, # of calls made, # of reviews completed. I have never received a monthly report.
She did send me a spreadsheet of activity in my account. This spreadsheet could have been about anything. It was not on an official eMM form. There was no signature or indication where the numbers came from. The number of leads did, however, total 20K.
Of 20k leads, eMM had established no accounts for me. Two percent of 20k would be 400 accounts, but only 23 businesses were said to have made it through to the final decision about, but their applications had all been declined. So either this business is completely inept or it is scamming people like me.
The economy should not be a factor in the failure to get any accounts for me. I was called during the period when this economy was not doing well, but the expectations expressed were 2%. Brian Davis did not say that results might not be as good as 2% in this economy.
He led me to expect a 6-figure income from this and lavished advice about saving 20% of my profits for investment in new leads going forward.
I'm writing this quickly and late into the night. I may need to add new content later.
Summary: I have been defrauded by eMM and I should get my money back, plus the interest charges that I've been paying on the debt.
Guarantee The guarantee came on a letterhead that I can't reproduce here.
We, at EMerchant MiddleMan, guarantee the quality of our lead program. If in the next 8 months, you, [here my name appears, but is misspelled], do not make back 100% of your cost, we will purchase an equal amount of leads, and
run your campaign again at no additional fee to you. We hope that you will be pleased with the quality of care and service we provide, but understand that any business transaction should be backed by not only exemplary service, but a quality guarantee to match. We look forward to working with and for you.
If you have any questions now or in the future, feel free to contact us at our toll free Customer Service number listed below.
Thank you,
Quality Assurance
EMerchantMiddleMan
1-888-477-4521
[email protected]
The Report I received: There is no information on this document identifying the source as eMM. There is no indication that this is an audited, accurate, and transparent report. The report contains no explanations of the categories on which it provides numbers.
The report is in Excel spreadsheet form, but that did not copy in spreadsheet format. I have not altered the information. I have just arranged it for easier comprehension.
Name 8/7 Emm#xxxx
Most recent dispositions
dispostions: 20000
answering machine: 1162
busy: 448
bad number: 208
call back: 2952
disconnected: 392
not interested: 876
corporate: 838
do not call: 2654
fax: 982
pitched: 3892
appointment set: 3108
quote: 618
cost analysis: 424
accepted quote: 667
started application: 433
completed application: 277
underwriting: 46
approved: 0
declined: 23
installed: 0
funded: 0
referral: 0 (buckingham told me that i had been paid the $300-350 for a referral)
total: 20000
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