My letter below will explain all the facts. This letter was mailed to the Attorney General Florida...
Thank you for taking time to read this letter. This copy contains more information then previously sent due to the fact that I wanted to make my first letter as brief as possible in hopes that the brevity would insure it was read.
The above companies are operating under false and fabricated pretenses. What they are doing is unconscionable and also illegal. They are selling one thing and delivering something entirely different. What they are doing appears to be some sort of crude 3rd party scam to sell credit card terminals the under false pretenses of giving it? S prospects the opportunity to have a successful business on the Internet.
On Feb/15 I was contacted by Brian Parker of USA Card Services and Start Up Essentials, via a? Cold call? About an opportunity to receive assistance from his company to establish an? Extremely lucrative" Internet business. He explained that it would cost me only $129.99 per month. Since I am on a small Social Security check I was very interested in what he had to say because I desperately needed more income.
He went on to explain that having a business on the Internet was the fastest way to make? A lot of money? I agreed that what I needed was more money so he faxed me a contract to read and sign. The papers he faxed were completely blurred and after several tries Mr. Parker said,? It has to be a problem with your fax machine because what I am sending to you is clear copy. If you don? T sign it now I can? T give you the same deal later.? I asked him to explain to me what it said and he did but at no time did he tell me that what I was signing was a contract for the lease of a credit card payment processor in my home. He did say, however,? Tomorrow I will mail you a clear contract so just go ahead and sign this, fax it back and we can get started today? He never mailed me a clear contract. But the very next day, via overnight express, I did receive a credit card terminal. I called Mr. Parker immediately and asked why was this sent to me and told him I didn? T need this as I was not permitted to sell out of my home. I had already checked with my local government about a business license after my first conversation with Mr. Parker the day before. What he said was,? Don't worry. If you can't use it just set it aside. It is just part of the package.?
About 3 weeks after I signed up I finally, through constant phone calling to the USA Card Services office, did receive the? Papers? Which were sent by email and legible. That is the first time I was aware of the extent of the contract I had signed. I felt sick and hoped that I would have a very popular website that would make all of this expense worthwhile. I worked 10 to 15 hours a day for the last 10 months building and tweaking to perfection my website at 007protection.com. Some evenings I could barely walk away from the computer because my feet and legs were so swollen from sitting at the computer working on my website all day and far into the night. I was committed to doing whatever it took to have a good on line business. Nevertheless, my website failed miserably. I have not had even $200.00 in sales all these many months.
From the beginning USA Card Services insisted that the only way I was allowed to pay was through auto pay. I gave Start Up Essentials or USA Card Services permission to auto pay and they transferred this permission to Debit Bond and A-1 Leasing. As the charges came into my bank account monthly I began to realize that the greatest charge of $109.94 per month was paying for the lease on the credit card terminal that was in my home and that I was sold to a lease company for a term of 48 months. I am paying monthly for a piece of equipment that I absolutely do not need now, did not need then, and will never need in the future of my business. As a matter of fact, the company that has helped me to set up my web site and who was always ready to help me in anyway they could was Colony One. Colony One only received $20.00 per month. The payment processing company received only $8.00 per month. That means that the companies who were totally necessary to run my business got a total of $28.00 and the one company that I did not need at all (A-1 Leasing or Debit Bond Corp and Start Up essential and USA Card services) made their money by? Fleecing? The public. Their monthly gain was $109.94 for the? In home? Credit card terminal. And Mr. Parkers remark of,? Don't worry. If you can't use it just set it aside. It is just part of the package.? Was an outright lie.
I was completely blindsided by the sales tactics of this company, and any civil attempt to resolve this matter has ended in reference to a contract I had signed.
Right after I told one of the women named Julie at USA Card Services of my dilemma of not making ANY money online and my dissatisfaction of having to pay for a piece of equipment I will never use, I received an email on December 11 from Dawn at USA Card Services who informed me that I had been? Chosen? To partake in a Beta Test of a new USA Card Services program called? Startup Storefront? The email said that I would not be charged any fees for one year if I joined the Beta test. This time I read everything very carefully and concluded that this? Beta Test? Was only an attempt to have me sign yet another contract that would negate any attempt I ever would have of doing what I am doing right now; and that is to expose the unethical and unconscionable tactics of USA Card Services and to ask for help in this matter.
I am formally requesting an investigation be made into these practices, especially since the fraud was committed across state lines. Please inform me of any actions you take on this matter and I encourage suggestions on how I should best proceed. I thank you in advance,
Joan
Ft Myers, Fl
February 21
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