My letter to Merchant Circle following the insane business practices, threats, and failure to response to customer service requests, including a cancellation request:
Hello Merchant Circle Customer Service -
As if your email failure threat letter this past month (see your apology below), you failed to respond to my customer service request through your web based facility. Subsequently last month I used the same web based facility to issue the following:
"Since there was no response to my prior customer service issue, please discontinue billing for any services. I will advise my bank of the same, and reverse any charges made from 4:36 PM on 09-30 forward. Additionally I shall seek a refund of any monies paid to Merchant Circle for non-performance.
Regards,
Robert"
Still no response from Merchant Circle. Then I find on my bank statement that on 10-03 Merchant Circle charged my bank card two charges for $5.00 and $29.95.in order to reverse the charges it's necessary that I cancel my bank card in person, during normal business hours, which I will initiate. The cost and interruption to my business will be approximately $100. The cost in time to respond to your erroneous email message previously was $150.
My records reflect a total payment to Merchant Circle of $179.68, not including the fraudulent charges noted above of $34.95. So my total demand for payment from Merchant Circle is $429.68. This total reflects:
$179.68 — Paid to date.
$100.00 Cost of canceling bank card.
$150.00 Cost of responding to Merchant Circle erroneous email threat of 09-11.
I will follow up this email with a letter to Merchant Circle via US Postal Service Certified Mail to be sent to on Monday, October 06:
MerchantCircle
201 Main Street, Suite 100
Los Altos, CA 94022
Regards,
Robert
Copy of your response email last month:
Hi Robert,
Please accept our sincerest apology for the previous email regarding your account. We experienced an email server error, which inadvertently sent this message to you. This email was not intended for your account.in fact, you are a valued member of MerchantCircle and we thank you for your patience as we build security measures to maintain the integrity of our network. With nearly 600,000 businesses currently on MerchantCircle, the safety and validity of our merchants is always first and foremost.
For the inconvenience that we caused, we would like to extend to you 2 free areas of coverage with our Local Plus product. Please contact us at [email protected] to redeem your extra areas of coverage.
Best,
MerchantCircle Customer Service
http://www.merchantcircle.com
Copy of my original reponse to your threat letter:
Hello:
I hope you take the time to clearly look at the email you sent my company below and clearly read my response because something is truly WRONG with your system, and if not corrected, I will not only cancel my service with MerchantCircle I will very publicly seek a refund for all dollars ever spend and some measure of oversight that your company get its act together.
The issues:
1. Your email subject line states Increase your Google ranking: Become a Top Merchant but the body of your message suggests my company is a fraud and I need to validate my existence. How do those two items come close to being even remotely related?
2. If I'm not mistaken, I already HAVE a Top Merchant rating, so what would I need to do differently?
3. Solutions From KnowWare hasn't recently created anything I'm pretty sure we have been active on your system for a year or more.
4. Solutions From KnowWare is a valid company that has operated in the same service area for six years.
5. Solutions From KnowWare is licensed by the State of California, Department of Consumer Affairs, Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair.
6. Solutions From KnowWare is a member in good standing of the Better Business Bureau.
7. Your message below suggests the only way to respond is to support@merchantcircle you left off the.com which not only makes it an invalid email address, it would make it pretty impossible for anyone to respond to you.
Aside from just being wrong, your email message is completely offensive and really illustrates a serious problem with your system. I would appreciate your immediate attention to this matter.
Regards,
Robert
Copy of your threat letter:
Dear Robert,
It has come to our attention that the business listing you recently created on the MerchantCircle network might not be a valid business. Please note, that we are very concerned with the accuracy of our directory and the integrity of our network. Therefore, our system has generated this email to determine the validity of your business and the accuracy of the information you submitted.
Our Terms of Service Agreement specifically states that[i]n consideration of use of the Service, you agree to:
(a) provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service's registration form (such information being the "Registration Data") and
(b) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete.
(See http://www.merchantcircle.com/corporate/tos.html)
Thus, it is a violation to provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or MerchantCircle has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete. If we have reason to believe that the information you submitted is inaccurate or untrue we have the right to suspend or terminate your account.
Accordingly, you account will be automatically terminated with in 10 business days, unless you respond support@merchantcircle to rebate this email.
Best Regards,
The MerchantCircle Team
MerchantCircle
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