On June 23 Allen with Legacy Merchant Services came to our office and set us with a credit card merchant account. At that time Allen filled out the appropriate paperwork and was given a check for $338.94. We had tried before to get a credit card machine but were told that travel agencies are too much of a risk so when Legacy approached us we made sure they knew we were a travel agency. We also told him we were starting to handle a large group and for the next few weeks our volume would be approx. $200,000 to $300,000. Allen said that was no problem, they get travel agencies approved all the time so we didn't question it any further. When Allen left we were told that someone would be coming by with the credit card machine.
On June 24 Amonie Jones with Legacy Merchant Services came to our office with the credit card machine and some more paperwork. Everything was set up and all the paperwork was signed.
On June 26 we received a call from Electronic Payment Systems LLC, aka EPS, inquiring about the large amount of money we were processing thru our new credit card merchant account. My husband Brian and owner of our agency North Bank Travel, explained to him the charges were due to a group movement that we had advised Legacy about. EPS said he had no paperwork showing us as a travel agency, they thought we were a bank. The gentlemen went on to say they NEVER would have allowed us to open an account if they knew we were a travel agency because the travel industry as a whole is on a black list due to the high charge backs. The gentlemen from EPS then faxed the paperwork he had received from Legacy to us. Upon receipt of this paperwork we noticed Legacy had whited out the travel part from our name on our voided check, show we had been in business longer than we told them, listed our occupation as consultants plus a number of other errors. Our permission was NEVER given to anyone to misrepresent us. Brian immediately called Allen with Legacy only to the run around so he called Richard Kulmann, the managing member of Legacy Merchant Services, LLC. Brian explained the situation to Richard and told him to immediatley cancel our contract because we wanted no association with a company that operates in this manner. Richard said he would check into and of course we never heard back from him nor could we ever reach him again. We immediately stopped payment on the check we gave Allen for $338.94 and we went to the bank and cancelled the electronc transfer with CIT Lease.
On August 12 I received our bank account statement and saw a deduction of $97.94. I called our bank and they said the EFT that we cancelled with CIT was for $89.95 so that is way they allowed this one. According to the bank if the amount differs by a penny it will go thru desite the cancellation.
This lead into six month struggle to get it resolved with both Legacy and CIT Leasing. I reported them to the BBB and the Attorney General plus we hired a lawyer. The BBB did nothing, the attorney general wrote a letter to them and received one back saying that Legacy wasn't sure if the fraud was on there side or by us. My comment, why would I bring this to anyone's attention if I committed the fraud? Our lawyer wrote a letter and finally got things moving. They ended up getting the money deducted from our account back as well as the contracts being voided. It cost us but the money wasn't as important to us as our name and credit was so we bit the bullet.
It was truly a nightmare and I highly recommend if you have gotten riped off by Legacy Merchant Services and are having problems hire a lawyer because that's the only way they stop.
Tammi
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
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