I am a small buiness merchant that accepts all major credit cards through a processing company. The processing company facilitates all credit card charges, but Discover directly bills me for all my percentage points and fees that I pay for accepting Discover. All my deposits and fees are done automatically and electronically with my business bank account.
Now, with tax time upon us, I've been reviewing my all my credit card merchant statements for the past year, looking at the fees I've paid. I noticed that Discover recently has been charging me fees of $49.95 minimum each month (that's with absolutely no Discover credit card charges by customers) since October so I called them to find out why their fees have gone up so high. They said that they have not changed the original terms or fees, but the $49.95 is what an outside company is charging them, and they are just passing along the fee to me. So I asked who the company was and they said Merchant Technical Solutions and they gave me the phone number of (888) 673-1308.
I called Merchant Technical Solutions and spoke with Tammy to ask her about these fees that they are billing me through Discover. She said that their outside marketing company, United Marketing Group, contacted someone at my business who accepted the monthly fee. She even correctly confirmed my name as the one that United Marketing Group spoke with that agreed to accept the $49.95 fee per month. I asked Tammy what exactly Merchant Technical Solutions provides and she said something about their providing technical support and customer service 24/7. I told her there is absolutely no way that I would have approved a $50 a month fee for something I've never needed, nor would ever want, nor could even afford. When asked what the date was that United Marketing Group contacted me and that I supposedly agreed to this, she could not tell me; all she could say was that the charges began September 30.
I told Tammy that I expected a full refund for every charge they'd billed since I never agreed to this and she offered to cancel the service (which I said yes, please cancel) and to refund two months of the fees totalling $99.90 (which I said yes, please refund); however I was going to contact my attorney to get the remaining fees returned to me. I will be doing this today.
It is quite possible that United Marketing Group called me, but there's not a chance of my ever saying yes to their services. My business has been suffereing this down economy for the last 10 months, so no way could I take on more debt. Everyone BEWARE of these scams. Watch every statement very carefully and don't let these a*hol*s steal YOUR MONEY.
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