I received a letter in the mail dated 7/02/09 stating that I owe Cardservice International $388.90 for assessed charges. I thought that was odd since I don't have a merchant account with this company.
My operations manager called the number provided and got an automated service which gave him another number to call. He couldn't get through to anyone and was instead transferred to three different phone numbers which are: 888-280-8969; 877-274-7915; 800-762-6663, none of which had an actual person to speak with.
I noticed on the letter that it had the merchant account number I had had with Flagship Merchant Services on it and discovered that Cardservice International is just another alias of First Merchant Services aka First Data aka Flagship Merchant Services. My operations manager called Flagship Merchant Services and spoke with Sean McEvoy and was told that he didn't know why we were sent the letter, we should have never have gotten it in the first place, and to just disregard it and shred it. We didn't shred it.instead we kept it for our records.
My company also received a phone call from a representative of Cardservice International on the morning of July 7. At first she tried to say that she couldn't speak with my operations manager (he answered the phone) and then when he explained to her that they weren't getting a dime from us and that Sean McEvoy, the operations manager for Flagship Merchant Services, told us that we were to disregard the letter Cardservice International sent to us, she insisted that she be called by him to verify that we are to disregard the letter.
She also stated that charges were processed through my merchant account on June 29, which I find a little odd means how my merchant account with Flagship Merchant Services was closed on June 5 due to the fact that they decided run to fraudulent credit cards on my terminal and used my bank account as their personal piggy bank. They took $214.13 on June 4, $51.95 on June 5, $47 on June 8, and $401.15 on July 1.
On June 5 after the first two transactions, $214.13 and $51.95, I closed my bank account just so they could not have access to it anymore, filed disputes on these charges, and I also got fraud protection. So when they decided to try and take the $47 and the $401.15 out of my closed bank account, my fraud protection caught it and so did my bank. My bank told me they would handle it and possibly file charges against whoever is helping themselves to my bank account.
My operations manager told me that the Cardservice International representative was rude and belligerent with him. He tried calling Cardservice International back with the number given to him by the representative and got transferred to the same three numbers listed above.
The hilarious thing was that in the letter they said if I didn't pay them my merchant account privileges would be canceled, (obviously they didn't look at any paperwork. If they had they would have seen that my account has been closed since June 5). They also threatened to report me to credit reporting agencies. The funny thing about that is thanks to my fraud protection my credit report cannot be viewed unless they have permission.
I guess since they are no longer able to get access to my bank account they are now resorting to using threatening tactics in letters and phone calls thinking Im going to be stupid enough to write them a check so they can get their hands on my new bank account information. Wrong!!! I might have been born at night but it wasn't last night!
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