I would like to raise a complaint against ECS/Instabill (www.instabill.com). It appears I have been treated in exactly the same fashion as dozens of other companies I have read about on various forums. The company is full of nonsense excuses for not releasing payment. I process with two banks and receive payment within 4 days, the bull that this company is getting away with is outrageous. I have initiated Legal action and have another Lawyer compiling evidence on similar cases, and involving the fraud squad which will hopefully put an end to this. The law firm proceeding with the fraud allegations has partners who are doing the same in the USA. I am doing this at my own expense simply because these guys have gotten away with it for too long.
However I thought Id summarise my case for others to read.
I run a limited company in the UK and had applied for an online merchant account via a company called ECS/Instabill (www.instabill.com). After processing with them for several months I began to develop a feeling that they were not as credible a company as they had originally made out. This suspicion began when on a few occasions funds were not wired to my account on time. I did some research on the company and found scores of complaints from previous customers who had been ripped off for their funds. Immediately I applied for processing with the Royal Bank Of Scotland and started to run down my processing with Instabill. I had read on forums that they would refuse to pay out, if one simply stopped processing, so I reduced the amount of funds being directed through their account in an attempt to secure payment of the considerable funds that they were holding.
I had thousands of pounds with them which I didnt want to lose. My plan was to keep the processing to a minimum whilst I secured these funds. However after a week or so of doing this, the payments stopped altogether. I called the office and eventually spoke to the chap responsible for releasing payment. He came up with some cock and Bull story that the bank would not release funds if processing dropped. I explained that I processed with other banks and that this statement was a nonsense. Eventually after much debate I managed to secure the release of one of the large payments that were due (about 4.5k).
We then came to an agreement that funds would not be released if there was less than 1k being sent via wire transfer. I was relatively happy with this Since the previous payment had been released. I continued to process with them for several weeks but didnt receive any funds. I called and emailed several times stating that there was far more than 1k waiting to be transferred. Eventually after threatening with legal action I had an email reply stating that I would not receive any payment unless I was processing more than 1k per week.
I emailed them stating that I would not continuously send my company funds into their account in the hope that I would receive payment and asked for my account to be closed and my funds returned. I then received a payment schedule detailing the funds owed. However the actual balance was several thousand pounds less due to fictional charges that they had applied.in addition they refused to pay out and wanted to drip feed it over 18 months. Needless to say as a business owner this is unacceptable and therefore I turned this over to my lawyer. He too was amazed at the lies and nonsense excuses received and has recommended criminal proceedings, which we are now pursuing. I am compiling similar cases for the UK Fraud Squad and this will also be handed to the relevant US authorities which will hopefully bring them to justice. At the same time as the criminal proceedings that I am financing we are in the process of issuing proceedings in the UK to have the funds returned.
I would say to any business out there stay away from these cowboys, I hear the same excuses repeated time and time again and it is tiresome. Hopefully the message will get out there that these guys are crooks.
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