Note that in this report I am not quoting the exact words, because I don't remember them word for word, but I am doing the best I can, to the best of my ability.
It started with a telephone call in or about early December. I told them I wasn't interested and so I thought that was the end of it. Then Capitol Merchant Services "boiler room" called me back a few days later and fast talked me into a deal that sounded great.
I was hoping to get some inquiries about my trips and lots of small donations for my foundation, I got only one donation two days after Christmas. Right now I am only accepting checks that I will take to my credit union account and will await the 7 to 10 time for the checks to clear the banks.
The Capitol Merchant Services company told me that I had better sign up "now", because prices would be going up after the Holidays, or something of that nature. They also lead me to believe that they were all local and would not be operating from out of state. I believed them hook, line, and sinker.
When the representative came out to my home, I spent more than three hours with her and she talked a good show to me and even some people I affliate with from out of state who are concerned with my business. I called them to say that I was getting another Merchant Service because the first one only had a cell phone with an out of state long distance number on it. He said he tore up the contract that I had signed with him. He called me this day of March 27, claiming that he cared about me and asked me if I had signed up with another Merchant Service. He said he was "scolding me" for doing it. I frankly don't know what to make of that. The representative who sold me the contract convinced me and the environmental group that I am working with out of state that Capitol Merchant Services was the only way to go. It never even occurred to me at the time that I should have checked out all the reports about it first.
I checked with the Better Business Bureau the other day and they were not listed there. Last night, I looked up Capitol Merchant Services on Google and found them on our web site. There are cheaper ways to go such as PayPal and probably other local ATM/Credit Card companies. I asked the sales representative, when giving out a Social Security Number was mentioned, if that would be a good idea. When I questioned her about it, the represntative said blithly, in words to this effect: "Yes, we must have your Social Security Number so that we can find out everthing we can about you."
I felt a bit odd about her reply and then she went on: "We have some wonderful perks for you to make you fell better. We will deliver your credit card and check processing equipment today. We will build your web sites absolutely free.
We also will provide 1000 fliers, 25 gift cards, 1000 business cards, and unlimited travel vouchers and build you a wonderful web site, all absolutely free! How is that for a deal!" Naively swallowing it, I gave in. Who wouldn't give in to such great-sounding deals?
I still had my reservations, but she pushed for my compliance and being alone, I felt intimidated and obligated to give in. I was quoted certain prices but came to find out there were some hidden costs. I signed the contract with "one eye open and the other eye closed" when both eyes should have been wide opened.
Warning! One risk of registering a small buisness, you will be harrassed by phone calls and people wanting your money before you are even making enough to break even!
I found out later the web site company they had set up with me "Field of Dreams" that Capitol Merchant Services decided to drop them flat and build our the web sites themselves. I already have two wonderful web sites that Web Site Pros built for me and I actually have done a lot of the work myself when I learned how to do it. I paid quite a bit of money for them, but they seem to be at least reliable.
Capitol Merchant Services also told me that they were getting another leasing Company and were dropping MBF, but I find myself a bit skeptical there about what they are really up to. And I would guess MBF is still very much a part of it.
I got some surprises on my Credit Union bank statement the next month. I was told that for leasing my equpment I would only be paying about $102.00 a month, or so. I found out that the bill is for $113.72 a month for leasing, alone. I was certainly not told the truth there.
There was also an annual fee of $85 for Electronic Payment Systems that I was not told about initially. There are also a couple of monthly fees listed for Banko Settlemepos Setl (whatever that is) and Electcheck Plusecplus (whatever that is) and a monthly insurance fee of over $8 just in case my equipment is damaged. The two monthly fees for my equipment are $35 or more each, per month. The first month the "Banko" fee was about $39. That was really a surprise!
I got my equipment on December 14, the very day I signed my contracts. A very nice young woman drove out from Murray to bring my equpment and hook it up.
When I went with her to buy the surge protector in Kaysville, it came up in the conversation that she knew my brother's family. I'll just say her first name was Maria who quit her job with them shortly after that.
She said she went to high school with one of my nieces and nephews and even called them by name. I had not mentioned their names to her, she mentioned them first. She admired my house all decorated for Christmas and she gave me a hug.
I enjoyed being with her. But when it came time to hook up my machine the company asked her to hurry back. I got her out to my place one more time to train me, but the company said she had to be right back and she did not have time to do an adequate job. The next time I called, she was in Colorado as part of her job I was led to believe. The next time I called, she had quit and Capitol Merchant Services told me they didn't know where she was and why she quit. Their excuse was often "I don't know where she is or where he is."
Maria told me that her father was a Mormon bishop. She would not have known my nieces and nephews and mentioned them first, had she not been in some way diffent than the team she was supposed to represent at Capitol Merchant Services. I suspect that she was disillusioned with her job or her parents were and might not have wanted anything more to do with Capitol Merchant services.
Every time I tried to call the company, they were always promising to have someone come out to my place and finish up with the terminal training as they had promised. Oh, yes, someone would be able to come out that day. But no one ever showed up again and they were always giving excuses that you found out about after a lot of calling and waiting all day without hearing from them.
And whenever I tried to call them, I was always put on hold, sometimes for almost an hour at a time. They have never made good on their promises of training on my terminal and stopped in mid sentence when they appeared to start training me on the phone.
It is a good thing I have not had any business yet, because I have a very bad feeling and I doubt that if a check were to be processed or a credit card processed, that my company would ever see the money for my travel service or for my foundation. I have a feeling that I would get bilked there, as well.
I have a sneaking suspicion that when I do get some customers for my tours or foundation donations that I would never get the money in my account to pay the expenses for the tourists or to send donations to the charities and organizations I am trying to help. So my customers would likely be cheated; and consequently, I will never process a check or credit card on this terminal set up.
Capitol Merchant Services promised to send me a check for $204.26 to get me started which they did send in a funny envelop which was not addressed to me, but to my company. When I finally deposited the check in my foundation account, my Credit Union questioned the address, but finally accepted the check with some reservations.
The check was sent to me in January, not in December as the company had promised. The lease papers were sent later, too, because I was told they would have to take them back to the office to "finish them up".
When I got the copies of the contract papers for the leases, there was a lot of funny small print that my eyes could not read and a lot of names dealing with several states. Because I was not given time to think about it before I signed them, I had to sign them without reading all the details, and this I ended up with a so-called "non-cancellable" lease.
My Bishop has my papers now and/or is dealing with them as he feels is best, but I think one of the locations mentioned on the lease contract was in Tennessee and a couple of other states. But I was told this would all be done locally. I had to beg for someone to send me the check and the papers or I probably would still never have received them.
I talked with Keith Day once on the phone about getting my $204 advance check that was promised earlier. He said that for some reason "his boss" decided to postpone sending the check later than first led to believe.
The receptionists only half answered may questions and sometimes there was a giggly young girl on the other end of the line. My friend, a woman I do some typing for, says that such a girl from Capitol Merchant Services called her the other night from a cell phone.
The least evasive person, a man named Bill, was the most explicit, but right away he introduced to me to a salespitch to sign another contract with them to build me a web site with them. He wanted me, again, to make another committment.
Now I am skeptical of signing any contracts, leasing anything, or making any time committments. Once bitten, twice shy! I was told that the contract was binding and that I would have to committ for four years, but who knows where any of us will be in four years? I asked if I could get out of the lease contract, but there is not just one with MBF leasing, but two, the other being with EPS (Electronic Payment Systems).
Either I missed the boat or else I was fast talked so fast that it came as a surprise when I found out I had signed two leases with what I thought was one company. I was never told that I could cancel but that if I did, I could "buy it out" (whatever that means) and then that I would have to find someone to buy the deal from me, which seems next to impossible to do.
Capitol Merchants told me that they would not be responsible for calling MBF Leasing or Electronic Payment Systems and that I would have to do it myself, but that would be for me like talking to a stone wall. I would get absolutely nowhere with them.
Their prices are outrageous. I figured out that it will cost me at least $10,000 to pay it all off in four years and I don't have that kind of money now and I may never have that kind of money. That is even outrageous for a mega-million dollar corporation. Nobody should have to pay that kind of prices for their businesses.
Capitol Merchant Services told me that I would be paying back 1.9 percent per credit card, but I don't rust them and I will never process any checks or credit cards with the equipment sitting on my desk. It will have to be deprogrammed before it is even usable for anyone.
Besides being dishonest, these three companies are outrageously unaffordable. I think we need to stand together and demand our money back, consider taking our cases to a small claims court, and demand a class action law suit. Hopefully, then, those of us who have been robbed will be able to afford to take part in the class action law suit if approved.
These companies don't care about us, our livelihoods, our lives, or the sucess of our businesses. All they care about is the money they are scamming from our already too small bank accounts. How about shutting them down?
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