In September we were approached by one Allison Roy on behalf of "Merchant Services, Inc, " a processor of credit card and debit transactions.in her sales pitch she claimed that they could save us a significant amount on our credit card sales. We decided to switch from our current provider based on the claims she made. She also suggested that we use their terminal, as opposed to the current terminal which we owned outright, as it was brand new and there would be no charge as long as we agreed to a 36 month service contract.
In April we were informed of an irregular ACH debit on our bank statement from an "MBF Leasing" in the amount of $ 123.46. This is the first I had ever heard of this company. After some research, I discovered that MBF was affiliated with Merchant Services.
I contacted Merchant Services and a customer service rep informed me that we had entered into an agreement to lease a Nurit 2085 processing terminal for $ 109.99/mo. For 48 months. Notice the difference is agreement times from the service contract to the equipment lease. I demanded he fax me a copy of this mysterious agreement of which we had absolutely no record of. Upon reciept of the contract, it very suspiciouly was not written in hand writing of myself or the president of the company, Jan B. Niblett, although it did apear to be signed and dated.
In the meantime, I learned the retail value of the terminal was $ 145.00-180.00. Otherwords, according the the lease agreement in dispute, we would be paying $ 123.46 x 48 mo. = $ 5,926.08 on a lease for a machine with a retail value of less than $ 200.00. Not to mention the fact that we already owned a processing machine that was in perfect working order.
The options that I currently find myself facing are (a) block the ACH withdrawal from our account, forcing MBF into collections and/or legal action or (b) continue to pay the amount until the completion of the lease.
Regardless of my decision, I intend to shout to the heavens to anyone who will listen about the completely unfair, unethical, and misleading business practices of this operation. I will file complaints with the New York state DA's office, the California DA's office (my location) as well as the the Federal Trade Commission and I urge you to do the same if you have experienced similar dealings with this company.
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