On July 31, Marc Robson, senior account executive for Elements Payment Services Inc. Came to my business to discuss using his company to process credit cards. After a his presentation I signed a three page "Merchant Application" with him for the credit card processing he had described.
He then added the lease for the terminal, saying it was better to lease than buy so if anything went wrong with the equipment it would be repaired under the lease agreement. He went over the lease in hast saying it was standard. I have had cell phone leases and know that if you terminate the lease early you pay a penalty. This lease is different big time!!! The monthly payments are taken out of my business account and there is no end if you close the business.
Due to family health issues I have had to close my business. When I call to discuss the penalty for early termination of the contract and to find out where I should send the equipment; I was told I could not terminate the contract. It was a non-cancellable lease and I would have to pay it off in full. If I wanted to send the equipment back that was fine but I would still have to pay the total amount for the lease.
I explained the health issues and that I was closing my business and no longer needed the credit card machine. I got a to bad so sad response followed by a you were really stupid for signing the lease. I was told I should have read all the fine print and never sign anything that you don't read.
I was told I would have to pay the lease or else they would take it out of my bank account. If I closed the account they would call a collection agent to get the money.
Is there anything I can do? I will gladly send the machine back and pay a reasonable penalty but I just can't see paying $1500 for something I am not even using. The story that Karen and the other person wrote are exactly like my experience. There has to be some way to stop these people from taking advantage of people who are already overworked and short on the time necessary to read 5 pages of extremely fine print.
I am open to any legal suggestions.
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