In June Knut Werpen a sales rep for Wholesale Merchant Services came in my bicycle shop to solicit my credit card processing business. He stated he was an authorized representative for Visa and Master Card and could offer us dramatic savings on our credit card processing fees. He proceeded to explain that because of WMS's position in the market they were given these special rates from Visa/Master card and that no other processor could come close and that it would be in writing (he showed us a saving of $181 per month and with the $99 per month lease payment we would save approx $80 per month).
No brain-er where do I sign. We did not want to lease equipment though, because my business is up for sale and we did not know how long we'd need it. He said the lease was transferable and that WMS did transfers all the time for people who changed processors and in situations like ours. He even said if for any reason we were not happy he would handle the transfer himself because he would get credit for the lease again. This guy is an impeccable liar...
We signed up with the condition that we would not start processing with them until we settled an issue with our previous processor who owed us a cancellation fee refund. This was in June. We didn't even plug in their machine for 3 months and we were being charged. The lease and WMS's monthly charges were almost as much as our current processing! Which sent off red flags all over the place. If this was what they were charging before we even processed one card with them how could they save us any money?!
We tried in vain to get in contact with Mr. Werpen. We contacted WMS and the lease company (Lease Finance Group) to get the fees and charges removed and to cancel our contract. Only to be met with a less than civil response. After many phone calls (which consisted of being left on hold, disconnected and given the general run-around) we were finally issued a check and credit for the fees we were charged from June until September. But they were not willing to let us out of the contract.
After many more phone calls I spoke with a reasonably helpful women named Myra from WMS. She explained that we would see the savings if we started processing with them and that it was all just a misunderstanding and they would make adjustments to make sure we saw the savings promised to us (Myra is another well trained liar). Wanting to believe that a company of this size could not be this disreputable, we begrudgingly agreed to try processing with them for one month to see if they would at least show us the savings we were promised.
Funny thing... They ended up costing us about the same as anyone else, but with the lease and service fees and taxes it ended up costing us about $120 more per month. We promptly disconnected the machine and demanded to be let out the contract. Here's the funny part... LFG said since we had processed with the machine, it bound us to the contract and that we could file a misrepresentation form and they would investigate it!
In other words Myra lied to us to get us to use the machine, because they could have and should have let us out of the contract prior to us processing with them. LFG said that they could not reach the salesman so there was nothing they could do?!! I find this whole ordeal amazing in the fact that these companies think they can get away with these kind of deceitful practices and not be burned to the ground by a good lawyer and a bunch of P.O.'d small business owners. It is now February and nothing is resolved.
Filing a complaint with the BBB was pointless. WMS responded to the complaint saying they had a signed contract and the BBB dismissed it. We have now changed our bank account so they (WMS and LFG) no longer have access to it and now I am receiving threatening letters from the lease company (LFG) to turn me into collection. I am now seeking legal assistance. We have tried to locate Knut Werpen (who by the way has more previous addresses than you can count) to confront him with what he did and said.
WMS will not even acknowledge what we claim to be an issue... in fact the sales manager (Scott Huglet) for Mr. Werpen laughed and said "Knut probably does not want to talk to us". This made it very clear that this company teaches it's employees to be less than honest. This is a preditory scam set up to cheat small businesses that don't have the resources to fight. DO NOT do business with either of these companies. I suspect LFG is a shell corporation of some kind... Set up to protect WMS. If not, they are just as guilty of perpetuating this scam.
There is no reason for a noncancellable lease to exist except to lock you into and force you to pay for something you do not want. If anybody wants to start a class action law suite feel free to contact me. I fully intend on getting my money back one way or another and seeing that these people cant do this to anyone else.
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