From what I have read here and all over the internet, this will be another complaint against this company in a long line of complaints going back years.
It is obvious to me this company will not change its deceptive practices unless forced to do so.
My complaint is similar to other small businesses who have posted here.
I signed up with 1st national processing in Jan '09, immediately my fees started increasing and every month after seen an increase in one fee or another.
On my statement in April '09 it said I would be charged a $129 pci compliance fee billed over the next 4 months. Which at the time seemed reasonable to me since at the time the business world was buzzing about pci compliance.
I also got tagged with the iaccess fees for a service I didn't use. I had to call in to find out what this fee was for and have it canceled. So in Oct '09 I decided I didn't want this merchant account and started closure proceedings.
What should have took 30 days took sixty and 2 extra monthly billings, 1 of which was refunded. Thought that was the end of it. Then in Jan '10 i got charged an annual renewal payment. I called and got that refunded. Once again I thought that was the end of it.
Well I thought wrong, Because on March 22nd Ipayment charged my account $129. I received no notice, no bill, no statement just a charge to my account.
I called them up and I was told it was for the annual pci compliance fee. I told them I already paid that in '09. The woman told me that was for fiscal year may '08 to may '09. I told her I didn't have an account with them in '08, then she said well then it's for Jan '09 to May '09. And this new charge was for fiscal year May '09 to May '10.
I told her that's not right, that I was being charged twice for 1 year of service. She kept repeating her fiscal year mantra and we went around and around. I asked for her supervisor and she responded that she was the manager and around we went again. I told her that i was being charged for 7 months in '08 that i didn't have an account and 5 months in 2010 that i don't have an account. She said that's right, it doesn't matter if there is only 1 day left in the fiscal year when you sign up, you will still be charged for the whole year.
I told her nowhere in the original agreement did it say anything about this. She said it was on the first page of the April '09 statement. I told her all it said was i was being charged $129 that's it. I got the same mantra.
I got nowhere with her and they wont refund the money.
This is definitely underhanded and deceptive and in my opinion fraudulent.
Now the interesting thing is that all the monthly charges were made by TYPE: MTOT DISC CO: BANKCARD but the recent pci charge was made by IPAYMENT.
I talked to my bank to get a stop put on them and they told me i would need to put a stop on all the names they use as they can tweak the name and get around the stop. This is at a cost of $25 per name. Then they suggested that I could go in and change the account # which would stop them. So this is what I will do.
My advice is to stay away from this company. Give a lawyer a hundred bucks for a retainer and run all contracts and agreements by them.
It's a damn shame people do this crap. It's like my Pop Pop once said to the government
"you're like a lot of bloody mice nibbling at a little bit of cheese"
IPAYMENT 1st National processing... You should be ashamed of your unethical business practices.
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