Heritage Bank & Trust Heritage Bank, Heritage Bank Merchant Services, Linda Turner, Nalleli Mai, Heritage International Bank, Philip Duncan, Steve Duncan Crooks or Trying to Cover Their Own Ineptness at Merchants Expense? Internet

This will be the first in a series of complaints and articles that I will be writing and posting throughout the internet and payment industry regarding Heritage Bank. This initial report will consist of an overview, introduction of the individuals involved the too be continued teaser leading to report number 2.

In a nut shell, my company applied for and processed through a merchant account sponsored by Heritage Bank which utilized CardWorks as their backend. Heritage provided service that was so subpar that they could not even provide me statements and reports that were asked for on a daily basis. At this time, I would like to introduce Philipa Duncan. She has to be, without a doubt, the most inept person I have ever come across in the payment industry. I guess I should introduce you to her brother, who I am sure got her this job in the first place. Enter Steve Duncan, the president of Heritage Bank. In Steve's defense, he is not a payment guy but unfortunately was not smart enough to realize he needed to bring experienced payment industry people to run a merchant services program. Now, I will digress for a moment to introduce a board member of Heritage Bank. I will save his name for article #2. This person let's just say should be a person of great interest to the IRS because he mysteriously lives in Belize and I would like to know his citizenship status since he owns and operates one of the largest boiler rooms selling timeshare "packages" to little old ladies. Let's see if this statement get's an arousal out of him since when I discussed my issue with him over the phone, he said he will not be blackmailed or strong armed. I guess he is used to people questioning his integrity and honest so this must be a canned response of his.

Ok, back to my original post, next into the picture comes Linda Turner who holds the title of Supervisor Ecommerce & Card Program. Yes, that is her actual title. Anyway, things started off well with her then quickly went downhill from there. She gave me excuse after excuse of the discrepancy in the money that they owed me and what they actually paid me. Then she says they are more than happy to reconcile my account for a FEE. So, they are an acquiring bank but do not have reports or the ability to reconcile my account monthly? Yes, I notified them of problems from day one but was always ignored. The real kicker came when I was actually processing and Philipa comes back to say, oh yes, we forgot to notify you of chargebacks for a whole month? WHATT???!!! You conveniently forgot but you sure did not forget to debit my account and add additional mysterious fees now did you Philipa?

Now, with all the back and forth, I tell Linda, that's it and I am just going to take to the net to warn people to stay clear, she sent an email asking for patience and that she requested my processing statements from CardWorks and they should receive them in 10 days. Boy, I guess the Pony Express is a little slow these days. While we are having these conversations, a new player was introduced into the fold. I would now like to introduce Nalleli Mai, Senior Supervisor Ecommerce & Card Program, Customer Service. Mrs. Mai thinks that I am a complete idiot and will simply sit by and wait for her to get around to helping me. But, this is where I will stop and pick up again with article #2 sometime during the week of September 19th, 2011. 

FYI, I have already told Heritage I was doing this so it will be very interesting to see their responses. Good thing for me is that I have plenty of proof, via emails and hard documents to back up everything that I am saying. Should make for some good reading folks. Until next time....Ciao!!