Momentum Payment Systems Encore Payment Systems Momentum Payment Systems Fails to Fix Problems, Terrible Customer Service Internet, Internet

Momentum Payment Systems has been incredibly difficult to work with. I switched to their system in April of 2011 and it is now August 2011. The entire time I have been with them I have not been able to accept American Express cards. I was able to accept them in the past through our old processor (who was excellent, just slightly more expensive). I spent countless hours on the phone setting up this account and their sales rep had me scan and send old merchant statement in order to get me a better rate. The initial meeting took over 3 hours (which is ridiculous) and multiple days for the woman receiving my scanned statements to be able to open them. She had me reformat them or change the file sizes over and over which was a huge waste of my time. 

 I have spent at least 12 (I counted) hours total waiting on the customer service line or speaking to someone about my problem accepting AmEx. Each time this person would send me to speak with AmEx and they would repeatedly tell me that it was not a problem on their end. Their sales reps were pleasant to talk to on the phone but not knowledgable at all. It took me at least 5 calls this week to "fix" this problem. I had a customer in this morning and guess what? Her American Express card did not run. Even after I was assured that the problem was finally fixed. I have lost countless sales due to this and I am entirely fed up. I finally talked to customer service and they informed me that to cancel my account I would be charged a $395 "deconversion fee". I told them it is unacceptable for me to pay them $395 when they have taken 4 months to address my problem (which is still not fixed). They have not completed their side of our original agreement which included running AmEx cards and I do not believe that I should be charged their fee to close my account. Honestly, I think they are responsible for any and all lost sales that I have had since April due to their failure to fix this issue. Even if this problem was fixed today I would prefer not to do business with them.

The last person who I spoke with was rude and condescending when I let him know that I was planning on exiting my contract with them. When I started to explain my issues with Momentum he said "you don't have to convince me why you want to switch companies" rather than listening to and addressing the issues that I had with Momentum. As a female small business owner I did not feel that I was taken seriously and I am extremely frustrated with Momentum. I will be requesting to close my account without paying the $395 fee and I will be taking legal action against them in the event that they will not allow me to do so.