Leaders Merchant Services Lies deceptive practices hidden fees Thousand Oaks California

I talked to Morgan Rodriguez on May 30, 2013 and was quoted $7.95 monthly with 0.35% on swiped debit cards and 1.55% on credit cards. He also quoted an addition $0.18 per transaction for swiped and keyed transactions. Set-up, swiper, statements, etc were all free. I made sure he sent me this information in an email. I also asked if there was a contract and any yearly fees. He said "no". It sounded good so on May 31, 2013 I signed up. The application process was done on line. At no time, did any screen come up indicating additional fees of any kind. (I have a witness to this as I was using a friend's computer. He watched the entire process.) I also told Morgan that most of my transactions would be taken over the phone with very few being swiped in person.

The first problem came after an event three weeks later where I ran about $675 through. I got a call from Risk Dept that they were holding up my money because of some problems. Of course, the guy called me and then left for the day. No one else had any idea what the problem was. When I finally talked to the guy the next day, he said it was flagged because my application was submitted as 100% swiped transactions. Abut 11 of the transactions had to be keyed in because the swiper would not work. I talked to Morgan and said it had to be changed to at least 80% keyed and 20% swiped. He didn't call me back so a couple days later I called him. He said the change had been made. There also was a $.35 batch fee for nine batches that I was not told about ahead of time.

I got my first statement yesterday. Imagine my shock when I found, instead of the $7.95+ I was expecting, that my total was $86.75. When I called merchant services, I was informed my transactions were three-tiered (qualified, mid-qualified, non-qualified). A number of transactions were submitted at a nonqualified rate of 5.89% because they were keyed instead of swiped.

Imagine my further surprise when my application was emailed to me, and I found all the fine print that had not shown up online. The fine print included the information that I had signed a three-year contract and would be charged an early termination fee of $350. It also said there is an annual PCI compliance fee of $129 and an additional $40/month if paperwork was not submitted. Also the non-qualifed amount was specified as 4.34% not the 5.89% I was actually charged.

I called merchant services today and spoke with Elizabeth. She had me forward the email Morgan sent me and said it would be sent to the department responsible for investigating. She said someone would call me within 48 hours. I forwarded the email and added a comment that this had better be resolved by Friday. We'll see!