Merchant Lynx Services Deceptive practices, refusal to return calls, fraudulant claims...BEWARE!!!! Lakeland And Canton Florida and Georgia

At the end of May 2008, we were contacted by the Merchant Lynx office out of Lakeland, FL. A sales rep, named Mark Kubiatowicz came by and looked at our credit card processor statements. He then did some calculations and determined that he could get our bill, which normally ran around $225 month down to around $50.00, plus $59.99 for a 48 month lease for a Nurit2085. With a yearly savings of over $1300 we thought that would be a great deal.

The trouble started almost right away. After we signed the contract, we were told that they would be out that Friday to set up the machine. It took them over a week to actually really schedule someone to come out. On the day that the tech was supposed to come out, he was due at our shop at 7:30 am. That time came and went. I called the Lakeland office, repeatedly and finally around noon, Tina spoke to me. She said they did not know where the tech was, but that she would come out herself to do it the next day.

When Tina came out, she brought this LARGE machine that was the Nurit2085 (which is listed on the lease). It required a telephone jack. Our Micros system could not support the piece of equipment they brought out and that we had signed up for. She apologized and they said she would bring out a wireless unit the next day. Again, she was supposed to be here early in the morning, but didn't make it to the shop until about 11:00 am. This time she brought a wireless credit card processor. I asked her how this machine was supposed to "communicate" with my Micros system and have the credit cards balance at the end of the night? She had no clue. She directed me to call 1-866-873-2200, which is the headquarters for Merchant Lynx in Canton, GA. She told me to speak with Candice.

After speaking with Candice Waldrop, she said she would speak with Micros and figure out how or if we could get the machine to work with our system. Every few days I would attempt to speak with Candice or Tina to see where we were with us getting set up. Candice said she was still waiting on Micros. Finally on June 27, about 1 month after we had signed the contract we were fed up with the total lack of service and response and decided to just cancel the contract. They had never processed 1 credit card for us, with the exception of two $.01 test transactions- one Tina did at her office and one we did here at the shop and discovered it would not work with our system. But the leasing company (First Data Global Leasing-FDGL) did take out $74.89 for the lease payment, which was supposed to be $59.99+ tax.

Then on July 3 they took out $30.55 for processing fees, which were supposed to be waive and I even have that in writing from Tina. On July 9, they debited $50.00 for the app fee and then on July 25 FDGL debited $110.18

Carla, in the customer service dept. in Canton, GA sent me a Merchant Request to Close Processing Account (on 6-27-08). Since we had never used their services she scratched thru the verbage that said we would be debited for any processing fees as well as a termination fee of $350 and the remainder of the $10.00 monthly warranty & supply fee (which was never disclosed to us anywhere in our contract.) I faxed it back to her and supposedly the account was closed. I asked her what FDGL was and she said it was the outside leasing company and that I would need to call them and tell them to cancel the payments coming out of my account. I needed to tell them that it was a lease default. When I called them, I spoke with Sophia and she said that Merchant Lynx had already been paid and that they were the ones that needed to call and speak with a relationship manager.

It is now over three months since we have canceled the account, yet we are still being charged for a machine we never received and for a service that would not work with our system. I have called the Atlanta office probably about 50 times. Each time I call I end up on hold for an extremely long time. I have been told repeatedly that the Lakeland office had to handle this. They assure me that the manager or Tina will call me, but they never do. I have spoken with Tina about four times and each time she says she or she and her manager are coming out to the shop to fix the problem and get us our money refunded. The Canton office also always says they will call me back, but they never do.

At this point I am going to close my bank account so that they no longer have access to it. I am contacting a lawyer and I am reporting them to the BBB and the State Attorney General's office.

This is our first business and all we were doing was trying to get a better rate on our credit card processing fee's. They waited for three business days after we signed the contract to bring us a worthless machine. I can not get anybody in the Lakeland office to talk with us, and I can't get anyone in the Canton office to do anything about our situation.

Sandi
Brandon, Florida
U.S.A.