Aubrey C. Hector III and John-Michael Limbach from Bank of America Merchant Services Defrauded, Scammed, and Lied to Get Me to Open A Merchant Account - Please Beware of These Swindlers Charlotte North Carolina

I was scammed by an unscrupulous sales rep named Aubrey C. Hector III, Vice President at Bank of America Merchant Services, into opening a merchant account under false statements and misrepresentations. This scammer was facilitated and backed by the full support of his morally corrupt supervisor John-Michael Limbach, VP, Regional Sales Manager.

In my initial conversation with this too-bit fraud Aubrey C. Hector, I made it explicitly clear to him that I need a merchant services account for only a two-month period for a seasonal business I was opening. I stated to him that explicitly and unequivocally that I will notopen an account if it will include a contract with any cancelation fees for the equipment or for the credit card processing services. This lair represented to me both verbally and in an email that he would rent me the equipment for $24 per month with the first 3 months free and without a contract and set up a merchant services account without any cancellation fees.

Further, given the 3 month “no equipment lease payment” promo and since my business was only to operate for a two month period (November and December 2014), Hector said that I would actually not even have to pay any rent on the equipment.

After I agreed to the pricing and the terms he offered, I told him that I would like to move forward at which point he sent me an 84 page agreement to sign. It’s not 84 pages long for no reason. Despite the fact that he told me that the merchant services has no cancelation fees, it HAD a $500 CANCELATION FEE if you terminate the account before 36 months.  When I called him on it he said that this was in there by “mistake” and he then sent me another agreement without the $500 cancelation fee. That was scam number 1 Aubrey C. Hector tried to pull on me!

But that was not all.  I also found that the merchant services agreement had an embedded contract for 48 months for the equipment from First Data Global Leasing (FDGL), a third party.  When I brought this to his attention he stated that he “misspoke” when he said that the equipment is without a contract. That was scam number 2. This swindler Aubrey Hector is shameless. He would say anything to sale. He pleaded with me that while there is a lease contract for the equipment he would be able to cancel it through a "lease buy back" as soon as I call him to close the account. That was scam number 3 (see below for further details).

While I was very concerned about signing the merchant services agreement with the lease equipment clause in it, Aubrey Hector was unequivocal that he never had an issue in the past to complete a lease buy back and that it would be straight forward in this case and assured me over and over again that he had done it many times and that he would take care of it as soon as I notified him that I would like to close my account.

As an extra step of precaution, I wanted to hear about the lease buy back process from another person, so as part of my due diligence prior to signing up, I contacted another rep who confirmed to me the existence of the lease "buy back" option just as Aubrey Hector had described. (Apparently this is a wide-spread lie tactic to overcome this embedded equipment lease contract, for whoever notices it in the 84 page agreement they send you.) Only then did I feel comfortable enough to go ahead and sign the Merchant Services Agreement.

Of course the main reason I felt compelled to move forward was that he offered me the best pricing on the service. He preyed on the fact that I was eager to get the best deal. Moreover, given that I was dealing with a Bank of America company, I felt that two different people, each not aware I was speaking with the other, would not independently be misrepresenting such an important factor.  Oh was I wrong! But most people would not expect that sort of unscrupulous conduct to be wide-spread at a reputable company such as Bank of America.

After I signed up for the service with Aubrey Hector the real horror began.

As mentioned above, Aubrey Hector represented to me that I would have no equipment rent payment due for the first 3 months. Well, on 12/10/2013 I was charged $48.36 lease payment and a month later I was charged $29.61 for an equipment lease. When I tried to reach him about this he would not return my calls or answer my emails.

On 1/2/2014 I notified Aubrey Hector by email that the business is no longer operating and that I would like to close my account and return the equipment. On 1/10/2014, after not getting a response from Aubrey, I called Bank of America Merchant Services to request what I have requested from Aubrey, at which point they got a hold of him and compelled him to finally respond to me. In his email later that day (1/10/2014) he actually represented to me that the “buy back” has been approved and to wait for instructions for sending back the equipment. He also said that the lease payments would be refunded to me after the equipment was received.

Sure enough weeks went by and Aubrey didn't follow up with any instructions and didn't respond to my emails or voice messages. (Reaching him by phone is completely impossible as he never answers and never returns your calls after you have opened the account.)

On 1/30/2014 I sent him an email that I am still waiting for instructions for sending back the equipment. No response. On 2/6/2014 I sent another email – still no response. When I called the customer service line about the lease buy back, they play dumb and only refer me back to this good for nothing Aubrey Hector. On 2/13/2014 I sent another email to him saying I will report him for the fraud he is. At this point he responded that he has no control over the lease buy back time frame.

At this point I was finally able to get the email address of John-Michael Limbach, VP, Regional Sales Manager, the swindler’s supervisor. After I sent the supervisor an email detailing the lies and crap I had to deal with, I got a follow-up from Aubrey Hector, again on 2/13/2014, that said the following: “this has been escalated and I have gotten confirmation about the approved the lease buyback and sent it over to FDGL to be processed ASAP. Also I will update you once we have received response. SLA is up to 5 biz days. All monies will be returned to your bank account as well.” 

After still not hearing anything from Hector, on 2/27/2014 I called First Data Global Leasing and asked about the status of the equipment lease. I was told that they have not received any request from Bank of America to process a lease buy back. I then called Hector, and was surprised to actually reach him. Hector said that the lease buy back was approved. I told him FDGL said they know nothing about a lease buy back. He then said that he will call them to let them know and then follow up with me. Of course, nothing happened. I called the customer service line and asked to get his supervisor to follow up with me.

On 3/7/2014 his useless manager, John-Michael Limbach told me in an email that he personally requested twice from FDGL to approve a buy back but that they declined it. However, when I called FDGL they said that Bank of America Merchant Services has to internally approve a buy back, and then payoff FDGL. As such the approval of the buyback has nothing to do with FDGL. Needless to say, FDGL said they received no calls about any buy backs from anyone at Bank of America Merchant Services.  

John-Michael Limbach could care less about the misrepresentations and the unscrupulous tactics of his underlings (two reps told me about a buy back that does not exist – obviously this scam is wide spread)  So how did John-Michael Limbach make things right after getting a detailed account of the unscrupulous conduct of his employee? He referred me to Bank of America Merchant Services legal department. In other words, telling me to shove it! Thank you Sir!

FDGL told me that it would cost me a little over $1,300 to get out of the 4 YEAR equipment lease. Shame on you Mr. Aubrey Hector and shame on you Mr. John-Michael Limbach.

Hector you did represent to me unequivocally that I wouldn’t have any rent payments due – I now have them for 48 months! You told me you would cancel the equipment lease without any cancellation fee as soon as I called you to close the account – the cancellation fee is over $1,300!

Thank you for scamming me!