MerchantOne Ripoff - $295 termination fee and hidden 3 year contract length terms Miami Beach, Florida

MerchantOne is a credit card processor for on-line transactions.  After approximately 1 year of service, we discontinued our account due to lack of business.  Our bank account was immediately hit with a $295 termination fee by MerchantOne.  No where in the contract we signed was there any mention of a required contract time period, nor a termination fee.  After several calls we were finally informed that the contract we signed had an Internet link (in 6 point type) to a PDF file called the "Program Guide" and in this document  (consisting mostly of 8 point type) on page 32 of a 34 page PDF, buried in a section called "Additional Important Information for Cards" was this information which they called a "Deconversion Fee".  At no time was this mentioned and in fact we were given the impression that this was a month to month service.  This is a highly deceptive tactic with the sole intent of ensnaring unsuspecting businesses by using cheap up front costs without mentioning these outrageous termination fees.  We have engaged several other credit card processing organizations before without issue and without this ridiculously lengthy required contract period, much less the exorbitant termination fee.  This is not a standard industry practice and this company should be avoided at all costs.