US MERCHANT SYSTEM CHARGED EARLY TERMINATION FEE, WHILE NOT EVEN IN CONTRACT FREMONT, California

I am an industry insider and familiar with this type of company.  This is typical, 1: The merchant operating guide changes a minimum of once a year. ( what you signed when you first signed up, is NOT the current Operating guide) 2: They hide behind their agent agreement and DO NOT hold their agents accountable for their actions. 3: They use the fine print in their contracts to hide behind legalities, even if its NOT the RIGHT thing to do. 4: They are well aware of whats going on and the tactics used by their agents.

They know that people put their trust and money in their hands and take advantage of that. Pushy sales tactics, misrepresentation, misinformation, are all part of the way they do business. Fees are added to accounts and never explained until you call in and complain and even then YOUR STUCK, because if you cancel you are penalized with an early termination fee, its a catch 22. Stay and pay the new fees or pay me an early termination fee. Mr Rosenbaum claims to have been a merchant himself, yet still allows his agents to take advantage of merchants, using whatever means possible to get them signed.

Different people from different parts of the country, give the same complaints. Problem is their is no way to regulate merchant service providers or their 1099 agents and they know that.

Things to protect you from predators like this:



1: Always DEMAND a clear copy of your contract, most of the time it is a fax copy that is unreadable.



2: Read your agreement



3: research the agent and company THOROUGHLY ( first rule of business, if it sounds to good to be real, RUN)



4: Never accept a contract that has been written on or is missing information.



5: Call once a year and ask if there has been any changes to your original operating guide. It seems that most merchant service providers will change the operating guide, if there is a smart merchant that was able to "beat" them out of paying an early termination fee or any rates/fees changes.

Keep yourself educated...and sooner or later companies like this will change the way they do business.

Mr. Talwinder Singh is correct in only one area. He did enter into an agreement with our company in January of 2010. The misleading facts offered by him surrounding this misunderstanding are astounding.

Issue #1

Mr. Singh may have mailed or sent a communication to our company on 10/18/2010 but we received it in the month of November of the same year. Per our agreement the Date of receipt is material not the date sent. As per our 19 year old company policy, when a merchant cancels, during any month, all fees are to be paid for that month, at which point the account and agreement are terminated except for any surviving terms.

Issue #2

Mr. Singh is a business man, a merchant if you will. By law, he is held to a higher standard than the
general consumer public. He is supposed to know what he is signing and READ all of the contract(s) before he signs and promises to fulfill his duties and responsibilities in the contract.

a) Located on the application itself, right under the special instruction box, it
reads: "IMPORTANT NOTICE: All information contained in this application was completed or supplied by all contracting parties. Any change in printed terms shall be of absolutely no force or affect unless specifically agreed to in writing by all contracting parties. By signing below on the original or facsimile you are agreeing to the provisions stated within the Terms and Conditions of the Merchant Agreement and the...."

b) Mr. Singh was to go to our web site and read, in its entirety the Merchant Operating Guide and Business Agreement, which he failed to do. If he had done so, he would have seen the highlighted section on "DUTY TO READ" and understood that its his responsibility to know what he signed.

c) Any verbal agreement between Mr. Singh and Wally Arakozie was between them. In the Merchant Operating Guide that Mr. Singh signed and attested to reading, it states that the only contract between US Merchant Systems, LLC and him, was the printed (not handwritten) application and other printed documents.

Issue #3

Mr. Singh told a lie. Mr Singh was indeed charged $915.45 and later on 12/30/2010 he was refunded $700. The difference, from my understanding was for the outstanding fees in November of the same year.

Conclusion.

Mr. Singh brought an action against us in Solono County which we demurred and successfully squash it.  Not satisfied with the loss of his case in Solono County, he then took action in Alameda County where we have motion in for dismissal.  Mr. Singh seems to be a vexatious litigant and  needs to stop wasting the courts time and move
on.


Richard Fenn
Legal Department

If you have that signed contract, you will win easily in small claims court. I wish you the best of luck and thank you for the info.

I've been wading through a lot of silly complaints lately, so it's nice to see some intelligent posts here too.