U.S Merchant Systems ripoff, Lie, Mislead, Steal, Greedy , Small Ebay Businesses Watch Out! Fremont California

In November of 2005 a friend of mine contacted me about an Ebay seminar she saw in the local paper. My husband and I sell on Ebay and had been looking for other ways to build our business. We had considered building our own web-store but we were not sure how it all worked, let a lone know how to do it. My friend and I went to the short seminar that was free of charge to get more information.

Paul Mulder was the speaker. The short seminar was a sales presentation for a 6 hour class that would cost $49.00 to attend. Paul gave teases to the great profitable information the class would provide and my friend and I determined that it was worth the $49.00 fee to attend. This fee also covered the cost of your spouse so this seemed to be a great investment that would grow our Ebay business and would surly pay off in the end.

On November 7, we attended the Ebay class that was promised. Robb Mulford was the speaker at the class. One of his first statements was that we could take notes but we could not bring in a video camera or tape recorder This should have raised a red flag but he was so convincing we did not think anything of it.

The class was disguised as a helpful learning tool but was in fact a convincing sales pitch. Robb works for a company called Tradeworks which is a division of Pacific Web Works. Tradeworks is a company to help small business build websites and sell things online on their own personal website. They use the Ebay name to drawn in the crowds but they are trying to divert money from Ebay into their own pockets. Needless to say the class was full.

They were selling four major products in this class,
* Their Website software, free download and $29.95 a month service fee. This included customer service etc. They said that this was very user friendly and easy to set up. My husband did finally get it all set up but it was far from easy. Not worth the $29.95 a month as after 5 months we did not sell a single item.
* Their Tradeworks Product Club. They claim that they are selling these products at wholesale price and you can make big profits on your personal website and Ebay. We looked up several of these products and found that Ebay was flooded with the very same products and at a way lower price. There are many other Drop ship companies that sell the very same products at much greater discounts. Free with purchase of the monthly service of Web software.
* Business Merchant Account. This is offered through U.S. Merchant Systems. $1000.00 set up fee. $20.00 a month service fee plus 2.29% discount rate, $10.00 a month gateway fee and .15 cent transaction fee per transaction. Anyone who has never done this before does not realize how much money this is really costing per month. They did not inform us that U.S Merchant Systems also charges a $40.00 annual fee to have the account on top of all the other fees. We were also told that this account if offered on a month to month bases and we are able to cancel at anytime. And we could use this account with any website including Ebay. This would eliminate the need to pay Paypal fee's for excepting credit card payments.
* Ebay interface software. $1000.00 set up fee. This software is used to connect your website to Ebay and the Merchant Account. They did not tell us that you will need this software to be able to easily use your merchant account on any other website except the one you have purchased from them. All of the products offered were needed together to get anything to easily work. This would be a total investment of $3000.00. None of this was made very clear although there was high pressure to purchase all they offered for the $3000.00 investment.

We decided to download the website and start the process of building it for the $29.00 monthly fee. They said that within a matter of hours we could have it up and running making us tons of extra money. We also decided to purchase the Merchant account for $1000.00 figuring that we would make the money back with our profits and we would not have to use Paypal for our credit card payments any longer so we would not be paying those fees. Of course Tradeworks said that the cost was $1000.00 for the evening of the class only! After that it would be double the cost. We were one of many who fell for this sales ploy.

When we looked at the product club online and saw we were not going to make any money with their products we looked at other drop ship companies and my husband started to build the website Tradeworks had provided the software for. It took him two weeks to figure out how to get anything to work. Tradeworks customer service was not much help. We listed products from another vendor that we would have a much better chance of making a profit on. We followed Tradeworks advice to market our site although a lot of the information and sites they recommended did not work or interface with the site they provided. We also found that the Merchant account would not work with Ebay easily. We could not connect it to our live auctions we would have to run all of the transactions through the website Tradeworks was providing service for. This took a lot more work and time. Our main business has been Ebay sales so this was the main reason for the purchase of the Merchant account in the first place. We were very disappointed that this was not as easy as we had been told and that we would have to invest another $1000.00 to make this Merchant account work for our needs. Really this was not an option as we had put the original $1000.00 investment on our credit card and did not want to get further in debt. We decided to go the long way around and try and make the best of it even though it was more time and work. We figured it would pay off in the long run.

After 5 months of maintaining the website and running all of our Ebay money transactions through the website so we could use the merchant account we looked at the money we were putting out and the extra work load and time consumption and decided to close it all down and go back to square one. We had not sold a single item on this website even though we were using lower cost products from another vendor. Our site must have looked good as Tradeworks was baiting other potential candidates using my husband's hard work and trying to take credit for themselves. We were contacted by someone asking us about Tradeworks. She said they wanted her to make a $10.000 investment for their services. We told her our experience and needless to say she decided not to do business with Tradeworks.

I wrote a letter to Tradeworks and sent is Registered Mail asking them to close my account and stated that I should have no other charges taken out of my bank account as of March 27, 2006. I have kept a copy of this letter and the Certified Mail Reciept if needed. My website was immediately offline. I also contacted U.S Merchant Services and spoke with a gentleman in their customer service dept. He advised me to write a letter asking them to close my account right away so I would not have to pay for another month. I faxed the letter over on 3/27/2006 and stated I should have no other charges to my account as of that date. I have also kept a copy of this letter. My account was closed right away.

I track all of my bank transactions online and on 3/31/06 I noticed my bank had charged me an insufficient funds fee of $20.00. I was surprised because I do not bounce checks and try to be very responsible with my money. I still had money in my account and did not understand why I was being charged a fee when I had money in the account. I called my bank and was told that U.S. Merchant Systems was trying to make a withdrawl of $250.00. I instantly called U.S Merchant Systems to question the reason for this attempt. I spoke with Sulton and he stated that I needed to keep the Merchant Account open for 6 months or I would be charged $250.00 for closing it early. I told him that I was told by Tradeworks that it was a month to month account and I could close it at anytime. I kept all of my paperwork from the Tradeworks class and no where on them does it say I have to have this account for 6 months. He said that I needed to call Tradeworks and get a copy of my application for the Merchant Account, It would have the information with regards to having the account open for 6 months.

I called Tradeworks and requested a copy of the application. They said they would mail it to me. Approx a week later it arrived. After looking over the application carefully it was again clear that I had Not agreed to a 6 month account. The application said nothing about any required length of time. I called and left Sulton a message on his Voice Mail stating this and said that I had disputed the charge with my bank. I did not authorize this charge and U.S Merchant Systems was not allowed to take anymore money out of my bank account. He never called back.

On 4/15/2006 I received a bill from U.S Merchant Systems Collections Dept. It was signed by Christina Boronkas. They charged me another $25.00 for a reject fee so now they claim I owe them a total of $275.00. I called Christiana and told her that I am disputing the charge as I never signed anything agreeing to a 6 month account with them so I did not feel that I owe them anything. I told her that I have all the paperwork I filled out when opening the account and nowhere on them does it say anything about a time length required. She told me that I have to take that up with Tradeworks because they have an agreement with U.S Merchants Systems. I said that if they have an agreement with Tradeworks then they should be billing Tradeworks for the $250.00 and not me as I have not signed anything.

I tried to call Tradeworks following the conversation with Christina at U.S. Merchant Systems. Tradeworks phone no# had been disconnected with no forwarding no#. A couple of days later 5/1/06 I found the Affiliate telephone number for Pacific Webworks that was given at the class in Nov and tried that. The woman I spoke with said she would call U.S. Merchant Systems and try to figure out what was going on. She said she would call me back later. She called on 05/02/06 and said I owe the money because a booklet that was given with the application states the terms in it. I told her that I did not remember the booklet but never the less I did not sign an agreement. Handing someone a booklet that is not signed by the receiving party is not a contract that I am aware of. She said that U.S Merchant Systems Charges up to $390.00 for closing an account. In other words, I should feel lucky that mine is only $250.00.

I have worked hard to keep my credit in good standing. I almost feel like I am being black mailed because if I don't pay this money, I am sure U.S Merchant Systems will report to the credit beau and put a bad mark against my good standing. I don't feel that I owe them this money and I really feel that Tradeworks/Pacific Webworks owes me the $1000.00 they stole from me with their misleading outright lies. I feel that if Tradeworks/Pacific Webworks and U.S Merchant Systems has an agreement with each other then let them settle it with each other since I was not a party to the agreement in the first place.

My husband and I have done some research on these companies in the midst of this mess and feel that these companies are scam companies that are out to lie and steal peoples money using the Ebay name to give them credibility. Tradeworks hides behind the Pacific Webworks name but when the pressure is on they disappear. Tradeworks posted the BBB logo on their website for a while and it suddenly was removed by the Better Business Bureau. My husband found that they never belonged to the BBB in first place. When calling and speaking with the people that work for Pacific Webworks/Tradeworks it is hard to get the name of the person you are speaking with. They are very hesitant to give it out.
I am not sure why Tradeworks has disconnected their phone with no forwarding number. I would think a successful company would be hesitant doing this as it would be hard for clients to reach them.

I looked on the internet and found a site called the Rip Off Report with a past client who has also been ripped off by this company. Same people, Same names but she is from Florida. Across the United States from me. I can only wonder how many thousands of dollars and honest small business people have been bilked by these sharks.

Joan
Maple Valley, Washington
U.S.A.