Cardservice Republic - Card service International- Clay King chargeback evasion, forging of documents, failure to fulfill service, ripoff Irving Texas

I applied for an Internet merchant account twice through Mr. Clay King of Cardservice International:

First, on March 17, which cost $50.00. When this application was rejected due to content of my site, on April 13 Mr. King convinced me to apply for an "international merchant account" at a cost of $795.00.

The setup of this merchant account was never completed, the financial gateway was perpetually down, and we were never able to test the system, despite Mr. King's claim on April 20 that the system would be made "live" on that day.

On May 23, after sending numerous inquiries asking when the account would be turned on for real (many of which went unanswered), I finally gave up and asked for a refund. Shortly thereafter, when no refund was given, I disputed the charges on my credit card with Wells Fargo Bank.

In his counter-dispute to Wells Fargo, in order to evade a chargeback, Mr. King included an e-mail sent from me, the text of which he had tampered with in an attempt (through the addition of a line of text) to show that I had waived my right to dispute the charges, which I had not.

He also broadly misrepresented the facts of the case, attempting to document that the service had been set up, when in fact it had never been more than partially set up. When I confronted Cardservice International with evidence supporting these events, on June 27 I was told by Cardservice International's Steve Hoffmeister (800-979-9270) that Mr. King had agreed to issue a refund.

However, to date, 7/12/05, no refund has been given, and Mr. Hoffmeister is no longer returning my phone calls or e-mails.

M.J.
Alameda, California
U.S.A.