EPS False terms, deceptive sales practices, Internet

Lets get one thing out of the way: EPS90 means 90 days. My salesman - Terry London - lead us to believe that they will assume the risk for up to 20 months. They will not.  Yes, their system will accept up to 20 payments, but unless those payments are spaced out every 4.5 days (and who the heck would agree to a payment schedule like that?), 90 days is the limit.

At the end of the 90 days, if your customer bounces, the risk is yours, unless you want the customer to re-up for another 90 days. I doubt thats practical to many customers.

My beef is not with the EPS90 concept. It's like any other finance company that works off ACH rather than credit score. If you want to pay EPS 7.5% plus the software/hardware/monthly fees for them to guarantee 90 days of payments, that may be a reasonable decision for the electronics store who needs to sell $1500 TVs. For those of us who are selling $10,000 tuition (and schools are a big category for EPS salespeople right now), a student probably needs more than 90 days if he/she needs any time at all. It will not help you, and you could make the mistake I made: giving the customers 20 months to pay with postdated checks that EPS will not honor after 90 days if they do come back NSF.

Now for the touchy-feely side of this. My salesperson, Terry London, was a consistent liar and was as vague as he can be. Sales promises, folks, are exactly that. The moment of truth is the signing of the contract. The contract you sign is indecipherable without an attorney, but you better know they are going to make life difficult for you if you break it. They dont shred it and forget it.

It gets worse and the previous posts are right on: Their customer service department is indifferent, poorly trained and difficult to do business with. Many times, follow-through is not done. Many times, they contradict each other. Many times, they were making stuff up. I knew I was in trouble when I asked for a $29.95 credit for a product I hadnt purchased and the girl actually said, "Ill run it by the owner and then its up to him." The owner? Folks, this isnt Bank of America or Wells Fargo where systems are in place and there is a culture of professionalism. Yes, the megabanks are there to profit from you and you might not get your way every time, but at the end of the day, there is almost always a civil and reasonable explanation for why something is the way it is.

Back to the contract. My terms were not close to what London stated and I have emails to back it up. The CSR says, "hey we cant be responsible for the salespeople." They charged me for credit card processing when I only signed up for EPS90. There are other fees that I was never told about. And when you get on with your first CSR and explain to them that it isnt correct, you are talking to a potted plant. They do not care. They know they have you.

At the end, I was able to break the contract and settle for a modest amount. I was actually surprised they didnt push it harder. But this was after $1850 of EPS90 fees for 20 months of customer checks that were not going to be guaranteed even if they did bounce.  That was the hardest part to swallow pulling 17 checks from their system but still being charged 7.5%+ per check because the checks were in the system to begin with. They didnt have to provide service but still charged the same fees. And you are holding no cards at that point because they have your customers' checks and will go after them. You can't ethically play your customers against the finance company.

Again, I cant say that EPS90 is a fraudulent product. They did pay out the 90 days of customer checks. But if ANYONE tells you that you can get risk-free service after 90 days, they are lying!

I own six businesses and have been doing business for 20 years. Nothing Ive ever been a part of is close to what I went through with EPS. Please be careful with them. Maybe they have a product that makes sense, but when youre in, youre in and God help you without a lawyer.