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Report: #328755

Complaint Review: Innovative Merchant Services - Internet

  • Submitted:
  • Updated:
  • Reported By: Dana Point California
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
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  • Innovative Merchant Services http://www.imsmerchant.com Internet U.S.A.

Intuit Merchant Services - Innovative Merchant Services Refusing to refund money to credit card holder for 6 months --by Brad at customer support Internet

*Consumer Suggestion: Pemdcsbe VERY careful with your new provider.

*Consumer Comment: IS THIS REALLY QUICKBOOKS?

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This is a letter I have sent to them and it will clearly explain the situation:

To whom it may concern;
I called your company inquiring about a merchant account and quickbooks about 3 weeks ago. I told the sales person Randy Schneider that I had already quick books 2006 pro for Mac and if I could upgrade it to windows. Was told that if I would open a merchant account with quick books/intuit he would give me a free copy of quick books pro 2008. The deal sounded really good: $5.00 or $8.00 per month in fees, very low transactions costs, 48 hours to receive the funds in my checking account, acceptance of international credit cards, no contract and quick books 2008 for free.
Well, it sounded good and I took the offer and thats when the nightmare started:
Instead of quick books 2008 pro I was given a lousy program quick books simple start and of course when I complained I was given the: No I never promised quick books pro 2008
I was not happy but had no other option to buy it myself in order to run my business.
Then I processed my first order and it was denied. Called customer service and was told that it was too soon to accept orders and would have to wait an extra day. I did and after 1 day I process the order again and got denied. Called then a number given to me by your customer service to get an authorization number and I did and finally with that authorization number it was approved.
After that I processed 2 more orders that were accepted immediately as my client had called his bank to authorize the transaction before I process the card.
After that received a call from Fredy (risk department) asking me questions about my orders and my business. I explained it to him. I told him that in this business we dont ship anything until we get paid by the clients and I asked him why the money wasnt yet in my account. He explained to me that my transactions were HIGH RISK and it would take time to have the funds released. He also told me that I couldnt charge before the equipment I was selling was shipped. That was the strangest thing I have ever heard. EVERY COMPANY I know of or bought from charges before they ship. Then he accused me of trying to buy the equipment with my clients money and that was illegal. Well, for your information theres nothing illegal charging a client upfront whether we charge 50% or 100% if the client agrees to it.
As a vendor I have the right to ship just after receiving my money.
Then the nightmare kept going. Every time I would call your company I would be giving the run around been transferred from person to person and not getting any results. I would live messages asking to return my calls, to Freddy, to Diana, to Martin and no one would have the courtesy to return a phone call. I had to tell whoever answered to PLEASE DO NOT TRANSFER ME TO A VOICE MAIL AGAIN!
After speaking with about 8 of your employees and listening to different excuses from each one I realized that my process was just on a pile with other pending processes and Diana would get to it whenever she had time. (Great customer service I must say)
Eventually I spoke to Martin who gave me the real scenario: your company would not be able to process my clients cards and release the funds to my checking account until I would prove to you I had already shipped the equipment my clients had bought. Please note: I had emailed Freddy per his request to show him that my business and my clients were legitimate, copies of the credit cards used, front and back, purchase orders, invoices, signatures from my clients agreeing with the charge I had to keep bothering my clients requesting paper work I told Freddy and Martin that 2 of the cards were previously called in to the bank by my client to be approved otherwise the bank would not allow the transaction yet all of that didnt seem to be enough to your risk department who seem to keep adding to the pile of risky transactions.
2 weeks had gone by at this time; I had to ship the products to both of my clients to not lose them without even getting paid. I had already refunded the money to my clients using the process I was told to by another one of your representatives. ( The money that I never received actually it was flouting in Intuits merchant account somewhere yes because my clients actually got charged as it showed on their credit cards statement) and to contribute even more to my disappointment with your company after 5 business days the money had not been refunded back to my clients credit cards.
Well, apparently it was HIGH RISK for you to release the funds to me but it certainly wasnt HIGH RISK for you to get the money into your account!!!
I would like to CANCELL my merchant account with your company and have the money refunded to my clients immediately.
I found another merchant account that took my business seriously and professionally and didnt embarrass me as Intuit did with suspicion of my business and clients.
This situation should have been resolved a long time ago. Your company lacks in communication and customer service and I am as a consumer not happy about it. You should also refund the money I spent buying QuickBooks 2008 Pro.
I will forward this letter to the Better Business Bureau and to the California Department of Consumer Affairs.

Pemdcs
Dana Point, California
U.S.A.

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This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 04/24/2008 08:22 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/innovative-merchant-services/internet/intuit-merchant-services-innovative-merchant-services-refusing-to-refund-money-to-credit-328755. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#2 Consumer Suggestion

Pemdcsbe VERY careful with your new provider.

AUTHOR: Mike - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Saturday, May 24, 2008

I really feel for your frustration but your business has been flagged as high risk and all of your transactions were put in reserve. This means that Inovative's actual processor First Data is holding your funds until they feel that the customer is satisfied and disputes cannot be leveled by the cardholder. They will release your funds only when they think it is safe.

For them to do this to you a couple of things had to have happened 1. You have negative credit. 2. Your business has negative reports outstanding on it. You can thank the web for this. 3. You are selling a high risk product (computers, electronics). 4. Your business Visa/MC MCC code (merchant classification code) falls into the high risk category. When you sign up for a merchant account this is how your business is listed. If you do not sell a risky product and your credit and business are all legit there may have been a mistake made when your account was setup! I have seen this happen as well.

You need to be VERY careful with your new provider. Verify that your business is listed correctly on the application. Make sure that it states the type of product you sell on the application. Make sure that the application states that you are a card not present (MOTO/INTERNET) merchant because the majority of your orders are not magnetically read. Most important make sure you list your delivery delay on the application. Do not let this company give you a different business classification or let them say you are a retail majority of cards swiped) business. The reason is that since you have processed with Inovative your history will follow you!! If you are caught trying to get a new merchant account with another provider under a different classification you stand the chance of hitting what is called Match List. This is Visa and MC's blacklist and once you are on it you do not get off it as it is tracked by your personal and business info. All processors have to scrub new merchants against this list.

I can tell you if you are selling electronics/computers you are in a very high risk category and that your processor may have you keep a reserve over and above what you process! This is standard in the industry because of the amount of disputes that happen on these types of sales! It is what it is. BE VERY DILIGENT ON WHAT YOU SIGN!!!

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#1 Consumer Comment

IS THIS REALLY QUICKBOOKS?

AUTHOR: Consult The Rock - (China, People's Republic of)

POSTED: Thursday, May 15, 2008

I initially typed in "Turbotax" and "Intuit" as I wanted to see if some negative stuff about the authors of Turbotax was posted on this thread. I have seen "quickbooks" at least twice. Is this the same Quickbooks that are advertised at the National Association of Enrolled Agents seminars? I've been to several of their seminars and they were all excellent; very much worth the price. I had a lot of questions regarding Quickbooks and wound up never buying, even though they looked good and a lot of Enrolled Agents use Quickbooks.

All of that aside, I wanted to ask: are these the same "Quickbooks" that are thorough and are used by CPA's, actuaries, tax attorneys, enrolled agents, etc, as reliable resource for Federal and State tax calculations, references, and statistics? Thanks: RD

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