Merchant Account Solutions scam, liar, fraud, theif Thousand Oaks, CA Internet

In Sept 2014 I started my own online retail business, and I kept seeing all of these cool free merchant processor swipes on commercials, and all over town. I guess a lot of people with small or local businesses love these things! I even had a friend who had one just for her own personal use! She got hers for free and was basically only paying fees if she used it. I thought it would be so cool to get one for my business if I ever got a sale in person.

I found an ap on my phone that offered a free processor. So I downloaded the ap, and then from there someone at Merchant Account Solutions contacted me. I pride myself on asking a lot of questions and making sure I know what I am getting myself into. The people were really very nice and had a local number where they were located in Thousand Oaks, CA.

They made it seem so cool and it was easy to give them some information and have a swiper sent to me. I asked a lot of questions and at no point did they tell me anything about a "contract". They told me the swiper was free and gave me the rates for using it. Nothing was said about a monthly fee, or a fees for not using the swiper. They completely lied to me. The part where I screwed up was to give them my info and then "E-sign" and without reading the "contract" . Apparantly that is how they can get people to agree to this thing, by just not mentioning that it's a 3 year contract and then worry about it later. Once I received the swiper, I tried to activate it and apparantly it was not compatible with the phone that I currently have. I called them and they said they will find another model for me and have a manager call me back.

Well that was months ago and I never heard from anyone, and also never thought about it since. But this month I started seeing a $55 charge on my bank account that said "Electronic Withdrawal Bankcard". I always have a lot of transactions and thought that I just used my card somewhere. I decided to find out what that charge was.

It took a lot of research, but apparantly this was from this Merchant Account Solutions company charging me $55 for a swiper that was never used. I spoke to Benjamin in the cancellation department and he told me that I signed a 3 year agreement and to cancel would cost me $595!!! Well after more digging, I found out they have been charging me $35.90 a month, until the last 2 months I found charges for $14.95 and $55.85!!! The total they have stolen from me is $213.30!!!!

I guess now the best deal I can get is to pay them $20 a month for 9 months and then they will cancel after that. Which I'm not even sure if I trust them enough to cancel it!!

It really is unfortunate that companies can't just offer a service at a decent price, and communicate those prices to you and provide services for payment. It is such a novel idea!!! It's so sad that nowadays they can get away with not disclosing things when you outright ask them, but yet can get you to sign and basically say oh well you signed the contract! Why should they not be accountable for flat out lying to you! To me that should void out a contract!! I really just want to close my bank account, get a new one, and say the hell with it, but I just want this to be over.

Just remember no matter what, nothing is for free, and before you put your name on anything READ THE CONTRACT or assume it's a contract even if they tell you it's not and READ ALL THE FINE PRINT!!!!!!!!!!!! SMH!