Merchant Account Solutions-Christopher Antoneson Merchant Account Solutions is an organization structured to fraudulently steal funds from business's bank accounts under the guise of a credit card processing operation. Thousand Oaks-with online marketing California

In the search for a low cost, mobile credit card processing service comprable to Square, Spark Pay, etc.,  I signed up with Merchant Account Solutions (MAS).  I might add that they were also recommended by a number of reviewing services, who in retrospect, were probably paid sycophants for MAS as well as other illegitmate credit card processors.  But I digress.

This was not my first rodeo:  I was very specific in defining the terms, rates and my need for simplicity. My B2B business doesn't have normal retail volume which I explained to the sales rep Patrik Pascua, along with average sale and monthly volume.  The rate given for debit cards was 30 basis points, swiped Visa and Mastercard were under 200 basis points and keyed in transactions were slightly more.  No contract.  Free swiper for my iPad and phone. Start tomorrow.  Simple. 

On my first month's statement, I was charged almost 200 basis points (2.0%) for a "month's end charge". Then came the fees,...basis points totaling up to an additional 3.43% including gateway, batch and integrity fees (how ironic) on top of the Visa/MC fees and such.  Of course, with access to my account, MAS debited the additional amount billed.  I called MAS and when questioned about these additional fees, the customer service rep rolled me over to another line that had an answering machine requesting contact information promising they would return my call promptly- which they never did.  Oh, the statement also included a notice that additional fees from credit card companies, networks, gateways and such would be charging starting the next week-just little details that add up to big money going forward.  

A week later I processed a regular customer's order who pays via a corporate purchasing card.  I was notified the next day that MAS Risk Department needed a copy of the invoice with customer contact information - a reasonable request.  Until I called them two days after their receipt of the invoice and inquired about their progress.  During the conversation,  they told me that customers can't pay for their order upfront-that was in my contract,...remember, no contract?  I countered with how about if someone is required to prepay for something like a wedding dress or such as my products are branded/customized to the buyer's business.  Nope.  Can't do that. On top of that, both of the Risk representatives were rude, curt and unprofessional. 

So I refunded the purchase as requested by MAS risk department, but in the meantime another purchase from a customer whose purchases were previously approved and paid was held back for almost two weeks, because nobody looked at the file until I called to ask why it hadn't been deposited in my account.  They kept the funds and float from my customer's card for almost two weeks-do this with a few million a month and it adds up to big money-at your customers' expense.

Simulateously, I received a statement of activity for the month amounting to over 4% in total fees INCLUDING the $3000+ amount THAT HAD BEEN REFUNDED.  They took this entire fee out of my next deposit, which amounted to over 25% of the deposit.  When I questioned the CSR, he just forwarded me to the line with the now familiar answering machine for my contact info and empty promise to return the call.  I am still waiting. 

A business acquaintence of mine was a founder of First Data, one of the top gateways in the industry.  He explained that people like MAS are the scourge of the industry and prey on nickel and diming small merchants who don't have the financial capacity and legal resources to attack what amounts to racketeering under the guise of a legitimate business.  And to think that these types of businesses are granted almost unlimited power to take hardearned money out of your account with no consequences is a real eye opener.  

MAS is not good a good company and does not deserve your trust or your money.  They aren't transparent, thrive on inadequate disclosure and even if that wasn't the whole picture, the customer service reflected above wouldn't suffice for most other businesses in this country.  These people need to be slammed with a class action lawsuit-I'm sure there's at least a few thouand other customers across the country that these guys are taking to the cleaners.