Merchant Lynx - iPayment - Wells Fargo Bank Holding 1K of our $$'s & continues to charge us although we are no longer using their services. Canton Georgia

I was approached in my new store by a sales rep for Merchant Lynx. He said he could save me money in processing credit cards for both our shop and our online sales. This equates to two separate accounts. I believed him and signed up on 4-25-08.

A short while into the 3 year contract (first week of July 2008) I notice that several days have gone by without CC deposits going into my business bank account. I thought maybe it was a system glitch and decided to give them a call to check on it. Lucky for me I did that.

The first person I spoke with was a customer service agent - very polite and I felt assured that things were ok. They transferred me to another line saying I would get the help I needed to identify the issue. An operator informed me that there is ONE person I may speak with and they were unavailable but would be back shortly - would I mind holding. The phone immediately dropped my call. I called back several more times going through the same process - kind customer service rep, to operator that says "William" is not available and finally identifying that I am speaking to the Risk Management department.

Finally I had William on the phone. He stated that he had mailed me a letter and called and left a message regarding my funds - that they were being held due to too many charge backs. This was months ago and to date I have not received the letter nor heard a phone message regarding this.

I asked for a more complete explanation as this was news to me. In the previous two years of credit card processing through our previous CC processing provider I had never experienced this issue. Online sales by nature experiences higher charge backs than Brick & Mortar stores. iPayments was holding the funds for BOTH our online account AND our physical shop, without any warning. William wouldn't name how much funds they intended to hold nor would they name when they would release the funds back to me.

I asked to speak to "William"'s supervisor. William informed me that he doesn't have a supervisor and that there is no one else I may speak with regarding this. He claimed to be THE Risk Management Department. I became emotional at this point as they had my money and each sale was accumulating more funds for them to hold. "William" then explained to me that if I continue to be emotional with him he would not continue the conversation. In tears I hung up, closed my store (definately was not in a state to face customers) and proceeded to try to reach someone else in the company. Every time I got a customer service rep on the phone they were very friendly and consoling, then would route my call back to William.

This happened regardless of calling the phone number for iPayments or for Merchant Lynx.

I eventually gave up. Realizing that I have no way of getting the information I need I called my previous CC processing company. Thankfully I hadn't officially closed my account with them and was able to have my equipment switched back to them almost instantly, removing Merchant Lynx/iPayment from the path of my business money.

Months later I am still being billed by iPayment and Merchant Lynx. William refuses to offer me any insight into the status of my held funds. Customer Service reps tell me that if I close the account Risk Management won't have a way to return my funds to me. Just yesterday I saw $50 removed from my bank account with the bank notation of "EFT TRANS I-PAYMENT;102108;PCICMPLNCE".

There seems to be no end to this. I'm truly upset and feel held hostage by this company.

Hallie
Reading, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.