Appstar Financial Overall Rating
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Appstar Financial Overview
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Based in San Diego, CA, Appstar Financial (appstar.net) opened its doors in 2002 and has racked up a lot of complaints during its short time in business. At the time of this review, this processor has somehow managed to earn an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) despite 137 complaints filed in the last 36 months. The complaints about Appstar Financial are not limited to just dissatisfied merchants because there are several from former agents as well. Appstar Financial appears to aggressively hire agents a promise of supplying high quality leads on a daily basis; however, several reports claim that the leads are very poor and often a waste of the agents’ time. It is unclear at the time of this review if Appstar is a direct processor, or if the company uses a third party processor.
Appstar Financial is a registered ISO/MSP of Fifth Third Bank and offers an array of credit card processing services.
The may also be affiliated with the following merchant services providers, most of which also score poorly and suffer from the same type of complaints:
- First American Payment Systems
- Trans Tech Merchant Group
- Summit Merchant Solutions
- Eliot Management Group
- Certified Payment Processing
- Apex Merchant Group
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10 comments
Bill says:
February 2, 2012 at 8:46 pm (UTC -8 )
the worst ive ever dealt with. They have lied and tapped my account for fees and charges that make no sense. Im going to cancel according to my contract 30-60 days from my anniversary date, but am worried that they will continue to bleed my account because of thier ambiguous contract language stating that they may, at thier discretion, collect “additional” and “other” fees from my account. Has anyone had any success with issuing a stop payment at thier bank to keep these vultures out? If so, what kind of fallout ensued?
Gem says:
January 10, 2012 at 5:47 pm (UTC -8 )
My recent story is so egregious, it is disgusting. The AppStar sales rep came into my retail store in the morning. I told him now was not good. He was persistent and listed off other merchants he said he had signed up. I then gave him my contract with my then provider, for him to review while I waited on customers. He came back to me and said they could beat the terms. I said what would be the lenght of my contract and any termination fees. He said, ” that is the beauty with AppStar, there is no contract. You can get out whenever you want and there is no termination fee.” He then highlighted where I needed to sign to implement the terms he had discussed with me. I signed where he had highlighted. He then gave me my copy of the application. I’ve seen discovered I have been hit with an annual fee of $95. I called the company to get an explanation since this was never disclosed nor in my application agreement (which is all he said there was…and I never received anything except that). The guy over the phone tells me my contract references the annual fee. I tell him I have no contract and what the sales rep had told me. He said he pulled it up and would be glad to send me a copy. I said no, that they had to honor what had been represented to me. He said for me to read page 4 of my application agreement….I looked at my copy the rep left me. He had taken out pages 2-4 so I would not have a copy of them to read later. I talked with 4 people today at AppStar. Each one was defensive and had no concern whatsoever about the sales rep’s tactics, deceptiveness, etc. I have filed with the BBB, hopefully they’ll do something. I am filing with my Attorney General’s Office also. Also, I let our merchant association head know. P.S., I have left 3 messages on the cell phone of the rep from the business card he left me. He has yet to call back, and one was from over a month ago.
Phil Hewett says:
December 15, 2011 at 4:20 pm (UTC -8 )
I was considering becoming an agent for AppStar, but after reading a few of these I’ve reconsidered. I’d be interested in the results of your full review. Is this the same AppStar that used to be based in Texas? Why did they leave?
Bridget Connelly says:
December 7, 2011 at 10:57 am (UTC -8 )
We had the most bizarre experience with this company yesterday. It seems that they feel harassment is the way to go to get new clients. On Monday, someone from the Appstar office called and spoke with the person who works at my front desk (who happens to be my mother.) They said they would like to bring some information about their company. My mother said it would probably be a waste of time, since we are very happy with our current company. He said he would just send someone with some forms for us to look at. On Tuesday, one of their agents arrived with a form that had already been filled out and ready for me to sign. When my mother told her we were not interested, she said she needed to call someone from her office. So she went outside and talked on the phone and reentered about 4 times. Every time she came in my mother was more and more definite about how uninterested we were. I run a Pilates studio and it is really distracting to have this going on during a class. On the fourth time she reentered she handed my mother her cell phone and said my boss wants to talk to you. When my mother said she did not want to speak with anyone on her phone, this woman insisted. My mom told the man, very adamantly, that she didn’t want to be involved with their business in the first place but now there was no chance of it at all. After she hung up that phone, the man called the phone at my studio and told my mother that SHE was being unprofessional. I was not surprised to see all of this company’s bad reviews.
Todd says:
November 10, 2011 at 1:09 pm (UTC -8 )
I cancelled by merchant account back in June, to be effective on my one-year anniversary in August, to avoid the cancellation fee . AppStar continued to charge me a monthly fee, despite the fact that there was no activity on the the account. When I called them to complain about the fees and reiterate the fact the account was still opened, AppStar stated that they did not received the signed letter, and that they were only willing to cancel my account for a $495 fee. What?! They stabbed me in the back with the monthly fees, and then raped me with a outrageous cancellation fee.
What a mess!
Stay away from AppStar Financial. Process at your own risk…
Tracey Hartley says:
October 31, 2011 at 11:47 am (UTC -8 )
I signed a contract in late Jan 2008 that renews automatically every year. I called this summer to cancel when I closed my business and I was told that to avoid a $495 cancellation fee, I had to send something in writing 30 – 60 (maybe 90) days prior to the anniversary date in order to avoid the cancellation fee. I have continued to be charged almost $40/month in monthly fees, including almost $8/month in a statement fee. I am upset about two things. First, they charged me a “compliance fee” last week of $124.75 for an account that they know is closed because I told them this past summer. Okay, fine, that’s understandable. BUT, when I called today, I was told that the amount would not be refunded or even prorated when my cancellation is finally effective. The lady I spoke to today said that I was told wrong this past summer because I cannot cancel early by sending something in writing, but that in order to cancel AT ALL I have to send it in writing 30-60 days before my anniversary date. I am irritated that I have to keep this checking account open to continue $40/month in fees, but I am FURIOUS that they will not issue a refund of a compliance fee that I did not SPECIFICALLY agree to, but because I didn’t opt out of it, they are charging me.
Phillip Parker says:
October 31, 2011 at 1:29 pm (UTC -8 )
Hi Tracey,
Sounds like they trying to make you jump through a lot of unnecessary hoops to cancel. You might want to read this post: How to Report Bad Credit Card Processors
Daryl Cipperly says:
October 13, 2011 at 8:48 am (UTC -8 )
I would like to let everybody know how unhelpful Appstar has been for me. I closed my business on March first of 2011, and my contract is not finished until September of 2012. I have contacted Appstar a couple of times to see if they could do something about the early termination fee of $495.00, and so far they have told me that they can’t do anything. After I spoke to them the first time back in March I did the math and my monthly fees would have been about the same as the early termination fee, so at that time I decided to just ride it out until the contract was up. The other day I got a notice of insufficient funds from my bank, and what I found out was that it was another fee from Appstar that I was totally surprised by. I went back through and looked at my contract again and discovered that the wording in the contract stated “early termination of this agreement MAY result in an early termination fee of no less than $495.00″. The “may” portion is what I am having a problem with now. That would lead me to think that somebody who was able to make a decision could look at the facts and work with me, but so far I have not found that person. If anybody has been in this spot I would certainly like some advice on how to find the right person to talk to. Thank you for your time.
Jeanette Driskill says:
September 26, 2011 at 9:03 am (UTC -8 )
VERY misleading! Salesperson looked at my previous contract and told me there would be no problem canceling this service. I was in a 3 year contract. Now AppStar won”t let me out of my contract. We also had requested a much higher daily limit then we received and was told they could up the amount after looking at our checking account balances. Well we do not keep all our funds in our checking account and it is really none of their business, they said we had a good credit rating. Our main item is a $5000.00 piece and our salesman knew this going in. I am very unhappy and would like to get more information on how to get out of this contract!
Thank You!
Phillip Parker says:
September 26, 2011 at 9:16 am (UTC -8 )
Thanks for the information, Jeanette. Getting out of merchant account contracts is very difficult, but since you were mislead you might have some leverage if you threaten to report them (or actually do report them). Check out this post to get some ideas: How to Report Bad Credit Card Processors