Flagship Merchant Services Reviews & Complaints

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Overview

In this article, we offer an insightful overview of Flagship Merchant Services, a key player in credit card processing for small to medium-sized businesses. Flagship provides a wide range of services, including EMV and NFC-compliant terminals, Clover POS systems, mobile card readers, and e-commerce payment solutions. We will critically examine Flagship's service offerings, focusing on their payment gateway, mobile solutions, and POS systems, while highlighting the flexibility of their in-store, online, and mobile payment options. This piece also delves into customer feedback and industry reviews, revealing significant concerns about customer service quality and transparency in billing and fees. Additionally, we touch upon the legal challenges faced by Flagship, including lawsuits for false advertising, which reflect on the company's business ethics.

Our concise analysis aims to equip readers with a clear understanding of Flagship Merchant Services' operations, the pros and cons of their services, and their overall reputation in the payment processing sector. This is intended to guide business owners in making informed decisions about their payment processing needs.

About Flagship Merchant Services

Flagship Merchant Services is a large credit card processor based out of Charlestown, Massachusetts. The company was founded in 2001 and has become a large super-ISO over the last two decades. Flagship is a reseller of credit card processing services provided by First Data (now Fiserv) and subsidiary of Paysafe (formerly iPayment). Despite being a reseller, the company handles customer service of its accounts in-house. The company also advertises Clover as its POS partner. It should also be noted that Flagship's parent company, PaySafe, owns some of the worst-rated credit card processors that we have reviewed, including Leaders Merchant Services.

Flagship Merchant Services Payment Processing Services

Flagship Merchant Services processes all major credit and debit cards for small to medium-sized businesses. Services include EMV and NFC-compliant terminals, Clover POS, mobile card readers, e-commerce payments, phone and mail order capability, cash advances, gift cards, loyalty solutions, and a business management portal.

Payment Gateway

Flagship Merchant Services offers a payment gateway that allows businesses to securely process online transactions. Their payment gateway is compatible with a variety of e-commerce platforms and offers a range of features, including fraud detection and prevention, recurring billing, and customizable payment pages.

Mobile Solutions

The company provides mobile payment solutions. These services enable businesses to make sales wherever their customers are.

In-Store, Mobile, and Online Solutions

Flagship offers diverse payment processing options. These include in-store, mobile, and online payment solutions.

Branded Gift Card Service

Flagship Merchant Services provides a branded gift card service. This is part of their broader range of merchant services.

Point of Sale (POS) Systems

The company offers Point of Sale (POS) systems. These systems are part of their transaction processing services.

Wireless Payments and E-commerce

Flagship also provides wireless payment solutions. Additionally, they offer e-commerce payment options for online businesses.

Location & Ownership

Flagship is an ISO of Citizens Bank, N.A., Providence, RI; PNC Bank, N.A., Pittsburgh, PA; Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Concord, CA; Woodforest National Bank, Houston, TX; and Merrick Bank, South Jordan, UT. We previously located the company at 100 City Square, 4th Floor, Charlestown, Massachusetts. However, the company has somehow acquired a partially wiped BBB profile that now lists it at 30721 Russell Ranch Rd Ste 200, Westlake Village, CA 91362, which is the same address that we found during our iPayment review. Bruce Lowthers is listed as the CEO of PaySafe and Nathaniel Short is listed as the SVP of Direct Sales for U.S. Acquiring at Paysafe and appears to oversee operations for Flagship.

Video Summary

Flagship Merchant Services payment processing
Flagship Merchant Services' payment processing services, as per their website
Pros & Cons
Pros: Cons:
No early termination fee (if free equipment offer declined) Limited pricing disclosed online
No setup or application fees High complaint volume
No gateway setup fee Poor reputation for customer service
Quick application process Complicated fee system
Free account setup No pricing transparency

Flagship Merchant Services Customer Reviews

Here's What Their Clients Say

Customer Reviews Summary
Total Online Complaints 200+
Live Customer Support Yes
Most Common Complaint Hidden Fees
Recent Lawsuits Yes

Moderate Complaint Total

For a provider of Flagship’s size and time in business, there is a moderate number of negative Flagship Merchant Services reviews filed in the usual forums, as well as over 190 complaints in our comment section below. Many of the complaints follow a common theme, which is the reason Flagship is receiving a low rating in this section. Of the reports, numerous business owners complain of receiving higher than quoted fees after signing up, sudden increases in fees without notification, hidden and undisclosed fees, difficulty canceling service, and fees continuing after cancellation. The following quote outlines a typical negative experience: “When we signed up with this nightmare of a company, they advertised that they were BBB accredited and A rated. Once we started having issues with them I checked BBB and they were not even accredited! […] They charged my account 7 times more than what they said they would charge me per month and when I called they said that they can only credit my account if I do not cancle my service.” If you have your own Flagship Merchant Services review to make, please do so in the comments below.

A Need For Better Disclosure

These types of complaints usually indicate systemic problems in which sales agents often fail to disclose fees and instead rely on business owners to find them within the contract. It can also be an indication of problems with the billing system. Either way, Flagship can improve its rating in this section by revising its sales and billing methods so as to prevent future complaints of this nature. The company has a customer service contact form on its website but appears to be lacking the support channels necessary to qualify it as a top-rated credit card processor for customer service.

Threats and Bullying

Flagship Merchant Services has repeatedly made hostile attempts to force the removal of this review. These have included intimidation through bullying and threats of litigation under false pretenses as well as an illegitimate DMCA claim filed with our host, which was rejected on the grounds that it was a “guise” to suppress fair use of a trademark. It is our opinion that such actions reveal the depths to which Flagship’s executives will stoop in an attempt to suppress constitutionally protected free speech that is critical of their business practices. We view these actions as not only highly unethical, but as a demonstration of their unwillingness to correct the problems that cause client complaints and, instead, a preference for aggressive strong-arm retribution tactics. If you have been a victim of such threats or bullying, please detail your experience in the comment section below.

Flagship Merchant Services Lawsuits and Fines

Durango Merch. Servs., LLC v. Flagship Merch. Servs., LLC was a legal case in which Durango, a payment processing company, sued Flagship Merchant Services, LLC for unfair competition and false advertising. The case centered around Flagship’s alleged use of false and misleading statements about their services, as well as their use of Durango’s trademarks in marketing materials without permission.

The court found that Flagship had engaged in false advertising and unfair competition, and ordered them to pay damages to Durango. In addition, the court issued an injunction prohibiting Flagship from using Durango’s trademarks in any marketing or advertising materials.

Flagship Merchant Services Customer Support Options

The company provides a dedicated customer service phone number. Additionally, the Flagship Merchant Services website offers an online form for customers to submit a support ticket. Numerous Flagship Merchant Services reviews reflect constant frustration with customer service agents from the company.

Flagship Merchant Services Customer Service Number

  • (888) 272-7624 – Toll-Free Customer Service

Other Support Options

  • Support form

Flagship Merchant Services Online Ratings

Here's How They Rate Online

Online Ratings Summary
BBB Rating 1
Trustpilot Rating 2.1
ConsumerAffairs Rating 1
Average Rating 1.03

BBB Rating Analysis

Flagship Merchant Services has an average customer review rating of 1/5 stars on BBB based on 4 customer reviews. The company has also received 20 customer complaints in the last 3 years. A common theme in the reviews is dissatisfaction with billing practices and customer service.

Negative Feedback

I was told when setting up the account for my small business that there were no fees involved, nor was it listed about any fees on the document. I have been charged for the last 4 months, and when I tried to resolve it this morning, they said they would not stop billing until I filled out an account closure document and he refused to refund the money. I asked to speak with his supervisor and said he did not have a contact number but would have them contact me. It has been 4 hours, and no one has called me. AuthorizeNet that they partner with did refund the money when they saw that I never used them. This seems very fishy and unethical for a business in money services.
– Review from January 5, 2023

This account was never opened, and when I inquired about it, the gentleman on the phone named John told me not to worry about it. The account is not open, but they were drawing monthly fees from my account, and in order for it to stop, they required me to submit a document to them requesting it be stopped, but I did it just to get it to stop not because I was legally obligated because I never authorized it in the first place. This is a fraud if you see the reviews on this company. There are hundreds of people in the same situation that I am in. Please help me I’m on a fixed income and I cannot afford this.
– Complaint from September 11, 2023

Positive Feedback

There are no positive reviews published about Flagship Merchant Services on the BBB website.

Source: BBB

Trustpilot Rating Analysis

Flagship Merchant Services has a rating of 2.1 stars on Trustpilot based on 10 customer reviews. A significant majority of the reviews are negative, with 90% of them being 1-star ratings. Common themes in the reviews include dissatisfaction with service, misleading information from sales representatives, and issues with account closures and fund holds.

Negative Feedback

If I can give minus I would, easy to setup, risk review after the approval, if they think your business is associated with any type of prohibited activity they do close your account immediately they use public information it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. They WILL close your account immediately without any discussion, and hold your money for 180 days. They WILL reject all the transactions as soon as they decided to close your account without info you, and it doesn’t matter if your business still taking the payment or not. As for my experience I have lost total $685 on last day of the transactions, I have been told multiple times from the customer service said that they rejected all the transactions on the last day, there is no way they can provide me any bank information so I have to recollect the payments from the customers, which it made impossible. DON’T USE THIS company, I hope they get shut down immediately.
– Review from December 20, 2022

When I contacted this company I told them who I use for my software to see if they integrate. The sales lady Rebecca wasn’t sure and asked a colleague who said it did. I was concerned about switching over because I have memberships and can’t afford to lose the cards on file. She said a tech person will be in touch to set everything up and make sure it transitions smoothly. After a week of emails and calls I was approved and got a call from a girl who said the process was only about 10 minutes and had no clue what I was talking about with integrating and she kept putting me on hold to go ask someone…4 different times…I told her I had to get back to work and was going to contact my sales rep…no response from her or anything. So they took all my information, wasted a week of mine and left me without any answers. Don’t use them if you have a software system…they won’t be able to help you!
– Review from November 22, 2022

Positive Feedback

I need Merchant service, I searched and find that Flagship, was Ideal for my online business. L called on of their sales Representative, and he fill my application on the phone, and email me my application to sign it all that tacks 15 minutes. 48 hours later I was up and running, I place a real order, and get through. That is great service and perfection.
– Review from July 25, 2020

To simply describe this service in 3 words, it is extremely DECEVING, UNETHICAL AND DISHONEST. Stay away from this scammers!! So far this has been the most unpleasant experience dealing with a “service” like this.
– Review from June 29, 2022

Source: Trustpilot

ConsumerAffairs Rating Analysis

Flagship Merchant Services has an average customer review rating of 1.0 stars on ConsumerAffairs based on 299 reviews. A significant portion of the reviews are negative, with 47% of the reviews being 1-star ratings. Common themes in the reviews include issues with customer service, misleading or deceptive practices, and difficulties in canceling services or obtaining refunds.

Negative Feedback

As the others I signed up with Flagship merchant cause of low rate, however that was the beginning of my nightmare. I signed up with the rep (Shelby) over the phone on 12/02/2022, received the terminal on the 8th, started to using them for processing on the 9th. From 9th to the 12th I didn’t receive any penny from them, I thought maybe the weekend it takes longer so I wasn’t worry about it until I read an email that night from Paysafe (they claim paysafe/flagship as the same company), it said they determined to close my account and my account has been closed effective immediately funds remain held for 180 days. I contacted them, they agreed to release my money in 1-3 business day. When I checked my account they did deposited the amount from the 9th-11th, 12th went missing total $685.00.
– Review from December 17, 2022

I have been with Flagship for over 5 years and have had nothing but problems with them. They are very deceptive in their practices. They tell you one thing and do another. I was told that I would not be charged a monthly fee and yet every month there is a fee on my statement. When I call to question it, they tell me it’s a standard fee that everyone pays. This is not what I was told when I signed up. They also charge very high rates for processing credit cards. I would not recommend this company to anyone.
– Review from January 15, 2023

Positive Feedback

There are no positive reviews published about Flagship Merchant Services on the ConsumerAffairs website.

Source: ConsumerAffairs

Flagship Merchant Services Fees, Rates & Costs

A Closer Look at The Contract

Cost & Fees Summary
Cancellation Penalties Possible
Monthly & Annual Fees Yes
Processing Rates 1.00% - 4.99+%
Equipment Leasing Yes

Flagship Merchant Services Contract

Rates and fees of Flagship merchant accounts may vary for a variety of reasons, including a client’s business type, processing volume, and the agent setting up the account. In most cases, the company appears to offer a month-to-month contract with no cancellation fees. However, we have located a few Flagship Merchant Services reviews that mention cancellation fees being charged. The company also appears to charge an annual PCI Compliance fee of $99 in addition to several other monthly fees. Some Flagship Merchant Services complaints have mentioned a $29.99 monthly fee for affiliate marketing through a company called Womply. Some business owners are also reporting that Flagship automatically enrolled them in a free 60-day Womply trial in late 2016. They further state that anyone who failed to opt out before the trial expired is now being charged $29.99 per month. Additionally, several customer reviews state that Flagship continued to bill them monthly fees for extended periods after canceling service.

Virtual Terminal and Payment Gateway Pricing

In addition to its storefront payment processing services, Flagship Merchant Services also dedicates a portion of its website to advertising its virtual terminal and payment gateway services. However, pricing is not disclosed on either of those services. Additional rates and fees, including gateway fees, technical support fees, batch fees, and additional transaction rates typically apply to these e-commerce services.

Negotiate Your Rates

Business owners are encouraged to carefully read and understand Flagship’s merchant account agreement prior to signup. Many of the complaints about the company describe undisclosed fees or higher-than-expected rates. Flagship is capable of offering interchange-plus pricing, but it does not appear to actively promote it.

Flagship Merchant Services e-commerce
Some of the e-commerce solutions offered by Flagship Merchant Services

Flagship Merchant Services Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs

Should You Work For Them?

Jobs & Marketing Summary
Uses Independent Resellers No
Telemarketing Yes
Misleading Marketing Yes
Discloses All Important Terms No

Deceptive Rate Quote

We have previously located one use of deceptive marketing by Flagship in which the company advertised on its homepage and in Google Adsense ads that “rates start at 0.38% plus $0.19 per transaction.” This rate quote is misleading because it only applies to a particular transaction type, but the majority of a client’s transactions will run at much higher rates. Flagship fails to mention that the business owner will experience other rates and fees in addition to the unrealistically low rate quote. As you can imagine, these types of quotes can lead to confusion. Flagship removed this specific rate quote from its website in the past few years, but replaced it with the just as deceptive “rates start at 0.38%” on its homepage. As of this review update, the homepage no longer advertises these rates. Businesses may also encounter similar “teaser” quotes when speaking directly with Flagship representatives. This type of marketing disqualifies the company from being added to our list of best credit card processors.

Questionable Review Website Ranking

Flagship Merchant Services is listed as a top pick with numerous ethically questionable review websites. Many of these websites appear to be in parternship with PaySafe group or possibly owned by PaySafe through a web of alternate DBAs. These websites consistently list the same “top rated” providers, almost of of whom have a poor rating with legitimate review websites. A few examples of these shady review sites, according to our opinion, are:

  • thetop10sites.com
  • idealcomparison.com
  • top10.com
  • best10creditcardprocessing.com
  • compareguroo.com
  • toppaymentprocessing.com
  • best-ccp.com
  • comparisun.com

However, there are numerous such websites that appear at the top of search results as advertisements when researching credit card processors. Business owners are advised to proceed with caution when reviewing credit card processors from websites that resemble the ones listed above.

Gift Card Promotion

Flagship’s homepage currently advertises a “Meet-or-Beat” Processing Rate promotion, offering a $200 AMEX gift card if Flagship does not provide the lowest total processing cost. The terms and conditions of this promotion are not found on the website. Instead, business owners must submit contact information and speak with a representative in order to learn more information about this promotion. In general, these types of promotions are a sales gimmick because the company only has to be a penny cheaper to avoid paying out the $200 gift card.

If you are seeking an ethical way to substantially and permanently lower your processing costs, consider getting an independent merchant account statement audit.

Numerous Sales Complaints

Flagship Merchant Services appears to primarily use inside sales staff to market its services instead of using outside independent sales agents. Inside sales personnel are the preferred marketing strategy for this site because the sales tactics of these agents can be better controlled. This is assuming that the company doesn’t encourage deceptive sales practices, which may be an issue with this processor. Numerous Flagship Merchant Services reviews indicate that agents fail to fully disclose important fees and contract terms. On the surface, Flagship does not appear to engage in any egregiously deceptive practices such as bait-and-switch rate quotes. However, the consistent Flagship Merchant Services complaints about undisclosed fees have lowered its score to an average grade of “C” in this section. If you suspect that Flagship is charging you hidden fees, we recommend seeking a free third-party statement audit.

Our Flagship Merchant Services Review Summary

Our Final Thoughts

There are numerous Flagship Merchant Services reviews and complaints regarding the credit card processing company’s fees and business practices. The company is a subsidiary of PaySafe, which also owned other poorly rated merchant account providers. Flagship’s grade has remained the same since our last update, due mostly to widespread reports of deceptive sales practices and excessive billing. Flagship can improve its rating in this review by eliminating future client complaints about billing, hidden fees, and difficulties canceling service. For now, business owners may want consider selecting a top-rated payment processor for their merchant services.

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Which is Most Important for You?

If you had to pick one, which quality would you say will be the most important with your next credit card processor? Tap or click your selection to register your vote:

  1. Low Transaction Fees
  2. No Monthly Fees
  3. No Contract
  4. Reliable Customer Support
  5. Quick Signup

Testimonials & Complaints

How Did Flagship Merchant Services Treat You?

189 User Reviews

  • Ashley Hubbard

    Hubbard’s Renovations and Investments

    I Found them on a top 10 list on a Google search btw. So I tried Flagship or Paysafe I guess they are the same company. However I signed up almost 3 weeks ago and I was told by my representative that he would get me next day funding if I gave him a week to work it out but the until them my transactions will fund on the second day after the day my charges batch at noon time. To be clear if I process before cutoff Monday Wednesday at noon I’ll have my money deposited into my bank. Until next day is worked out a week or 2 max. So I agree I made it very clear from the beginning that I was not interested in a processor that could not provide next day funding it is more important to me than the processing cost that is my second objective. So I charge a few things in the first couple weeks and every charge I make keeps processing in the late afternoon like 7-9 pm 3 days after the batch day so on the 4th day if you include the processing day that’s done before cutoff batch time. So a day and half longer than promised. I asked him about this multiple times because it kept happening from my charges and he just kept saying well let me get back with billing again this shouldn’t be happening,”I’ll handle this for you”. So I charge again and again same results so now it’s Friday almost a month after the first charges and sign up. I made a charge on Monday missed cutoff time so it batched Tuesday and it’s Friday still no money I try to call my rep again but he’s got the day off it’s like 5 pm eastern time so I ask for someone else that can help while he’s out. The rep gets on the phone and I ask why is this happening oh it’s right here sir your signed up for a 3 day hold for at least 90 days before your deposits can be made since your a new account with us. What the &$@? Is going on over there who flat out lies to peoples face to get customer’s did he think he could balance this for 90 days idk what he was thinking but my last transaction came in because I started using my old processor that funds next day at 7 am last Tuesday and am I glad because that have lost me in less than 30 days. My suggestion is hang up and don’t even give them your name “to risky”. Have a wonderful day and good luck in your search out there.

  • Jenny

    Zhenni Spa

    I found them on Google top 10 number1, so I switched to them from my previous company, super easy to sign up for it, as long as I setup the device started to processing for 5 days I have not see any penny that was deposit to my bank. On the 5th day I received an email said my account has been closed effective immediately funds will remain held for 180 days, I was lost, what is happening?? So I called and no one can give me an answer just said there is no way they can release the funds early than 180 days, what a joke use them for 5 days then hold my money for 6 months…………..

  • George Kerner

    All Star Computers & Electronics

    This company is a rip off and liars. They are always overcharging and penalizing me for crap. Their company policies are garbage. They lie to me and tell me they are forced by the major credit card companies to charge me a penalty for PCI compliance. Its only company policy. I have been with this company faithfully since 2014. I have had enough. At this point I am actively seeking a replacement company. To anyone who reads this that is currently using these folks, GOOD LUCK!

  • Phillip Boyz

    Autoparts

    Flagship merchant services is worst nightmare with an a**hole seated with the name Brendan, he seated all the time on their one & only number on their websites. He is a real time moron, no customer service neither a sales service nor anything to speak about it. Brendan took my all details and said will get me the status with in 30 minutes and then next day I called and said it in pending and will be done by the end . No call then on Monday I called him again and he said without any reason underwriters declined my applications and they may have tried to contact me. Despite he has no idea of it , since there was no single call back or an email either . Then he said they may call me now anytime today and hung up on me. This company should be out of business and they must have bought Google rating.

  • Lawrence Fairbanks

    Sumthing for everybody furniture and more

    For the last 8 or 9 days they have been giving me the runaround about getting my my money that they owe me for a credit card processing and I’m about ready to get kicked out of my store and everything else because they owe me over $1,000 and I was 400 shorts and I can’t get to it because every day it’s another piece of paper that I need to sign and said bank account is wrong and it’s the same account number something different everyday with these people I don’t know if they’re ripping people off or what but I’m not far away from getting a lawyer they owe me and they keep saying I was supposed to get it Monday to Monday came never then they always say oh this piece of paper I don’t know why they don’t give them all at once but this place is a joke and you leave messages for your account manager and they just like laugh I told Mom I was going to be a big gated from my building if I didn’t have it they’re like oh okay this place is a joke and a half they make up something new everyday

  • Philip Louis Jacobs

    Hightened Path RV

    2020 had a batch not go through. couple thousand dollars. I didn’t discover this until November when I was reconciling my QuickBooks. I reached out to them and the refused to honor the payment EVEN with proof showing everything was done correctly on part and the customers card had been charged. They told me to reach out to the customer and receive payment again. NO WAY IN HELL would I ever consider doing this! I asked to closed my account in May, didn’t realize I needed to sign some documents, so they kept charging me through August and at a PREMIUM RATE no doubt. When asked to get these fees refunded, they said no such luck.

  • Lavender

    Lavender Organizes

    I did business with flagship and regreted quickly. So, I wouldn’t do business with Flagship. Not only were they unprofessional, they withheld money from me for 2 weeks until I brought it to there attention. I asked them if they though the fund was strange why didn’t they contact me? They said they were busy?! They then held it for another month because they felt the transaction was unethical. Cody from Riskreview did not care about my issues. Even though I showed him proof of what I do in my business to recieve funds. He asked for my clients information and I gave it to him & then he proceeded to try to contact my client. Speaking of breaching confidentiality?! I’ll be honest Cody and the rest of the people seemed not very intelligent. I can tell they live in the back woods and are not tech savvy at all. Very unprofessional and I will report this company.

  • Georges cafeteria /George makhmreh

    I signed with them and got their credit card machine ,the first day they withdraw their fees from my bank then i had issues with there machine and the money i charged get to my bank after 4 days instead of within 24 hours. so I keept calling to fix the issues but no body called me back or did a any thing from the sales man and the receptionist and the supervisor finally i send them email of termination of their services after 3 weeks and got spot on co.to do my services .if I have to rate the 1to10 they are zero

  • Barbara Escher

    I signed up for the service, provided my bank info, and $100 was immediately removed from my account. The rep had no explanation, and it was a new account so it went negative and I got hit with a big fee. Fortunately Bank of America fixed it immediately. Flagship/Paysafe rep kept promising to get some of that $100 back to me. Never happened. NOW I’m getting threatening letters because BofA has locked them out of my account. Flagship/Paysafe is a nightmare!!! BofA now does my credit card processing. At least they don’t steal from me!!

  • Arlene

    Buyer Beware! Flagship Merchant Services and their sidekick Woodforest National Bank are the worst.

    As most commenters here, I was trying to save money by getting a reputable merchant service company. This was back in May 2019. I checked CNet.com and their rating was A-, I believe. They were soooo wrong.

    I knew something was not right about this company during the application process – loads of red flags. I received emails from the same person but different “companies”: flagship.com, paysafe.com and some other one. Also a person from their bank was trying to get me to authorize payment processing. Before any authorization took place on my part, I told them I didn’t have a warm fuzzy about their business so I wanted to close/delete anything that had been started. Again, the entire process was never completed so when they said no problem and fill out the form, I did. I also disputed them with my bank before there was a charge to my account. I think doing so prevented them from stealing from my bank account. Trust your gut. Always.

    I wasted hours on the phone over the next three months because they were still continuing to bill me (on paper- not from actually debiting my account).

    Finally one of the many calls resulted in someone actually making a change. So the charges (on paper) stopped, but it is now November and I am still receiving monthly statements from Woodforest National Bank showing “Total Amount Funded to Your Bank -$24.95.” WTF.

    These guys and cockroaches will be the only ones left after the end of the world. smh Flagship – you can suck it. You are shamelessly and fraudulently stealing money from so many hard working people – some of whom have invested their life savings into their businesses. You f-ers are ripping them off and trying to destroy these people. Go f**k yourselves.🖕

  • Alvin Aurelio

    We were quoted a $4.95/month for Merchant Services with Customer Service /Online Report Fee plus interchange pass-through plus mark-up rates. What were not communicated are the $10.00 monthly minimum balance requirement and the PCI Non-Compliance fee of $30.00. Adding these two fees would have changed the monthly rate structure to $44.95/month and cause me to choose a different merchant service provider for our low volume home business.
    Lastly my Sales agent told me and listed in his email in bold font “***MONTH-TO-MONTH AGREEMENT! – NO CANCELLATION FEES!” But now I am being told when I tried to close my account that my agreement is for a three (3) year term and “will automatically renew for additional three (3) year periods, unless terminated by any party upon written notice at least thirty (30) days prior to the end of then existing Term…” I am also being asked to pay $495 early termination fee. This is obviously false advertising and deceptive practice of burying terms such as the above in the fine print of 23 page contract. Buyers beware!!

  • Alvin O Aurelio

    We were quoted a $4.95/month Customer Service /Online Report Fee plus interchange pass-through plus mark-up rates. What were not communicated during the quoting process are $10.00 monthly minimum balance requirement and the PCI Non-Compliance fee of $30.00. Adding these two fees would have changed the monthly rate structure to $44.95/month and cause me to choose a different merchant service provider for our low volume home business.
    Lastly my Sales agent told me and listed in his email in bold font “***MONTH-TO-MONTH AGREEMENT! – NO CANCELLATION FEES!” But now I am being told when I tried to close my account that my agreement is for a three (3) year term and “will automatically renew for additional three (3) year periods, unless terminated by any party upon written notice at least thirty (30) days prior to the end of then existing Term…” I am also being asked to pay $495 early termination fee. This is obviously false advertising and deceptive practice of burying terms such as the above in the fine print of 23 page contract. Buyers beware!!

  • Thawdar Kyaw

    I used Flagship service started 2017 October.
    I sing it because they give me the rate about 0.030% (overall)
    I didn’t know they are charging (hidden) fees and rate were increasing 0.045-0.05 % gradually, they complains to Visa and Master when I asked them about it.

    I found out they are scan and the worst thing is their customer service. So I trying to switch Paypal Here .027% (flat rate for all cards)

    When I sign up with Flagship I didn’t use their terminal or anything because if I do not want them I wanted to cancel it anytime, so I purchase the terminal by my own expenses.
    Last couple weeks ago I called and email that I am cancelling the service but they didn’t send me the cancellation paper to sign.
    I been called and called, until today they didn’t cancel the service since they wanted to take out money from my account every month, even I didn’t use their service.

    They are scan.
    The worst merchant service I ever had.
    I have been restaurant business for more than 12 years and they are the worst.
    Beside for the month of all the September we swipe only one credit card for $32 and they charged $60 for the fee for monthly service.
    I wish I could report to BBB and I do not want other small business owner will get scan like me.

  • John Hagerman

    Flagship Merchant Services, and their associated AprivaPay+ and Paysafe, are absolutely the worst experience I have ever had with any credit processing company. I got 3 mobile pay devices from them that were not programmed properly before they were sent out and I have spent 5 weeks trying to get anybody in the organization to talk to me about the problems with the devices. I either get no answer when I’m transferred, or whoever answers just tells me I have to talk to somebody else and they transfer to someone who doesn’t pick up, or who tells me I have to talk to somebody else.

    This has been going on for several weeks and I have had it. Unfortunately, I’m out several hundred dollars for the Clover Flex, the only piece of equipment they sent that works.

    At this point, I simply want my money back, my account closed, and to warn the world to stay as far away from this company as possible. I don’t know why so many review sites recommend them, as far as I can tell they are a total scam.


    This post will help: Best Mobile Credit Card Processing Apps

    -Phillip

  • Tish T

    This company is Awful! They have undisclosed hidden fees. I had to call the company several times before I reached an actual person. I was told that I would be refunded for one of the hidden fees within 2 -3 business days. I called the company 2 weeks later because I had not received my refund only to be told by another representatives that I would not be able to get a refund. They are the worst. I am changing merchant services!

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  • Dan Weissmann

    Worst merchant account ever. They stick us with their fake fees that they claim are pass through charges but are not. They add in monthly fees down the road with no warning, hoping we will not notice. We pay extra to have next day funds and due to a “glitch” in their system it isn’t working but we are still being charged the fee, even though we are not getting the service. We’ve been calling for nearly three weeks and every time they blame it on something or someone else. Somehow it is never their fault but it is still not working. Oh, and we are still paying for it.

    Expect your real monthly credit card costs to run between 3.5 and 6%. Ours has been over 5% for the last three months.

    Do yourself a favor and take your business elsewhere. That’s what we are in the process of doing now.

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  • Mike Petraglia

    Run from this company, they have hidden charges and automatically add you to their fake website and charge you for it, They have stolen hundreds of dollars off of me. DO NOT USE THEM, YOU WILL BE SORRY. I had them for years and did not know how bad they were till I really sat down and studied, now they are trying not to cancel me, and trying to continue to charge me. I have to file claim with the bank and Attorney General

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  • Suzanne Dircks

    I opened an account with this company a year ago. The day after opening it I called and cancelled it. A few months later I saw they were taking money out of my account each month. I called again and was told to email a cancellation. I did so. They still continued to take money out of my account I emailed again. Same result. Talked with a representative again. They sent me a cancellation form to fax back to them. I did so. This month, a year later I realized they are still taking money out of my account. Called again, sent them proof of faxes and emails. They said my money would be refunded within a week. Two weeks later no refund. Called again. Now they are “considering a refund”.

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  • Andrew Chen

    This is one of the worst companies I’ve had to deal with in a long time. Bad customer service, they don’t return phone calls, voice mails, or emails. Ever since I signed up with them, haven’t been able to have anyone contact me back. They have however, tacked on an additional $34 a month fee which was not part of our original agreement. But when I call to inquire about it, I can’t get in touch with anyone.


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  • jenny

    I have 2 accounts with flagship merchant. I have owned the businesses for last 18 years and recently I transfer my merchant account to the flagship. Pls Pls don’t even waste your time to call them. Flagship is the worst merchant service in this industries. now, I am stuck with this company but I am very tired so I decided to pay penalty and cancel the service. They never added pin base debit in my accounts and last four months they tried to add it but could not do it. we have to use all cards as a credit card which is so expensive to use it. I lost lots of money with this company. Also, you have to match your closing batch with the bank. so, pls do not even call them. They are not responsible what they advertise or what agent sold the products to you. so many phone calls and waiting and no proper technical support. I am not a person to write a bad review but I’m very tired in last four months.

  • Karen

    I have been using Flagship for 5 yrs. Unknown to me they have been charging me $19.95 a month for Company.com Bus Site. for over 2 years. I have payment drafted and don’t check my statements. ( Will from now on) with a new Merchant!! I never signed up for such, they said when I signed contract (million pages long) that i said it was ok. And “who” actually reads all that crap?! So… After speaking with “Bitchy Supervisor” She said she would refund “half” of payments, as long as I stayed with their services. Kiss my ASS! You are willing to lose thousands of dollars from me , for $480!! ZERO STARS!!

  • Laura

    I signed up for Flagship as a small psychotherapy practice needing to take copayment and deductible charges as well as other small fees from clients. The service representative I worked with was fine; unfortunately, I didn’t know to ask certain questions, and he was not overly helpful, so from the get go, I signed on for a reader that can’t hold client’s credit cards as Square does, which off the bat wouldn’t work for me. When I got the reader was when the issues started up. First of all, I simply received the reader with little to no instruction on any type of portal to go to to set it up or from which to run reports, etc. I had to call the service rep in Charleston that I was assigned to about three times a day in order to get in touch with him. When he picked up, he was overly laid back in a way that had not sense of urgency about any issues I would come to tell him about. Although I had not been sent any information on where or how to use the reader, he acted like it was no big deal and gave me the information. Right around this time, I started receiving emails that were for a different service of Flagship. I mentioned this to them as these emails were starting to clog my inbox, and he told me to ‘not worry about it’. The emails kept coming, daily, but were unnecessary. I decided to cancel as I learned that the reader lacked an essential component I needed. My worry over issues with cancelling was correct. The rep said it would be easy and fine to cancel if i simply filled out the appropriate form and sent it in. Well I did, and then continued to be charged for the service. I had to call and spend time on the phone bing transferred between departments in order for a person to trace my cancellation forms, after which they had me send in another cancellation form. The whole process with Flagship was unfortunately what small business owners want to avoid-really aggressive ‘kind fronted’ sales representatives who in order to have you sign a contract, are more than available. Until you receive the product, at which time they become uneasy to contact. The products are not accompanied with necessary instructions, they can include unwanted email list serves to your email, and the cancellation process is ineffective and harmful to the consumer as they may be charged beyond when their forms are received. I would not recommend this to anyone!

  • Samantha

    I had been exploring credit card payment processing options on behalf of my company to see how we could minimize fees. We used Flagship for less than a year following a very unsatisfactory experience. Once we made the initial account set up, customer service was practically nonexistent. The rep that signed us up had zero interest in assisting with our account or providing any sort of customer service whatsoever following the initial sign-up. It would take up to two weeks just to get a reply to an email. Getting help with anything was a struggle, met with long hold times, and a chain of reps that didn’t know how to help. When we finally decided to close the account because Flagship was too difficult to work with, we were told that we were all set and have closed our account. It wasn’t until 15 months later in digger deeper into our accounting for tax purposes, did we discover that it was not completely closed at we were told, and that we’d been charged a monthly fee of $17.95 that whole time. Beyond a lackluster apology, no responsibility was claimed for this, and we were still left with the bill. Even worse, just to make it stop, I’m not sitting on hold for the next representative for 30 minutes and counting. Not only are we not going to get our money back, we’re wasting time trying to make an unauthorized charges to our bank account stop from reoccurring. I would not work with this company– absolutely any other credit card processor would be more efficient and operate with more integrity.

  • Jana Fey

    This company is HORRIBLE! They told me that my fee for each month would be $5.00. The first month I was charged $6.95, the second $10.95, the third $17.95, the 4th $127.40 and the 5th $177.35. I had called berfore the 4th month to cancel the service since I NEVER PROCESSED ONE CREDIT CARD WITH THEM and was told it was all taken care of. Then I received the incredibly high bill in November. On my bank statement it showed up as MTOT DISC so at first I didn’t know what it was. Upon doing a fraud claim with my bank we found it to be Flagship. When I called them directly they told me that the two large payments were due to the Annual Fee that I was never informed about. Not to mention that in trying to call them, I was hung up on twice and transferred back to the main system once. It took 4 times of calling to get “help”

  • Tom

    Being a business owner for 37 years I wanted to be known that Flagship merchant services is the biggest rip off that I’ve ever seen in my 37 years of doing business. My advice is to use anybody else at least some Bon that would stick to your side with any kind of dispute on a credit card. They would rather just pay off The customer that is disputing and then rip it out of your account without even calling you and letting you know

  • Deirdra

    BEWARE OF HIDDEN FEES AND UNFAIR BUISNESS PRACTICES. When the discussion of signing up is had they discuss the lowered interest rate (compared to other companies) but they leave off all of the hidden fees. They debit your bank account and do not send statements. I never used what they sent be because I have voip phones and you need a land line. The attempted to charge me over $400 for NOTHING. I obviously plan to fight the bill and would like to enlist others if they are having problems with this company. Seems like a scam to me.

  • Alessa Carlino

    If you’re considering working with this company, run in the opposite direction. They have been nothing but a huge pain the entire time.
    First, in order to work with them, you must be an active account holder for Flagship, Authorize.net AND iPayment. For one service, ridiculous!
    Second, my business grew very quickly in the beginning because a celebrity was writing about me on Facebook. Flagship thought my sales were “suspicious” so they froze my account and refused to turn over my money to me. I needed that money to go into production on items that were selling out and needed to take out a loan to cover my costs, even though I had the money to cover production in my Flagship account. Completely ridiculous.
    And lastly, they have charged me for every tiny little thing they could think of and my company is very small, practically a micro-company.
    Do yourself a favor and find another company because these folks are the worst.

  • Josephine Keyes

    Believe the “C” review for this company. I did use them for 3 plus years. Their merchant website is not user friendly and very difficult to read. You will also need a payment gateway. Monthly fee’s add up without them even processing transaction. They make is sound good with a low percentage rate per transaction but the fees outweigh the percentage savings. I was looking for an all in one processor so I decided to leave Flagship. I called to close my account and they said they need to email me a closure form and email it back. I filled out and electronically signed the form they electronically sent me. Received confirmation of receipt of my form and they said they would notify me if they need any other info. I noticed they charged me the fees for the following month after closing the account. When I contacted them, they said the form could not be electronically signed but needed a physical signature. That was not specified on the digital form they sent me nor did they contact me as promised if they needed any other info. They make it IMPOSSIBLE to cancel an account and will continue to charge you and create excuses as to whey they have not canceled the account as you requested.

    If you are considering FLAGSHIP, I recommend you continue shopping!

  • Nagman

    Totally RIP OFF, they were charging me $40 for last 3 years under Misc. fee.
    When i called to question they said because i am not a PCI Complaint.
    Did not email me or called me about it.
    please do not do business with them.

  • John

    Used Flagship for about 6 months then started getting hit for a $52.95 fee each month. Tried to resolve but they kept says no there was nothing they could do. I requested that the account be terminated. Transferred around to multiple “Customer Relations” people. Finally got one that was going to “email me a form to complete”. Still waiting on that email. Been a huge hassle for a small business. I suggest you look elsewhere. Very dissatisfied.

  • Brandon

    This is a horrible scam I never even used there services and the took over 500 out of my account after I called and told them I no longer wish to have them as a provider now they are sending threatening letters….. Beware

  • Alejandro Gaitan

    Don’t bother with this company. You will regret it like I and many others do.
    I never received one payment deposit from my sales; 13 days in I am finally notified my account is in review “for an extra day most likely”. 15 days in I am told we are to part ways as they don’t offer services for my type of business, when I thoroughly explained it to my sales rep. 30 days later I have most of my money back, and by most I mean what I have been told is “a non-significant portion will be held as a reserve”. 6 days later I ask for the 4th time for a statement detailing what they’ve been doing with my money. I actually get half of my sales records pasted into an email only to find out I was charged a monthly end fee for half a month of service (wait till I call back in 30 days to find out how much of my reserve they decided to chip away at). I also find out that 26% of my sales are in reserve; I may not have a Ph.D. in statistics, but 25% is a VERY SIGNIFICANT portion.

    I’m amazed they’re still in business; if I pulled this kind of customer treatment on my clients I’d be looking for a new job within days.

    All in all, a royal waste of time and money thanks to Brice. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere for a company that treats you better for giving them money

  • Tiffany Read

    I have tried to cancel my account 3 times with them they have taken over $700 out of my account and they refuse to refund the money because they don’t show any documentation. The first time I called they told me they would cancel it, the second time they told Me I had to send paperwork. The third time they finally got it closed with the paperwork but said they can’t refund any of the fees, even though I didn’t use their services because they have no record of the paperwork. I would never recommend them and I certainly will post bad reviews everywhere I can. I will also be making a post to anyone I know to share with the world on FB how dishonest they have been with me. Anyone who looks on my account can clearly see It has not been used and I have been using a different service for months. If you ever close your account beware and watch them very carefully!!!!

  • Ramon Vahdatinia

    I have been with them for over 3 years with minimal issues up until recently. Their sales representative, Elsie Bernaiche, reached out to me regarding an upcoming change in the system I was using and how I needed to change apps/mobile swiper. Long story short, she gave me the wrong information via email on who to call set up my account which left me without being able to charge credits cards for 2 days and had to close shop for those two days. After finally getting back up thanks to everyone’s help but hers, I sent her an email letting her know that I was very upset about how this was handled. She responds back in a very insulting manner as if it was my intelligence that kept me from charging cc’s and not her very clear error on the phone number/company I was supposed to call to get set up. After this I asked to speak to her supervisor and she refused to give his name or number but offered to transfer me to him instead. I can’t believe they treat customers this way. I have been a loyal customer for over 3 years and when they clearly make a mistake they can’t stand behind their mistake. I’m in the process of searching for a new merchant service provider. Go anywhere but here.

  • Jeff

    Absolute terrible company and over charges you after they sell you on interchange and supposedly a low rate. Just got a bill for 161.00 and i did one charge of 219.00 for the month

  • Sammie

    I cancelled my account with Flagship after finding a better rate with another provider. They continued billing my account, even after repeated calls and I am now going through the messy process of trying to get over $2k back through my banks fraud department.

  • Seth S.

    Flagship Merchant is a scam. The Sales Rep told me I would be charged $5 per month if I did no business. Two months later I realize they have been charging me $30 a month. Then they tag on $119 for Security enhancement. Keep in mind I had not done any business using their card swiper. The whole thing is a joke and then I went to cancel and they said “it’s in the contract” Basically they took me for $200 without adding any value. Buyer Beware!

  • Mike T

    Set up account got everything ready then they decide that we can not use it unless the card was swiped. We told them from the start we are a B to B wholesaler and most of our charges would be manually input. Oh well, back to First Data

  • Matthew Vance

    Just know that you will have to keep them honest on a regular basis. They offered a complimentary 30 day subscription to a service. I cancelled it within the 30 day and the continued to charge me $19.95 per month for the next 4 months. When I called about it, they said that I didn’t cancel. I forwarded them the cancellation email that they sent when I cancelled it. Oh, yes they would refund my money since I was able to prove it. Then I did my PCI compliance and they had no record of it. Charged me $30 per month for 3 months and then $40 for the next month. I called and they agreed to refund my money only after I proved that I was compliant with another email that I had saved. Said they would refund 4 months but only refunded 3. When I called on this, they said that it is their policy to only refund 3 months regardless if it is their fault. They said I should have watched my statements closer and caught it sooner. They acknowledged that it was taken improperly but said that it was my fault for not catching their mistake. I asked them if they stole from me for a whole year, would they refund it. They replied that I would only get 3 months back because I didn’t watch my statements and catch them doing it. I said I would close the account and then they offered to refund the $30. I asked for a confirmation email, which I received and kept. Of course, they never did process the refund. When I called back a month later to ask about it, they said that they weren’t going to process the refund because I was cancelling the account anyhow. It was my money and they wouldn’t give it back unless I stayed with the company. Just beware, they are very dishonest.

  • Brandon

    I’ve been a customer for over three years. Never had any real issues until this past year. Over the last 6 months or so, they have at two different times, included fees to an additional product that I was not interested in. This happened without my knowledge. When I called to ask about the fee on my statement they said that my free trial for the service had ended and this is now the monthly fee. When I mentioned that I never signed up for the service in the first place, they mentioned that it was in my “welcome package”—that I received over three years ago when I first created an account!
    I never received a single email or notification of any kind that I had been opted into this new service, that a free trial had started or that it had ended and I would now pay a monthly fee. Nothing. I called in and despite all of this, the best they could do is opt me out for future monthly fees–they would not refund me the statement from last month that I called in about and there will also be a charge on this current month as well. Ridiculous. I’m just glad I noticed it in the first month that it showed up since it cold have easily blended in with the the monthly transaction charges had I not looked closely at the fee section.
    Now that I called in I am officially opted out of this particular service. Who knows how long until the next sneaky tactic comes along. Moral of the story is if you use this company (which I don’t advise), comb over every statement–this place is as deceitful as they come. I’ll be shopping for a new provider. SHADY!

  • Tony M

    Seemed great at 1st, had to send lots of paperwork to have this company only to find out after i made several sales i get a call from Risk Management and they tell me to fill out all the lines on receipts , once my client pays i send them a receipt and agreement that is personalized and do not want my clients personal info out there. Well they mentioned my account was “Under Review” im sure anyone that hears that knows from previous companies that they can hold your funds if they choose to do so, so i had another company and ditched them i sent a scanned email that is Requested to stop the service then the Next day they charge over $30.00 in fees… its not right i understand charging the fee of $6 and change that my sales rep mentioned but they will hit you up with other non sense. They were also fishing and calling trying to get info and probing me for what we do in our business, very shady….

  • Tom Marek

    Signing up for a flagship merchant services account was the biggest mistake I’ve made so far in my business career. Their claims are completely bogus and based on absolutely no factual evidence as far as being the number one provider. They will hold your funds and place your account under review and cause unnecessary harm to your business I can pretty much can guarantee that!

  • Lee Thomas

    If I could shout from a mountain to tell other merchants to choose another company I would.
    Sales rep totally misled me and lied to me. Promised 1.98% + .21 fee plus $4.95 monthly. (which the latter was not told to me until after I was basically all signed up) THEN the real fees come in. 3.96% plus all the fees on top of that! I explained in great detail that I was a business to business merchant- which he knew meant 3.96% – and I was still told 1.98%.

  • Jimmy

    I can’t understand how a company like Flagship is still in business. After all I could read on this side and what I experienced by myself with them, they should be sued by all of us together.
    Their actions: working with their customers money for many days,withdrawing money from their customers business accounts without any notification, invoice and with unknown names, can’t be legal, and could destroy small businesses, and let employees without jobs. And for all that, we have to pay??? How stupid are they thinking that their customers are??

  • Paula

    Beware – Flagship/IPayment will hold your funds, give you stupid reasons why, invade your customer’s privacy, hinder your business and charge you additional fees….initial fees are taken out of the transaction and then – weeks later….more fees are taken out. Crazy reason given by customer service. See my letter to Flagship below…..
    Dear Flagship Rep: Please let me start this email by saying that I realize that none of the issues that we are having are your fault…however, I feel that when signing up new customers – you should probably inform them of the holds that will be placed on their accounts. As you know, we have only processed two credit card transactions and both have been an issue. This is not a very good “start up” reputation for our business or yours! From the customer’s stand point – the transaction appears to have been processed without a problem…..how do we explain that our credit card company has put a hold on their money therefore they must wait to heat their home?
    We are a small business in a very small town and we changed all of our advertisements to list that we accept credit cards now. Unfortunately, we have lost a sale because we had to tell a customer who needed heat in their home that although we do accept credit cards – it could take up to a week for the transaction to be processed. Well, of course…time was of the essence so she decided to use another company. We cannot afford to have this type of reputation. We have been in business in this town for over 15 years, have developed a client base (heck, every time we go to the local gas station, at least 3 people say “hi – how are ya – how’s your mom?”) Many people do not understand the small town mentality but again, we have a reputation of being honest, fair, timely, well-known and caring about our customers.
    So…maybe we didn’t read the fine print….because we trusted in you and Flagship to help us through the process of utilizing your company. Never did we imagine that taking money from a customer and putting it into our account would require such extensive approvals and investigations….it simply does not make sense. Our past credit history should have nothing to do with the process. Our recommendations, reputation, length of licensing and service, are what should be considered. Nobody has to investigate us when a customer pays cash….because the customer trusts us. However, our credit card company that we chose has to investigate a transaction that somewhat invades the privacy of our customer by asking for details of the transaction?? I would think that if there was a necessary investigation – it would be from their credit card company. Technically, you are a third party asking for details of a transaction that is really not any of Flagship’s business. In all honesty….what if we sold “sex toys”….would our customers consider your investigations an invasion of privacy? I would think so!
    So, in summary – there we sat on a Saturday….not working…not providing heat to a young couple with a few kids and have lost a customer due to the practices of Flagship. I can only hope that our reputation in this town and surrounding areas does not suffer.
    Flagship as the company of choice because a respected friend utilized them in a past business where she worked….her recommendation was not based on the lowest rates…it was based on your reputation. Word of mouth, reputation and customer service far exceed rates in our opinion. Yesterday (March 28), nearly a week from the date of service – a deposit has been put into our account. Our customer contacted us to let us know that Flagship attempted to run their credit card multiple times resulting in a “decline” result. This quite honestly, was the last straw with Flagship! Attached is the Letter of Intent to Cancel Merchant Services Account between our business and and Flagship based on these horrible customer service experiences.

    Your Risk Management Department has treated us as if we were conducting illegal business practices. In total, we have spent in excess of 16 hours trying to rectify these situations resulting in multiple phone calls all while we were conducting business with other customers in order to maintain our business. Again, this is not in line with the reputation that we have worked so hard to achieve. Again, yesterday was the last straw….while I was working under a customer’s home…..I was contacted by Risk Management to again verify personal customer information. This resulted in my current customer questioning me as to the time spent that I billed them for. In closing, again – we realize that this is not your fault personally but you are our rep. with Flagship and you need to be kept aware of the issues. Our termination request is attached to this email.

  • Steve

    These guys are not honest. They will tell you the credit card fees for an ideal transaction. They won’t talk about the HUGE hidden fees. In my case I was quoted 1.98% credit card fees but had transactions where they were charging over 6% in aggregate after the network pass through fees and the international card fees and who knows what else they threw in there.

    They just lied!

  • Serena DeGarmo

    I was charged fees after I attempted to close my account. I spoke on the phone to a person who didn’t seem able or interested in helping me. Then GENO DeAngelis called ME from Massachusetts to take care of closing my account properly. Who calls on Friday afternoon to someone who is closing an account? GENO DOES!!
    Thank you Geno for your help!!

  • Deborah Baker

    I signed up in preparation of starting business. I discussed in detail with Colin – who signed me up that I was not ready to start business yet. I was informed of the $7.95 withdrawal each month. Not the varying fees as high as $151.00 withdrawn from my account monthly under a name that was not associated with Flagship or Authorize.net. for almost 10 months. Apparently I was penalized for not starting service right away. I had to have my bank call to figure out who was withdrawing this money under name MTOT DISC. So before I caught it I was charged over $1,000 by Flagship Merchant services. Very tricky, not forthcoming and customer service is useless in offering any relief. Be very careful

  • Michael Leds

    Flagship and Womply are crooks. They apparently opted me into a product that i did not authorze and billed me 29.95 monthly, times 2, or almost $60 per month for 5 months. THEY WONT PROVIDE A REFUND. I intend to get my money back, hopefully with damages, in court. STAY AWAY from this company. They are bad people.

  • Rick S

    I have had this machine for 4 months, there are monthly, annual fees that really aren’t transparent. The machine constantly goes down which you have to call and have someone walk you through how to set it up and by the way you are waiting as they are reviewing a manual. My machine has been down days at a time. I called to cancel the service and find out that there is a $200 early termination fee even though if you read the website right there on the front page it plainly states no contract, no hidden fees, etc etc. I would highly recommend you seriously consider it before doing business with Flagship Processing as everything they list on the front page is inaccurate. I will be happy to pay them 200 to get out of the deal I’m in with them but will just likely cancel that CC to ensure they don’t get their $200.00 This company is not transparent in which you will find out if you choose to use them.

  • Judy

    I signed up in May 2016 and had all kinds of equipment/PCI compliant problems. It was very frustrating but they assured me that their rates were going to be better than my previous company. I didn’t really scrutinize my fees while I was busiest from May thru July. At the end of September I put my business on “seasonal hold” which was supposed to have a $14/month fee. I was fine with that. Starting October 3, I was charged $72.90. I called and asked what it was for – they told me I was not PCI compliant ($40 charge) and they were charging me a $19.95 Company.com fee (whatever that was!). Bare in mind that none of their fees were on their statements, they just showed up on my bank statements;I got those two fees reversed. So I’ve been charged $72.90 and $73.95 for October and November; each time I called they told me I was not PCI compliant. Their reason was always because when the “scan” ran it couldn’t be completed. I never got a clear answer from any of them, just the runaround. My last fee was in January for $63.95 (they told me it was for reporting to the IRS). My husband is in charge of all the credit card terminals and processing at his job and he said there’s no such thing! I’m going to contact my bank and get as many of these charges reversed as possible. Just despicable!

  • Brady C Puryear

    This place is a total ripoff! The sales team loves to talk about the 1.82% rate but I have now had several months where they classified every transaction as NQAL even Visa Debit! and that rate is 5.61%! at the bottom of the statement they charged me for additional services I never signed up for $40 a month, $19.99 a month, etc.. The bottom line is if your not getting interchange rates instead of tiered rates your probably getting screwed. I switched to Chase and have saved my self seriously hundreds of dollars a month. Also, the risk department iPayment is hands down the most horrible business ever. They have a one star and will freeze your funds for up to 6 months. Chase is the only way to go. Every other company in the industry uses 3rd party risk departments that can hold funds regardless of the terms created between you and the merchant services provider.

  • Jess

    RUN!!!!! I wish I would have seen this page before I enrolled. It’s a bait and hook sales pitch, don’t buy it. Whatever their base fee percentage is, effectively double it and that’s what you will be charged. Oh and don’t forget their annual fees, monthly statement fees, minimum fees, overuse fee, underuse fees, “helpful” automatic PAID enrollment in programs that they don’t give you access to, and additional surprise fees every three months with no explanation. They don’t answer the phone at customer service but once a week, and when they do it’s always a “new” employee that doesn’t have answers, even after transferring six times and waiting on hold for 15 minutes between each transfer. Initially you are contacted with a ‘dedicated’ sales rep that enrolls you in the program and then doesn’t answer the phone or return messages once your application is accepted. Worst company I have EVER dealt with, bar none. I cancelled my account, but not without a fight for that too. Had more more in fees than I collected on the machine from customers. Good riddance to this company. Please do not enroll with them!!

  • Ming

    worst of all evils! Charge a lot kind of fees without notice and poor poor customer service.

    First you were told the fee is very low ($25/month) and no other surcharge. After a few months, without email/phone/mail, they began to deduct a lot of money ($150/month) until you call them. The customer will tell you, in the 50+ page contract you signed, there is a line of tiny words:the fee would be raised without notice.

    I was so stupid to trust them the fee would be $25/month as the representative told me. They are not trustworthy!

  • Glenn Kerler

    Horrible company! I was searching for a new processor and talked to Flagship (Aleshia Morin). I thought they sounded OK but I told Ms Morin that I did not want anything done until I could confirm the cancellation of my present processor. She went ahead and signed me up anyway. I wanted her (and told her) to hold everything until I was sure about my present processor. They took money from my account, ignored numerous emails, phone messages, fax’s etc. I was finally informed to fill out there cancellation form and the account would be closed and the money returned. I sent it in imediatly. Almost a week later I get an email stating they cant cancel my account at this time. REALLY????? This is ridiculous!!!! They ignored my stated (and recorded) wishes, lied, etc. I would avoid this group like the plague!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Lisa Biggers

    Horrible Communication. Will place your account on hold without notifying you. Will pull money out of the account for “Risk Management Analysis” and not tell you. It takes 45 minutes on hold to speak to anyone and even then, they are short and are VERY quick to transfer you to anyone else. We had them for exactly a month before we ran into issues and problems. Even bigger headache after we closed accounts to get money that is owed to us. Overall, just horrible.

  • Michael

    From the very start the salesperson was very misleading at best. For instance we were told that all fees would be taken out at the end of the month at one time and that we would get a statement explaining all charges. Never happened. Fees were taken out of ever single charge creating a book keeping nightmare. Worst of all was that after about one month into our contract with them we completed a very large job. The customer paid with a credit card at the time of pick up. It was right at Christmas time and we had gone on vacation a day or two later. While on vacation I start getting notifications that payments I had made were bouncing. Flagship had determined that the amount that the customer paid needed to be reviewed because it was too much and refused to put it into our account even though they had no problem taking the money from our customer for the work that we did. During our repeated attempts to the customer no service number we were told over and over that “That’s the way all merchant services work” and “we are not responsible for any of your bounced items”. They would not release the money into our account until we sent them copies of all of the paperwork for the invoice that they had stolen the money for then would not release it for about 3 days while they “verified that it was a legitimate charge”. I pray no one ever gets stuck using this “company”.

  • Peter Turso

    Avoid AVOID AVOID Flagship. I have been chasing them over and over. They have a relationship with Womply and I-Payment. They will try and take money right out of your account without your permission! AVOID!!!

  • Matt P

    Signed up with flagship. Fine print of contract said they have option to sign you up for paid services with their affiliates, from which you can opt out if you notify them. They send an email signing me up, and I didn’t see it because it was a marketing email that when to spam. Even if I did, I would have had to scroll all the way to the bottom to see the note saying I’m going to be signed up and charged if I don’t opt out.

    Not knowing I’d been signed up, I was reconciling my CC statement and saw three months of a $29.99 charge. Again, I had no idea I had been signed up.

    After contacting the company (Wambly, an affiliate of Flagship) they told me they’d only refund two of the three months.

    This is a very deceptive business practice and I would now never recommend Flagship to anyone.

  • Peter Tys

    if you want to lose money this is right company!
    processing NOT clear. Double charge!
    You find out how ! when you begin to work with them
    Company representatives do not refer of the tricks
    We used this company only for half month, we started in the middle of the month , I realized right at the first statement. Percentage was charge on two different ways!.
    Beware them!

  • RICARDO PENA

    Upon creating a new Merchant account I was misinformed about the types of services that would be available on an online Merchant account. I was mislead by Merchant representative David Dwyer at [email protected] upon the Merchant platform’s interface’s and its’ charges, misinformed about pricing, and was never connected with information on how to integrate my website’s Gateway Interface. It took three attempts to correctly confirm my checking account to the Merchant gateway to make deposits available. No attempts have been made through out the first week of creating my Merchant account of any communication. I get transferred from representative to representative on any questions and concerns I have. I highly recommend NOT working with Flagship despite their supposed high ratings.

  • Christina Klein

    These guys decided to put a hold on a payment of over 8 grand for no discernible reason. Called, said they could legally hold it for 6 months and then send it BACK to the customer, even though we have the funds to cover a return, have never HAD a return, WILL never have a return because we’re part of a service industry and you can’t return a service, and the customer has already paid down their credit card. They also said this was all legal because of the contract we signed, which were never advised to and never read in said contract. Will be using literally any other service in the future, thanks.

  • Cheryl Harris

    Totally disgusted.
    The rep signed me up. I called 5 times, 4-5 emails, no answer. finally called the front desk–she had left the job.
    We were off to a great start. One main problem is that when I went through the contract with the rep, she was extremely misleading–said the rates went from .38 to 1.98. It’s actually 3.56, but not written that way. When I called to complain NO ONE WAS SURPRISED. They said, that’s just what the reps do, and well, she doesn’t work here, so that’s how it is.
    i access is a crappy system that lumps payments and doesn’t show which payments are deposited on which dates.
    so all in all, I’ll be a customer less than 2 months, will get charged for 3 months of service because they do it by calendar month, and lost $ on the ramblers.
    Beware. big time.

  • Rebecca Jones

    I am a new business start-up and I decided to try accepting credit cards in April of 2016. The sales person, Andrew Brugman, convinced me to try a phone swip. I am a low volume high dollar business and most of my customers preferred paying by check. I contacted Andrew and he mentioned I could take cards over the phone and cancel the swip. I told him no and then followed up with a cancellation email. At the end of April I received one bill in the mail for $60 that said they had debited my account. As it turned out, Andrew didn’t cancel, he actually added another online account. Flagship has been debited my account for the past 6 months for almost $200 per month. The charges show up each month in two separate debits ranging from $80 to $120 each with only my company name (not theirs). I thought they were transfers between my savings and checking. The name Flagship never appeared. They also never sent me a bill. They said they started saving paper in April and I would have had to go online to see the charges. Now they are saying I have to send a cancel request form that needs to be approved. This is a scam company. I never used their service and they have taken over $1,300 from my account (and will likely continue). I’ve placed a stop payment through my bank but since they vary the dollar amounts they take each month it will be hard to keep them from getting more.

    • Cydalise Gaines

      Hi Rebecca, best you can do is open a new bank account so they won’t have access. And I would consider suing them especially if your charges were not authorized or stated within your contract. Flagship is a scam and once my contract is over in April for their CC processor, I am leaving them.

  • April

    1.) Sales Rep.
    My sales rep was Thomas Tempesta. He emailed me and called me before opening the account. After opening the account, he was no longer existent. I needed to set up my terminal to start using the merchant services. But I received no help. Even if I left voice mail and sent him an email, he didn’t reply until the next week. His response was to call Technical Support.

    2.) Technical Support
    They made me repeat the same problem to 3-4 people. They were lost. And the last guy said I need a SIM card and he’ll talk with his manager and call me back. I never heard from him again. And they tried to transfer me to the sales rep.

    3.) Customer service
    I came to conclusion that I need to close the account. I was wasting 1 month trying to use this account. And they still didn’t set up my terminal but still dared to charge me monthly fee.
    This process was just ridiculous. Never-ending circling and transferring. But I managed. Hooray!

    4.) Overall
    This is the WORST company to work with. Don’t torture yourself.

    I give them 0.0 / 10.0 for charging me and wasting my time and not providing any service that I signed up for.

  • John

    CROOKS, LIARS and/orTHEIVES. There is a one-year contract!! There is no contract on your “Account” but there is a one-year contract on the processing machine and those terms are buried in the obscure language in the contract. A $250 fee if canceled before one year.
    We sent the machine back early August 2016 and followed the instructions exactly and here we are in October 2016 and still receiving charges from Flagship.
    Here is their explanation; My wife and I are both owners and since I signed the termination of the account with the return of the machine they never canceled it.The account was in her name. We caught this in September when we saw a charge again from them. Although they had the machine and we couldn’t use the account they continued to charge, no phone call, email or letter from them. So we corrected the cancellation form and now we have another charge in October from Flagship.
    This will be turned over to the BBB and every review site I can find.

  • Sidney E Lanier

    BEWARE THIS SCAMMER CREDIT CARD PROCESSOR. They arbitrarily choose clients to “perform ” Risk Assessment on selected legitimate credit card payments; hold the funds, refuse to respond to calls and emails..eventually wearing you down until Flagship ends up keeping the money.

  • Lorraine

    BEWARE!!! I feel like I got conned by a used car salesman – the ultimate bait and switch. They NEVER tell you about all of the fees – which are insane – and harass you until you sign on. Then, you can never get in touch with “your merchant” again. Customer service is rude and abrupt when you complain. They take the money straight out of your bank account and never send you a bill or statement. I got charged $80/month of fees to NEVER use the service. I was told it was $7.95!! Lots of fine print with loads of extra fees and they just tell you that you signed the contract. STAY AWAY!

  • tim smith

    please do not use this company for your merchant services. i have been in business for 20 years and
    have generally stayed with 1 provider. i switched and
    have not been happy since. hidden fees, poor customer service, transferring from one customer service rep to another and never getting any action. DO NOT USE FLAGSHIP

  • Koushi Sunder

    Severe inability to fix simple problems like an incorrect Business Descriptor. I’ve spent the past month trying to get them to change ours and every person I speak to at that company seems dumber and less helpful than the last. They have all sorts of excuses as to why they’re unable to help, ranging from a mythical person who will call with a solution the following morning (they always say the following morning) to blaming other companies for their problems. Um sorry, merchant processing 101 – ONLY the merchant processor sets the billing descriptor. The fact that they can’t fix something so simple tells me that they’re not competent enough for my business or yours.

  • Jake Anderson

    I had a terrible experience with Flagship, and would never recommend them to anyone. My rep informed me the processing rate would be around 2.0%, and then I see 5.78% when my first statement arrives!! Who in their right mind would pay over 5.00% for processing credit cards. In addition, my customer service rep failed to deliver with the customer service she promised. She explained to me that I would be her primary point of contact, but once I was signed up – she completely ignored my emails and phone calls. When I called customer service to report my concerns, the customer service rep said “I don’t know why your fees are so high, they shouldn’t be that high”. When I asked about a refund, she said there was no refund and I have to pay the charges. Places like this should be shut down.

  • Veronica

    The sales rep at Flagship explained to me the costs for using their credit card service for my small business, he also touted that they have the lowest rates and sold me on all the additional services they provide, claiming it was all mine for a small monthly fee… he was good. Hopefully my experience will help you to not make the same mistake I did. The actual monthly cost turned out to be three times the amount he quoted me! 3 X’s!! How does a legitimate business get away with something like this? And when I went to customer service and asked them to remove only $13 from my bill (out of $52 that they say I owe them) … I was met with, “It’s all in the contract”, there is a fee for the online app, there’s a fee for customer service, there is a fee if you don’t meet the minimum amount in charges per month. So that sales pitch was a complete lie and misrepresentation! Of course, I have canceled service with Flagship. I say SMALL BUSINESSES BEWARE, it will cost you a mint to use Flagship Credit Card Services over time. I am going back to PayPal.

  • Meryl Moya

    This company legally steals your money. We were getting two charges per month of about $65 plus the fee for each transaction. That’s besides the annual fee, we were paying over $200 per month, and we only used this service once a week. After we requested the cancelation of our account, they made two charges, one for $189 and another for $190. When I called to inquire about this charges, they said that the charges were valid because the documents we signed when we registered stated that it will take about 21 days for the closing request to become active, and the charges have been made for that month. I asked why they doubled the ammount, they said that fees were variable. And why were we being charged twice? Because we weren’t aware that they had opened two accounts for us, one for over the phone transactions, and another one for face to face transactions. That’s just crazy! Then, the supervisor told me that I needed to close the other account as well. I had called repeated times trying to clarify the charges and had never been told we had two separate accounts! He said that we should have notice since we were being charged twice a month. That was exactly the reason why I had called before, but apparently the representative couldn’t figure out that we had two accounts because I only gave them one Merchant ID number,which was the only one they sent me.They have lots of hidden fees, but the worst part is the lack of humanity when you try to reason with them. Since you signed the documents at their complicated registration process, they are legally making those charges, and you have to comply whether you like it or not, because your signature is there. I regret so badly not having chosen an upfront, honest and simple phone app service instead, that will charge only per transaction.

  • Tom

    Sales rep give a great presentation but never mention there will be many, many hidden fees and charges. If you want a merchant provider that takes all your profits and MORE, this is the choice! Five negative stars.

  • Dario Chaviano

    Stay away from this company, even if you think going month to month with them, they are going keep charging you like they did to me, until you put a stop payment and then they send you to collection. I can believe that companies like this do what ever they want with their customers and nobody can stop them.

  • Terri Palmer

    The company is such a joke. Girls who answers the phone in customer service sounds like they are 12 years old.
    Our company manager said we would find another company due to problems we have with them and he was told “that won’t happen, good luck with that” . Like a bunch of little bully’s. They don’t care if they have your business or not. That is until enough of us stop using them and they start to see it on the bottom line. It’s unbelievable how badly this company is run. Getting to talk to a supervisor or write a letter to the company not going to happen in this lifetime.

  • Tanim Chowdhury

    they are horrible. first of all they go give me the rate we are agreed upon to . and every time i try to contact with them they send me to voicemail. to get my representative i had to try at least 10 to 15 times. they don`t reply any email after signup.

  • Aqeel Raza

    Worst customer service – they have donkeys working for them. Will charge you unreasonable fees and hold your funds for no reason.
    They never call you back and its better to garbage your money than signing up for Flagship. They are fraud and cheat.

  • Fred Seton

    You will be lucky to get out of this, without costing a lot of money. They are a total scam. I processed on sale $200,, went right through, Next sale $4,000. disappeared. They said it had to go through verification. Eight days later, I canceled the sale, but they had already taken the money out of my customers account, so when I processed it with my old processor, the customer got charged twice. Now getting charged over $300.00

    • Albert

      Aloha,
      I’ll keep it short as time is money for the small business operator.
      Stay away from Flagship Merchant Services if you value your time and business.
      My business lost thousands of dollars and all I got back were lies, poor customer service and lost revenue.
      My suggestion is to look for another Merchant Service Provider!
      Mahalo,
      Another former DISSATISFIED Flagship Merchant Services customer.

  • Deb Hurst

    I am not the type of person that likes to leave negative reviews, However, this company is terrible on adding additional fees to your merchant account. Example~ $49.50 to issue a 1099? Statement fees~ $7.95? What ever happened to the cost of doing business? This company likes to add as many charges to your account as possible. Call to ask or dispute~ expect to be put on hold for 20 minutes. 3 straight months of complaining about all the added fees was enough to cancel with this company. Save yourself some real headache, and look else where.

  • Mario V

    The WORST processing company I have ever worked with.
    Everything goes well while you sign up and you will be promised the world, next day funding etc.
    Once the first transaction gets made and the money still isn’t in your account 3 days later, you will get told that it takes a few extra days with the first transaction. On transaction 2, the money was not funding in 2 days, I was told tomorrow, then tomorrow I was told tomorrow again. 4 days later, I have the money. A few transactions go by with me having to fight to get the money every time until finally they place a hold on 2 transactions and I was told it would take 10-15 business days to review and release those funds. I initiated a refund to the customer and had them simply write me a check. I was told by them that no fees will be charged to my account for the month due to all the issues. I closed the account and 2 weeks later they charge my account for 145.82. I call in, get transferred around like normal and told I need to talk to risk management. Every time I get transferred to the person I need to speak with, it goes to voicemail after 1-2 rings. I have left a number of voicemail with no returned call. I am not on hold for 35 minutes waiting to try to talk to a live person in risk management that won’t just transfer me to a voicemail. Stay away!


    Are you with Flagship Merchant Services? Learn how to resolve this complaint.

  • Andrea Inks

    Jonathan Goddard from Flagship Merchant services in association with ipayment stole money from me and my husband by telling me that his account would not be active until he started his online business. My husband’s business is still not active online but, over $200 had been taken from our bank account. We got that money back from the bank but, now ipayment has sent my husband to collections! They said my husband electronically signed a contract. He never saw nor signed a contract. Jonathan hounded me with many emails explaining he needed my voided check to verify my bank information so my husband would be ready to do business when the site was live! However, Jonathan explained that no money would be taken from my account until we let Flagship know we were ready to start the business, hence open the account. He lied! After I realized what had happened, when our account was depleted, I tried to contact Jonathan. He never got back to me. Finally he sent me a form to cancel the account which we never knew was open! No response from Jonathan, just a form. He is a liar and a scam artist as is Flagship and ipayment. We have now been sent to collections and to keep our credit good we will be forced to pay or take them to court as my husband never signed their contract. They sent me a copy of the supposed contract. However, the electronic signature is not from my husband! I am not sure what to do at this point. I tried to speak with a supervisor at ipayment, named Westley S. (he would not give his last name) and appeal to his decency! He was rude and dismissive. I first spoke to Ian who could not or would not help either. It is obvious to me that Flagship aka ipayment is only interested in money and not people and definitely not honesty. They will get money anyway they can even if it means stealing it as they did with us!


    Are you with Flagship Merchant Services? Learn how to resolve this complaint.

    • Margaret Lois Jansen

      Andrea, call your local bar association for an attorney who deals with business situations…if they have taken you to collections and you did not sign the contract, you can contest their claims in court. They tried that scheme with me under a different set of facts. I’ve posted the saga on this website in previous postings. Since I had ample documentation that their claims were bogus, well, nothing happened the first time. Then they tried using a heavy hitter law firm out of the Chicago area. Fortunately, it was a firm that only did contingency fee agreements. After I sent them my 3 and a half inch stack of documentation…nothing came of it as they would not be able to prevail. I also sent “our friends” the same info for the 3rd time on the first collection attempt. If you are in small claims court, get an attorney…it will make a difference. Best of luck.

  • Alexis K

    This is a dishonest company that added many hidden fees ($30, $19.95), etc to my statement each month with opt-out services that I was never made aware of. Many of the customers I worked with randomly had small amounts of money taken out of their accounts (2 cents, 10 cents, etc.) after swiping their cards. I heard this complaint from ten different customers, but flagship could never give me an answer as to why this was happening. Never mind the charge backs that occurred where they seemingly tried to take money from my account for no good reason. Also, their customer services s horrible and very difficult to get in touch with as they always report high call volumes. BUYER BEWARE of this company. I no longer trust them with my money.


    Are you with Flagship Merchant Services? Learn how to resolve this complaint.

  • Phil Mierzejewski

    This company is totally unprofessional. First it takes months to get a mobile reader, and then their fees add up to higher than stated fees. Then when you request to close the account immediately to get away from their outrageous fees, theyou say it can take up to a month. Since then I was hit with $191.98 Fee on a $473.00 last processed amount submitted.

    Then when you call them you are on hold on an average of 37 minutes, one time as high as 53 minutes. And when you request to speak to a supervisor they say none are there. What?

    I advise anyone to stay away from these scam artists. Because they say you can cancel whenever you want with no cancellation fees, but boom… they tack it on.

    And the call starts when them saying the call is recorded, so I tell them that the call is recorded and they then clam up. They are recording the call… so stay away from these scamming people.


    Are you with Flagship? Learn how to resolve this complaint.

  • shawn stone

    This is the worst Credit card company You could ever Associate with They are three different companies That absolutely Are the most dysfunctional business Ever I got charged $30 From one of them Multiple time And they do not know what they’re doing Totally run from flagship merchant services Do not Even entertain them as a serious business On my word Sean stone from Hawaii


    Are you with Flagship? Learn how to resolve this complaint.

  • Scott

    Just over a month after starting service with them we notice that all credit card transactions are being declined with a “Gateway Error”. We contact Authorize.net and they tell us that Flagship has cancelled our merchant account (what??). No idea why our account would have been cancelled since we just set it up. Can’t be for non-payment of fees since they take their 2% cut off the top before it even gets deposited into our account (also annoying). No one ever called, emailed, regular mailed or anything else saying our account was being cancelled. I tried calling their customer support line and get a message about how they’re experiencing “higher than usual call volume” and after 20 mins on hold I give up.

  • Josefine

    I feel like I dodged a bullet! Thank you for the review and comments. I called Flagship for a quote and before I knew it I was being read terms and agreements as thought I already shouted “Sign Me Up!”. I went along with it for a bit however I was a little overwhelmed so I ignored quite a few of the daily calls…Then I didn’t submit my account information yet I was already receiving information in the paper mail. I took a look at the fee schedule sheet and was so confused about all the apparent charges that would happen. They are out of there minds. It is far to confusing and I suppose that is how scams work. The representative seemed genuinely nice, except that he is a salesman after all. Thanks again, glad I jumped ship before setting sail.

  • Brad R

    HORRIBLE. It turns out they we’re charging me $30 per month for not filling out a form of some type, which they had never mentioned (on their statement it even said call our customer support to find out what this is). Cumulatively among a variety of charges it was costing me just below 6% of transactions.

    I’ve asked for the processing information to verify the classifications of transactions, they refuse to supply it. I’ve asked for my original Agreement & Documentation, they refuse to provide it. Even in cancelling my account they require you to fill out a lengthy form and fax it to them. This form also states that they can only close the account as is outlined with your original agreement, which again they have not supplied.

    Everything their sales team says is a lie. I Know because I called the sales team instead of support to verify that what they were charging was not what they were selling. Once I confessed that I was actually a current customer and the numbers didn’t line up, the sales person changed her story, and grew extremely hostile. She even went as far as to tell me she could explain every charge on my bill, then when I asked a specific question she said she could not answer it because she was not my account representative. Then immediately followed with that by saying that she could see that my account representatives were this person, and that person, and that they were no longer with the company. (This is after she tried to sell a new customer services) Laughable, this company is fraudulent, it’s got class action lawsuit written all over it.

    It doesn’t stop there after 72 hrs into trying to cancel service, and having requested my original contracts, documentations etc. This information has not been sent, and absolutely no confirmation of cancellation provided.

    After reading several different reviews claiming that monthly service fees continue to be drafted after attempting to cancel the account. So… Sure there aren’t any early termination fees, but they are seemingly making it impossible to cancel service.

    The end result is, after consulting with my bank, the only way to insure they cannot charge fees in the future for services that I’ve attempted to cancel is to close the entire checking account, and open a new one. Which is what I spent half my day yesterday doing. Thanks Flagship! I’m seriously considering starting a blog with all my supporting data that I’ve collected since I discovered they were charging me near 6%. Recorded phone calls for my personal “quality assurance”, emails, etc. etc.

    Anyways don’t end up like me. This is literally a nightmare. BUYER BEWARE.

  • Peter Sotornik, MD

    Stay away from flagship,

    I established merchant account with Flagship 2 months ago, unfortunately not reviewing negative comments.
    My account was closed because customer made retrieval request for transaction. Flagship explanation was that this is highly unusual request after 2 months of opening the account.

  • Gary Wood

    Flagship is a scam. Their advertised “merchant rates” claiming they’re the lowest around in order to bring people in, omit the additional fees from their vendor processor “PCI”, who charge an additional $30 per month and $149 per year. Their merchant services are real, but their advertising, agent representation and billing practices are a huge scam.

  • Ryan

    Just talked to Arlene, the ipayments floor supervisor, for about 30 minutes.

    *sigh. I should have read these comments BEFORE agreeing to the contract, I suppose.

    If it means anything to you, on my paper filing system, the label on the folder is such: “FLAGSHIP MERCHANT SERVICES [next line] AKA worst company ever known since the history of the beginning of mankind.”

    As everyone else said: fees galore.

    For me, the worst was the service. My CC transactions weren’t coming INTO my bank account, but the fees were easily coming OUT of my bank account. I just wanted the issue resolved, so several months ago they had me FAX all my receipts and other junk into them.

    Fax? Really? Fax them?
    Untraceable. Not much of a verifiable paper trail, IMO.

    Then more followup phone calls being told a bunch more stuff. “Open a new account, we’ll close the old one, and we’ll start fresh.”

    I set the company aside and didn’t touch if for a while. All the while, the old account was never closed as I was LED BY CUSTOMER SERVICE TO BELIEVE.

    My beef today was NOT that this happened–I owned that–but how WRONG they are for sticking it to me. They wouldn’t refund ONE DOLLAR of previously assessed fees. Not a cent.

    I wasn’t yelling. I don’t curse. I wasn’t even angry with Arlene, directly.

    I’m just bummed that such a HORRIBLE company exists. It is SO wrong, and that’s what I kept telling Arlene. It’s just wrong, Arlene. It’s so sickening that you won’t even try to help me out.

    “Let’s go over this again,” she’d say, “we’re going to rush close your account so you won’t be billed this month’s fees. I’m telling you, we are doing EVERYTHING WE CAN to serve and help you.”

    To me, that is a HORRIBLE company. When a floor supervisor tells me she’s doing everything she can to help me… I just can’t believe that. I can’t. That’s dishonest.

    And it’s not right. I’m not all mad at them; I’m just disgusted.

    And part of my disgust is that they don’t give a flip. They don’t care one bit whom they hurt. They stick it to the little guy because they can.

    Sad. What a sad company. Companies like that CANNOT last. It’s impossible. It’s unethical, and it’s wrong. Bummer for me and bummer for them.

    -RR

  • Danny Garrett

    I was looking for a new credit card provider and found Merchant services was affiliated with Wells Fargo so I decided I would use them.I provided all the paperwork with the

    Kevin Miller
    Senior Account Representative
    Flagship Merchant Services
    2015 TopTenREVIEWS Gold Award Winner

    [REDACTED – contact information]

    He requested the last three months of bank statements so there will be no holds on my account seeing we post single charges from 15-25 k for one customer per month so I did.The first time I used it they held the money and started asking for the documents I already sent before the application was approved . I told them over the phone that I did not like their practices and I would just run a full credit to the customer and I would just use square as I have in the past. I guess they decided to stick it to me after that conversation so they put a charge for for $592.80 on 3/11/2015 from I-payment in clearing.I contacted my bank (regions) and put a stop payment on them for any further charges so they put a charge from another source called Bank mtot disc for $1045.96 so I contacted polly at Regions and she said it was after 4 pam and she couldn’t do anything I would have to contact them.After talking to several people at the Merchant services they told me the charges was for the initial charge we put on the card for the customer and then after I refunded the money to the customer they closed my account and seeing the charge wasn’t an approved discounted rate charge they decided to charge me the $1045.96.My account was suppose to be charged $7.00 per month and they recognized they over charged me , the monthly fee of they charged me was $36.21 but they couldn’t credit it back because the account was closed.So actually the stole $1667.97 from me.I thought being part of Wells Fargo I wouldn’t have these issues and I understand Wells Fargo doesn’t own Merchant services but I am a Wells Fargo customer and I do know your bank has clout and could contact the correct person to get this resolved because all I get is a run around from customer services and put on hold for long periods of a time hoping I will just go away. I appreciate any help you can do to get this to the correct person who can get this corrected.

    • Lisa

      Danny—-and anyone else seeking fair and equitable restitution—-call Sean, Flagship Sales Director, at 866-416-0244 EXT. 115. Be very specific about the exact compensation for your losses that you seek, and why. Worked for me.

  • Marjorie Lovell

    I read the multiple glowing reviews of Flagship Merchant and signed up in Nov 2014. We were promised much lower rates and “excellent” customer service. Before signing, we asked lots of questions and all the answers sounded too good to be true. As it turned out, that was because they were not true. The very pleasant personable salesperson who hooked us into the service gave me information which was misleading at best or simply false. Then once you are signed up they do not release you and it is nearly impossible to cancel services with them.

    We were told that there were no set up/application fees, a 1.98 percent rate, and a low monthly rate of 12.95/month for the merchant account ($5 +$7.95 gateway). The saleswoman, Maggie O Callaghan was sweet and charming on the phone and painted a picture of sympathy for small business and incredible savings.

    When the paperwork came, there lots of terms that I didn’t understand. I called Maggie and asked her what the terms meant. We were quoted a “discount rate” of 1.98 percent. This is their “qualified discount rate”.

    If you look at the small type, there is another category called “non-qualified discount rate” which is charged 3.96%. When we saw these on the final documents (of course they had never been mentioned when we were asking questions about the service by phone), we were told that these “rarely come up” and that we didn’t “need to worry about” those fees. They “didn’t apply to us.”

    I asked for an explanation for what would constitute a “non-qualified discount” and did not get an answer. She just repeated that we would not encounter that and she didn’t really know how to explain it and to just disregard that part.

    Foolishly, we listened to her and ran our first 4 transactions totaling $3891.50. When the bill came, very transaction was listed as “non-qualified discount” and we were charged $170.15.

    We immediately called in and Customer Service told that yes, these were all non qualified discounts. Again we pressed for a definition of non qualified discounts. Again we were given vague descriptions including, “people who have these credit cards know what they are” and ” I can’t really explain what a non qualified discount” is….

    A quick note, not a single agent I spoke with (and I called repeatedly) gave a clear definition of terms. The sense I got from speaking to multiple agents is that they are trained to sooth customers with non answers and half truths….

    After the first billing statement and several fruitless discussions with Customer Service, we told them we wanted to cancel service in early December 2014. They sent us a “closure” form on December 12, 2014 and we filled it in the same day. I sent it back to Maggie O Callaghan, our agent, and called and asked her to let us know if “anything else was needed”. I also emailed and asked her when the cancellation would go into effect.

    The next month, we received another bill. We called in saying that we had cancelled service. After lots of back and forth and promises of return phone calls, we were told that the incorrect person (me) had signed the form. Therefore the cancellation had not gone into effect. No mention as to why no one had bothered to let us know this back in December when we sent the form in….

    (Note: I, the manager, was the person who signed up for the service. They accepted my signature to sign up for services. However, when i signed to cancel services, suddenly my signature was inadequate. They needed the business owners signature…..)

    We received a new cancellation form and the business owner signed it and we faxed it back over to them. We followup called and were reassured that all was in order.

    The next month we once again received a bill. Somehow, the cancellation form had been lost. We sent it in again and again were told that the cancellation would go into effect. Oh, and when I asked to speak with our agent, Maggie OCallaghan, she conveniently no longer worked there.

    We are now in May 2015. The stated monthly rate of $12.95 has increased to $59.95 per month, which we have been billed for the past several months despite receiving no service. $59.95/month for a service we neither want nor use. We have once again sent in copies of forms and been told that all would be cancelled and taken care of….

    I would caution anyone against doing business with this company. They have been deceptive in their marketing and either incredibly irresponsible or duplicitous in their failure to cancel our agreement. Stay away from them.

  • Lisa B

    The Flagship Merchant sales rep misrepresented pricing and contract terms on multiple occasions. She confirmed to me verbally when selling me that the monthly fees would be $7.95 from Authorize.net (Gateway). That fee was accurate. But then there would be $7.95 monthly from Flagship plus .0198 per transaction fee. I asked her point blank to confirm if those would be my only monthly charges and she said “Yes” . She never stated that there would be a Minimum Monthly fee of $25 that would need to be met each month in transactions. In researching online all the negative reviews from consumers on this company, I realize that this omission of this $25 is very common…..many have been duped like me….must be a common Flagship misleading technique. This rep was slow to reply to my emails and calls to clarify this matter. When she finally replied she said on one email that she was fixing my account so that that fee would drop to $15 versus $25……she never did that. Again she ignored my subsequent messages and emails, until finally she replied that I would need to take that monthly minimum fee issue up with “corporate”.
    So, on 10/28/14 I wrote an email to their operations manager, but that person never replied either!
    Another fee she never mentioned was the $99 PCI fee. According to the complaints filed online by consumers, this $99 fee is another hidden gem that Flagship will hit you with. Now, to make matters worse, I sent in the closure (cancellation) form on 10/31/14. But when I contacted her early December to see why we were still being billed, she wrote me 2 emails —on 12/2/14 and 12/3/14—each one clearly stating “the account has been closed”. Well, why were we billed for all of December if by 12/2/14 the account was closed???? After again going nowhere with her, on January 5, 2015 I contacted iPayment customer relations and the supervisor there said account still showed open….!!! (He did finally close it for us in January) Why would this rep keep misleading me?
    We should be refunded at least $149…that’s 2 months of this $25 fee and the $99 PCI.

  • Margaret Lois Jansen

    In 2013, Flagship Merchant Services opened up a fraudulent merchant credit card processing account for the processing of stolen credit cards for some entity that used my business name and former EIN without my authorization. They combined that information with the SSN of an 83 year old woman (I had posted on this matter on this website in 2013). iPayments which is connected with Flagship Merchant Services is now for the second time attempting to collect the money that was lost on those matters. I was the one who notified them of the fraudulent account when I discovered that iPayments had made a credit inquiry on me and I followed up on the matter as I had not authorized any inquiries. Flagship sent the application to me and I have sent iPayments/Flagship Merchant Services numerous pages of documentation outlining the fraudulent and impossible information on the application. They did not have my name correct, nor did they have my correct social security number, nor my birthdate, nor my phone number. So, here, we go again. My stack of green cards from the certified mail grows ever bigger.

  • Lusine

    FRAUD !!!! Fraud , junk company. I used them for a month or so in 2014, then I wanted to close the account. AND THEY WOULD NOT LET ME GO. I have all the written proof of my complaint. Run away from Flagship Merchant Services company ASAP, or better even never start with them. There are many other reliable honest companies to work with.
    I asked to close my account, my agent specifically promised that if I sign a closure document and send back to him, my account will be closed right away without any problems and without any future money to pay, no fees, nothing. Then I found out that Flagship Merchant Services kept withdrawing UNAUTHORISED money from my banking account. Imagine that!
    It was closed in September, and they kept stealing from me for October, November, December. I told them about that. My rep was returning my emails after several days, weeks sometimes. What professional person does that?! And If I call, they keep transferring me from rep to rep, and they keep telling fairytales that they never heard that my account closed. (I have a written proof of everything). Flagship Merchant Services owes me money for those months, and additionally, money that my bank was charging me for overdraft protection – because Flagship Merchant Services was draining my account. I kept calling them telling that they should stop withdrawing money from me because my account is closed in September, by they said no, it is still open. Then at the end of conversation they said ok, we will close the account. But then they kept it open, like my account is some kind of gold mining for them….
    My immediate agent was Matthew Kersker who confirmed that yes, he closed the account in September, and then when I eventually could get a hold of another rep, some Aileen who promised AGAIN to take care of this issue if I send her all the proof, (which I did)—she never bothered to write me back even when I asked several times. Matthew Kersker said that YES, it was a fault of Flagship Merchant Services, and they should have no problem to refund my money. Where is my money?!
    They even sent me letters threatening to file on me to credit bureau company and collection agency and that I would never again be able to open credit cards, or take loans, etc, and my credit history would be damaged. How they dare to treat me like that?!
    And after these months of my “battle” with them regarding my refunds, today, in Jan 30th 2015, I found a new surprise – they decided to close my account today. Really?? Well, that is indeed “interesting”. And where is my money that Flagship Merchant Services was unauthorized draining from my account? I am hurt, disappointed and humiliated. I doubt this Flagship Merchant Services will stand up, refund my money, the money that they took from me unlawfully. Shame on you, Flagship Merchant Services!!

  • Dale

    Found the charges on a monthly basis not clearly presented during sale of service.
    I Authorize appears to be a separate company and to get assistance required multiple phone calls between
    different companies – completely stupid. Extra charges for iAuthorize web service – not worth it at all – from
    the point of creating a transaction – there is no traceability to checking account deposit – completely stupid again!
    Don’t go here – not worth the trouble or the multiple phone calls you will make to try and get help. Anything but seemless experience.

  • Brandi Bogue

    Horrible company. We have been charged at least 20% of our charges in fees every month. We tried to cancel 2 accounts. It took 3 months, and of course, they continued to charge fees. They kept transferring us to new people, who also had no answers, gave fake fax numbers, claimed items mailed were never received, and one rep. said that he would enter a request for a refund. When we called back, we were told that no such request was filed. Representative claimed that we were notified in writing of the PCI compliance fees. We have every piece of mail they have ever sent us. There is no explanation of this fee. I contacted them to close the account and asked to speak to an operations manager. They told us that there was no way for them to contact the operations manager. Their call center manager and their website claim that they are top rated with the BBB. Outright lie! We have filed a complaint with the BBB and will be posting as many low ratings on consumer sights as possible. Nobody should have to deal with a company this crooked and dishonest. I will sign on for the class action suit when it happens!

  • Robert Moyers

    I also recently signed on with this company and after three days tried to cancel out, but they will not do it. I followed all their requirements. They will probably continue to bill me monthly for a service charge even though I will not be using their services. This merchant service should be put out of service. Matthew Peabody was my merchant representative. Robert Moyers

  • Mike and Little Buddy

    What a total rip off. We received “free” card reader and tons of non-understandable information in the mail. We were told it was a percentage of each sales transaction. We used the card reader once for $.01 as instructed by Flagship to make sure our banking information went through correctly. Within no time a $43 charge was deducted from out bank account. We reported the charge as fraudulent and 6 weeks later they referred us to a collection agency. They do not return phone calls or e-mails. Watch out for their deceptive business practices.

  • Joyce Ochoa

    In the same boat as most. When I sighed up I told the person I would probably only make 1-3 transitions a month if that and at $8 a month was a bit much for me but I was hoping that now I could charge I was hoping sales would be up, so I said ok. This was on the 15th of July and I didn’t activate untill the beginning of Aug. I was charged $16 they said $8 was for internet fee, wish I would have known. I sent them 2 faxes trying to cancel my account that I haven’t used and just recieved a statement of $40.90 because of $25.00 MIN DISCOUNT what ever that is. Guess I will have to cancel my checking account so I don’t get any more charges. Sooooooo easy to get started but trying to get this monkey off my back is horrible!!!!!!!!! Wish I had read these reviews first.

  • Donald Moehling

    Wow……. I wish I would of found this before I signed up with them ….

    Not only did I experience ALL of the negatives that were described in this review, but I honestly only had 1 positive experience with them in the entire process, and that was how fast and easy it was to get signed up.

    I see now that this was also a negative, as they are quick to take your money, but they spend next to no time explaigning anything to you, and once you call with ANY questions, the only thing you will get is an operator who is less than thrilled to be speaking with you, and they repeat the same information over and over again.

    “When you signed up, you were provided with your membership agreement, and all of the details are described in there. We are sorry that you can not read, but that is not our problem. ”

    Honestly that’s how bad their customer service is.

    In the begining I was getting socked with enourmous NON-PCI compliant fees every month.

    When I called in to ask about it, they polietly described the process, and said that I could correct that by taking 15 minutes to fill out an online form. Which I did.

    The next month, I get socked the $99 fee for PCI compliance, and when I called back to ask about that, I was told it was because I had become PCI compliant in the previous month, and that they charge $99 / year to offer that service.

    What a load of horse crap.

    I have no objection to paying the fees. The process is what it is. But lets be honest about what we are selling.
    No one, and I mean NO ONE told me that it was going to cost me $99 to become compliant.

    The wierdest part of the entire process was I was getting statements and notices from companies that I had never done business with.

    I signed up with FlagShipMerchant, and they put me in touch with Authorize.net….. so who in the heck is iPay, and why are they sending me stuff?

    Too much of a shell game for me to care about.

    I’m probably most frustrated becuase I literally just got of the phone with them, and yet again, there customer support was less than helpful in assisting me in canceling my services.

    Appears you have to give them “WRITTEN” notice, and it has to be 30 days notice and from there they have ANOTHER 30 days to leave your account pending to finalize any payments that might have clearned during your 30 day cancelation period, so there goes another 2 months of fees to them.

    Ugh……

    Seriosly people, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck….. it’s a duck.
    They are quick to sign you up and get you approved, and once you are on the hook, it takes forever to get off of it.

    Find someone else. There HAS to be a better option out there.

    Good luck to the rest of you.
    I hope you were smart enough to find this review prior to signing up, unlike me. :(

  • Keith Burris

    When I signed up for Flagship the guy told me there would be a $7.95 per month charge and 1.5% per transaction. At the end of the first month I got debits like $.03, $.07 and $40.35. When I called I as told this was because I was doing low volumn. It appears that they take $50.00 per month out of your swipes or out of your bank account on file. I asked to close account the first of November. After filling out the form and faxing it in they took theses charges out again. When I called he said they didn’t have the form. I emailed it to him and called to make sure he got it. I got an email notice that I was being charger the $7.95 in December. When I called he said th disregard because the account was closed. I thought ok. Well they took the $7.95 plus the other $50.00. When I called him he said it was because I didn’t get him the form in time. I took my money out of my account and closed it. They won’t get any more from me. I shouldn’t have to do this. If your thinking about using this company please think again.

  • Al VanPliet

    I signed up with Flagship for my Limo business. My supposed rep told me I would pay 1.5% on swipes with a @5 cent charge per swipe and $7.99 a month service fee. I asked if there were any additional charges or hidden charges and he told me no. The 1st month they took out $40.90 and I called and emailed him and didnt get a response at all until I finally called and he answered the phone Brian Crook is his name and the last name fits to a tee. I told him I wasnt happy with the service I was getting and to cancel my account this was in an email even before they charged me, He sent me a form to fill out which I did and they charged the $40.90 a 2nd time. I never even used the service. They refuse to refund my money so I either have to sue them or take it on the chin.

  • Margaret Lois Jansen

    In August I discovered that Flagship Merchant Services had set up an account in my name that was fraudulent. My business name and EIN had been stolen and combined with the SSN of an 83 year old woman. I notified them immediately and received in return copies of the application. Numerous red flags, as in the birth date was 1929 and the names for the signature and typed names were different. Over $3600 was run through this fraudulent account that I notified them about. Now they are trying to collect that money from me and have sent the account to Collections. They knew it was fraudulent because I had told them and sent them the Police Report I had made…and now, to cover their incompetence in setting up without verifying (as in a simple Google search of my name would have indicated the inconsistencies with the info on the application) , they are trying to collect from me. They knew the name on the account was fraudulently used…I have names and dates for my conversations with them and the email in which they sent me the application. Their Collection Agent from CrediSolve was rude and mocking of my response to his demand. He told me I needed a lawyer, suggesting that a legal action is coming. And, yes, I know the law provides numerous protections and remedies for such individuals as myself, and I will avail myself of everyone of them if a law suit is filed to collect these funds from an account I neither created nor authorized nor benefited from.

  • Doug

    I recently used Flagship as a processor for a non-profit fundraising event. We wanted the ability to also accept credit cards (to also reduce the risk of bad checks), but wanted something straight-forward for our very small fundraiser.
    I contacted the sales rep, told him exactly our needs and that our “sales” are going to be relatively low and then he proceed to inform me of the monthly fee and swipe fees. then we walked me through this page of fees and mentioned on several fee sections: “don’t worry about that”; “that will not be an issue for you”, etc…

    We got signed up, and off we were selling for our fund raiser, then the first month statement came… Wow – was I kicked in the back end! Fees galore! I called those people so many times, I think I made telemarketers look bad! they were very difficult to get to see my side of the story and did not hardly budge on refunds when I was informed that I was not told about this fee, etc… Oh by the way, I informed them to active my account as of the 1st and they activated prior to the 1 of the month so I got charged a “partial-month” fee, even though I had no activity for those 3 days!

    Instead of boring you will all the details – Flagship is not a good option for very small non-profits trying to raise a few bucks and Flagship was not very supportive of our efforts. I almost feel like any sort of profits we may have gained were eaten up by fees charged by Flagship. Because they “conveniently” link to your bank account, they pull money out faster than they put money in. and it is very hard to get that money back in.

  • BETSY HARTSOCK

    This has to be, by far, the worse credit card processor I’ve ever had the misfortune of doing business with..
    I closed my account because the customer service person I spoke with was not totally forthcoming with all of the fees involved. In addition, I was never told there was a per month limit or per customer limit. To add insult to injury, after closing the account, my bank account was charged $291.65 for what amounted to a little over $1,100 in two credit card transactions. I think that’s a bit excessive. “Buyer beware”!

  • Brett Rogers

    DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH FLAGSHIP!

    I was with them for over two years. My rep left, and then no one could look at my account because the privilege to do so was tied to him. That was a hassle whenever I had questions, and they increased their fees over time. The cost of doing business with them was simply too much.

    As a customer with lots of experience with them, I highly discourage you from doing business with them.

  • Chris

    DO NOT EVER USE FLAGSHIP MERCHANT SERVICES!

    We used these inept fools for almost a year and had them screw us over in multiple ways and when I finally cancelled their contract they didn’t file it, I cancelled it again and they still kept charging me. Finally after the third time they cancelled it, only to find out that the terminal they use (authorized.net) is still charging us!

    Terrible service, do not communicate with the portals and services they use, and they cannot seem to do anything right.

    Chris

  • Carol

    I also signed up with this company to do online sales from our online store. I was told it would be under $16 a month. Got my first statement and it was $32. It was only then that they tell me there is a minimum amount that must be met to get that pricing and if you don’t meet it it’s $25 a month with a $7 statement fee! They try to blame the customer for everything and say it’s all in the application. But their person just told be to verify all the personal info he input for me online and that is all I did. He didn’t point out any pricing on the application. I take some responsibility for being so dumb as to think someone would be truthful but they are not the company to deal with. Try and find someone else and ALWAYS READ EVERY WORD!!! No matter how they try to hurry you or talk you out of reading stuff. We will see if I get my money back in a timely manner and if they try and charge me for anything else. I am sick of lying sales people. All the things they say about them are true!
    Don’t sign up with this company!!!!

  • Sue Clarahan

    On June 3rd, I called in inquire about pricing. Megan Roma was my customer service rep and had me fill out some information that would make my application easier if I decided to go with Flagship. Megan was very aggressive on the phone and told me that my information would be set aside and she would call me the next day to see if I wanted to go with Flagship. I decided not to go with flagship and told her that on 6/4/2013. She faxed me a form to close an account.–an account I never gave permission to open.
    Thinking that I never had an account opened, imagine my surprise when my checking account was debited $32.95 from Flagship. I call to tell them there was a mistake and I would like to be reimbursed. After more than an hour on the phone and speaking to 4 different people, I was told I did open the account–I asked them to retrieve the phone records to see I did not give permission to open an account. I was told they could not, that Megan did not work for Flagship but worked for the company that contracted to Flagship–
    Awful, awful customer service. Would not recommend Flagship to anyone due to their deceptive practices on the phone and no path to resolution.

  • Rich Nelson

    I signed up with Flagship about two weeks ago. I ran two sales through them both where 2048.00, they accepted both transactions and two weeks later, NO money, where is my money, so I called my merchant rep. he, sent me to there risk dept. OK, they tell me that i failed there ID test, ??? was not even aware such a thing was done. OK, but where is my money?, they respond by telling me they have my money and i can not have it. They are going to keep it for 6 months so as to protect themselves from charge backs, ok, I understand, but this was never told me in the beginning. So now, I ask them to just cancel my account send the money back to the card holder and i will go someplace else. they say NO…hum, not there money, wont give it to the people who it belongs to.

    Cut to the end, it took three days and a couple hours on the phone to get them to give the money back to the card holder and that will take a week, then i have to use my new CC company swipe them again,,,all in all, I will get my money 4 weeks (Approx) after this whole mess started. my opinion,

    Flagship is bad news, STAY AWAY. I was lied to numerous times and the salesman, they don’t care what happens after the sale.

    • Gary

      Rich,

      We recently signed Flagship as our Merchant service provider. We are late model high-line car dealership and our transaction limits would obviously need to be somewhat high. Subsequently, our first transaction was $10k and was over the limit they had set. short of it… hope you could save me a step or two to get the card holder reimbursed so we can go a different route for payment. We will definitely be writing a review either positive or negative when this is over. It is just not right what flagship is doing! PLEASE ADVISE…

    • CBernstein

      This is very much what happened to us, after explicitly stating to the the sales rep our price points and what our limits would need to be. He (Marc Ferullo) set us up with an absurdly low limit for our business. In fact he set our monthly limit to our average single line item price! Leaving us with several transactions in the first week that were to be held for up to 6 months- except they did not inform us for days- at which point we find out about IPayment, Inc.– (WHO??? was my exact response) We were asked for paperwork so they could raise the limit, Several days later they asked for more- then we were told it was unlikely they would accept our cc processing history since we’d set this one up on a new account. At this point we felt left with no choice but to refund the clients, cancel with Flagship, I payment, etc and start over- (Back to Square)
      Suddenly they want to talk! We’ve canceled, But based on what I have read here, we have now also have filed affidavits with our bank to be sure that no additional further funds can be taken from our account- for any reason, – by any of these companies.

      • Rich Nelson

        After more than a month they tried to charge my bank account for services rendered, in the month of June after they had already shut us off.
        Sorry you all had the same experience, they will die with there business tactics…

  • Sandra

    I was very disappointed. I have been charged for two months $32.95 for a service I had not even used yet.
    Very upsetting. I have to rate them to have the account cancelled… I would never use them for anything.

  • C. Andrews

    We have been with Flagship for about 10 months, and are still findings ways that we feel the company misrepresented their policy toward us. (1) They sold us terminals that they said were ours and could be reprogrammed to another vendor, if we left Flagship. Apparently, not so. (2) Flagship told us that debit cards would be a much lower rate than credit cards, but that we didn’t need to enter in debit on the terminal (FD55’s), or need a PIN. Turns out, the terminals are blocked from doing debit, and most of the charges (80%) or so are in the higher tiers. (3) Statements show “Total Fees” which are not total fees. The daily amount of card sales are discounted, and the net is credited to our account.(in 3 or 4 days). Actual total fees are about triple what are shown on the statements. I would suggest looking elsewhere for a card processor.

  • James Nielson

    First, a correction/update: Flagship’s rating on BBB is currently a B and I suspect it will continue to drop, as they seem to have screwed over THOUSANDS of people.

    I’ll spare everyone the full details of MY 5-month ordeal with Flagship/iPayment. But… whether by error or some other motivation, they started double-billing me via my personal account as well as my business account. It took a while for ME (not them) to figure it out due to the fact that their people don’t even understand their own convoluted organization, so by the time I realized what was going on I was out $400+, and they were content to keep it. They refused to close my accounts, they fought the reversal of funds by my credit union, and have not done anything to remedy the “error”.

    Yada yada… DON’T DO IT! These complaints are from REAL people! Regardless of how well researched they are (as this one seems to be), any positive reviews you see of Flagship/iPayment are from people/organizations that have NO REAL EXPERIENCE dealing with them as a client!

  • Hong

    Don’t be fooled by reviews on TopTenReviews.com
    Based on their review, I decided to open an account AND I was told that there is $7 monthly charge(not bad). But my wife’s small business was still in the setup precess and she decided to hold off accepting CC(didn’t mind paying $7 a month because that is the contract). I noticed there was $32.90 charged from Flagship and I immediately called and their explanation was that there is another charges if you less than $1000 CC transaction a month which I have never been told. Well, I sent closure request and was told it can take up to 30 days to be closed. They received request on mid January, I’m still being charged as of Mar. 5th.
    Just stay away from this place. Do your home work. Hope you don’t go through what I had to.

  • Albert

    Man o man where was this blog before I signed up with flagship? Everything I’ve experienced since signing up in November of 2012 is totally true. I guess that’s what I get for a reading and believing a merchant review site created by the flagship marketing team.

    I got great service when I was signing up with Kyle Loconte ext 141 “Senior Account Representative” I explained to Kyle that I was still setting up my business bank information and I would provide updated info in a few days. Easy right?

    I sent over the information and assumed it would be taken care of and proceeded to take my first orders. Well I guess assumption IS the mother of all Eff ups they say. The second day I noticed the money was being deposited into my personal bank account because no one had ever switched the information over. This also caused the “red flag” to go off in their risk department which of course puts everything on hold.

    Another gentleman by the name of Anthony Vasquez calls me from risk and tells me to send the usual information while they run their “investigation”. The usual invoice, tracking, descriptions, etc. Long story short their review took 6 days after having escalated to corporate execute offices about the lack of anything resembling customer service. Meanwhile having to process orders under my personal bank account so I can prove to flagship that I’m actually sending the orders that I’m taking payments on. This is the really great part since I’m the one under review to make sure I’m legitimate but it’s the merchant who still takes their fees and keeps my money. The customer still gets their products, they get their fees and what do I get? Investigation time!

    I finally put an end to the madness by switching my main payments to PayPal which thank fully is a legitimate company and knows how to work with all types of business’s. My initial review with PayPal took a few hours and was setup by the afternoon. They conducted another review a few weeks in which lasted another few hours. Easy.

    I ended up setting up a merchant account with Bank of America and now use a combo of both BOA and PayPal and couldn’t be happier with the customer service I get from both companies. BOA’s rates are competitive and PayPal’s convenience and service make their fees worth while I believe.

    Unfortunately my account is still open with flagship….why? Because no one answers the phone, no one returns your emails…nothing! It’s completely insane how this company can even be allowed to operate with what they call “service”.

    If you have any value for yourself and anyone else taking credit card payments please do them a favor and do not recommend flagship.

    Run away. You can’t have this many people saying the same exact thing over and over and over if it isn’t true. Trust me.

    Rant over..

    Albert

  • Patricia

    NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, DO NOT USE FLAGSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Since day one, I have been lied too, taken advantage of and paid out more fees then anyone I have ever worked with. I won’t get into everything they did, there isn’t enough space. I will however share some of the worst offenses.
    1. I had 3 fraud cases. They do not call you, email you nothing digital. What they do to alert you is send you a letter in the mail! I never got the letters. Instead the way I found out was when the money was taken. I called and explained that all the fraud deals were legit on my part, meaning I had proof of sale, invoice and proof of shipment. They said they could not use that because the CC regulation states the address must match in order to not get a charge back. As I own an eCommerce site that sells NCAA products, I have a ton of parents who send their out of state kids products that they paid for. That is a lie. Paypal/Bank of America told me that every merchant makes up their own rules and as long as you showed proof of inv and shipping fraud charges were dropped regardless of mix matched shipping and billing addresses.
    2. After I called them they will place an audit on your acct, this means that they freeze your acct so no money can go thur but of course orders are still being placed. They made sure to take out their share of fees with every single new order placed and help onto my money for nearly 3 weeks…we are taking about thousands!
    3. I was sen to their fraud department who told me that in order to release my funds they pick out randomly 15 inv. they wanted me to send the contact information to. This was because they were gonna call my clients direct to make sure the CC was their CC. These orders they pick out had nothing to do with the 3 fraud ones in question. It took them all that time to contact everyone, not to mention they probably scared my clients.
    4. Today, I decided I’ve had enough (My partner went through complete hell with them too!) so I called to cnl. I was sent to 3 diff departments until i finally had to escalate to a manager. Then I was told I had to be faxed a paper to cnl and then fax it back. To my shock after this was done, they drained my holding bank account for those 3 fraud charges that are not even considered chargebacks yet, they disputed on my behalf with out asking me and now they must wait until the bank gets back them to tell them if they are true chargebacks. I was told it could take months, maybe even a yr for th ebanks to respond to them. They said if it comes back fine then they will release those funds back to me.

    I don’t know if I did a great job expressing exactly how bad this all was, and I know that I didn’t tell you guys every single thing they did to me and to my partner with his businesses. I just don’t have enough time to drawl it all out…all I hope to do is get out the word that FLAGSHIP is a bad company and they do dirty things to businesses. If I can prevent even just one person from having to go through a nightmare they put me through, i will be happy knowing I helped someone.

  • CHRISSY

    STAY AWAY FROM FLAGSHIP!! THEY ARE DECEPTIVE, UNHELPFUL, UNKNOWLEDGEABLE, AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SMALL BUSINESSES. I can’t tell you how many repeated problems I have had with this company, even right from the start. As a small business owner I feel like I have been ripped off and taken. I’ve never had a company try to slip extra fees into a contract like this one has and customer service that is the most useless I have ever seen. I switched to merchant warehouse, and I’m happier than ever.

  • Barry

    Worst Merchant Every……..

    After searching around for many merchant accounts i came across Flagship, and thought they would be the best fit for my business(Wrong)!

    First: The sales rep. at extension 141 sells me this dream that she is my customer service for anything i just contact her blah blah blah… it was only this way during the application process, which i was approved for then the young lady at extension 141 never answers the phone, email etc etc……

    Second: When i finally get my Welcome packet in the mail it says IPAYMENT( and i am thinking i never signed up with ipayment??? but hey at this time its worth a shot) i processed about 8,000 in one week worth of sales, and i get a call from jeana in the risk department, Long story short she says you did too much volume we are going to hold your money and not refund your customers have a good day

    NEVER USE FLAGSHIP OR IPAYMENT

  • John Tarrant

    I opened what was to be a very temporary account with Flagship. I never received the card reader, for which I paid $29 for shipping(!). I then spent a week trying to get them to send me the form I needed to get the account closed, which they finally did. Now a month later I have a charge of $32.95 to my checking account, for What?? I am now trying to resolve this issue. Customer service stinks!

  • Lindy Yarborough

    (Fees). To start they were not upfront with their charges. They state that their fees are the lowest but at the end of the month when they reconcile they take just about the same amount that was already deducted from the charges as non qualifying card charges. Then you are charged a fee from the swiper company roam data. I was also charged for two months in a row a fee that required their merchants to go to a website to do a questionnaire to become compliant.

    (Service) After receiving all the charges and fees each month I would end up calling either customer support or the sales agent to ask about charges which always resulted in being a huge run around with poor customer service. The gals at the corporate office were never helpful and simply were not interested in customer care. My sales agent responded promptly most of the time but with useless responses and would often have me call here or there and rarely took the time to research the issue for me.

    In the end they did lower the fees for me, but by that time I no longer had any faith, trust or respect for this company and cancelled their services. I would much rather pay a company a higher rate with better service and upfront fees.

    • Josh

      I’ve had the same issues. We signed up with them and were quoted one rate but EVERY customer had non qualifying cards. They charged us extra fees they couldn’t explain what they were. We even had a $10 processing fee for a $2 payment!
      We were charged extra fees that on the bill only said additional fees without any description of what said additional fees were for. When we chose to cancel our month to month contract we were charged for 3 additional months after the cancellation. Each month was the same story of send a copy of the signed cancellation form to such and such email and we will refund you. Well three months later they have taken over $350 in charges for an account that was closed.

    • Josh

      I’ve had the same issues. We signed up with them and were quoted one rate but EVERY customer had non qualifying cards. They charged us extra fees they couldn’t explain what they were. We even had a $10 processing fee for a $2 payment!
      We were charged extra fees that on the bill only said additional fees without any description of what said additional fees were for. When we chose to cancel our month to month contract we were charged for 3 additional months after the cancellation. Each month was the same story of send a copy of the signed cancellation form to such and such email and we will refund you. Well three months later they have taken over $350 in charges for an account that was closed that they even admit was closed.

  • angel castillo

    I just got their service a month ago and I never had more problem getting service from anyone then Flagship merchant svc. after processing transactions for the first two weeks, they held our money (under investigation) from October 10 to October 31. This guy from Flagship that promised they have the top rated credit card service, never answered my calls. I’m cancelling their service.
    Don’t recommend this company to anyone.

  • Jay

    Had a transaction flagged for no reason, they said monthly maximum was 2500. it is infact 5000. So they flagged a 4000 sale. I sent everything they asked for within 20 min, they verified all info and spoke with customer, said funds would be released within 2 hours. Im still waiting on week 2. not one single returned phone call yet. have been ignored and lied to every time i call. every single person who i get on the phone after 45 min is extremely rude and yells. they hang up on me when they cant give a legitimate answer or get caught lying. The lady GINA is the rudest person i have ever talked to.Every time i get her on a phone she says the funds will be released today. 14 days later im on hold again. 38 mins and counting… do not do business with this company. they keep your money and dont answer the phone, dont have a reason, lie every time, and returned ZERO phone calls in 15 days of this situation….. save yourselves…

    • GUY

      Hi Jay Have you considered legal action ? I have just opened an account with Flagship and Im having the same exact problem you are. My issue is now 8 days old and Im getting the feeling IM getting the run around. The money was approved as I entered the card number and transaction on my machine, I closed out the batch which was also accepted. I received a call 2 days later stating the funds are held up, as it exceeded the limit. Totally unaware of this issue when initially applying. Like you I scattered and got all the info they required to correct the problem and not a follow up phone call. I have been extremely persistent, but Im not getting anywhere with them. un anaswered call, voice mail only. My big problem is this, what legal right do they have to hold in abeyance my money or my customers money. Thats why I ask if you consulted with a lawyer. Please advise. Im ready to contact my US Senator to look into this company as I was astounded to see all the complaints that mirror mine. Please advise GUY

      • Ashley

        Good Luck. They told me they would not release my funds. I had to do a refund to the card holder and receive payment a different way. Created problems for myself and the customer. And mine was a government awarded contract paid by a government purchase card. You would think that would hold minimum risk. That took like 3 weeks to even get told they were not releasing funds. You never get a returned phone call. Then this month they charged me $18.00 monthly fee,$5.00 fee and $1,450 for the transaction they would run run! And I get told yesterday it will take at least a month to get a refund. And mind you I cancelled my account last month but still got the monthly charges. By the way I got told they were only $5.00 no idea where this 18 comes in

  • Ashley

    I am VERY dissatisfied with this service. I told them my credit card processing amount that would be average. We are a company and have higher dollar transactions. They made me sign a paper saying $10,000 ticket was my high but that I just had to call when I was processing a higher amount. SOOOO I had to process a $50,000 amount the card holder released the funds to me, but Flagship will not issue my money to me! The lady GINA in risk department must have got her pride hurt because the card holder refused to give her information about me (she did not even identify herself just as a credit card service) so they are denying my money. I have just signed up with PAYJUNCTION and used them in the past and never had any issues with them. I highly recommend to NOT USE this company! They are extremely rude and DO NOT call back. I guess in their world holding thousands of dollars is no big thing

  • andy

    I find that likemost cc processors deceptionis their down fall , At least one thing you can stop using this company after they pull the shanty bussiness ways of billing . the more you get paid by cc the more it will cost you and the more you get paid by amounts over 1k the more you will pay for fees and discount rate. Looking for another company already two months into the program with flagship.

  • Tim J Dayney

    This company sucks. I set up my account to take payment from a very important company in order to complete a job. I took payment and the funds are still being held after three days. I called the customer service and they gave me the run around for over an hour just to say “It is not our fault you were counting on funds to be available”. I though that was why I was seting up credit payment in the firs place. The only person who has any access to my account is my sales rep and they have limited availability. I feel like I have been stolen from and this has cost me a lot of un neccessary expenses.

  • Marlene

    What a bunch of crooks! Try canceling this service once you’ve started it! Impossible. We were shocked at all the extra charges added to our billing. So we attempted to cancel in June 2012, after one month of service. We were assured the service was canceled. Oh, but wait! We received a bill for the month of July! I immediately called Shawn, the operations manager, he once again assured me he would cancel it himself and we would have anymore charges. But, alas, today we received our statement for the month of August. Mind you we haven’t used this service since mid June. I called Roam Data, the sender of the invoice. They can’t do anything except collect money. The lovely man on the other end of the line said “not my fault” call Flagship. He transfered me. Flagship voice mail said it was after hours for them an to leave a message, which I did of course.

    My experience is that between Roam Data and Flagship they blame each other and the service doesn’t get canceled. No one takes ownership. So we continue to get billed. . WE ARE DONE!

    • Georgia Gaudette

      OMG!! I wish I would have read these reviews before I signed up for them! I was charged for the Roma Data and then the welcome kit came in the mail. The software was in about seven pieces so I could not use it. I called Kyle the rep that was working with me and he told me he would send another. About a week and a half went by, still nothing. I e-mailed him to ask where the software was and he said it was being processed. Okay so I wait another week and a half and get a bill from merchant services stating that they debited 32.95 out of my account. I never downloaded it nor had I even used it at all. I immediately got in touch with Kyle and told him I was no longer interested because I now have a bad taste in my mouth. He responded back that he did not even know what software I was talking about. I asked for the cancellation form which I immediately sent back. I was just charged another 32.95 this morning from there merchant service again. I’m furious!! I never even used the service once. I again called to speak to the merchant service dept. They do not refund money, and I had to fax another account closure form and still may be charged again for Nov. They are the biggest crooks!! To anyone seeking their service, I only want to say RUN NOW!!! You will be ripped off!!!

  • Log Lodge Motel & Cabins

    Stay away from this crocks. This is unbelievable it is Hard to explain what I faced with those crazy people since I open merchant account with them. Everything they said on the contract it is not true, first of all they are taking out of account monthly fee not $7.99 they are taking out $59.95. Than they say that they can not take their monthly fee out of my account because my account is block. Listen this it is block but they took out instead of $20.75 they took out $45.75. I spend on the phone with them almost every day, when I do batch report I can not finished because of them, I have to call them on the phone, I have to do each time some numbers in out, telephone line in out, every time something to try to finish with the batching. Customer service: Veronica, Rose, and so many others name are junk, good for nothing, they hang up on me, they don’t want to talk, they don’t have time, their time is limited, they did not send me any statement, I don’t have clue what they are deducting and taking. You must be completely out of your mind to work with this crazy people. I am going to report them everywhere.

  • DAN

    I’m a 15 year small business owner. We decided to take credit cards only a short time ago. Contacted Flagship Merchant services and the sales rep mislead us in all areas. As part of this arrangement we have Flagship, Authorize.net, and iPayment.net all getting money from us. It takes 72 hours for Flagship to make available a charge – even though they have already approved and had a successful settlement. So we went from paying nothing and receiving checks in 2-3 days, to paying 4% for a charge, $50.00 per month in fees, and near a week for receipt of funds in our bank. This arrangement has been the worst decision we’ve made in a long time. On the plus side, the charges do go through our website without issue.

  • Tom

    Flagship fees are most disconcerting and the PCI fee of $99.00 regardless of compliance status is outrageous, but this is not the biggest issue with Flagstaff. The word of customer service representatives is often ignored. You may talk to a very informed and professional representative, but don’t hang up the phone feeling that your issue(s) are solved. You must be very very vigilant of your account and persistent.

    Should you decide to close your account, good luck. Despite the 5 faxes I sent to Flagstaff, my account remained open for months and I was billed. I did mange to close my account, but 4 months after my account was closed I was assessed the PCI fee anyway.

    When dealing with Flagstaff..beware.

  • Roger

    Stay away from Flagship a.k.a. iPayment! They’re awful, rude and all around unprofessional. Their fees are not what they claim, it’s very difficult to get your money from them, even though the transactions are approved by authorize.net. They are a middle man between authorize.net and your money. And then when you try to close your account, hold on to your hats, folks. Awful, awful, awful.

  • Jule Miller

    I signed up with the promise of next day deposits. That was a lie. First of all, to get that they say takes over a month and then only if you upload by 3pm PST. After processing $7,000 from Friday and Saturday, I got $900 Monday. Such lying crap. Nathaniel Short set me up and was totally dishonest. I have not found one that is totally honest yet. Such a slimy industry.

  • Marie Hines

    I am extremely displeased with the services I received from this company. Flagship Merchant Services does not operate at all like the representative stated to me before my enrollment a week ago. Last Friday,when I called Customer support, I got bullied to the extreme from a representative called Joseph (Risk Department) who flat out refused to let me speak to any supervisor,when I asked to and later on in the conversation just hang up the phone on me. Today(Monday)I just found out that the above mentioned Joseph, closed my account without my permission on Friday after talking to me.He didn’t have the decency,or/and the ethic to send me an email or to call to inform me about his decision.So my business was without payment means all weekend until today. When I called him today,he was very arrogant and condescending towards me and he bullied me anew. Also he informed me that according to my contract he can close my account without stating any reason. He wouldn’t explain anything to me and threaten to hang up the phone. Furthermore he informed me that the funds of the two(2) transactions ($approximately $1700) that were made from my business through this company within that week membership, will be held up to 90 days for “security purposes”. He would not explain further. I tried to call a supervisor or/and manager without success, but was always directed back to that representative: Joseph. Today has been 2 and a half weeks and I still do not have my funds and I still did not receive no call, no emails from Flagship Merchant Services. My business has a legal umbrella along with business insurance, and I am going to look for legal counsel because of unfair practices and loss of gain. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY, as they are a bunch of scam artists that will sit on your money for ever and treat you like garbage.
    This is by far the worst customer service I ever experimented. Believe me no one show have to deal with such rude, disrespectful, dishonest people.

  • Marg

    When Flagship Merchant Services was unable to properly deliver my credit card terminal I declined to do busines with them. I was told all my monies would promptly be refunded. A month later not only had they not refunded my money they gave out my bank account information to others who had for months been taking money from our bank account. When I contacted them (IPayment, Thousand Oaks, CA) they just told me lie after lie. The best part was when they told me all this was my fault. I was supposed to just know that Flagship had given my bank account information to others. Do NOT do business with them. Any business the would not refund monies properly as promised and then give out your bank account information is not on the up and up.

    • Andy

      Flagshpi does not give bank account/personal info out, Flagship is the sales office and ipayment is the processor….it’s all one company.

      Just like Apply is your iphone and AT&T or verizon is your service.

  • Natalia

    The service at Flagship is terrible. The first time I phoned Flagship to discuss my statement the agent hung up on me. The second time I phoned Flagship to discuss my statement the agent transferred my call to a phone sex line (seriously). On both occasions I filed a complaint with supervisors and was told that they would follow up. Unfortunately no one followed up and I do not know if the agents were ever reprimanded. I hope that Flagship implements better training for and screening of its agents. At the very least agents should be polite to the people who help make their jobs possible.

  • chris

    HORRIBLE HORRIBLE COMPANY!!! THEY ARE CROOKS!! I closed my acct December and they are still charging me fees and withdrawing funds out of my account. FILE a fruad claim with your bank. This will not allow them to withdraw funds anymore you can also close your acct if need be but like me I cannot. I will be seeking legal council if I have to if they dont stop. I now use Merchant warehouse and are happy with them. I document EVER conversation, fax and email too. Funny how the employees dont give their last name. When you ask for a manager one is not avaliable. How conveinent.

    • Never use Flagship

      Exact same experience with HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE company. I started my account but my business was not ready. Requested at same month and after changed me two months my account still not get closed. I hadn’t have any activity with them and got charged more than $70. Everyone answered your question with a different answers. yWhen you request close your account, you need to at least pay two more months monthly charge.
      Service man is HORRIBLE ,HORRIBLE , I will go to BBB to get my refund back.

  • Madison Jones

    I just signed up with this company and processed my first transaction on Jan 21, I am STILL waiting for my funds. I was supposed to have a high ticket of 1k, but apparently to get my approved quickly Will Teleau just wrote it up for $500. So when I processed my first trasaction of $700 I got a call 2 days later asking me to complete a limit increase which I faxed over 5 minutes later. Mid week, still no funds so I call and speak to Rose in Risk Management thats supposedly handling it, she claims I was asked to fax in the invoice for the transaction, I was NOT asked that and she bascially called me a liar. So I faxed that over to her within 5 minutes and she said she would be right on it. The next week, still no funds. I call on Wed and she claims she just looked at it Tues and then wanted to go over the name on the invoice. At this point I am mad, as its now 1/31…She says its her problem because she is overworked… REALLY?! I think its MY problem because its MY money they are holding! Its no 2/3 and still NO money!! No calls back from messages left for supervisors, my account manager, or anyone. Absolutely horrible service. I highly recommend going elsewhere for your credit card processing services!

  • Pam

    THis company has ruined my bisness. THey deposited funds into my account int he first month. That was the last deposit.

    Every month that we made money their fees went up – it totaled about 75% or more of what ever we were making. WHen we made $29, they charge $25. When we made $140 they charge $110.

    It went on h like this for months… I have beenrtying to cancel since APRIL (it is now December) and they refuse to send me any money….. the little bit htat was left over they still kept. I had to close down credit card processing on my site.

    These people LIE and STEAL.
    SHAME on them!

  • ANNETTE MCGILVRAY

    Stay away from this company they will rip you off. We opened an account with them in Nov. 2010 and have been trying to close it since May of 2011. Once you are set up with them they will start nickel and dimeing you to death. It starts with hidden fees then the pci compliance it goes on and on. Once the customer service realizes your on to them they get really nasty. It is Nov. of 2011 and I’m still trying to get credits for my Authorize.net portion that Flagship never canceled.

  • Mary Pacheco

    I had them for over a year. I went ahead and paid the $47 a month fee for a while because I didn’t want to lose my credit card paying clientele. When I became ill and could not work for a few months, I decided to cancel. They would not cancel. I kept getting the run-around, and even was told that they had no record of me ever trying to cancel. Then they started calling me and sending me emails about PCI-Compliance. For over a year I had no problems with them and they said nothing about this PCI Compliance. Now I’m receiving bills for over $500, and they are STILL refusing to close my account. Finally, I had to close my bank account. Somehow they were still able to charge this closed account, and now I’m in collections with this bank. This is just horrible! Especially since I was sick and really did not feel like dealing with this in the first place. I still have not been able to get them to close the account. If anyone has information on how to get them to close this account, I would really appreciate that information.

  • Herschel Everett

    I am reporting about Flagship Merchant Services/ Authorize.net. They will charge you till the cows come home. We canceled our their service on September 7th due to the August fees, but they continued to keep our account active till the 20th of September to bill us more. They told us that the cut-off time for canceling service is the 5th. Here is the run down on the charges.

    ARB FEE $10.00
    GATEWAY$9.00
    FRAUD $9.95 September pre-charges

    ARB FEE $10.00
    PRORATED GATEWAY $9.00
    PRORATED FRAUD $9.95
    SUB TOTAL $46.24 August charges

    GRAND TOTAL
    FOR AUGUST
    PLUS PRE-PAID FOR SEPTEMBER $46.24

    So we closed our account as of September 7th but they continue to keep our account active till the 20th of September.

    Billed us for services we didn’t use

    Authorized.net charges $10.05

    Flagship Merchant services $3.35

    Total for October $13.40

  • Adam

    This company are thieves. They were suppossed to switch my service with Authorize.Net. They never did. Not one transaction went through them and they are refusing to refund my money. They ignored my requests to cancel the service. When I finally did they said I was too late. They are unbelievable.

    • Larry little

      I went through authorize.net. They cancelled my $16 monthly hidden access fee with a direct phone call. Flagship will not cancel the account, because they never get my fax closure form– say only half of it came through. I am cancelling because they did not tell me about the$16 a month fee, they now want to reduce to $3. They are a rip off for the merchant. STAY away—-

    • Phillip CPO

      Hi Michael, thanks for the information. Can you tell me where you heard that Flagship Merchant Services is now called FrontStream Payments? I would like to verify it for the next update of the review. Flagship has a separate website from FrontStream and I have never seen anything that says the two companies are affiliated with eachother.

  • Thresa

    I dislike their $99 fee (they didn’t tell at first) for annual compliance fee, plus $19.95 additional fee if you are not pci-compliance, means you don’t pass the security questionaire. I am relieved to switch to Chase payment tech now since the salesman ( the one I got) is super nice. They offer lower rates and no pci fee.

  • RON

    wow what crooks. I have had them for 4 months and i finally had time to look at my statement and i am shocked. they might charge 2% on total transaction but their fees will kill you. I have 35 in discount and 77dollars in fees like, bathch fees, customer service fees, gateway fees, and other crazy fees.

    CROOKS CROOKS CROOKS, will be canceling with them with in the week once i have setup other merchant accounts.

    • Ron

      We too have been a victim by Flagship Merchant Services unlawful practices. But since our business has an insurance umbrella that includes legal counsel, we contacted an attorney and got immediately our money that was held under false pretense.
      This is what we found out:

      Flagship Merchant Services work for a company called iPayment,Inc ( )

      Ipayment,Inc (not Flagship Merchant Services) is in fact the company that is registered respectively with Visa, MasterCard and the sponsoring Member Bank (in this case Wells Fargo Bank, NA 1200 Montego Bay, Walnut Creek, CA) and that is charged with the duty of acquiring merchant contracts and supporting them on behalf of said sponsoring bank & credit cards companies

      Flagship Merchant Services work is to recruit small business merchants online or else for Ipayment,Inc

      When a small business owner signs a Flagship Merchant account agreement/contract it is NOT AT ALL with Flagship Merchant Services, it is just a binding contact giving the company iPayment,Inc ( ) ALL TYPES of legal right to basically do whatever with your money, including unlawful fees & money withholding.( Please read the fine print of the bottom of page 2 of your contract, as well as page 3 -you will be amazed_)

      Also, looked over your Flagship Merchant Services application/contract today, you will notice that said Merchant application/contract has not been signed either by:

      a)- any representative from Flagship

      AND

      b)- any representative from Ipayment,Inc

      which in fact makes that application/contract incorrect, unlawful and voidable.

      The contract company Flagship have violated a state’s consumer protection laws by not having specifics in writing (role of Flagship and role of Ipayment) and by not giving you a document that is dutifully signed , among other things. Depending on how the offered merchant services was “sold” to you, Flagship may have had to give you a notice of Ipayment right to cancel your merchant account processor.

      Flagship Merchant Services as well as Ipayment,Inc are guilty of unfair and deceptive acts & practices (UDAP) but they are very careful in choosing small businesses with small merchants that are not able to legally defend themselves, whether it is because of lack of knowledge or/and lack of money for legal battles.

      If you have been victim from Flagship Merchant Services and consequently Ipayment,Inc, I will advise you to do the following:

      – Locate and hire a Consumer Law Attorney if you can afford it

      – email all your supporting documents (email addresses provided), for the transaction(s) made by your business, through Flagship Merchant Account Services, whose funds are withheld.

      Here below is a link for all available Ipayment,Inc emails addresses & telephone numbers;

      Contact SPECIFICALLY t those four (4) top executives at Ipayment, inc listed below:

      Carl Grimstad: President and Chief Executive Officer, Chairman (private phone: [redacted])

      Philip J. Ragona: Senior Vice President and General Counsel

      Mark Monaco: Chief Financial Officer, Director Tel: 615-665-1858, ext 115

      Robert Torino: Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

      Hope this advice will help you.

      Good Luck!

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