Pivotal Payments
Review Updated: 11/28/2011
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Pivotal Payments Overview
Pivotal Payments Logo
Pivotal Payments (pivotalpayments.com) is a large Independent Sales Organization (ISO) with operations in both the U.S. and Canada headquartered in Melville, New York and St. Catharines, Ontario, respectively. Founded in 2003, Pivotal acquired Cardex Corporation and Tangerine Payment Solutions and rebranded both companies under the Pivotal Payments name. As an ISO, Pivotal appears to a reseller of both First Data and TSYS, but may also work with other direct processors.
Aside from providing merchant accounts, Pivotal also supplies credit card processing equipment, merchant cash advances, and a proprietary payment gateway call the “Pivotal Payments Gateway” or “PPG” for short.
Pivotal Payments’ Acquiring Banks are Merrick Bank of South Jordan, Utah, BMO Harris Bank: N.A., Chicago, IL and Wells Fargo of Walnut Creek, CA.
Pivotal Payments Sales Tactics & Marketing Strategy | D
Pivotal does not appear to use any deceptive advertising or rate quoting online, but the company is suffering damage to its reputation due to its marketing strategy.
The company relies very heavily on outside independent sales agents, sub-ISOs, telemarketing, franchises, and strategic partnerships to sell its services. Evidence based on merchant complaints seems to indicate that Pivotal encourages agents to sell expensive merchant accounts and equipment leases in exchange for large commissions. If it is not the case that Pivotal incentivizes expensive pricing, then the company appears to lack controls in its underwriting process to prevent agents from using deceptive sales tactics. This, and more, will be covered in the “Complaints” section below.
Pivotal Payments Fees, Costs & Contract Terms | F
Pivotal pricing may vary greatly on several factors including the agent, franchise, sub-ISO, or partner setting up the account, and by merchant processing volumes and needs. Additionally, the company leases equipment at varying costs often influenced by agent commissions. As a side note, this reviewer recommends to always buy your equipment and to never lease it.
Aside from the widely varying costs, Pivotal earned its low grade in this section primarily because it has a Liquidated Damages clause as part of its early cancellation fee. Combined with a three (3) year service agreement, this allows Pivotal to charge extremely high fees in the event that a merchant cancels service before the contract expires. Pivotal’s contract says that the cancellation fee is $500 or Liquidated Damages, whichever is greater. It is also important to note that the cancellation fee is automatically debited from the merchant’s attached checking account. You can see actual merchant reports of this in the comment section below as well as numerous other places online.
Pivotal Payments Complaints & Service | D
Pivotal has a moderate-to-high number of complaints filed online for a processor of its size and time in business. The content of the complaints is fairly consistent with numerous merchants reporting poor customer service, problems with accounts, processing errors, terminal problems, difficultly cancelling service, unexpected fees and high cancellation fees. Additionally, Pivotal acquired Tangerine Payment Solutions which also has very poor reviews. To get more details about Pivotal complaints, see actual merchant reports in the comment section at the end of this review.
Pivotal Payments Better Business Bureau Report | N/A
As of this review, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is not reporting a rating or complaint count for Pivotal’s Melville headquarters. Upon our last update of this review, the BBB reported a “B” rating. It appears that the BBB has opened a new report for Pivotal’s Canadian headquarters and is now using it for the company’s main report. Currently, the new page is showing an “A+” rating with 16 complaints filed in the last 36 months.
The BBB seems to have not included the complaint count from the original report which gives this reviewer reason to question the accurateness of the new report. Therefore, the BBB rating will not be factored into the “overall” rating in this review.
Bottom Line
Pivotal Payments appears to have several areas of needed improvement. The company can better its rating in this review by improving the common complaint areas of its business practices, greatly reducing future merchant complaints, and removing the Liquidated Damages cancellation clause from its merchant account agreement.
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87 comments
amber
May 11, 2012 at 8:35 am (UTC -7)
So i’ve been with this joke of a company for 2 months now and I called to inquire about cancellation. They are asking for $650 because I am doing less than 10,000 a month in card transactions.
How the hell they came up with that number? I cannot really afford to pay that. can i just mail them back the machines and refuse to pay and ignore them?
I was also advised to close my bank account number and reopen to block off their access
Kelly
May 11, 2012 at 5:27 pm (UTC -7)
Good luck. I asked my bank about changing accounts and she said that they can’t specificly block one account. She said they can come under my account using another name. So good luck because I can’t figure away to get out with them totally screwing me. And I don’t do anywhere near $10,000 a month in my small business. They took more out of my account last month for ‘fees’, I am hoping to get my statement in the next couple of days because by my last months sales they took out way more then the should:{
I pray that some of us small businesses can see some kind of relief. Or we all pool together to get them shut down. NOne of the other small businesses I’ve spoke with have not had to deal with any of the fees, PCI crap and $99 annual fees like me.
amber
May 13, 2012 at 1:12 am (UTC -7)
i mean, closing the account and reopening another account with a different account number. Since they don’t know your new account number they won’t have access.
Tadd
May 8, 2012 at 1:06 pm (UTC -7)
This company will call up businesses and say they are Visa,MasterCard But they are not. The way I see it they are Full of LIES.. If you don’t have the ethics to tell people the truth why would a business do business with people that can not even be honest on the phone..
I don’t lie why should they..Why? Because it is the only way they can get your business. JUST STOP ACTING LIKE NOBODY HAS A CLUE>>>>>
Colby Sew & Vac,LLC
April 9, 2012 at 9:48 am (UTC -7)
I began with Pivotal Payments in Jan. 2011 with a specific rate quote and a no contract deal. I wanted to read
the paperwork they sent me and their Salesman Leon Solomon said he would go over the rest of it with me. He said he needed the signed paperwork. So we did and I again said to him: You are telling me the truth that I am not under contract. He said “there is no contract. Then in Febr. 2012 I wanted to cancel my processing with them because I went to Point of Sale in January and initually did not do credit card processing and found it
would be much easier if I did use our Point of Sale Card Processor. So I did. One thing I didn’t like about Pivotal Payments is they charged me a $99.00 PCI Compliance fee in November 2011 and they were also charging me a 6.00 monthly fee on top of it. When I called to cancel my service, they informed me I was in breach of contract and so I asked the gentleman where it was at and he told me where to go and find it and that
is the one page I and Leon didn’t go over because there were no points that needed addressed on that page. So they hit me with a 650.00 penalty fee and faxed me papers to close my account and they weren’t even my paper which I actually just noticed today when I called and asked why I was still being charged monthly charges when I already faxed my account closing papers back to them. They said they never received them. Then I when they called back I told them that I didn’t have papers for my account but for another person’s account. He
informed me that they had also gotten a call from that other person also today. Then went on to tell me that he
had to check and see if I received my papers too because his computer showed they were faxed to me. I told him it was obvious that I didn’t get my papers otherwise how would I know the other persons name and company name and terminal number. He said he didn’t disagree that I received their papers but I could have received theirs along with mine and he would call me back. He did call back and said that I didn’t receive my papers and he would fax them over. I still have not received them after turning on my fax machine.
Another victim
April 9, 2012 at 4:48 pm (UTC -7)
I too am another victim of the scams of pivotal. I sent an email to 60 minutes asking them to investigate this company. I urge everyone here to do the same. Hopefully they will expose the terrible business practices of pivotal and with enough exposure get them shut down.
Birgit Antos
April 2, 2012 at 9:09 am (UTC -7)
Pivotal Payments is the worst bankard processing company that we have ever dealt with in 89 years of business and they do not adhere to their own contract rules. We have tried to break our contract with them twice. The first time they took $8000.00 out of our bank account without permission and held us for ransom to continue our contract. After three more horrible years, we terminated our contract and had to change bank accounts to keep them from doing this again. They are still trying to get another $8000.00 from us even though we have all the certified paperwork of termination. They are very disreputable. Birgit Antos, Bookkeeper
Kelly
March 22, 2012 at 6:32 am (UTC -7)
OK, so I’ve dealt with these idiots for 3 years and I’m about to close my business in July because of high fees, PCI fees, terminal fees, yearly $99 fee, etc. I am so sad to see how they are ripping all of us off on here. So My question is how can we work together?
There has to be some way for all of us to get something done. I just received my last months print out this week and found that ‘more fees’ will start to come out April 1. At this rate, they’ve made more money from me than I make. I cringe now when a customer wants to use a credit card or debit card.
ANY suggestions? I to have contacted a lawyer and yes got no where. I hate to say I’m glad someone else knows my pain. Because I thought I was the only one that has this horrible company.
Cynthia
March 22, 2012 at 10:22 am (UTC -7)
I have tried to get a group of us together to start legal action against Pivotal and even have gone as far as contacting class action attorneys. The attorney’s really did not want anything to do with it. No one has the time to do the dirty work it takes to keep on task since we are all small business people who are just trying to make ends meet….HOWEVER:
The CBC has got wind of this company and it’s unethical business practices are they are planning an expose’ on Canadian television. The person who is helping with the investigation is Holly Moore. She can be contacted right through the CBC web-site.
I talked to her in person last week and they are going full steam ahead on this project. NOW is the time for a class action!
Dave
March 28, 2012 at 2:10 pm (UTC -7)
I agree that a class action suit seems like an appropriate action. Pivotal is a company entirely based on scamming the customer from what I can tell. Pivotal lured us in with promises of low rates, but several months after we signed on they changed the percentages of transactions that went through as “Qualified” to a small number. The majority of our transactions were then charged the higher “Non-Qualified” rate and we were saving nothing. Numerous calls to their customer service department went nowhere. Our sales went up each year, yet so did Pivotal’s charges and so we began looking for another provider.
Months after we canceled our account, Pivotal stole thousands from our bank account (the infamous “Liquidated Damages” fee). The amount lost was significant enough to make getting it back a worthwhile investment and so we sued Pivotal. We won the case and were awarded double damages because the withdrawal they made constituted civil theft according to the court. Surprisingly, they paid up fairly promptly.
Unfortunately we can’t help with a class action movement since we already litigated the matter, but I wish you good luck. If you can’t get a class action together, you can at least sue in small claims court relatively inexpensively.
Informed
March 23, 2012 at 3:04 pm (UTC -7)
Here’s some info most processors won’t tell you. When they add a new or extra fee on your pricing, you have 30 days to cancel the contract and they CANNOT stop that. If you keep processing however, that’s basically saying you agree to the changes and you’re stuck. You do have to call and give written notice though. I say call too because a scam company like Pivotal will say they didn’t get the letter. Everyone needs to go to their facebook page and leave comments as to what you think about them. These companies need to be STOPPED!
Kelly
April 9, 2012 at 10:51 am (UTC -7)
Ok here’s what we’ve dealt with over the last 2 years. First of all when I bought my existing business I took over her credit card reader and company. So in 2009 i was working with MMS, but Pivotal bought them out in 2010. But here’s the kicker I signed a lease with MMS not Pivotal, so when they bought them out I asked where my contract with Pivotal was? I said how can I do business with you and be locked into a lease if you do not have my signature. Their response, ‘Well when we bought out MMS those contracts are now our’s”. But then we started getting charged $99.00 PCI fees in Ocotober and then our $99.00 annual fee in November. then they tried to tack on another year on my lease when they bought out MMS. It’s just been one thing after another with these people. I’m closing in July only because of the lease is finally up on my rental space and thankfully my Pivotal contract. But now that some of you have responded to my last post I’m freaking out. Are all of you being deducted thousands of dollars or just a few of you. Because we don’t have that kind of cash laying around.
I hope this lease will end smoothly, but in the back of my mind I know they might possibly screw us somewhere or sometime in August…….
Qi Li
March 12, 2012 at 3:56 pm (UTC -7)
Sales rep phones in and offers a better rate than whatever you have
few months after you switch to Pivotal, they increase the rate without any notice.
2x charges last few months even they realize it is mistake
another few months later, they tell you they will increase price in two months but not telling you how much.
when you keep calling them, the most words you will be hearing is
Unfortunately…
Not only Pivotal, the whole merchant service industry are charging too much for too less.
Significant reduction of rate is to be expected.
Qi
Andrea
January 20, 2012 at 8:41 pm (UTC -7)
RIP OFF ARTISTS!! They have many hidden fees and their promises are empty. They have so many hidden fees it is rediculous!! That is the short version of a long story :)
Designs To Be, LLC
January 10, 2012 at 9:56 pm (UTC -7)
Today I found out about Pivitol’s…HIGH HIGH close out fees….after 16 years in business and upon notifying Pivitol about this decision…they told me that they are charging me $400 to close my account…I am so outraged! I told two crediti unions that I deal with in our area and neither have heard of anything so ridiculous…..It is a total scam. Every single month they collect fees whether I use the account or not and of course they raised the fees from the company that we had previously done business with (that they bought out)…..This $400 fee just to close an account is a TotAL SCAM!
Vlad Orlovsky
December 7, 2011 at 12:45 pm (UTC -7)
Very shady company. Starting from initial signing when we were promised no fees and then discovered that we were charged every year. Now they added bunch of other fees. We pay non-compliance fees PCF-PCI ($19.99) and compliance fees ($10.00). SO WHICH ONE IS IT???? Every year they try to squeeze some fees. This year managed to pass exenses thye had in order to comply with IRS rulling. They managed to pass it to customers. Rates are not that great, total overhead expenses can exceed $$50/month for nothing. Would never recommend this company to anybody. STAY AWAY!!! In my opinion not very honest people to say the best
Carla
December 7, 2011 at 8:24 am (UTC -7)
WARNING! Do not use this company. If you have them already you must cancel in writing 90 days before your contract ends or they will automatically renew your ” contract” for THREE YEARS! This happened to us and they withdrew 2400 dollars from my bank account.
sherry musson
December 8, 2011 at 10:38 am (UTC -7)
call your bank and they they call this charge back. there is a small form that has to be filed out that says you did not autorize this withdrawal. I did it and my charge was almost $ 50,000
Mike
January 27, 2012 at 1:20 pm (UTC -7)
Sherry,
What is the next after the bank chaged back your money? Recently Pivotal made me so mad about their services. When I found they charged me $10 for terminal maintenance fee(that’s our machine, they did nothing on it) in June 2011. I called and the girl Cheryl from Dedication department said she is going to cancel it and lower my rates. Then she sent me the forms and I signed and faxed it back. Later I found they were still charge that $10 from my account. I called couple time … Ok, I was so frustrated and asked to them to quote me a cost to terminate my contract. They told me the forms I’d just signed was the new application for another 5 years, the cost to cancel it would be $5143.82. I checked all the forms I signed in which it says nothing about the contract terms. They just tricked you. So I am wondering who could tell me the step by step to terminate the contract with Pivotal.
Call Me Andrew
December 4, 2011 at 9:15 am (UTC -7)
- The “owner” of one of their primary sales partners, Axxess Payments is Maurice Verrelli. He was convicted of telemarketing fraud in the United States a few years back. I put the word “owner” in quotations because Pivotal actually owns Axxess Payments and uses them to sell their services and their services alone, regardless of what Axxess tells you (they will say they will look at a number of providers to find you the best rates. It will always be Pivotal).
Another of their sales managers, just recently hired to direct telesales, was also charged in the US for telesales fraud.
Please warn everyone you know about Axxess Payments and Charge National. They are owned by Pivotal and will con them into an agreement.
- Drug use is a regular occurrence in their sales offices. So much so that an email to the effect from one of their sales managers was leaked online a few months ago. Here’s a copy:
“From: Chris Clark
Sent: April 29, 2011 1:57 PM
To: CanadianSales
Subject: Weed @ Work
Hi – A manager from another department just called me into the washroom to show me a large smattering of weed and tobacco on the toilet paper dispenser in the first stall of the men’s washroom. I don’t know which of you morons is that stupid but let’s say that people are less than impressed. We have been relatively tolerant of some of your habits but now we have two problems, some of you are clearly too stoned to do your job as evidenced by the sales totals this month and you are leaving evidence of your drug habits at work. I have had a Director complain about smelling weed in the washrooms, I myself have heard people rolling joints in there. This is all in violation of company policy so we’re now going to no tolerance, next person caught with anything to do related to drugs at work will be fired on the spot, don’t care who you are. Smarten the f*ck up.
Chris Clark
Sr. Manager, Canadian Telesales”
- Pivotal has encouraged their employees to actually pretend to be business owners in order to more easily get their accounts cancelled once they sign on with Pivotal. They will actually call your old credit services (Global, Moneris, etc.) and claim to be you.
- Their customer support staff is purposely under-trained in order to prevent them from knowing too much about how the company actually operates and they are often unable to help.
- Despite their financial growth every quarter they are continually under-staffed in their customer service department causing hold times of over 5 minutes on average for customers with problems.
- Some staff at Pivotal have tried to explain the various ethical problems to management, they have advocated for the merchants and asked for things to change, but these pleas are met with accusations of negativity and sometimes lead to unemployment.
- Here is a breakdown of fees you will pay with them based on a wireless terminal contract (“H” = Hidden in fine print of contract):
- Airtime Fee $15
- Minimum Monthly Fee (Debit) $20
- Minimum Monthly Fee (Credit) $10
- Activation Fee $39.95
- Annual Fee (Annual) $49.95
- PCI Compliance Fee (Annual) $99.99 (H)
- Assessment Fee 0.01% on all credit transactions (on top of agreed upon rates)
- Communication Fee $0.03 on all debit transactions (on top of agreed upon rates)(H)
- Terminal Maintenance Fee $9.95 (H)
- Paper Loyalty Program Fee $11.95 (H)
- Consumables Fee (Varies) (H)
- Shipping Fees for Replacement of Faulty Equipment $39.99 (H)
- Good luck in your dealings with Pivotal.
Phillip Parker
December 4, 2011 at 12:55 pm (UTC -7)
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for the review. You are making some serious accusations here which makes it necessary to ask where you are getting your information. Are you a former merchant customer? Do/did you work for Pivotal? If you do not answer these questions, I will have to remove this comment. Otherwise, the validity and accuracy of your statement becomes very questionable and we want to make sure that reviews are based in actual experience.
Call Me Andrew
December 5, 2011 at 8:08 am (UTC -7)
Hi Phillip,
I used to work there. Many of their employees find their practices questionable, to say the least. It’s hard to reconcile your conscience when you’re paid by someone who you know is crooked.
There were also “accidental” billings. For example, an annual fee that’s supposed to apply per account like the PCI Fee might “accidentally” be billed per terminal instead, meaning a merchant with 3 terminals under their account would be billed 3 times, etc. Anyone who called in to have it corrected would be added to a spreadsheet and corrections would be made, but what do you think happens to all of the funds of those who don’t call in to have it corrected? They stay in Pivotal’s bank account.
pete brag
March 7, 2012 at 11:53 am (UTC -7)
Andrew, Pivotal just stole $17,000 from me in ‘deconversion’ fees which i never signed for.
What can be done? Know any ways to fight them? Class action suits? Good attorneys etc.?
Anything at all?
Still bitter
January 26, 2012 at 7:23 pm (UTC -7)
- Their customer support staff is purposely under-trained in order to prevent them from knowing too much about how the company actually operates and they are often unable to help.
- Despite their financial growth every quarter they are continually under-staffed in their customer service department causing hold times of over 5 minutes on average for customers with problems.
- Some staff at Pivotal have tried to explain the various ethical problems to management, they have advocated for the merchants and asked for things to change, but these pleas are met with accusations of negativity and sometimes lead to unemployment.”
All of this was certainly true when I worked for Paysystems before it was rebranded to Pivotal Payments. Some things never change, I guess.
Holly Moore
March 14, 2012 at 12:22 pm (UTC -7)
Andrew,
Can you call me please? I am working on a story about this company for CBC. Thanks Holly Moore
Frankie
March 14, 2012 at 2:42 pm (UTC -7)
Hi, if anyone is getting involved in a class action or other legal action, complaint or media interview, let me know. my email is frankie.ny1@gmail.com. As of now, Pivotal took $17,000+ from me for ‘cancellation fees’ and they NEVER SENT ME THE ENTIRE AGREEMENT with the part with cancellation fee. Even Pivotal and the sales agent admitted to this. The sales agent even said he didn’t know there was a cancellation fee.
Still, as of now, no return because they ‘have my signature’. I’m ready to sue for damages, but let’s see what happens. Any media inquiries or lawsuits, PLEASE contact me so I be part of it.
ronaldco
March 14, 2012 at 3:18 pm (UTC -7)
Holly, could you let us know on this site when it will appear on tv.
Cynthia Milbradt
March 15, 2012 at 8:43 am (UTC -7)
Holly, I am so glad someone is finally stepping up. I have tried to get attorney’s involved. No one was interested in even looking at the case. I was one of the lucky few who was able to get my funds back, but that was only because of timing. Nothing else.
You can contact me if you like. My email is clmilbradt@live.com.
Frankie
March 15, 2012 at 9:02 am (UTC -7)
Holly, please contact me about the story. I have a situation where Pivotal took $17,000 from me based on a contract that they admitted that I never received. Thanks!
Holly Moore
March 15, 2012 at 2:28 pm (UTC -7)
Hello,
Can you please send me your email? I will get in touch. thanks so much! Holly Moore
help me
November 11, 2011 at 4:35 pm (UTC -7)
I have contracted with pivotal since dec, 2010.
My contract ends in 2013 and wanna end earlier.
I am foreigner with work permit in canada, but i have to renew my permit and it take around half year or year. during that time i can not work in canada (illegal).
So I decided to cancel my contract with them and they asked me $400 cancellation fee.
Another thing is they have not charge me monthly fee or any other but according to contract my monthly fee is around $80( I am in small business, and used terminal occasionally, so some time whole transaction per month is less than $500 ).
but last month,all of sudden, they charged me around $40 without notice.
I knew there is new policy about consumer does not need to pay cancellation fee if a company charged you more without any notice ( plz, correct me if i am wrong)
so I wonder if I need to pay any cancellation fee plus remaining terminal rental fee(rental company is different but I have contract bcuz of pivotal).
thanx
Pivotal Payments Texas
September 22, 2011 at 9:03 am (UTC -7)
- Received a cold call notifying us that our account had been flagged as possibly being overcharged by our card processing company. The caller was independent and authorized by Visa and Mastercard. They offered to do a statement review to determine that our account was hit by processing fees in excess of 2% rather than the legal limit of 1.79% – and anything more than 2.5% for all fees combined was illegal and could be challenged. We could get out of our current contract, obtain an alternate merchant account with tier 1 processing, or force restructuring of our current contract. We only needed to fax our statement to them for their review process at no charge to us (which is what every processing firm asks us to do when wanting to quote rates to change to them).
- They were not to be confused with the Canadian company with the same name which has been subject to really poor reviews. They were a Texas operation (Pivotal Cdn. has opened an office in Plano, see press releases). Calling their 888 number returned the same PivotalPayments.com website out of Canada for the firm offering Canadian and USA merchant card processing services. No “statement review” services are listed for determining illegally high fees.
- Pretty creative way to prospect clients, don’t you think?
Phillip Parker
September 22, 2011 at 9:23 pm (UTC -7)
Whether this sales pitch is supported by Pivotal Payments or not, it is probably the most dishonest and unethical sales tactic I’ve heard from a merchant services company.
Lee Hudson
September 30, 2011 at 9:11 am (UTC -7)
There are many INDEPENDENT AGENTS using different tactics to sell you processing. A company can NOT be judged by the misleading information of such agent. There is no way any company in the industry today would approve or tolerate such deception.
Phillip Parker
September 30, 2011 at 11:16 am (UTC -7)
Hi Lee,
These companies are responsible for the independent agents they hire and often encourage/train them to use misleading sales tactics to sell expensive merchant accounts. Not only that, but the applications that the agents submit must undergo underwriting by the company itself. I can tell you with 100% certainty that processors can indeed be judged by the independent agents they hire and the results of their sales tactics. I have reviewed over 80 companies and the ones that score poorly have marketing and sales strategies that lead to problems for merchants. There are a few companies I have reviewed that hire independent agents and have zero complaints from merchants because they have tight controls of the sales process.
As for the telemarketing call reported in this chain, there is no telling whether or not it came from an independent agent or an internal call center of Pivotal Payments. Either way, neither surprises me because I hear about calls similar to this one all the time.
Kevin
September 13, 2011 at 9:17 am (UTC -7)
Hey Everybody,
Just an update on my case, Pivotal still calls once a day and leaves a message to call them. I am still ignoring them. I am not giving in to them. I don’t even listen to the whole message. I delete it as soon as he starts talking. Every comment I read about these clowns makes me feel like I am doing the right thing and not giving in to them. Stay strong everybody who is being harrased by their so called collections department.
CLM
September 13, 2011 at 9:58 am (UTC -7)
I think you are right. They log every conversation you have with them and can use it against you later. I think they might be recording the conversations but not sure. It’s not legal here in the US without consent, but that does not mean they don’t do it. They are always pushing the boundaries as it is. We are such a loose knit group. Wish we could get some Class Action attorney to take up this case. There has got to be some law being broken here since they seem pick on a certain class of user…the micro business such as myself who does not have the first idea as to how to go about it.
maryanne
August 27, 2011 at 1:22 pm (UTC -7)
this company rips canadians off, i have been trying to reach the company for months, and they will not answer my calls. Not only that, we were being debited from our account twice the fees we had agreed to, when we asked for our contract from the First Data Processing company, it said something totally different than we had agreed to. Our signature was on there, but that was not what we signed. So the documents were altered after we signed them. After reviewing on the web. it is not the first time. Securus Canada is not even have an office in Canada but they claim they are. We have filed a complaint with the RCMP, and will be seing them in court.
Kevin
August 8, 2011 at 9:06 am (UTC -7)
Do not use Pivotal payments!!!! My story is the same as everyone else. After a year of being with them, they jacked my rates. I called them and never got a straight answer on why. I started with them May 2009. Stopped with them on May 2010. November 2010 they took out 8000 dollars from my account. I got it reversed. Change accounts! Pain the butt. They started calling me in Dec 2010. Told me if I came back to them they would dismiss the 8000 dollar liquidated damages fee or so they called it. I said I would think about it. Since then I decided not to go back to them after reading many complaints about them!!! They call daily and leave messages to call them back to get their money. I have so far just deleted the messages. I am not paying them. Hopefully they will just give up. Although this guy that keeps calling once a day is pretty persistent. lol
Oh yeah they did agree to wheel and deal with me, which makes me think this fee they charge is just made up and the guy gets a commision on how much he can screw me for.
Corey Illingworth
August 24, 2011 at 8:15 am (UTC -7)
I cannot believe this company can continue to do business. Pivotal Payments had a forged contract on file for myself. The signatures, dates, or print did not match mine anywhere on the agreement and still they stole $1500 from my account which they called liquidated damages after canceling with them. This term is nowhere in there forged contract even if I had signed it. One of there agents would call on my behalf claiming to be a representative from my company furthering their fraudulent actions. When I explained this to them they were still unwilling to help. They just tried to pass me off onto the next representative, and in two cases, was the same representative that I had spoken to already. Even after explaining to them that two parties have to enter into an agreement and you can bind someone to a contract they did not enter into, they still refused to correct the situation.
CLM
August 24, 2011 at 12:47 pm (UTC -7)
They could not produce a signed contract for me either and still sucked $3800 from my account. Here is another twist. They told the Oregon Dept of Justice that they were dropping the claim to show good faith. That was a few months ago. Now they are hounding me again on my voice mail. They are corrupt to the core.
Mark
July 2, 2011 at 3:04 pm (UTC -7)
Pivotal has also ripped us off for over $3000. The following are the reasons we cancelled them:
1. We started our association with them in April 2010. Early in 2011, we discovered deposits to our account from Pivotal were missing on 2 different occasions. By the time we discovered them missing, almost a month had gone by. They blamed us for processing our “end of day” batch-out wrong. We did it the same as we have every other night and have the “batch closed” receipt to prove it. They breeched their contract by not depositing the funds into our acct. the next business day. At best they made an error and refused to admit it, and at worst they intended to take the money hoping small business owners like us won’t audit our books, and hence, never dicover it.
2. They said they would have to send us all the cc. numbers for the days missing and we would have to enter manually. When we received the numbers, they were so tiny that we literally had to use a magnifying glass to read them. This was even hard to do as several of the numbers were smudged and indecipherable. They said there was nothing they could do to make them larger.
3. When we re-entered the numbers (a process that took 2 hours due to #2), some of the accts. were closed or overdrawn resulting in declines. It took us several days to recover many of the charges. There were a couple cards that had closed accts.- that we never did recover – about $60.
4. I was so upset, that I sent a letter of cancellation to Pivotal and got a new credit card company. About 3 weeks later, I received a phone message from Pivotal telling me I had to cancel by phone. It clearly states in their instruction booklet that it must be done by letter.
5. After all this they continued to service charge our unused acct. for about $17 each month. I finally got them to close our acct. by phone near the end of May, 2011 (we hadn’t used them since April 15, 2011).
6. We did not receive a statement from them for April or May, 2011 even though service charges were being deducted from our acct.
7. On June 30, 2011, Pivotal deducted $3057 from our acct. with no notification or an explanation of any kind. As this was the day before the July 4th holiday weekend, my bank was closed and will not re-open until July 5th, so I am unable to do anything about it until then.
In our 20 years of accepting credit cards in our business, we have never had a “lost deposit” – which has happened with Pivotal twice within 2 months. This is a shady company that I wouldn’t refer to my worst enemy. I only pray that we can recover the $3057 that they deducted from our acct. without permission.
CLM
July 5, 2011 at 6:23 pm (UTC -7)
You have until the end of the next business day to recover your funds. After that you will have to petition your bank to refund the withdrawal. Pivotal is very clever about when they take the “liquidated damages” from your account. They do it after the business day is over so that only leaves you the next business day to catch the deduction and have it reversed.
If you get your money back count on Pivotal to come after you with threats and an invitation to come back if you reactivate the account (as if).
There are things you can do to keep them from hounding you for the recovered funds if you manage to get them back.
1. Report them to the Better Business Bureau. The BBB is toothless but at least you are on record about the incident.
2. Report them to your State, whichever bureau deals with these issues. I had to go through the Oregon District Attorney’s office.
3. Report it to the Feds.
They dropped the case against me when the complaint was filed with my state and an inquiry was made.
Good luck.
Mark
July 6, 2011 at 10:56 pm (UTC -7)
After sitting around this holiday weekend and fretting about the $3051 Pivotal took from us – I decided to call my banker at home on Sunday. They were somehow able to reverse the charges, thank God; the benefits of having a small town bank…..Is there any way they can reverse our reversal?
I had filed a report with the BBB of NY. Pivotal responded today. They still say it was our fault that the deposits weren’t made to our account! They don’t understand that when we batch out a report at the end of the business day – it automatically transmits by phone to them. Our machine won’t print us a receipt if this process fails – and we have a receipt for both days that were missing.
You were right – they say if we re-activate them, they will refund our $3051 over 3 months (obviously they don’t know the charge was already reversed). I placed a permanent block on them from ever accessing our account again. Since they have our account numbers, could they change their name or access numbers and remove the money again?
[Name Removed by Request]
July 7, 2011 at 9:10 am (UTC -7)
Hi Mark. I feel your pain!!
To be on the safe side, I shut down my business account as I was worried about the same thing (using a different name to pull money out of my account.) A real hassle that’s for sure but I am able to use my personal account to deposit funds with the NEW interac Service provider I am using. (Merchant One Payments – if you want their number I can send it to you – they have been more then helpful!!)
I’m in Canada, and I’ve now contacted the Media (CTV Steele on your Side), my MP, my local MLA, the BBB (which had sent a formal complaint to Pivotal) and several other companies who may be able to help.
Beware that Pivotal will try and contact you but you will quickly notice, they will never leave you a ‘direct’ number to you to call that person back. Additionally, each time they call, its a new person leaving a message – its a total crap-shoot!
I’ve called them each time & left them messages saying “email me” but they don’t (of course); that would be a paper trail we could use against them! I’ve also told them to mail me a ‘registered cheque’ with the money they owe me & send a courier to pick up their 3 Terminals collecting dust in my Shop.
I also filed a formal complaint with BBB and I’ve contacted my local Federal agency….laws are different down in the USA but if that fails and you still don’t see your money, you may want to take them to small claims court.
Mark
July 9, 2011 at 8:10 pm (UTC -7)
[Name removed by request],
Thank you for all the info. I think I will change my bank account number. Thanks again.
Mark
July 20, 2011 at 2:31 pm (UTC -7)
An update to our case with Pivotal. They filed a re-buttal with the BBB. saying that their complaint resolving staff has been trying to contact me for 3 weeks and left return phone numbers each time with no response from me. Well, get this – all of the numbers were wrong numbers, here they are: 866-383-1494, 866-833-1494, 866-883-7494. They all look similar – but are all wrong numbers! As is Pivotals MO., they will blame us for writing down the numbers wrong. Maybe that could happen once – but three times? This is nothing but a further attempt to create confusion on their part – which is one of their delaying tactics. Stay away from this company!
CLM
July 20, 2011 at 9:23 pm (UTC -7)
Take it to the next step. File with your state attorney general. They have teeth. The BBB doesn’t. Pivotal will back off. They prey more upon those they think are too stupid to take it as far as it will go. They do not want an investigation from the any government agency. I can’t believe they have got this far.
CLM
July 7, 2011 at 10:04 am (UTC -7)
You must block the authorization that allows Pivotal to make withdrawals. Then change bank accounts.
Report this to your State Dept of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. This can all be done easily online.
The BBB has no teeth but the State and the Feds do and trust me, Pivotal doesn’t want an inquiry.
Mark
July 9, 2011 at 8:17 pm (UTC -7)
CLM,
Thanks so much for the advice. It is appreciated.
[Name Removed by Request]
July 5, 2011 at 8:39 pm (UTC -7)
I have been self-employed since 2004 working alone in my one rented room Studio.
My recent and extremely upsetting experience since January has been with my interact company – which used to be Cardex but is now Pivotal Payments. Back in December, I called the 1-866 number which was the number I have always contacted when requesting assistance from my interact service provider. Upon calling this number I got a representative on the phone. The nature of my call was to ask for a replacement terminal with a chip-card function. The sales rep I spoke to said that she would be happy to send it to me however I would have to fill out some forms. I told her I was an existing account holder for 8 years and all the paperwork should be on file – all I wanted was a replacement terminal. She then said that the company that I was with before had sold-out to them and the paperwork needed was so she could upgrade my terminal.
This did not seem right with me. She faxed the paperwork over December 23rd 2010 and I reviewed it. It looked like a contract. Each telephone conversation after that was me trying to make it clear to her that I was an existing customer. She continued to call me (almost daily) telling me to sign and fax over the contract with the void cheque in order to get the replacement terminal. I reviewed the contract with her on the phone however this proved to be quite difficult. She insisted t[Name Removed by Request]hat the paperwork was just formality. She promised that my fees would not increase; in fact she would give me a discount. However, I didn’t think she understood me because I had a really tough time understanding what she was saying because her English was very poor. I was really clear that I didn’t want any of my interact features changed; (I have emails to prove this) that all I wanted was a chip card terminal to replace my K23. She insisted that nothing would change that all I had to do was fax everything back to her. I complied and faxed everything to Rita Bharati at Pivotal Payments on January 20, 2011. This is when the nightmare began.
In early February the so-called Chip Card terminal arrived – it was called HyperCom. I unplugged my K23 Terminal and plugged in the Hypercom, called their tech support where we spent a good ½ hour trying to download the software. I had clients that day and couldn’t spend any more time with the tech support since after that ½ hour we were unsuccessful at downloading the software I had to re-plug the K23 back in to continue to operate my business. When I had an opportunity again, I called them. This proved to be quite challenging because after several daily attempts for countless hours each time, the Tech support rep finally had the terminal operating. However, it never did operate as a chip card reader!! Since then they sent me two more terminals; each of them un-functional. More time was wasted and by the time the 3rd terminal arrived and still un-operational, I told them the send a courier to pick them all up – I wanted my old terminal back.
Then I started noticing my bank account charges with more hundreds of dollars withdrawn. Plus duplicate charges for the old terminal (K23) and the new terminal (Hypercom) plus additional fees and charges!
I was back on the phone with Rita. At this point, she claimed she was no longer ‘responsible’ for my account and that I should call customer service.
I called customer service and spoke to Sophie Rau. She provided me with her email address and began correspondence with her. I told her that no one has come to pick up the old K23 terminal and I was being charged for it. She said that I had to call LFG and cancel my lease agreement with them. After another few days of painful phone calls I finally contacted the lease company by email. I found them through the internet and wrote an email to the Underwriter on February 15th. At this point, more unknown withdrawals were now being sucked out of my account. I have correspondence from a Marc Barbanell. He said I was responsible for returning the leased terminal and I had to pay for the means of returning it to them. This was ludicrous and taking more time away from my business! I called Pivotal payments and asked them why they never told me this back in December!! No one knew….no one could help me but everyone I spoke to was really, really sorry….
Upon another phone call and some more emails Sophia promised me a credit of $250 which would be deposited to my bank account for all troubles…..I’m still waiting. (did i mention it’s now July??)
I have spent hundreds of hours, sent countless emails, spoken to Managers, Presidents, and Corporate Executives, photo copied bank statements, faxed documents….blah blah blah…..with no avail. I am now out of pocket by $1742 and time wasted that I will never get back. Everyone I spoke to would promise to fix the problem – in fact I know most of customer service by a first name basis! I have a file full of documented conversations and the representatives I’ve spoken to over the past 6 months from Pivotal payments “PROMISING ME” that they will close the additional accounts mistakenly opened and they would refund me the monies that they owe me tomorrow. I’m still waiting.
Fast-track to June 15th: I had been in touch with Ernesto, (Manager at Pivotal) and he “admitted” to me that Pivotal had screwed up, and that he was ‘surprised that I’ve been as patient as I have been for the past 6 months’….he also said that he was going to ‘take care of this personally and he would close all my accounts, reimburse me my monies and send a courier to pick up the 3 terminals that they provided that do not work. I’m still waiting!!!!
I just want to say that being a single, owner operator of my Esthetics business, my Merchant fees have NEVER exceeded $1000 per year including the cost to lease the interact Terminal. As you can see I’ve been ripped off by this company for $1742 with the aggravation of continual promises that this would be resolved. This is $1742 that I do not have – this is my property taxes. I’m fed up and still they have done NOTHING to fix this mess!!!
I’ve put stop-payments on my Bank account.
I’m in the process of draining all funds in the event they try another company name to rob me, they can not get any more money from me.
My banker knows of this issue – he helped me with stopping the electronic debits from this and all affiliated companies. (Cost me $60!!)
BBB has been informed.
I’ve also contacted “Steele on your Side” with CTV.
Now I keep getting phone calls from all sorts of different 1-800 numbers, each time from a different person asking for me to call them back because they want to ‘resolve this’. Yaaa, RIGHT!!! Then they’ll want my first born too.
Anyhow, all you out there, let’s pool together and expose these bastards. Shut down your accounts – its not worth it. You’ll be bankrupt before they’ll give you your money back. Might as well go into business with one of those email guys from Nigeria…..
My lawyer also recommended I contact you. I’ve got more grey hairs from this horrible, distressing incident then I did when I went through my divorce. My health has been affected by the stress of this.
I work way too hard to have these bastards clean me out of what little money I have left after the day is done. And being an Esthetician, making people feel good is my business…..this isn’t as easy as one might think in this day and age especially when this is happening in my life.
Don
July 6, 2011 at 7:06 am (UTC -7)
I feel for you as I am going trough similar experience. I have started a Pivotal Payment group on facebook. We need a place where we can all get together and do something about this. This is luducrious that so much of our time is wasted on this. We have a business to operate. I was even willing to pay the cancellation fee, but no one wants to give me the amount, they just tell me they will calculate and withdraw from my account without any notice. That was in February and still haven’t heard from them. I blocked my account and when they’re ready, they’ll be calling me. But what I hear from other posters, they can take months. Funny thing is it took me 1 day and 300$ to cancel my previous merchant. Pivotal is the biggest mistake I made since I am in business
CLM
July 6, 2011 at 10:23 am (UTC -7)
What is the name of your Facebook group. Pivotal has their own page. Don’t want to be confused by the two. CM
Don
July 7, 2011 at 7:13 am (UTC -7)
Pivotal Payment Sucks is the name, you can also find a blog under the same name on the internet. I am trying to get all the people under the same group on facebook.
Elaine Stockel
July 22, 2011 at 2:15 pm (UTC -7)
I called the Better Business Bureau about a $5000.00 cancellation fee and the matter was resolved in a weekend. It was the Better Business Bureau of New York.
pete brag
March 7, 2012 at 8:51 am (UTC -7)
Elaine, was the cancellation fee the ‘deconversion fees’ ? Can you give me more specifics on what you did?
Still Waiting...
May 26, 2011 at 3:56 pm (UTC -7)
I have had a HORIBBLE experience with Pivotal Payments.
First I signed up with Axxcess payments who uses Pivotal for processing and the first 2 terminals would not work so they agreed to return my money after many phone calls I recieved my Credit to the account in April when I recieved the terminals in January.
When I later signed up with Charge National for the same reason; rate, I found out when setting up the terminal that they process through Pivotal as well. Well the rocket scientists could not figure out that I now had 2 accounts with them and started charging me again for the first terminals and the second ones. Finally Today (May 26) I recieved credit in my account for the first terminals.
I have literally been calling their “help” line every day for the past 3 weeks, and literally everyday they tell me 1 of 2 things:
A) I will have a manager call you back when they’re out of their ‘meeting’
B) I get transferred to a manager’s voicemail
Both equal the same response… NOTHING!!!!
Everyday these people answer the call and tell me the same thing, I am so sorry for this, can I put you on hold while I try and find someone for you? So I agree, knowing what they will say but still hoping that one day I’ll get someone that answers the call that will ACTUALLY help me. Still nothing. I have left direct voicemails on their Managers answering machine… and still nothing.
When a manager cannot deal with a customer then you know the company is all about. This is ridiculous! They have taken money out of my account for terminals that have long been returned already. Not to mention, the 2 transactions that I was able to put through… they did not put the right amount into my account and I have proof of the amount that went through the machine! Do they think I don’t check my statement? Businesses beware, your books will not balance with this company!
Cynthia Milbradt
May 26, 2011 at 9:12 pm (UTC -7)
File complaints with the Better Business Bureau, The Federal Trade Commission and your States Department of Justice. The more complaints that filed against them the harder it will be for them to defend their lousy business ethics. Sincerely, Cynthia
Ready to break down...
June 25, 2011 at 8:33 am (UTC -7)
I must agree that Pivotal gave me the exact same run-around!
I am a single owner/operator providing Esthetics services in a one-room business. I made the the mistake of wanting a chip-card terminal to replace my existing terminal which was through Cardex – a K23. Unbeknownst to me, Cardex sold their client base to Pivotal. Now the nightmare begins.
In January I called and asked for a ‘replacement’ terminal. Yet I was told to sign documents as a ‘formality’ for this replacement. I told the Sales Rep that I already had an existing account with Cardex. She said they were now Pivotal and needed this for their files. I was promised that ‘nothing was going to change with my fee structure…” That was a load of crap! To date, I have been charged $1742 in Merchant fees, Admin Fees, duplicated account fees…my leasing fees have increased. That is twice as much as what I’ve paid annually in the past 8 years of doing business. my annual merchant fees never exceeded $1000 per year!!!
Then Pivotal sent me a Hypercom Terminal which is NOT a chip card reader. Then they sent me a Verifon which didn’t download…then another Verifon which did also didn’t work. I now have 3 terminals that are not compliant to my business needs!
I have spent COUNTLESS hours phoning, faxing documents, emailing and am still waiting to get the “promised: I’m really sorry about all this, I will escalate this to the Manager….” blah-blah-blah…. Once I do get the Manager on the phone, he tells me he will close all my accounts, reimburse me my money & personally resolve this issue as he had ADMITTED that Pivotal had screwed up. yet here I am 6 months later still…..with no resolution – and out $1742.00!!!!
I have 3 terminals that are not chip-card readers in my possession and have asked numerous times to have them picked up via courier. Pivotal is well aware that these terminals are not compliant to my business needs. in order to not go broke, I’ve had to place a Stop-Payment on all electronic debits from Pivotal & LFG. I had no choice. I’ve changed Interact companies and am now dealing with Merchant One Payments – based out of Canada.
My business is suffering at this point because of this mess. I’ve lost sleep and not to mention the money. I have reported them to the BBB & to my Bank. I don’t know what else to do. I have a file of all documented conversations with Pivotal’s Customer service and managers as thick as a telephone book.
Check the Credit Card industry Code of Conduct – Federal Government website and see for yourself how Pivotal doesn’t comply.
http://www.fin.gc.ca/n10/data/10-049_1-eng.asp
Cynthia Milbradt
May 19, 2011 at 3:31 pm (UTC -7)
My small coffee shop found Pivotal to be less than satisfactory in many respects. Their fee structure was indecipherable and seemed constantly in flux. I could not get through to customer service on several occasions. I finally closed the account and went with another provider. Six months later they charged my account $3,580.00 with no heads-up or a chance to dispute the charge. They called “Liquidated Damages”.
They said they would waive the fee if I broke my contract with my new provider and re-instated my old account. This stinks like a rotten carcass and wonder if it is even legal since they say their contract buy-out is only $500.00.
Is that coercion?
Phillip Parker
May 19, 2011 at 3:56 pm (UTC -7)
Hi Cynthia,
The “Liquidated Damages” clause is a sneaky way for less-than-ethical providers to charge outrageous early cancellation penalties by saying that you caused them financial damage when you cancelled early. Many times the contract will say something like the cancellation penalty is $500 or Liquidated Damages, whichever is GREATER. So, that might be where your confusion about the “buy-out” is coming from. Since it is probably a perfectly “legal” contract that you signed, it may be difficult to get a resolution. My advice would be to contact the Better Business Bureau to file a complaint. Pivotal will be much more likely to work with you when you bring the BBB into the mix.
Cynthia Milbradt
May 19, 2011 at 6:27 pm (UTC -7)
That is the point. I had no contract with Pivotal. They had bought out my old provider with whom I had a “no term contract” agreement. Pivotal said they sent letters out with new terms and conditions. I do remember someone from Pivotal calling me and saying I was bound to the new agreement and if should deactivate my account I would loose $500.00. My new provider agreed to pay for the buy-out.
6 months later I get a $3700 (plus) withdrawal from my account with no warning, no assessment of fees. Now half my capitol for operating my very small business is gone. This is putting me out of business.
When I called Pivotal to complain they said they would reverse the charges if I reactivated the account. Hmmm…sounds a bit like abuse of the system and perhaps bribery and coercion.
This is not sitting well with me. There is a thing call “business ethics”. Apparently they skipped that class. I am not going down lightly with this matter. I will fight it with every tool available to me.
Sorry Pivotal. You picked on the wrong flea!
Gerald
May 20, 2011 at 6:20 pm (UTC -7)
That’s exactly what happened to me. Pivotal bought out my previous provider and instituted the fees without, in my opinion, any notification other than was provided in a multi-page “provider aggreement” written in a font that was miniscule (barely readable) and crouched in legal-eze verbage. We had such a hard time getting them to respond to us that we decided to just drop their service. Then they refused to terminate the accounts for several months (charging us monthly fees, of course). We finally sent registered demand letters to close the account, and to be sure, we closed our business account and went to a diffierennt bank. They are very unethical. I’m surprised that their isn’t a class-action suit against them, but I believe the laws are biased to protect the banks, not the merchants. Beware of what you sign up for.
Mary
May 4, 2011 at 2:12 pm (UTC -7)
We are a small non-profit organization that was using Pivotal until we switched providers, and what a nightmare it was. They debited our account for over $900. They never explained how they arrived at that incredible sum, nor provided any documentation to prove their math. They claimed it was all in our contract but our contract was a dingy, smeared, over-copied document that spelled NOTHING out.
I called daily asking to speak to a supervisor. I was told a someone would get back to me. No one ever did. When I asked for the name of the supervisor, the agent on the phone flat out refused to tell me. My particular agent spoke smugly. He wasn’t concerned with my complaint, and more importantly he wasn’t the least bit afraid of me.
I am appalled that Pivotal has an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau in Canada. The number of complaints against this company is staggering. I am continuing to follow this up with the Attorney General and Better Business Bureau. If anyone has had success with these people, I’d like to hear it.
shani
April 25, 2011 at 6:57 am (UTC -7)
we are currently trying to cancel our account with pivotal due to the fact that the rates they promised they cant commit to im deeply disturbed to hear all the problems people go threw with the cancellation process i can see we have a long journey ahead of us and we are ready to fight this with media anything and everything it takes if you have any suggestions please email me at bnhshayshay@live.ca
Gerald
April 25, 2011 at 8:36 pm (UTC -7)
Hi Shani, I had to cancel my bank account and open a different account. They can’t charge something that doesn’t exist. It seems to have worked. Make sure you document everything- all of your phone calls, time on hold, etc. Good luck with this.
Cynthia Milbradt
May 20, 2011 at 9:17 pm (UTC -7)
I used the same tactic, but only after they debited my account over $3500.00. I got the money back but only because I was on the ball. You only have a small window of time available to get the charges reversed.. They made the withdrawal at 1 minute to midnight, eliminating half a business day to discover and reverse the charges.
They did this 6 months after I closed the account, with no warning, no assessment of fees no explanation. The biggest issue here is I never had an agreement with Pivotal. They bought out my old provider and would not honor the existing terms and conditions which was a “no term” agreement.
I highly recommend that you NEVER enter into an agreement with a third party provider. I go directly through my bank. No problems.
Don
February 21, 2011 at 9:47 pm (UTC -7)
Pivotal review
Their cancellation fee is more than 500$. They want me to pay a large penalty for breaking my contract 3 months into a 60 month contract. The penalty consist of the amount they would make from me in a month x the 57 remaining months which would equal over $11,000. On top of that, I do have to pay the remaining 5 year lease on the terminal. To make matter worse, their 5 year contract would automatically renew if you don’t cancel 6 months prior to the end of the contract. Plus they are being deceptive the way they get you to switch. I was promised 2 cents per transaction, but they added a connectivity fee of 3 cents per transaction in the fine prints, so I hand up paying more than my previous provider with all the fees they add up.
But can someone explain to me how they can justify collecting such a large penalty when they have no money attached in my business. The writer of this story needs to do a follow up to this article. Please help!. I know I’ll hand up being responsible for the terminal lease, I just don’t want to pay $11,000 for transaction fees, that’s ludicrous.
Kristin
February 8, 2011 at 2:47 pm (UTC -7)
I recently had to cancel my account with Pivotal. It was a nightmare. I have been in business since 2002 and I have never experienced a worse company to deal with. I would warn all business people to STAY AWAY from Pivotal because they are extremely crooked.
The highlights of my experience using them:
-Outdated machines with no chip enabled software
-They make you buy out the machine so you are stuck with old technology that you have to pay to upgrade in order to have a working machine
-Difficulty with processing sales (our line would always go down)
-Most expensive processing fees
-Extremely sneaky contracts: I was on a 5 year contract – they automatically renewed this without sending me any notice or renewal form or option for new technology and then nailed me with the full penalty for canceling “early” in my 7th year with them.
-At my second location I received a machine that did not work from day 1 (bought in 2008). I immediately called customer service and let them know but received no service call or help for the next 2 years, just plenty of me calling into Pivotal and chasing them down trying to get service
After 7 years with this company and two processing machines that did not work they told me to cancel I would be responsible for paying $500 plus three months of processing fees…they had absolutely no accountability to their grave errors technically and in regards to customer service. It didn’t seem to matter to them whatsoever, they were just determined to squeeze the last little bit of money out of me.
They did offer me one “deal”. If I kept my online contract with them, they would waive my cancellation fees for the 2 shops with machines not working. However, if I canceled my online account early they would charge me the cancellation fees for all three accounts. It’s shocking to think that a company can offer no service and be charging you through the nose for all processing fees and STILL have such a hold over customers because of how expensive it is to cancel their horrible service.
I hope this message gets to other business people. I would not want anyone else to have to experience this company.
Damian Tanenbaum
February 8, 2011 at 7:39 pm (UTC -7)
Dear Kristin, I am sorry to hear of of the technical and cancellation issues you experienced. If you send me your account details I will have your specific situation reviewed. I can be reached at wecare@pivotalpayments.com. Please include your merchant name and a contact number. We are doing everything possible to further improve the service and the products we offer.
Sincerely yours Damian Tanenbaum Vice President of Operations.
Cynthia Milbradt
May 19, 2011 at 9:25 pm (UTC -7)
Kristin…are you a joke. Pivotal Cares. You have got to shilling for that black hole of evil. I have never, and I mean never had such a bad experience as I have had with Pivotal. Mean, nasty, switch house pool of heartless creeps.
Never, I mean never get involved with these vultures. YOU WILL REGRET IT! They sucked half of my operating capital out of my account. I cannot function as a business. Checks are bouncing. Payroll not honored. It’s a complete nightmare of epic proportions. No warning. No statement of how they arrived at their “liquidated damages”. The worst part is I never had a signed contract with them. They bought out my old merchant account and changed the terms and conditions. They are not honoring the contracts they bought. This is a a company with no conscience, no sense of business ethics. BEWARE>>>>BEWARE
Cynthia Milbradt
May 20, 2011 at 9:37 pm (UTC -7)
Sorry Kristin, That post should have been directed at Damian Tanenbaum of “wecare@pivotalpayments. What a contradiction in terms. I don’t see how the two can even be in the same URL.
Gerald
December 16, 2010 at 2:04 pm (UTC -7)
We have been trying to cancel our Pivotal account for two months. They will not cancel it without talking to the Cancellation Department, who is never available and won’t return phone calls. We have been on hold for 30-40 minutes at a time before someone picks up the call, and they just give us the same message. We have wasted many hours trying to get this done, and we still get monthly fees from them even though we are not using their services, simply because they will not cancel the account. Stay away from these guys.
Damian Tanenbaum
January 7, 2011 at 6:47 am (UTC -7)
Dear Gerald, I am sorry to hear of your recent service experience. If you would kindly contact us at wecare@pivotalpayments.com with your merchant name and a contact number we would be happy to discuss your account with you. We have over 300 employees dedicated to servicing our customers accounts. In 2010 we made great strides in lowering our wait times and improving our quality. We have several more enhancements scheduled for 2011 and I would enjoy hearing your reason for wanting to cancel and welcome the opportunity to prove to you that we are serious about improving the service we provide! Damian Tanenbaum Vice President of Operations.
JJ
January 27, 2011 at 5:11 am (UTC -7)
Hi Gerald. That cute little trick of Pivotal payments is just one of many that they have to rip off their customers month after month. They are the worst of every processor I have used so far and on a scale from 1 to 10, I give them a -600. Need I say more. Good luck with these rip offs. Pivotal Payments is the worst of the lowest.
Lana
December 14, 2010 at 7:46 am (UTC -7)
Hi Phillip,
I have small professional massage office. I would like get credit card processor for r my I phone because sometimes i lose clients . Also I go to Yoga retreats and need to have this service.
I don’t want to pay monthly fees only when I process the CC.
Which card payment service do you recommend?
Lana
Phillip Parker
December 14, 2010 at 8:56 am (UTC -7)
Hi Lana,
The transaction rate is higher than a normal merchant account but if you want something easy to use with an iPhone and no monthly fees, it’s hard to beat Square (www.squareup.com).
Best,
Phillip
Cynthia Milbradt
May 19, 2011 at 9:35 pm (UTC -7)
Regarding merchant accounts that go bad…Beware any provider that uses a third party processor, that includes Pivotal Payments. Go through your bank. At least you can go to your branch and talk to a face. If you have a withdrawal that does not seem right…go directly to your bank and have the charge reversed. You only have until the bank closes on the next business day to do this. These sharks will make the withdrawal at 1 minute till midnight which only gives you that next banking day to have the charges reversed. You have no power to have the money returned unless you go through a long, drawn out process that will break you down emotionally and psychologically. That’s the bet they make. They will break you down into little pieces and eat you alive. Take my word for it.
Priscilla Gray
December 11, 2010 at 3:57 pm (UTC -7)
we have just joined up with Pivital payments but our machines do not show any monies going thru .. and we can not access Visa or MC , we are wanting to get away from this company as they can not give what we want .. can any help us in getting rid of these jerks
Display Name Guy
November 29, 2010 at 2:02 pm (UTC -7)
Pivotal Payments has used a “Power of Attorney” form in order to outright impersonate some merchants. They offer to cancel your services with your other provider on your behalf if you sign the Power of Attorney granting them the power to do so. But when they discovered that these previous providers were not compliant in timely canceling merchant accounts for a competitor they simply began having their representatives call in pretending to be the merchant. They continue to do this on a daily basis. This is of questionable legality at best.
Criston
November 20, 2010 at 8:20 am (UTC -7)
This company in particular looks awful. While looking online for some feedback about them from current of former customers I found almost zero positive feedback and a whole lot of anger and bad experiences. A hard company to recommend indeed.
Screwed by Pivotal
November 9, 2010 at 2:02 pm (UTC -7)
I have switched effective Aug 1st, 2010 from Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global Payments to much more reasonable merchant payment provider. On August 1st, 2010 I notified my Bank Branch of the change and of the stop payment to Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global Payments on my account.
I cancelled my contract with Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global Payments
under the pretence of the Finance minister’s new “code of
conduct” policy released on April 18th, 2010, and put into effect
August 16th, 2010.
On August 16th, 2010 I notified Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global
Payments that Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global Payments no longer had
authorization to debit my account. On Sept 7th, 2010 Cardex/Pivotal
Payments/Global Payments withdrew over $3,000, from my Bank account that they were strictly informed that they were to have NO FURTHER ACCESS. My bank manager agreed and my bank manager
reversed the withdrawl immediately.
I now take a barrage of daily harrassing calls from Pivotal Payments
Collections department.
My latest obstacle has now become LFG. I was sold a Hypercom T4210 on a recommendation made by CARDEX (Jesse Schwartz) The Unit was to work over the Internet via TCP/IP base. It worked maybe one year, and then became almost a strict dial up machine, as it could not hold a “net” connection. The silver numeric coating on the number buttons started flaking off in less than a year. The numeric pad that I keyed in amounts was also the pad that clients would use to key in their PIN. Nearly every time I would pass the machine to the client it would power down and re boot. I would physically have to go to the “other” side of the counter and instruct the client to NOT MOVE the machine and then process their payment. The unit finally powered down for the final time and upon rebooting it just showed an error code and appears to have had it’s memory wiped clean, and is no longer functional, and then would no longer even power up. Just a dead machine.
Every time I contacted Pivotal about the issues they said it is not their problem, but they could have a service technician there to look at it within a few days at a totally astronomical price.
I have put a stop payment on LGF and have had the monies they have debited from my account reversed. LFG has contacted me and requested absurd amounts of money due to me cancelling their NON-Cancellable lease. Even if I ship them back they’re broken down POS terminal the credit that LGF would be willing to give me is nominal.
They are threatening me with legal action that would result in them seizing my assets and ruining my credit check.
Is there any way to get rid of Pivotal and LFG and not have to pay the crazy astronomical fees they are demanding?
Any advice on how to get rid of these clowns?
Phillip Parker
November 9, 2010 at 9:02 pm (UTC -7)
Unfortunately, there may not be many options with this situation because it is likely that you signed contracts with these companies agreeing to the terms they set forth. I’m curious to learn more about the $3000 dollars that Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global Payments is attempting to collect because I’ve never heard of an early termination fee being so high. I can only assume that the $3000 is a collection of various fees, including transaction fees that they might be rightly entitled to receiving. If you can elaborate on how they have come to such a large amount, I would be very interested in getting more details.
If anything, your story highlights the problems some merchant account providers cause for their “customers” and shows just how greedy they can be. It is absolutely critical to read the merchant account agreements word-for-word before signing up with any of these companies. I frequently hear stories like this, and get many questions on how to avoid bad merchant account providers, so I wrote an ebook to explain it all in an easy to understand way. It’s called “Fee Sweep” and it’s a must-read for anyone who is about to get credit card processing for the first time, or merchants wanting to switch providers.
Cynthia Milbradt
May 19, 2011 at 9:41 pm (UTC -7)
Phillip, You must be kidding. These are not fees that Pivotal wants to recover. They are collecting for services not rendered. This is a corrupt company that is pushing the boundaries of the law. They are on the radar screen witha B rating. BEWARE, BEWARE., Totally corrupt with no business ethics. NONE.
Phillip Parker
May 20, 2011 at 5:29 pm (UTC -7)
Cynthia, a “Liquidated Damages” clause is not related to the recovery of owed fees. It is a cancellation penalty based on the future fees they expected to earn from you based on the contract you agreed upon. Although it’s a very sneaky and shady practice, it’s considers as perfectly legal. That being said, I would still encourage you to fight it.
Cynthia Milbradt
May 20, 2011 at 9:33 pm (UTC -7)
Phillip, I got my money back only because I got to the branch on time to have the charges reversed. I am now expecting Pivotal to go after my business but they will have a hell of a time collecting the fees.
Pivotal cannot produce the letter they supposedly sent informing me of the change of terms and conditions. They sent me a copy of some computer generated form letter with no address, addressee or date. They can’t prove the letter was ever sent or where it was sent to.
I don’t think they will have much of a leg to stand on here.
Pivotal Payments is a predatory, third party banker with terrible ratings and unethical business practices. The most honorable thing you can do is help get the word out to others.
There is much, much more here than terminal lease issues. Pivotal has completely blurred the lines between legal and ethical, achieving neither in my opinion. I suspect that there could be wire fraud issues here.
FYI Pivotal ranks fifth from the bottom of 100 rated providers. I was surprised they rated so high.
Thanks for your contributions. Cynthia
Samira Tahtawi
May 15, 2012 at 4:50 pm (UTC -7)
I started doing business w/ Pivotal in Feb 2012. After 3 mos of not receiving the online tracking ability for client payments, I cancelled this service and went back to the old credit card program I had. Pivotal called me to inform me of my cancellation fee – > $4600 based on their lost earnings over the 3 year time frame that they claimed I was contracted for.
I reviewed the contract – no mention of this cancellation fee/lost earnings/etc. I spoke w/ John in Canada – he informed me that the contract that states this fact is not handed to the merchants at time of signing!!! It is a 5 – 7 page pamphlet that “is understood” at time of signing. I was appalled.
Anyhow, I would like to know how to proceed. I shall contact the BBB. I have contacted the bank. Pivotal did inform me that they will debit my account for the $4600.
Fraudulent, unethical and surprisingly successful for this business to still be in business given their mishandling of their clients. I hope someone gets this information together to expose this company on a broader scale.