Appstar Financial Merchant Services 2023: Reviews & Complaints

A rep came into our dealership on several occasions wanting to talk to us about switching to Appstar. The last visit the person was here for over 4 hours trying to persuade us to switch but we said no. And because we said no, she refused to purchase a vehicle from us, that she drove for over an hour, and wasted the managers time. After reading all of the complaints, I am happy we did not switch.

Appstar violates their own contract terms. Fails promised refunds. Threatens customers. Appstar does not respect their own sales people. If you are stuck, consider a counter suit, upheld in most jurisdictions. After all, they understand money. Best thing is avoid Appstar altogether. With all the complaints, contact me regarding any class actions being considered.

One of a series of letters to Appstar

Xxx (Sales Representative)

Thank you for relating to Appstar the $0 closing fees you quoted me. It is inappropriate for me to intermediate between you and your company regarding the contractual components you presented. Besides, from his communications, Mr. Xxxxxx (in operations) indicates he has nothing more to contribute.

It is unfortunate that Mr. Xxxxxx does not respect your representation of Appstar, which also his company, by not honoring your statement and the position Appstar has entrusted to you.

Perhaps the response of a Circuit Court judge will be more convincing, should he unwisely pursue. Recapitulation of fees and trends of same rebutting his calculations will be presented. As I related to Kyle in operations on his recorded line, counter-billing Appstar for loss of time and productivity at my professional fee of $600 per hour has also been historically upheld in these cases, should that arise. I reiterate these charges here.

The do not do next day deposit. Customer service said that we were not eligible..was never told why. They have called our customers/clients to questions why we were charging them, was very embarrassing because we have been working with most in many years.

They are the WORST Company we have worked with. The previous companies provide next day deposit and our customers/clients were never called to confirm the amount we had charged.

They have promised all what we were getting; next day deposit, automatic charges and more. We have received services explained above.

I have found Appstar to be absolutely predatory in their attempts to sign up small businesses. The sales representatives were absolute liars as they told us anything we wanted to hear. Their many, many fees are hidden in the labyrinthine legalese that makes up their contract. Even though we found most of them after beginning processing through them our monthly fees DOUBLED. For Buddha’s sake, steer clear of this company. We are trying like mad to disentangle ourselves.

I had a bad feeling about the salesperson when he first walked in. He initially came to sell us gift cards, but ended up suckering us into listening to his sales pitch about a more professional and cheaper alternative to the POS system we were using. He used very aggressive language to try to reel us in. I stated to him very firmly that I wanted to look over the contract and check my other options. He responded by saying, “Why would you want to do that when you know this is the best deal?” repeatedly. I left it up to the other two owners because of not I was going to go off on him (I really should have just kicked him out), and unfortunately they signed a terrible contract. Now we are stuck with this terrible business that said it would only be $30 more than our other POS system, that they would pay our cancellation fee, and that we would not have to pay for the equipment after we cancelled for 6 years. We are charged A LOT more than $30 in comparison to our old system and they lied about paying for the equipment after we cancelled. When we figured that they were terrible con artists a day or two later, we called the company to complain. They were condescending and acted like they were not in the wrong. Please DO NOT even let these people into your store! And NEVER sign anything without thoroughly reading it, even if the salesperson is super aggressive and manipulative.

Less than professional telephone sales staff, Chris Johnson. Number now blocked. No understanding of add me to a do not call list. Report filed

January 26, 2011 I signed a contract with AppStar. I opened a boutique and my neighbors daughter just started working for the company. I told her I was open to considering the company if their prices were competititive and fair. She told me she was going into training for 3 days and made an appointment for the third day.
She came to the store with the equipment and called her boss Juan Palazzo in San Diego. Over the phone he taught her how to set up the equipment and then she handed me this contract with many pages and said sign . here…here and here.
She did not go over the contract with me and neither did Juan. They did not explain the contract terms, pricing or the fact the merchant activity machine was actually contracted with another company. I made the comment…”there are so many pages…maybe I should read through this first”. With Juan on the phone she stated…it is just your standard contract….you have nothing to worry about.
The only information they did give me was the American Express and Discover Card were billed differently than Visa and Master Card. They made sure I understood that!!!
One year into the contract I called them because my partner disappeared and I needed to understand the contract. I spoke with Robert Close. I told Robert in the last year many reps from other companies advised me after reviewing the contract…I was being overcharged incredibly and on top of that was renting a merchang activity machine that had a Momentum 4500X sticker on it. It is not a Momentum and I was paying over $80.00 a month for a machine that is worth $250.00. Robert did work with me and lower the fees a bit and then told me he could do nothing about the contract with Merimac, but he would contact them to see if I could get a better rate.
For a while I was charged $79.00 for the machine and then without any notice it went back up to $89.00.
How could they have me sign a contract with Merimac but have not ability to talk to Merimac about their fees…services, etc???
Robert told me I had a 3 year non-cancellable contract with AppStar and even if I closed the store…AppStar would still demand payment.
Within the next 2 years I called in often with issues and always told the technical person I was talking to I still was being told my fees were higher than I should pay.
Well I made it through the 3 years and actually closed my store last week 7/31/2014. So that meant I completed my contract plus!! Called and spoke with a Stacy who told me I had a new contract and would be required to pay monthly fees regardless of the fact the store was closed and I would not be using their services. I asked to speak to her boss and she told me a Harry Mort was her boss and he would call me back.
I received a call from a Joseph who said he was the Supervisor of Operations and he was calling on behalf of Harry Mort. I explained my store was closed…contract ended and that when I talked to Stacy she told me they automatically extend the contract and I am obligated to pay. I asked him why they are not required to contact the customer when the contract is about to expire and he told me that was not their responsibility. He told me I had no options. I asked to speak to his boss and he told me he was the only one I could talk to….no one else would talk to me. I commented how was that legal…I would be paying for a service I was not using! He responded “it is in your contract”,
My issue is they do not go over the contract with you and point out anything. In fact in my case I had a Mgr. and a sales rep involved and they were only interested in setting up the equipment!! They explained nothing about the contract (except American Express and Discover).
Does the company have no accountability for misrepresentation (Merimac Lease) disclosing fees and additional fees before they set up the equipment and coerse the customer into signing???
I have read the other complaints and there must be some way for all of us to resolve this issue? If the company keeps performing deceptive businesss practices they must be held accountable. How can a company honorably charge for a service they are not providing???
Of course Juan Palazzo is no longer with the company!!! Surprise…Surprise!! The Sales Rep quit the company over 2 years ago.
Also Joseph told me all I had to do was tell them I was offered lower rates and if I could show them the proposal of the other companies rates AppStar would match the rates. He said everyone in the company knows that. When I told him he was the first one to tell me that he had no comment.

I too have bad experience with Appstar Financial I paid my monthly fee for a year faxed the letter to cancel and then they took funds out of my business account Which I had to close to have it stopped. I have contacted the BBB in SanDiego and in St. Louis along with the Attorney General in St. Louis so far no help. How can a company still stay in business with these complaints.

Appstar is the worst credit card processor ever. There are many hidden fees. They are impossible to cancel because they make the rules up as they go. Awful company

I am rejecting this response from the Business Appstar. My 3 year quota was up on 8/17/13 and customers should be able to cancel any time before it rolls over to the next year.(Like I did) Not wait thirty to ninety days before it expires in writing . I know It is in the letter I signed back in 2010 but, this is a way for this company to make extra money when My term was for filled and I called to cancel on 8/2/13 to not extend this service.. That means I called 15 days before my term was up that should be sufficient. I signed the documents 3 years prior. The letter that Appstar sent to you saying still keep my account open was because I was changing terminals. Please look into this company for it is trying to gauge small business owners by putting things like. “Cancellation needs to be in writing 30 to 90 days prior to year up.” Calling ahead of time to cancel is sufficient enough.

NOT SATISFIED!!!!!!!!

I signed a contract with them and cancelled it within 3 business days. That’s when they gave me a hard time especially the manager Christopher. He called me a lier after I told him why i was cancelling and told me they would charge me the cancellation fee which they did. He was very arrogant and so was the local rep. These individuals woul not work with me and are not very professional, I will not do business with company again and will not recommend them to anyone. The agent also said that the reviews on this site were wrong and not true, don’t believe them.

The complaints here about the salesperson and the cost of services and their collection practices is all too familiar. I did sign up with these scam artists but ended up never using their service; not even once. The cost was to be $29.95 per month plus a percentage for each sale processed and a small per item charge. The cost was negotiated to be less than what I was accustomed to with Paypal so I decided to sign up. Some months later when I discovered someone was taking $65 and $64 per month from my checking account, I contacted my bank to put a stop on the charade. I then realized who it was and immediately overnighted by FedEX a termination letter to three locations of AppStar. I explained to the salesman at the outset that I rarely use credit card payment services. In fact I have such a rare need for them that I FORGOT I had signed up with them until I discovered the charges which soon discovered had accumulated to over $500. When I received an acknowledgement from AppStar of my decision to terminate, they told me I would have to pay a $640 termination/cancellation fee. I told them I was not giving them one more dime for a service I NEVER once used. The man, David who phoned me the other day, says that it is stated right in their contract they will not honor salesmen’s agreements. Hmmm… Not even if it is writing on their Agreement form? So now they are going to file a report with the credit bureaus on me personally about my non payment for a business agreement. They have attempted twice to collect the $640 from my bank account using different ach names. Fortunately I bank with a small town bank who watches out for me. These people truly are scam artists. Watch out for them. I wish I’d looked at the reviews before I signed.

I had an agent come to my business to give me a quote. He came at 11:30 in the morning. I am the sole owner operator and employee of my business. He said he would be able to save me over $150.00 a month on my credit card services. First I would have to lease the equipment credit card machine,pin pad and check reader from them for 60 months. This was at a rate of 79.99 a month but he could get it down to 59.99 a month. Thats $3,599.40 it would cost me to rent this equipment. I asked how much it would be if I bought the equipment outright. Was told the cost would be the same. Then I was told he need me to sighn an application so he could get me a quote rate as to what I would save. Finally after saying “NO” I would not sign anything and he wouldn’t leave. I pulled the “silent partner” (my husband) card and said I would discuss it with him just to try to get him to leave. Still he wouldn’t go. Said he wanted a meeting with my husband. Called my husband knowing he had day off and said I needed his help. Meeting set up for 5:00. Finally he left my store at 2:30 . All the while I was trying to wait on and help customers. 5:00 came and he proceeded to put the pitch to my husband. Once again tried to get signature on application to get rates. This time with my husband saying”NO” he was able to aquire the rates. After some figuring my husband pointed out that I could buy all the machinary on line for less then a thousand dollars. That he might save me $50.00 a month, possibly. At which point the sales man wanted a voided check so we could sign the deal . We said no we would contact him if we were interested. At which point he went off about how could we not sign when he was going to save us $700.00 a year. When my husband finally losing patients raised his voice and told him to leave he did. A VERY BAD experience. And oh yeah he said at the push of a button I would have the thermal paper overnighted to me. I can only imagine the extra cost for that. My opinion is that this is a major scam and people should be warned.

STEER CLEAR OF AppStar Financial services. From start to finish they will make promises to get you to sign only to renege on those promises after you sign the contract.. When asked where the contract modification were they said that they will only send an “AMENDMENT” to the contract after the contract is signed.

VERY untrustworthy AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

Better Business Bureau of no help what so ever. Don’t know if paid subscription by AppStar to BBB is of any concern.

[Last paragraph redacted for solicitation violation]

was mislead into signing a contract. after signing, immediately retracted , sent back 2 days later cancelling as instructed, faxed desire to cancell as instructed, now being charged monthly payments, or i can pay $ 400 now to cancel.
run from these people.i see why they have a d rating

I too question how Appstar got the A+ rating from BBB! I can assure you, it is not due to their customer service nor their honesty. If you are approached by these people, DO NOT sign a contract with them. They told me that when I finished leasing the credit card machine after a 2 year contract, the machine would be mine. The company that owns the machine says that is not the case and now I am stuck paying $54 a month for a CC machine that every other company gives you free when you sign a contract with them. Further, I have not received a statement for over a year, which is how I found this site….I was trying to locate contact info to find out where my statements were and came across this site and felt COMPELLED to leave a review……my rating….F-

I have been with Appstar for nearly three years. During that time they have charged me an annual fee, a monthly statement fee, and taken $$$$$ every month far and beyond anything else I have been paying before. The saleperson talked a good talk and didn’t mention that there was a $450.00 closing fee. I hadn’t read the fine print until later (4 pages). I am trying to get out of the contract 60 days early and they refuse to allow it without the penaly. Don’t get involved with this company, they are rip off artists.

I have been called over and over again by appstar, there are pushing it at every phone call. The last person that called me, beside interrupting me every word I was saying, was calling me “honey”, “sweetly” at the end of pretty much every sentences. Forced me to accepted an appointment. Now I am usually contacted on the phone from other company for services; in a year and a half of business I have never encountered a services provider that is so desperate and hard sell mannered. I strongly desappreciate there ill mannered still.
On one side I appreciate that one person from that company told me about a certain “Durbin amendment: putting the processing fees down 50%”
But nevertheless it’s too much hard sell for me to move forward with them without questioning everything the might want to say or sell.

This company is full of rude, pushy con artists. I never completed my application process yet they continue to charge my office account with false charges and are very tricky about it. Then they charge a $495.00 close fee to close an account I never opened! What a joke!!! You will be sued for non authorized transactions and to all the businesses out there…BE VERY CAREFUL ! This company is horrible!!!

My experience was excruating. The salseman came to my shop with no shoes, unshaven and reaking of alcohol. Need I say more?

I was considering becoming an agent for AppStar, but after reading a few of these I’ve reconsidered. I’d be interested in the results of your full review. Is this the same AppStar that used to be based in Texas? Why did they leave?

I cancelled by merchant account back in June, to be effective on my one-year anniversary in August, to avoid the cancellation fee . AppStar continued to charge me a monthly fee, despite the fact that there was no activity on the the account. When I called them to complain about the fees and reiterate the fact the account was still opened, AppStar stated that they did not received the signed letter, and that they were only willing to cancel my account for a $495 fee. What?! They stabbed me in the back with the monthly fees, and then raped me with a outrageous cancellation fee.

What a mess!

Stay away from AppStar Financial. Process at your own risk…