In the late 2000s, as a broke college student struggling to make ends meet, I was contacted by a merchant services company after uploading my resume to a job listings website. This company promised substantial commissions and ongoing residual income for simply persuading businesses to accept credit card payments. It seemed straightforward enough—after all, what business doesn’t need to process credit card payments? Following a phone interview with a persuasive “sales director,” I found myself embarking on what I believed would be an easy job that would significantly boost my bank account with reliable monthly income and large sales commissions. However, the lessons I learned would profoundly change my life in ways I could never have imagined.
After completing my sales training, I hit the ground running, eager to make sales. This broke college student was determined to improve his financial situation! My first attempt at a cold call, with no prior appointment, ended with a burly man in his 50s yelling at me to leave, claiming he had been “totally robbed” by someone like me before. As I hastily exited, puzzled and intimidated by his reaction, I couldn’t help but wonder what he meant. Throughout the day, I encountered similar hostility from other business owners, all expressing disdain for the industry I had been so excited to join that morning. Confused and curious, I decided to shift my approach from selling to listening.
I quickly uncovered that the merchant services sector was riddled with unethical practices, including hidden fees, deceptive marketing, fine-print traps, and much more. It dawned on me that I had nearly been tricked by a dubious company into selling overpriced services under contracts with long-term commitments, all without being fully aware of what I was promoting. Outraged, I resigned from that company but learned that there were indeed ethical credit card processing companies that treated their clients fairly. Over the next four years, I worked for one such company, assisting hundreds of businesses in securing cost-effective processing solutions. Yet, I also met many more who had been misled and trapped in onerous service agreements. Determined to help people steer clear of these unscrupulous providers, I launched this website in my spare time, dedicating myself to researching and sharing my findings on every merchant account provider I could investigate.
Gradually, more and more business owners began to discover my articles. As word spread, search engines started to rank my content highly, amplifying its reach. My efforts were making a difference! Eventually, the website garnered enough traffic to enable me to leave my job and focus on it full-time, a journey that has now spanned over a decade. This path has not been without its challenges; unscrupulous company owners have tried to intimidate and sue me into silence on several occasions. Yet, I have stood firm against each threat. Here I am, continuing to publish reviews and articles, hoping to safeguard others from the pitfalls of the credit card processing industry.
If you believe in my mission and wish to contribute, please share my articles on your websites and social media. Thank you for visiting!
HILLEN SMITH
I am a Merchant, in business 32 years and the victim of major Stolen Credit Card Fraud.
First Data is taking no responsibility and doing “chargebacks” to my Company’s Bank
Account. It appears that this is a relatively new area of the Law and very few Attorney’s will represent the Merchant. Do you have any suggestions, referrals?
David
Horrible customer service, the person I talked to on the phone couldn’t answer any questions without putting me on hold for 5 minutes. They didn’t seen to care about my situation and did give any warnings of penalties. We are now being charged over $1000 because they would not allow us to pull more than a certain amount from someone’s acct. at one time.
Phillip CPO
Hi David,
Can you provide more detail about your experience? It’s helpful to other business owners and will ensure that your comment remains published. Thanks!
S
Our company has originally signed up for merchant services with Applied Merchant Systems. That company was aquired by Capital Payments, and that’s when the nightmare began. Customer service was non-existant. It wouldn’t be an overstatement that chargebacks were a good 15-20% of all transactions (and virtually 0 before and after Capital Payments). Customer service is provided by a third party that doesn’t have a clue about the customers or the service. They were never able to tell who the chargeback was initiated by, etc etc.
When we finally decided to change providers, it took a whole research to find out who to call. Each place we called gave us the phone number of yet another place that was handling cancellations. A few months after the cancellation we found out that the account was still active ! After another calling session, the company has sent me a form that needs to be filled out in order for the account to be cancelled. The form among other things states: Reason must be checked in order for the merchant account to be properly closed. However, being scam-artists is not provided as one of the options. A pity.
Thank you.
Don Meredith
I hate Capital Payments, as they have ripped me off. I did a search for small business start-up funding and
they contacted me about a merchant acount loan. This is a ploy to get account info under the guise of
needing the number to deposit money into and all they do is withdrawl their fee. This is even after you cancel as
once you sign up for the merchant account, all the talk of lending you money is ignored. This is fraud. They
claim to be a lending institution for vulnerable start-up companies, then rip you off for a merchant account
that you can’t use without the funding in the first place. It’s all about greed for the rich. I wish they’d have to play fair like they expect us to do.
Director - Credit/Risk Management
Capital Payments has a referral partnership with a company called Merchant Loans, whereby Merchant Loans refers their current clients and prospective clients to Capital Payments for payment processing services. Mr. Meredith was referred to us in March for a merchant account (credit card processing) . After being approved for a merchant account, Mr. Meredith wanted to get a business loan from Capital. We explained to him that Capital Payments does not lend money, we provided credit card processing.
Mr. Meredith thought that both Capital Payments and Merchant Loans was one company. When he found out that Capital does not provide loans, he canceled his merchant account with us and we refunded his March merchant account fee.
He was very clear that our account executive that helped him open his merchant account was honest and respectful. He also commented on our A rating with the Better Business Bureau and was very appreciated in our resolution of this matter.