iPayment Review
UPDATE 5/8/2019: iPayment was acquired by Paysafe Group in June 2018. Visiting iPayment’s website will relocate users to Paysafe’s. For information on the company please review our review of Paysafe.
SUPPLEMENTAL UPDATE 11/2/2015 – iPayment (AKA: Flagship Merchant Services) has repeatedly made hostile attempts to force the removal of this review. These have included intimidation through bullying and threats of litigation under false pretenses as well as an illegitimate DMCA claim filed with our host, which was rejected on the grounds that it was a “guise” to suppress fair use of a trademark. It is our opinion that such actions reveal the depths to which iPayment’s executives will stoop in an attempt to suppress constitutionally protected free speech that is critical of their business practices. We view these actions as not only highly unethical, but as a demonstration of their unwillingness to correct the problems that cause merchant complaints and, instead, a preference for aggressive strong-arm retribution tactics. If you have been a victim of such threats or bullying, please detail your experience in the comment section below.
iPayment (ipaymentinc.com) is a very large ISO of First Data that claims to provide merchant accounts to approximately 153,000 small businesses nationwide. Founded in 1999, the company is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, but maintains its primary operations center in Los Angeles, California. iPayment became a publicly traded company in 2003 but was then purchased by an investment team led by its founder Greg Daily in 2006. It has operated as a private company since 2006.
iPayment also owns the domain name “creditcardprocessing.com,” though it is unclear whether it regards this business as a subsidiary or as a separate enterprise. iPayment acquired its longtime reseller Leaders Merchant Services in November 2017. iPayment is sponsored by Wells Fargo of Walnut Creek, California, as its Acquiring Bank. O.B. Rawls, IV, is the president and CEO of iPayment following the ouster of Carl Grimstad in September 2016.
Key Points
- Sales & Marketing: iPayment hires independent sales agents and has received a moderate-to-high number of complaints about its sales practices.
- Costs & Contract: iPayment offers a three-year contract with an early termination fee of up to $350.
- Complaints & Service: iPayment has received more than 300 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: iPayment has an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received 271 complaints in the past three years.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With iPayment
iPayment Customer Reviews
Here's What Their Clients Say
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Total Online Complaints | 300+ |
| Live Customer Support | Yes |
| Most Common Complaint | Hidden Terms |
As noted at the top of this review, iPayment has also made direct attempts to suppress this review and the legitimate merchant comments posted beneath it. This would seem to indicate that the company prefers to stifle negative feedback rather than address the root causes of complaints. Nevertheless, iPayment has a moderate-to-high number of complaints filed online, many of which can be found in the comment section below.
There are two types of complaints that dominate the reports. In the first type, the obvious sources of the merchants’ problems originate with the agents or ISOs that set up the accounts. In these complaints the common theme among merchants are reports of hidden fees, high monthly costs, non-disclosure of the service length agreement/cancellation fees, and expensive PCI Compliance fees. In the second type, iPayment is the source of the complaints and merchants typically report receiving poor service and unprofessional customer support. In one recent iPayment complaint, the merchant states, “I was told by this individual there was No Contract I could cancel at anytime! I was also told that the fee would be aproxamatly $7.00 a month,” only to later learn that “there was a three year contract and I had to pay an early termination fee.”
Since it is our philosophy that the actual credit card processor is ultimately responsible for the agents and ISOs which represent it, we are awarding iPayment a “D” rating in this section based on these complaints.
iPayment Online Ratings
Here's How They Rate Online
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Product & Service Complaints | 124 |
| Billing & Collection Complaints | 132 |
| Advertising & Sales Complaints | 8 |
| Guarantee & Warranty Complaints | 0 |
| Delivery Complaints | 7 |
Note: We have adjusted this company’s BBB rating according to our own standards. To better understand why we adjust BBB ratings, please see our Rating Criteria.
As of this update, the Better Business Bureau is awarding iPayment an “A+” rating, which is surprising given the fact that the BBB report lists 271 complaints in the last 36 months. Only 51 of these were resolved to the customer’s satisfaction. Complainants cite billing and collection issues, product and service issues, and advertising and sales issues as the primary problems. These complaints are most likely the result of iPayment’s use of poorly monitored sales agents and the company’s lackluster customer support. There are also 28 negative informal reviews left on the company’s profile alongside four positive reviews. We have adjusted the BBB’s rating to a “D” based on iPayment’s complaint volume and resolution ratio.
iPayment Fees, Rates & Costs
A Closer Look at The Contract
| Item | Result | >
|---|---|
| Swiped Rate | Variable |
| Keyed-in Rate | Variable |
| Early Termination Fee | $250-$350 |
| PCI Compliance Fee | Variable |
| Equipment Lease Terms | Variable |
Pricing and contract terms of an iPayment merchant account can vary based on several factors including a merchant’s business type, processing volume, and the agent or ISO setting up the account. Under most circumstances it looks like the standard contract (available below) has a service agreement of 36 months with an early termination fee that ranges from $250 to $350. iPayment also appears to sell long-term, non-cancellable equipment leases through First Data Global Leasing. These factors combined with the overwhelmingly negative merchant feedback we’ve received have earned iPayment a “C” rating in this section. Depending on the ISO or agent, however, the terms of an iPayment merchant account contract are likely to be very negotiable. Be sure to read “Fee Sweep” before engaging any merchant account provider in contract negotiation. See the iPayment Program Guide.
iPayment Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs
Should You Work For Them?
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Employs Independent Resellers | Yes |
| Advertises Deceptive Rates | No |
| Discloses All Important Terms | No |
iPayment relies heavily on third-party independent sales organizations (ISOs) and independently contracted agents to bring in new customers. This is a common marketing practice among large processors that often results in merchant complaints because the sales tactics of the ISOs and agents are very hard to control. It appears that iPayment is suffering from the typical complaints of nondisclosure as a result of this strategy, which negatively affects its rating in this section.
iPayment does not appear to directly utilize any deceptive marketing or rate quoting tactics in its official materials; however, some of its ISOs and agents appear to be doing so. There are numerous complaints in the comment section of this review and on other consumer protection websites that describe misleading rate quotes, deceptive sales pitches, and sales agents who disappear after signing merchants up for service. For this reason, merchants are encouraged to research any company offering iPayment merchant accounts before applying.
Our iPayment Review Summary
Our Final Thoughts
iPayment’s reputation is suffering from numerous complaints mostly due to its marketing strategy of hiring independent agents and partnering with ISOs. The company can improve its rating by significantly reducing its future complaint count and improving its pricing and contract policies so that merchants cannot be set up in expensive long-term contracts.
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Your Comments & Reviews
How Did iPayment Treat You?266 Responses
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Daniel
I cancelled 2 days after I signed up through Flagship because I didn’t know this company named iPAYMENT was GOD. Apparently they have the power to approve or decline my sales. I processed two transactions that totalled more than what I was allowed to charge, which was never disclosd to me by the Sales Rep. I don’t understand how and why a company would put a limit on how much a business can charge per transaction, per customer and per month. What a ridiculous policy! Why would they put a ceiling on my sales? You guys are just a middle man making money off my profits. Take the money from the buyer, who is willing to pay, take your percentage and hand the rest over to the seller. Simple.
I now have to shop for another merchant provider and the first question I ask is “Are you partners with ipayment?”
If they are, that disqualifies them automatically.
Reading other reviews, I’m glad I had this experience early because it would have been a nightmare.
I guess I should thank the Risk Management Dept for declining my sales transactions based on god knows what.
Obviously they consider me a risk before they even had a chance to do business with me.
Well anyone who is considering using ipayment … BEWARE because your risking your business by dealing with them.
Thomas Burdsall
I was totally unaware that I was required to pay a nearly 100 dollar minimum per month for the privilege of accepting credit cards.
IN over three years I processed ZERO credit cards, but found I was paying I-payment nearly 5000.00 in monthly and yearly fees. I did not monitor my banking account as closely as I should have…. But locking in for 3 years was not made clear not can I find it in any paperwork I received.
Run Away… Run fast if you are a small business. It takes one month to close the account. so they charge you another one month fee.
Customer service reps are NOT there to help YOU. BEWARE
Valerie Hector
I received a replacement VeriFone VX610 Wireless terminal from IPayment’s agent NPMG. The terminal was a replacement for a stolen VeriFone VX610 and NPMG sent it to me without first downloading the software to make the terminal work. NMPG told me to telephone Ipayment for a telephone download. After 3 unsuccessful downloads, IPayment told me the problem was with my telephone line. They told me to go to another building with a different telephone line. I went to my parents’ house in an adjacent town, and after 2 more download attempts, my terminal still would not work.
IPayment techs then told me that they could try to have my downloadable file “rebuilt” by their sister company, First Data, and that maybe then, on the 6th download, the download would work. I was not fond of that idea, given that I had other work to do than wait for a 7th download to fail.
I informed them that the previous day, one of their techs told me I could return my terminal to IPayment and have them do a download in-house. Well, that was yesterday’s tech, and today the story was a bit different. Today’s tech tried everything possible to dissuade me from returning the terminal to them for an in-house download. But I persisted.
Bottom line: I am shipping the terminal to IPayment tomorrow via FedEx overnight at my expense. It should arrive on Tuesday morning, April 8th, 2014. I was told to call IPayment on Tuesday to be sure that the terminal has arrived, and to ascertain how long the download will take. I have requested overnight service on their end, since I need the terminal for a show this coming week. Ipayment could not promise to do the download quickly, but they will try. Supposedly the overnight return shipping of the terminal, whenever that ends up taking place, will be at IPayment’s expense but just in case I offered to give them FedEx number, so that the cost of return shipping cannot be used as an excuse for not getting the terminal to me quickly, so that I can use it during my upcoming show.
All of this is quite surprising – given the 4 or so hours I have spent on the phone with IPayment techs in the last few days, it would seem to make more financial sense for them to just stop the nonsense after the 2nd or 3rd hour of technical support, and program the download in-house. I have lost 4 hours of time on my end, and they have lost 4 hours on theirs – total of 8 hours. That is not including the 5 or so hours I spent trying to get their defective downloads to work.
Unfortunately this is not the first serious problem I have had with IPayment’s technical support department, trying to fix their defective VeriFone VX610 terminals. Am I wrong to suspect that these terminals are rebuilt, meaning highly likely to be problematic?
And they are highly adverse to acknowledging a very basic fact: the problem lies not with my telephone line, or with my parents’ telephone line, but with the apparently defective downloadable file that someone on their end built for my terminal.
One further issue: when I call IPayent Technical Support and they ask for the last 4 digits of my social security number, they tell me no, they don’t have those digits on file for me, that I must be mistaken about my social security number. So I give them my FEIN instead. Nor can IPayment recognize the business phone number I have had for 15-plus years.
Given the above, should I stay with IPayment, or try another processor? And a more technically-advanced type of terminal / card reader?
Valerie Hector
Evanston, IL
Jeffrey Burton
Century Payments accepts merchant services through I-Payments. After my contract was up I decided to cancel my service due to high fees and changing policy on the whim, they charged me a $250.00 early termination fee although it was not an early termination. This made my banking account overdraft 3 times for 3 days in the amount of $108.00. They said they are not responsible for the overdraft fees (this has gone on for 6 days straight). I can not purchase supplies or pay bills with my business account because of their mistake. I warn you, do not do business with Century Payments (I believe they were bought out by another larger merchant services company) or their affiliates. Im just a small mom and pop shop, and must manage my money tightly, they did not care.
Suarez
Stay away, they keep your money and then Worst than Paypal, they over charge and lie, everything will tell you is a lied to sign you up and keep your money
Jan Michael Rosario
IPayment is the worst company i had to deal with. They not only been charging my every month even when i canceled with them long ago their customer service is horrible, rude and unprofessional. Never do business with this company ever.
James
I had to put stop on them and cancel my checking account on them to stop them from taking my money while I tried to get from out under them.
Joan
We left IPayment 3 months ago because of their lack of concern for customer service. I also spoke with their Risk Department and was made to feel like we were undesirable clients. They set our per transaction limit at $2,000 and repeatedly ignored our requests and applications for an increase. I explained to the completely uninterested person in the “Risk Department” that I had regularly been processing $2,000 transactions for consecutive days so our clients could pay their invoices which were much higher than our limit. He was completely oblivious to how this made us look to our client AND the inconvenience it cause our client’s bookkeeping staff. This obviously could have cost us customers, something he did not care about when I tried to explain it to him. During our business relationship with IPayment we also NEVER had a charge back! When we established new service we discovered that the processing machine they charged us $1,000.00 for we could have purchased from our new company for just a little over $100. IPayment is a joke! Their local sales staff is very nice, they should look for a new employer! BTW, our new per transaction limit was immediately set at $15,000.00 and we were told if we needed to process a transaction for more than our limit to just give them a call and they would make it happen. BluePay knows how to get on your team and help you succeed!
Diana
I called CreditCardProcessing.com (owned by iPayment, Inc) to apply for a merchant account. The sales rep Jackie Vickers ([email protected]) was very nice and helpful. But – I would soon find out that they are liars and this company is out to steal from honest merchant.
A few days after my account was set up and accepting payments, I got a letter from their Steven Graham ([email protected]) in the “Risk Management” departing stating that my funds would be place on hold for 3 business days because they had to review my business. I sent them all the required documents and followed up on the forth business day. They told me that they were shutting down my account and holding the funds (over $7800) that my customers paid me – indefinitely. So basically, they are stealing my money because they feel like it.
I wish I had researched this company and read all of their negative reviews before I decided to do business with them. If you are reading this review, please do not sign up for an account with them. If you are processing any decent amount of transactions, they will hold your funds indefinitely and shut down your account.
Twin Cities Safety
Briefly: IPayment Inc. is an online merchant service provider that I agreed to use to allow me to process credit card payments on my website. They have taken $920 of funds that my customers paid me for my services and refuse to release them to me.
They literally have stolen money from my own customers. I started using them as a gateway provider for my Authorize.net account so that I could accept credit card payments on my website. I started noticing a problem after a few days. I had several customers purchase products from my site, but no money was being deposited into my account. They kept telling me to wait another day and it would come, that everything was good and I needed to be patient. I gave it some time, about a week, figuring it must take some time to get up and running, but nope, no money. So I e-mailed my rep (3 times), no response. Then I started calling. They told me there was an issue with the voided check that I sent them. They never bothered to tell me this before. So I rush ordered some new checks as the one I had given them was my last one. Got the checks and sent them over. Called to verify. They then claimed the check I sent was not good enough and that I’d have to get a banker to write a letter for them with the account information. I went to the bank and got the letter. I had the bank fax it and I even had the banker speak with an Ipayment rep. To be safe I e-mailed and faxed the letter and my check myself. I called to verify and was told “Yes, everything looks good; you should receive your money in 1 to 2 business days”. Well, needless to say, that didn’t happen. After a week still no money and no correspondence from the company so I called again. They said I didn’t receive the money because they had decided to close my account! No notification, no call, no e-mail, just shut down my credit card processing account. When I asked why they informed me because I didn’t get them the bank information. Then they said that there was a “chargeback” on one of my transactions so that’s why they closed the account. A chargeback is when a customer notifies their bank that they didn’t make the charge and it may be fraudulent. I found it odd and investigated. The customer said that on her bank statement iPayment Inc had taken the money from her account and posted it as an ATM withdrawl from Cottage Grove MN, so the customer didn’t realize that charge was for my product. I had the customer call her bank to let them know the charge was valid. I gave all this information to Ipayment but they didn’t care. They simply refuse to open my account or give the funds to me. They won’t even refund the money back to the customer! Sounds like fraud to me. My customer pays for my service, I deliver the service, and Ipayment keeps the customers money. It is obvious that this was a setup, they are trying to make me look at fault to keep money and told me that they would invest it and do “whatever they want with it”. There is no way that is legal.
Tim Smith
I can not be more disgusted with this company. Worst customer service ever. They are a bunch of crooks and frauds that are holding MY money for absolutely no reason. Here’s my story:
Ipayment is the biggest fraud and scam artist I’ve ever dealt with. The worst possible customer service and they completely worked against me, and set me up. They literally have stolen money from my own customers. I started using them as a gateway provider for my Authorize.net account so that I could accept credit card payments on my website, I was so excited. When setting up my account they were very responsive to questions and quick to respond. As soon as I had signed the agreement and was setup they would no longer respond. I started noticing a problem after a few days. I had several customers purchase products from my site, but no money was being deposited into my account. I gave it some time, about a week, figuring it must take some time to get up and running, but nope, no money. So I e-mailed my rep (3 times), no response. Then I started calling. I got transferred many times but stuck with it. They told me that they couldn’t read the voided check I gave them so couldn’t process the funds. They never bothered to tell me this. So I rush ordered some new checks as the one I had given them was my last one. Got the checks and sent them over. Called to verify. They then claimed the check I sent was not good enough as it didn’t have “LLC” after the business name and that I’d have to get a banker to write a letter for them with the account information. Ridiculous, but fine, I went to the bank and got the letter. I had the bank fax it and I even had the banker speak with an Ipayment rep. To be safe I e-mailed and faxed the letter and my check myself. I called to verify and was told “Yes, everything looks good; you should receive your money in 1 to 2 business days”. Well, needless to say, that didn’t happen. Then I got a call from a customer saying my online checkout wasn’t working. I called to find out about the online checkout issue and the fact no money had been deposited into my account, even though Ipayment had processed just under $1000 worth of transactions in less than 2 weeks. They said I didn’t receive the money because they decided to close my account!! No notification, no call, no e-mail, just shut down my credit card processing account. Who knows how many customers I lost because it went down and they didn’t tell me. When I asked why they informed me because I didn’t get them the bank information. After hours on the phone explaining that I did, they then passed me to a supervisor William who was the rudest person I’ve ever talked to. He talked down to me and belittled me. He said that there was a “chargeback” on one of my transactions so that’s why they closed the account. A chargeback is when a customer notifies their bank that they didn’t make the charge and it may be fraudulent. I found it odd and investigated. The customer apologized and said she didn’t realize that charge was for my product. She said that the charge, which was a credit card charge for my product on my website through Ipayment, showed on her bank statement as an ATM withdrawal in my city. So Ipayment screwed it up. She called her bank to let them know the charge was valid. I gave all this information to Ipayment but William (or anybody else) didn’t care. They simply refuse to open my account or give the funds to me. Here’s the kicker, they won’t even refund the money back to the customer! Sounds like fraud to me. My customer pays for my service, I deliver the service, and Ipayment keeps the customers money. There is no way that is legal. Extremely rude, difficult to deal with and mean company. It is obvious they did this on purpose, they make the charges look funny so people will dispute them and then close your account and keep the money. How can they sleep at night?! What can I do???
JZ Maintenance Services
These guys are a complete scam, i have used them since april of 2013 and have today decided to cancel there services. Every month they charge random amounts to my bank account and alot of money for processing card transactions regardless if i process cards or not. I will not be using these guys no more and suggest anyone considering accepting credit cards as a form of payment to stay clear of this company. I Signed up through card service international site so beware of these guys as there gonna rob your bank account every chance they get.
Kevin
Never deal with this company. They will hold your money with ludicrous reasons. You may not keep your business consistently. You will get too much stress on your shoulder.
ron
What a poor excuse for a business they closed my account then are chargeing me for 350 early termination charge stay away from this compoany they are rude and are bait and switch
ron
I just signed up for ipayment 3 weeks ago and i am a new business and they cancelled my account thay say for security reasons because i have my site on maintance because i cant get the checkout to work so anyways the charged me $350.00 dollar cancellation fee and there the one that canceled the account so if anyone wants to join in a class action lawsuit please count me in thanks Ron is it true that they aree part of authorize.net
Colin Mabon
WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
Do no attempt to use iPayment. They will come up with ludicrous reasons to hold your money. I “tried” to use iPayment in April 2013, processed $7800 in transactions and as of August, 1 2013, still not a penny has been deposited in my bank.
WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
Lavanda Hughes
I joined these people on May 24, 2013 because a agent came into the salon and solicited this card services. He claimed they had the best rates out of everybody. 4 days later I get a paper in the mail talking about all these hidden fees that fool forgot to mention. I had 30 days to cancel because I can’t afford those extra fees. I cancel on June 5, 2013 and didn’t even use the darn machine. A whole month and a half these people take out 350.00 DOLLARS OUT MY ACCOUNT. I AM PISSED TO THE MAX!!!!!!!! I AM GOING TO TELL WAVY TV 10 NEWS AND FOX 43 NEWS CHANNEL AND CUT THEIR MONEY OFF. NO ONE ON THE EAST COAST IS GOING TO MESS WITH THEM. SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS DO YOUR RESEARCH AND DO NOT MESS WITH CARDPAYMENT SOLUTIONS THEY ARE UNFAIR AND CROOKS.
mitri
This is hideous, I haven’t even had one successful transaction and all my money is being held by this messed up system. Every call I’ve made they provided me with different reasonings to why my money is being held. I signed up for merchant inc which automatically signed me up for ipayment. I, like an idiot, hadn’t done my research about iPayment Inc. I briefly conducted a little research about the company and thought people are complaining just because they want to complain. I didn’t take peoples’ comments seriously but then after I fell into their trap, I have now learned my lesson. They have $1500 of my money being held, without a legitimate reasoning. I asked them to send me my agreement form and they had refused. This is fraud, how is this company still running? How is this legal? What is going on?!!!
Sharon Bond
I have just been hit with a $350 cancellation fee….We need to fight this together. We need to get our money back. This is theft!!!!
Lori Marthe
IPAYMENT are criminals, I paid fees upon fees for years, including excessive compliance fees, and now they withdraw $250 from my account for a cancellation fee. I wasn’t aware the broker signed me up for a 3 year contract, nor did IPAYMENT tell me of the penalty during any of the many calls to cancel services with them. Now I have to pay to reinstate and pay $11 per month until the end of my contract. I hate class action suits, but these credit card processes need consequences for their greediness. Seems they all stick it to the small businesses!
Steven R
iPayment STOLE MY MONEY! They stole my money! I had 500 dollars in sales and then they decided to place a hold on my account because it was a new account, for 1 month. After 1 month I called them to verify they were going to finally deposit my funds, but instead they decided to close my account without telling me. Why did they close my account you ask? They closed my account because I sell smartphones. So then I made the statement, to a manager over the phone, that nowhere is that information provided before you sign up that you can’t sell smartphones and I ask for MY MONEY to be sent to me, and we would just part ways. Nope they will not give me my money and the manger just hung up on me. So beware iPayment, they are thieves and swindlers!
Morgan
IPayment almost put my out of business if my first year when it was thriving. I was doing fantastic getting lots of orders when suddenly Ipayment told me they would not support my transactions and told me I must return over 40 thousand dollars to customers that already received their products. I do sales with the Military. Even though I had every one of my customers confirm that I delivered and nothing was fraud I payment still made me return the charges. Ipayment kept their fees for the 40k I charged. I had to find a new company (Sage) and re-run the cards and pay that transaction fees all over again. Thankfully everything worked out and I am very happy with Sage. Ipayment is a scam. I am lucky I survived that 4 months of pure madness!! Shame on Ipayment. Period.
Jim
OH I feel that pain, I couldn’t even get my bus off the ground They had charge’s being taken from checking account with different names screwing my account NAF’s unbelievable and speaking of BBB they shut the complaints down because they overloaded them. Someone needs to put them out of business.
All I can say is if you have trouble with them cancel your checking account immediately and fight them SOB’s
There Garbage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was able to get free of them but it was a sham scam…….
Witheld for Privacy
I am a new customer with Merchants Inc. / iPayment and am closing my account immediately.
This company is holding 1200 of my funds and I cannot get help in releasing them. Customer ‘Service’ is inconsistent, rude, deceitful, and abusive.
They claimed they could not ‘verify’ a simple bank account for 2 weeks, withdrew over $1200 from my checking account for no reason and overcharged on fees .. all in the FIRST MONTH.
And their ‘risk’ department held my account hostage for 4 business days, claiming to need to call my clients, and then the closed my account and then re-opened it without informing me.
They do not communicate well, nor do they communicate completely with regards to what you will be charged.
Please do not subject yourself to this company. I am writing to the CA BBB tomorrow, thank you all for that advice.
Moses
We have been working thru Authorize.net with iPayment to process our conference registrations fees— iPayment is simply a terrible company to work with – they have been holding over 21,000 dollars of our money for over a year and every time you call they ask you for a bible thick of documents, after we confirm that they have received them, you are told that ” we get back to you — “no one calls back and we still do not have our money after a year….
Very unstable organization, discourteous staff on the phone – employees are in flux (or it is a gimmick since we hear “that person no longer works here” all the time)… We are extremely unhappy with iPayment and they seem to sit on your money as long as they can — we have no other option but to take legal action against them if we do not get our money within a couple of days ….
Moses
Jeff
Locked up funds for no reason. Apparently, for all new merchants they attempt to call a few of your clients and ask them to verify the purchase. If your clients don’t answer the phone – your out of luck.
I am dealing with:
Brady Goldsmith
Risk Management
Direct: (818) 540-6547 – Fax: (818) 540-6816
[email protected]
http://www.ipaymentinc.com
Cheryl
I just joined and am at my wits end. I have a rental business and have in the past used Paypal, however, I decided to pursue the acceptance of credit cards online and haphazardly found this company. Last week I billed $3700.00 and waited 4 days for the funds to post and they did not. I called continually and got the run around. Told to fax invoices/address/phones to the risk managment department. Told “Brady” was handling my account. Never could reach Brady, who I believe is is just a fax machine and not a person. Then spoke with Levi, which I am sure is not his name. He was an absolute jerk, looking to arguing and of course lying continually. They still have my money and will not release it. Gina is another low life in the Risk Dept. How can they get away with this, they are literally stealing money.
Allan Sutton
The California Better Business Bureau can help. I experienced all of the problems mentioned on this site with iPayment, and finally switched to PayPal as my card processor (which has been wonderful). A year after I settled and closed my iPayment account (which took repeated calls and faxes over a period of many days), iPayment withdrew $129 from my business account without notice or authorization. After being put on hold repeatedly, and no response to repeated e-mails, I turned the matter over to the California Better Business Bureau. Within a month, iPayment refunded my $129 and sent written verification that it would not happen again. Plus, when you file a BBB complaint it can be seen by others, which helps to spread the word about this truly rotten business.
Mary Mansfield
Thank you for this post. I also had an automated withdrawal, with no authorization, from a account with iPayment that I had closed 7 months earlier. I have had it with calling and will report to BBB and to the Attorney General of California. Can you imagine how much money they are collecting doing this?!
craig
What is my best recourse over the $250 cancellation fee. Without notice over a month after I closed, they took money out of my bank account that wasn’t there. They cleaned me out. No invoice, no authorization, no nothing. wasnt even aware of the contract. The rep who signed me up didn’t disclose. I called him, he maintains it should only be a 1 year contract. He’s a liar who works for these thieves. They charged for everything under the sun, even the statement they sent out. I want to be part of any lawsuit someone starts. I just want to get even with these licensed awful people. Im just a small business person, taxi driver. I switched to square, much easier and far less costly. Their business model made me leave. I feel violated by these people.
Isabel
So 8 months ago I signed up with flagship/iPayment. I charged $1200 (6 customers) and within the first week was informed my funds were being held and they needed to contact the customers I charged. I provided them with all they asked for and contacted my customers to let them know as well. Another week went by and I had not heard back from iPayment/flagship, I called and was informed that they closed my account with out even an email/phone call and were holding my $1200 for no less then 6 months……..well here we are 7+ months later and I have been playing tag with who ever this “Joseph Hernandez” is. After many emails and phone calls over the last 10 days I decided to take matters into my own hands and today I sent an email blast to any and all email addresses I could find for CEO’s and managers ect…. At 6:00PM I received a call from a lady i did NOT email wanting to assist me. I guess someone passed the message on!! I just sent her all the docs I had already sent to “Joseph” and was promised a call back within an hour and funds sent to my account with 24-48 hours. I will not jump for joy just yet, but this is the first call I have ever received, and the most assistance I have been given since all this began. If you do not hear from me again then all was 100% successful! I will provide the contact info for her but ask in return that no matter how much BS you have been fed or put through please don’t take your anger out on her, she is super nice and VERY helpful!!
iPayment Risk Department Manager:
Julie Braico
818-540-6557
818-540-6722 (fax)
LE HENAFF
Where did you find all addresses email ? thank you
Glenn
If Flagship tries to direct you to iPayments as a good alternative gateway to First Data, do not accept their advice. Just as all roads lead to Rome, at First Data, all roads lead to a woman named Gina in the risk department. Poor Gina is either a dim bulb or hamstrung by her superiors; it really doesn’t matter to you because she lives to block your payments. Gina told me that I was the CFO of the company I was selling to, so she’s not good with facts and she cannot read either because contracts and credit card authorizations mean nothing to her. You will dial at least five numbers before being handed off to Gina, and the person handing you off will give you her number because she does not answer her phone. Two rules of thumb: (1) Don’t go near iPayments. (2) If you’re already there and someone says, “Gina,” don’t waste your time. Refund all transactions, set up a new authorization AND payment gateway (don’t use your old authorization or you’ll meet Gina again), and re-charge the cards through a competent credit card processor. For more fun, read the sordid history of iPayment at the Nashville Post and the icky corporate culture at glassdoor.com
Kalera Stratton
I had ipayment for years, and like many of you, I didn’t pay that much attention to the charges as I was focusing my energy on running my business. My accountant did complain about how hard it was to track charges from them, as their statements are a terrible mess, but it seemed like it wasn’t that big a deal. However, after my business took a big hit in the recession and I decided to scale back, I noticed very LARGE charges that I could not explain coming through. I decided to cancel my account, and talk about jumping through hoops! I had to cancel with iPayment and Authorize.net AND American Express, separately, and even after that I still had charges coming through. I just got one for $129, over six months after cancelling my account, for no reason that I can discern. I can’t get through to them on the phone and emails have not been answered. I suspect that I will have to talk to an attorney to get this resolved. I can only guess at how many thousands of dollars they may have defrauded me out of while my business was active. I hope some savvy lawyer decides it’s worth their time to put together a class-action lawsuit, these guys are world-class scammers.
Charree Swindoll
Three months ago I “started” filling out an online application at
http://www.authorize.net, a company owned and operated by (I-Payment)
that processes online credit card payments for e-commerce web
sites. The application had six stages, I quit a little over half way
through the process and never printed it out and mailed it in as
requested. They do not allow the application to be submitted online,
and also require two forms of ID, bank statements and other
information be mailed along with the application. I never completed,
submitted, or sent a single thing in any form or fashion. I stopped the
entire application process after looking up reviews online due to a few
odd request that caught my attention. A week later I received a
letter in the mail stating I had been approved for their service.
I immediately called them to find out what was going on. They stated
that it was a mistake and that they would close the account right
then. When I asked how it was possible to open the account in the
first place without me completing the application, they gave no
answer. I felt like it was resolved, and thought nothing more of it.
Another week had passed and I noticed a $26.00 ACH withdraw from
from my bank account from (BANKCARD MTOT DICS). I knew that it had
to be I-Payment that made this withdraw because the very first page
of the application asked for my bank account information, and I had
never released this information to anyone else. I again called them
to find out what was going on. They stated that this was yet another
mistake, and that the charge was an (Activation Fee) for all new
accounts. They stated that they would refund the charge right then.
A few days later on 11/14/2012 the money was returned to my account.
I was now becoming worried, so I called my bank to notify them of the
issue I was having, although the last thing I was thinking at the
time was that they would ever attempt this again.
On Dec. 31, 2012 another ACH withdrawal for 350.00 was debited by
I-Payment stating that it was a (Cancel Fee), almost three months
from the day when they closed the account that should have never
been opened to start with. As soon as I noticed the fraudulent
withdrawal I called the Police Dept. located where they do business,
Thousand Oaks, California. I was informed that this was by far the
first time they have had to deal with them. They asked me to call
I-Payment again to have them correct the problem while they remained
on the line. The lady who I spoke with gave no explanation other than
to say the money would be returned to my account no later that Friday
Jan. 4, 2013. The police officer stated that they would look into this
and to call them back on Friday.
I decided then it was time to do my own research. After only 5 min.
online, I discovered that hundreds of businesses and victims
have experienced the exact same problem, and that I-Payment has been
sued multiple times. I also discovered that the current owner is under
investigation by the Attorney General, and the BBB is involved. Most
of this information can be found at the following web site _________
________ ..or by typing the search terms (I-Payment
Complaints) in a search engine. The most disturbing part of all this
is that this web site states that I-Payment has been known to falsify
applications and documents to submit to any bank where charges have
been disputed.
I later realized how I-Payment was able to obtain the “must have”
information needed to know exactly when to debit my account. I receive
698.00 on the first of every month, by the 5th when my rent is due,
most of these funds are depleted. Yet not more than two hours after
the SSI was deposited I-Payment made this withdrawal. Back when I made
my second phone call to I-Payment I remembered them asking me to
email them a copy of my bank statement showing the 26.00 withdrawal
that they made, which showed the exact date when I receive my SSI
Payment. I would ask anyone to do the same research that I have done in
order to gain the needed knowledge about this company. I attest that
everything I have stated here is the complete truth without
withholding any information. Thank you for your time.
Note: In addition to the information above, I would also like to
mention that no where during the partial application process that was
filled out and not sent in, does it state anything about any Fee’s
of any kind. However it does state that the application must be
entirely completed and mailed in order to be considered. It also states
that you have 30 days to cancel without any obligations, cancelation
fees etc. As I stated earlier , I called them the same day I realized
(less than 8 days) from the time they had mistakenly opened this
account, when they stated it had been resolved and closed. The point
being that even had this not been a mistake on their part, I would have
still been covered by the 30 day account closure time limit. There is
absolutely no misunderstandings on my part concerning this, and
everything this company has done thus far is against both state and
federal laws. I-Payment illegally opened an account without my
permission, and without any of the information required to do so, and
then proceeded to lie to me and illegally take money from my bank
account. Even the online application states clearly that they ask for bank
account information “Only” to verify your identity and nothing more. Upon
request, I have everything needed to back up my claims. Thank you.
Tracie
I did a charge with this company, and they tried to deposit the money in an incorrect account number. The money sat in their institution and they told me I need to resubmit my account number. I sent my account information and than they told me I needed to talk to their risk management department. Risk management had a voicemail and never returned my call. So basically I never had a credit card purchase go to my account and they kept trying to charge me a monthly fee. This wen on for months with no resolve, and just recently they tried to draft a $350 cancellation fee out my account. For what—-I have never been provided a service.
Thomas
Yes, they are one of the worst companies I have ever deal with. I never had a company that will hold your money for doing good business. After one good black Friday sale, our account was hold for inspection. After all paper works are sent and check, they come back and offer us to continue to process with them and hold 25,000.00 indefinitely! Our account is not a new account we have been with them for the past 5 years. Still today we are trying to find a fix for this problem, and the hold amount is getting larger and larger at 57,000.00 now, and our company is facing a cash flow problem due to this hold of income. We can’t agree to the hold, or close the account as they will just hold everything for 6 month. They have 0 rights for this type of hold, and are getting away with it. Any one has any way around this problem or know a good lawyer that will take on this case please let me know.
Ben Berry
The salesman will promise you the world and will do this while still managing to sound trustworthy. These people are trained to deceive the small business owner who unknowingly enters a contract that could destroy the business they worked so hard to create. Much like many other commenters on this board iPayment decided it was their right to hold thousands of dollars from us because there were credit cards that had been declined on our account. After hours on the phone and hours of paperwork we were eventually able to recover our funds about 2 months later. During this two month period we were stripped of nearly half our operating budget which could have been our early demise as a new small business. Luckily we found a new merchant company willing to pay our cancellation fees (yes they are hefty, don’t let them fool you) . Even after the cancellation, iPayment is still taking over $200 out of our account. Hopefully we will get to the bottom of this after hours wasted on the phone. RUN AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY UNLESS YOU HAVE THOUSANDS TO SPARE.
Albert L
I am the manager of a distribution company, and I signed-up seven of our locations to use credit cards via iPayments. We had several transactions surpass our average daily limit and monthly limit. The result is that iPayment is now holding $54,000 of our money and refuses to deposit the funds into our operating account because we are not authorized to this spending level. What criminals! Our customers have paid us, we shipped the merchandize and now 30 days later iPayments refuses to release the funds. I hate these people. In particular, Sara Lopez in their risk department is incredibly rude.
Cristin Hall
Stay away from this company. Do not do ANY business with them. They “lose statements in the mail” and will not respond to your inquiries. I had a number of items hit my account (causing major OD fees and snowballs) with NO warning, all without selling even ONE item. I called to dispute and they gave me poor information. NO transparency. DISHONEST. I will be reporting to Federal Trade Commission and BBB. I am also opening a small claims against them for violating my consumer rights. Save yourself from the mess I have found myself in and head on over to a company like Intuit or Square Up.
Aaron
I used Ipayment for 9 years. Like many business owners I was busy running my business and trying to make money. My time was even more limited with the downturn in the economy. Working more hours for less pay is not exactly the idea behind having a business. At any rate I admit that It was my fault that Ipayment got away with charging me insane fee’s each month for years. The fee’s varied and my statements only said “Misc. Fee” $50.00-$60.00 each month some times more. Finally I had enough I did research online and found a much better processor. However when I tried to cancel my account with Ipayment then their true colors showed…it was a total hassle, after hours on the phone, faxing written cancellation requests etc. I could not get them out of my bank account. Months after I closed my account with them they were still hitting my account. I got the runaround at every turn. I even had one rep. tell me it took up to 30 days to cancel an account…! Really? it took only minutes to set it up??? interesting right? finally I had to close my account to stop them from stealing from me. It’s crazy that this entire industry does what they do every day. Stealing untold billions no doubt from honest business people all over the world. If you or I did a tiny fraction of what Ipayment and other companies like them do each day..and we got caught I’d be writing this from my prison cell.
Richard
Never Sign up with I-Payment! I was with them for about a year, I signed up with them because I was assured there were no hidden fees, and the monthly payment was minimal. After about a year I found out that they have a multitude of fees, they put notes on your bill, mixed in with everything else giving you as little warning as possible about what might happen if you do not respond, most of the time it gets over looked since it appears to be just the usual every month info, then they start hitting you up for anywhere from $30 to $130 for miscellaneous fees. Finally I cancelled with them which they ignored for a couple of months till they had racked up another $150 in charges, which I called about and complained and they said they would refund the charges which instead they hit me up for a $495 Cancellation fee!
Furthermore they show up on your bank statement in various names so you never quite know who you are dealing with! NO Deal is good enough to work with these guys in any way!
Chris
Signed up with iPayment and was guaranteed that I would not be charged a fee for going over the monthly “credit limit”. After reviewing my statements closely, I realized that I had in fact been charged for what they assured me I wouldnt. After 3 months of trying to get refunded the $4000.00+ in fees, I finally switched to [redacted – possible promotion] and hired an attorney to pursue iPayment for the monies they took from my account plus attorney fees. DO NOT sign up with this company for your merchant processing needs.
Carolyn
Ipayment are the worst of the worst. I have been trying 2 months to close my account. I have spent hours on the phone with them jumping thru their hoops just find out yesterday they took $128.85 from my account and I have never even opened it..I have just tried to get rid of them. The people are rude and truly make it as hard as they can to get them off your bank account. I am going to the bank today to close that account. My only alternative. Stay away!!!! I am just wondering when any of the responsibility should be of the company itself instead of the persons like myself. I have tried and truly give up.
Charles
They did the same thing last week.
They went into my bank account with out any autortization. Stole some money and it’s been difficult to get it back.
They won’t even tell who they did it for.
Dennis
AVOID iPayment at all cause!! This credit card payment processor is being used by merchant service providers like Flagship Merchant Services, National Bankcards and others. When you shop for a merchant service provider, make sure you ask who is their payment processor.
I had Flagship Merchant a year ago. When they were charging me some fees that were not disclosed to me before, I called them up, they make me to run around between Flagship and their payment processor, iPayment. I finally told Flagship I want to cancel the account. They told me I need to call iPayment. It took 3 months to get the account cancelled. Between iPayment and Flagship, they made me to jump thru hoops to cancel the account, such as I need to fax it in, I need to call in, and so forth. When I called about the status of cancellation, they said they never received it. They keep delaying the cancellation while still CHARGING my account. I ended up paying hundreds to get the account closed, despite of their advertisement of no cancellation fees, etc.
Make sure you ask who the payment processor is!!! Avoid iPayment!! Also avoid Flagship Merchant Services!
RZ
Ipayment ripped me off for over 10 thousands dollars. Apparently, they bought my merchant account from Online Data Corp. They called me and never told me this, but I knew something was up. The guy that called was rude and arrogant. I was with O.D.C. for years. Spotless record. Hardly any charge backs. Nothing for over 3 years. I asked the guy on the phone who it REALLY was. He told me ODC. I told theguy to close the Merchant Account and I will find someone else. I got two Merchant Accounts within one week and started processing. Same thing. Not a problem at all. Those Ipayment criminals terminated me and messed me up with the new processor. I asked Ipayment WHY? They never gave a reason to this day. That is illegal right there. Then they started charging my bank account for no reason. I went down to the bank and my bank called them up. Told them to stop. They said okay. Then they still kept charging me with over 10 thousand dollars in my merchant account, Then my bank threatened them with fraud charges. They finally stopped. To this day, they never paid me back. Stay away from them. They are criminals.
Virginia
I would like to know how to stop ipayment from deducting $69 a month from my checking account. I have an ipage website and signed up for credit card processing when I set up my website in order to handle online payments for tuition for online classes that I would like to offer in the future. I have not yet developed the class, but I am getting charged monthly for ipayment services that I have never used. When i was asked how much volume I expected, I told them about 25 transactions a YEAR. I wrote them a letter requesting cancellation and sent it return receipt requested. I received the green USPS card back, but I have never heard from ipayment and the bills keep coming. I feel that a class action suit against them is definitely in order.
Phillip CPO
The only way to stop a company from debiting your checking account is to contact your bank and inform them of the problem. Most likely you will need to close the checking account and open a new one.
Michelle Herbert
After many calls to Levi Harris, risk management representative as well as his supervisor, Susan, we have not resolved this issue. (The supervisor has not returned any of my calls and Mr. Harris has been extremely rude and impossible to deal with.) We have provided Mr. Harris the customer invoice, the tracking showing delivery of OUR products and together spoke with my customer confirming the delivery and order while Mr. Harris was on the phone. (He mentioned during the call to my customer that if I was dissatisfied with his services, he could close our account. My customer was still on the phone. COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!)
We believe ipayment has acted maliciously towards our company (we pay them), has purposely delayed payment and possibly committing fraud against our company.
After filing a claim with the BBB, ipayment closed our account without telling us. This was clearly retailiation. They still have several hundred dollars of our and we are fighting to get it. Even worse, the risk management person sent over 3,000 hate emails to us.
They are the WORST company we have ever dealt with in 10 years.
East Coast Business
I agree with the comments I’ve read about the exceptionally poor service.
We have had the same issue – ran into Mr. Levi Harris and all his *charm*. We called to check on a completely separate matter – and were informed that our account had been closed. No phone call…no notice. We have had zero charge backs in our time with them. The reason for the closure – we were doing too much business. All of it good and valid and verifiable ( no charge backs – ever ) – but – they felt they should just close the account – without notice.
No response from Julie ( Levi’s manager ) – no call back from Levi. In my opinion, the lack of transparency from the company should be a MAJOR red flag to anyone working with them now or considering using them.
I would agree with those who have commented and feel that iPayment has acted in bad faith and caused financial damage to firms. Truly a scary thought that firms like this exist and they handle people’s money and personal information.
Protect yourself – contact your bank – shut them off before they can reach in and take money that you then have to fight to reclaim.
SFoley
Do not use iPayment they lie, lie, lie. They are dishonest they have sales agents tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to sign up with their fraud services. Then they tell you that you can cancel any time lie! They tell you your monthly amount will never exceed X amount LIE! The first month usually runs smooth after that they add fee’s take money out of your account whenever they feel like it they do not communicate with you at all their customer service is the worst in the industry. They tell you one thing do another…they only work on snail mail so they take the money then you have to scramble to find out why your bank account is so low or possibly in the negative. 2 weeks later you get the letter stating why they took the money. HELLO have you heard of email? iPayment/Century Payment/Authorize.net or whatever other name the fraudulently put out there STAY AWAY. They will take money without warning O yeah No early termination fee LIE $350.00 or whatever they want. If you get charge-backs because of their incompetence fraud detection suite your company will most likely have to close your doors. They screw you over so bad it’s not even funny.
Ray B
Their big problem is communication, they (Couri, Amanda, Jennifer) just don’t do what they promise. Although I manage a very solid company doing business with one of I Payment’s competitors for well over 10 years w/o even one complaint , I Payment held significant funds due to action of the Risk Management Dept (Jennifer, who never answered the phone and rarely called back) and of course did not release the funds as promised..
Just do business somewhere else, it has to be better than I Payment.
Jamie
I have had the same issues as stated above. They have charged me about $83 + a month to use their services which I had not clue was going to be that much since it was over the phone and I was new to setting up a website. I have lost more money in the fee’s from ipayment then what my website has made. I was on a 3 way call with Bank of America trying to get it figured out, still waiting for my account to be cancelled but I am not sure if I will be charged a fee since I have been using them for 2 years. They also did not specify that in the phone call…. This is a total scam of a company I want to change my bank account information but that would mean I would have to change everything else with it. :-(
Thomas Garrison
I own and operate a Web development and hosting company and have for more than 12 years. In May 2012 I decided to create a new system for handling new hosting accounts. Part of the process was to implement iPayment to process the payments.
Between the time I initiated the creation of the account with iPayment and before completing the process I spoke to a partner of mine who was “adamant” that I not complete the process. He told me of his horror story with iPayment and how they charged him fees of nearly $200 that were invoiced as “compliance” fees.
When I read through the iPayment details “before” initiating any account information, I did not find anything that indicated a monthly payment, minimum monthly sales, or ANY fees related to the iPayment beyond the processing fees – which were very standard.
I had filled out all paperwork and was “authorized” by iPayment to use the account, BUT…I still needed to “Activate” the account with iPayment AND Authorize.net BEFORE I could use the account.
When I was told of all the unknown fees that iPayment would generate I simply stopped the process and did NOT “activate” the account with iPayment OR Authorize.net.
In fact, I continue to receive E-mail messages from Authorize.net asking me to activate the account.
I have every bit of evidence in the world to prove that I NEVER activated the account.
This process began in early May of 2012.
The end of May 2012 I was charged $19.95 by iPayment – for no reason that I was advised. I called June 8, 2012 after I found the charge on my bank statement and was told the refund would be made within 30 days.
I also requested that the account be closed and was provided the proper documentation to facilitate that process. I complied and confirmed that the account was closed.
I reviewed my June 2012 bank statement on line and found that there was a refund from iPayment as promised for the $19.95, BUT… there was then an additional debit for $113.90 on my never-activated account.
I contacted iPayment June 14, 2012 to find why I was charged an additional $113.90 on an account that was never activated.
The person answering the call said it would take up to 30 days for the refund and could provide no response as to why iPayment debited my account for the additional $113.90.
I requested a supervisor and was told that a “rush” would be added to the new request for refund and in 2 weeks or less the account would be refunded.
But no explanation could be provided as to why my non-activated and closed in June account was still being debited.
August 1, 2012 I checked my bank statement on line. There was a refund for $24.90.
I spoke to the agent answering the phone and was told it could take up to 30 days for the refund. When I demanded that he put his supervisor on the phone he was insistent that he could handle my request. I refused to continue the conversation with him and was finally allowed to speak to a supervisor.
The supervisor told me, “The refund of $24.95 is an automatic refund when a request is made. The remaining $89 mandates a manager ‘push’ the refund.”
When I asked what that meant I was told the manager must personally authorize the refund. I was told that no manager had taken the responsibility to ‘push’ the refund and that’s why my refund had not been completed.
I demanded that the supervisor find a manager and have them sign my refund to ‘push’ the refund while I held on the phone. The supervisor complied and told me, “The manager has signed the refund and says the refund will appear in my bank account by Friday (August 3, 2012).”
I can only hope that it come true this time and that I will not have any further debits to my account. There is no guarantee that iPayment will not debit my account again.
Further, I will need to contact my bank – after I have succeeded with the refund – in order to block iPayment from accessing my account for any reason.
So, iPayment NEEDS to be put out of business. The fact that the “Bottom Line” of this blog insinuates that we should feel bad for iPayment not succeeding in business is wrong.
iPayment conducted illegal business practices and THAT is why they are “suffering”.
It is due “solely” to the business practices of iPayment (or any other business) that they succeed or fail.
I HOPE that they fail and soon. It couldn’t happen fast enough.
Thomas
Thomas Garrison
It’s now August 7, 2012 at 4:45 p.m.
I’ve been on the phone most of this afternoon with iPayment / Merchant Services.
No, they still haven’t refunded my money.
Their “latest story” is that the person who physically remits the authorized refunds was not in the office last week. Therefore, it was supposed to be Monday, August 6, 2012 or this morning, August 7, at the very latest to have the refund appear in my account.
There was no payment in my account this morning…and obviously nothing Monday.
One agent swore she would work on the issue and call me back with an update. She actually did. She told me that a payment was made to their bank, Wells Fargo, but for “some reason” the payment was denied.
She told me that they are making a request for another payment and that I “should” see the payment in my bank as of Wednesday, August 8, 2012.
I left for a few minutes and when I returned there was a message from the same agent asking me to return her call. Her message said that the payment was not made to Wells Fargo although the paperwork is in order and the payment was supposed to have been made. She asked me to call back to update.
I returned, called and asked for that agent but…she was not available. So, I spoke to a new agent who tried to tell me to give it another 48 hours “…to see if the payment appears in my account.”
I said I’m not going to give it another 48 hours and want to speak to a supervisor.
A supervisor got on the line and, after a lot of attempts to tell me that it was my fault for opening the account, and payments take up to 30 days to refund, I let her have my full wrath.
In short, I stated all the evidence I have that clearly states the account was not only NOT activated but was “closed” (verified by iPayment) BEFORE the $139 was debited from my bank account.
The supervisor finally came around to realizing that I’m not going away, I’m right, and want my money. She told me that the funds have already been sent to Wells Fargo and they are simply waiting for the funds to appear in my own bank account. This latest supervisor promised to call me in the morning to verify that the payment appears in my bank account.
At this point I’ve calculated my expenses in trying to get back the money that should never have been debited from my account has cost me more than $600 in my time and bank fees.
So, I’m going to try to figure out how to file a suit against iPayment / Merchant Services. I’ve already made an initial contact with a law firm and am awaiting a reply for possible class action.
Thomas
Samantha
I have been with i Payment now for going on 2 years. For the last year I have had issues with the service as well as to the way they operate. I was told when signing on with i Payment that I had to have a side account called a reserve… I was very new to the whole merchant service / processing credit cards and did not know that this really was not a normal thing in the world of Merchant Services. I was told that a set % would be debited from my batches and placed in a reserve account. The % would stopped being debited when I had reached a total of $10,000 and then the only fee’s debited at that time would be their fee’s. I was also told that the reason for the Reserve account was if a Charge Back was ever placed then the funds would be taken from this Reserve account. I have been very missed led. I was told by i Payment several several several weeks ago that I had hit my reserve of 10,000. I still noticed that my batches were not what they were supposed to be and about 4 weeks later after the initial conversation with i Payment about I having hit the reserve amount I place another call to find out exactly what ” their ” fees were that was being debited from my bank account. I felt this should have been a simply answer for them and in fact it was not. I was told that my account manager was on vacation for 2 weeks and that they would have her contact me with the details of my account on her return to the office. Really yes, I was told to wait 2 weeks for their employee to get off vacation before I could find out where my money was going. Now two weeks have passed I never got a call from the account manager and over the past 2 weeks even more money is being debited from my batches. They are now way off … so I again place a call to i Payment to see what is the world is going on. To my relief my account manager was there. I think Great! Some answers. Let’s just say that conversation was ended with madness. Like I said I have been with I Payment for right at 2 years. In the course of 2 years I have had 5 Charge Backs and in my industry that is a very very low charge back ratio ( I have done the research I know the numbers ) not to mention I won them all back. I was told that because of my charge back ratio was high that they unannounced to me had raised my Reserve account and it has now been placed at a higher rate and that it was now capping off at 25 grand and not the 10 grand oh and that they were keeping 25% of my batches until the reserve had been capped off again. I had a fit to say the least. After a 2 day process of phone calls and speaking from one manger to the next I was told they had spoke to the bank and that they had got the bank to agree to keeping only 15% of my batches but still had to cap the reserve off at 25 grand. This is crazy. 5 won charge backs in aprox 2 years and they think they are untitled to hold on to not only my existing 10 grand but now another 15… really? Who do they think they are. As well as the part about the reserve account where charge back money was debited from and placed back into if won back. Not the case All five Charge backs were debited from my business bank account without any prior notice just snatched out as they pleased. Of course this was not really a problem for me like stated I won they money back and it was placed back in my account within a couple of weeks. Now the above issues have been just a couple of the ongoing for the last couple of months. Here is today’s issue I log into my account yesterday morning and notice it’s been debited over 1 grad. I immediately I contact i Payment with assumption that’s it is a Charge Back. I was told they would collect the documents needed from the card issuers bank and forward them to me so that I could submit the proof needed to win my money back. This morning I still had not herd from I payment so place a call back to see if they had the documents i needed yet to move forward to responding to this charge back. I was then told that it was in fact a old charge back that I had previously won that was fighting it again and they the card issuers bank is who was handling and sending the documents. i payment gave me the number to the bank and ask me to make contact with them. So I did. When I get on the phone with the bank I find out that the grand debited from my account was because I had not responded to the documents they had sent out 12 days prior asking for a response from me or the amount would be debited from my account. Here’s the problem when I asked them where they sent the documents to they stated my old personal home address in which I have not lived at for 2 years. I have no idea how they got that address not to mention it’s 100% wrong. The lady at the bank proceeds to tell me they collect my info from i Payment and that is the address i Payment gave them. She also told me that she was sorry but the case could not be opened and that I was at a loss for the money. At this point I am hot.. I call I payment back and they tried to put it off on me like it was my fault that they had the wrong address and I told them I have the change of address forms that I sent into you that are signed by me and dated. They tell me they never received any change of address from me and i promise I still have the original form that was faxed to them. They basically said that it was out of their hands and there was nothing they could do about getting the case re-opened. Well needless to say I am not staying and have already started the process to go else where but here’s my current issue with that…. they still have over 10 grand of my money! I was told that they will hold that money for a year or longer before I can get it back. How can that be legal? I don’t understand how companies can take such advantage. I don’t know what I am gonna do.. maybe contact an attorney because they should not be able to hang on to that much of my money for that period of time. If I feel they are scamming me now while I am a current customer of their and If I am leaving because I feel they are cheating me then what makes them think that my 10 grand is safe in their hands. I am sure in the course of a year or more that they will come up with all kinds of fees for this or that or whatever an my 10 grand will be 10 bucks if i am lucky by the time they release it. Just Crazy!
James B
I have never written a review before but this is a must.
The worst criminal enterprise that I have ever had to deal with. Hidden fees, continuing to charge me after numerous cancellations and then charging a cancellation fee.
Run away from this company!!!!
Paula
Everything went well until I terminated my account.
First I was charge $200
and now $250 for a cancellation fee.
Are you kidding me?
Joy
Do not go with Ipayment. I signed up to take credit cards for my small business with flagship merchant services and ended up with two other companies billing me, one being Ipayment. The people there are RUDE
and incompetent. The charge add on fees for things you don’t even know you are paying for.
Spencer
Ipayment is a HORRIBLE company, i was using them for a eCommerce store. I closed my account on 5-11-12 and they charged up a additional $200 in fees after i closed my account. I have called them 3 times now and they keep saying. it takes X amount of days for your account to close..
I would RUN from this company, i am now using transnational. They have been very nice to me and even sent me a fee Credit Card Swiper.
DO NOT USE iPayment unless you want to get a ton of additional fees.
Sue Love
Central Payment Corp. sold approxiately 20% of my active merchants to iPayment. Several of these merchants have called me and reported rudeness and unprofessional behavior from customer service. One of the complaints is long hold times and being transferred from one person to another.
Central Payment Corp. has hid the transfer of these accounts from my merchants because the statements still come from CPC and there is no mention of iPayment on the statement.
CPS has told its agents to leave these accounts alone. So our merchants get angry at us. I have had several merchants cancel and yell at me for poor service. One merchant slammed the door in my face.
Joseph zar
Ipayment is worst merchant service company i have ever come across. They have the worst customer service and a bunch of rude people working behind a desk. They changed my application and basically told me to stop processing because i will get a over the limit fee, then they charged me a early termination fee on top of that. These people are a bunch of theifs.
Elton
IPAYMENT ARE NOTHING BUT CROOKS !!! Read the fine print because it is loaded with ways to steal your money, go into your bank account and rob you and to top it all they will find all kind of reasons to hold your money for 6 months. Not only all of the above but they will also flag your business to unable you to find another processing service & put you into financial bankrupcy.
STAY AWAY FROM IPAYMENT PROCESSING SERVICES !!! THEY ARE REALLY CROOKS !!!
I am now in touch with a law firm to file a million dollar plus lawsuit against them.
Take my advice, ” LEAVE THEM ” as soon as you can or you will regret it sooner or later !!!
CROOKS…CROOKS…CROOKS !!! I wonder why they are still in business & has not the state/government had them investigated & shut down or even being brought to light on TV & the news….
Marg
Let me know if you start a class action, I would be interested in joining. Thanks
Danie
Hi, I would be willing to take the lead on starting a class action lawsuit. Thanks to this forum, I was able to reverse my customer payments prior to them closing my account. For 10 days they have been verifying entries. I have gotten calls from my customers saying that they have called them and they are making them feel very uncomfortable asking questions about the account. When I pushed them on this, I got an email that they have decided to close my account. I aksed them to refund my customers money, and they said they could not do that; they would have to hold it for 30 days. I promptly went and processed the refunds for my customers and gave them a heads up that I was doing so so that they would not be able to keep the money. It is only because of these comments that I was able to get in in time prior to them closing the account. I’ve printed my statements, the emails etc. from the merchant and went and closed my bank account so they could not debit from it.
They have had over 2,000 of my money for 10 days; and are very rude, do not answer calls and do not have managment available.
Bambi
this is a bit scary. I have been with them about a year and I haven’t had any problems. I just recently heard of some complaints. After reading these reviews, I’m thinking I should try to get out. Are there any other good comments about them? Or is there any type of compliance committee that can shut them down?
lisa allen
I had online clothing store for a few months. For some reason I had 98 customers abandon their shopping carts. I never made a single sale. Ipayment said I never properly set up my account. I shut down my website but continued recieving bills from Ipayment. The customer service was horrible! I sent in 20 emails trying to cancel my account. I was told they never recieved it. One lady said she was to busy to talk to me, I said well I’m still a paying customer, I want to fix this now. She disconnected my call, another lady told me I was sending the cancellation notice to the wrong department. For over a month I sent in my form. Then a women told me that yes, they have recived it but they werent going to honor it because my signature didn’t look correct. The next month my bill went from $19.95 to $143.95. I called and asked why it was so high, membership fees and pci compliance she said. I haven’t had a website for over 5 months, so I’m not sure how they ran a pci compliance on a website that isn’t working. I still have not been able to correctly close my account. This is the WORST company I have ever delt with. STAY AWAY!
philip hayden
Such a pain in the a$$. after some very strange fees, i decided to close my account. After nearly 5 months i’m still being billed and getting the runaround. Seems like each time they change the process along with being very rude and condescending over the phone. Personally, i’d like to head over there and talk face to face. I assume their tone would change drastically.
DON’T DO IT!
Wish i would have seen this site before enabling my merchant account. At least i can help ensure no one else i know ever goes through this experience.
Antonio
I was overcharged. Not only did they steal from me I closed the accounts and they still are billing me. I am starting a national case. If you were over charged uncontractionaly e-mail me @ [email protected] @
RE: ipayment RE:
mark
please add me in , I never activated the account yet they have charged me $178.80 so far I have emailed them and they state it does not matter I still get charged even if I dont activate the account!!!! what kind of business is that!. I sent closure form now waiting on the huge closing fee , going to speak with bank to close my account to prevent this frauds from taking more money
matt funkhouser
i’m in, getting scammed right now, they managed to rob me of 3243 and the b**** gina has the nerve to tell me that my bank has already given it back tome, still battling to get the funds back. I”M IN A 100%!!!!
Buddy Mcvey-Kline
I am dealing with gina right now. Does anybody have her email? I have been recording all of there phone calls. If anybody wants to join in on a lawsuit please contact me at [email protected]
Myron Fonseca
Horrible company to do business with. Held nearly $30K in deposits for months and never once contacted me to notify me of the hold. Business started to increase and they were NO HELP AT ALL. According to the account online the deposits were made to my account.. They could NEVER give me a breakdown of what was deposited and what was held or even any reason whatsoever on why there was a hold in the first place. After requesting several times for a statement of what was on hold and what was deposited they gave me a mickey mouse report stating the same incorrect information as shown in the account online. here we are 6 Months after the hold and still no explanation or statement. there is still more than 12K outstanding that I have NO CLUE when i will receive.
wassim zbib
dont ever thinking of using i payment , THEY ARE A PUNCH OF CROOKS , and thieves , thats how they do their business , by fooling consumers ,, i called consumer affair and im filing a suit against them ,its my first month , they didnt even gave me any service yet , im still using my old credit card processing terminal and company , and they charged me a monthly fee , and when i called they said in a very cold blood , you want to cancell the three years contract (which is i didnt see but they said its their on the papers i signed ,, so i have to pay a 300 dollars termination fee because they fool me ,they set up the trap and i fell in it ,, thats what it is ,, and the funny part that they dont know the people that opened this account , its my responsibility to contact the crooks that walked in to my store and gave me a fake contact number ,,
Jared
My experiences with iPayment has been an absolute nightmare.
No business should consider establishing merchant services with them.
I plan on taking legal action against, them, and think that a class action suit is a realistic possibility.
Dana
I cancelled my I-Payment merchant account in November 2011 because of too many non disclosed fees. Finding out how to cancel was not easy. After months of no longer having an account with them, I discovered that they deducted $129.00 from my checking account in April. I’m furious. I don’t know how to initiate a class action lawsuit on my own, but someone please count me in.
Kent
Consider yourself lucky, Dana. My checking account has been charged a $350 cancellation fee, even though I never completed the sign-up process.
Please please please… run from this sham of a corporation. You’ll spend hours fighting these ignoramuses to get your money back. Luckily, my bank was able to reverse the charge, but only because I caught the scam the day iPayment tried to process the cancelllation fee.
I’ve been using PayPal for months and have been very happy. Their fees are a bit higher, but at least they know how to run a credit card processing business for small companies.
David Warren
Here is a nightmare for you all. I had a company use a stolen credit card to purchase $18,000 worth of material.
Before I was aware that it was fraud, Ipayment did not credit us the money. However when I called them and to tell them it was fraud. They debited (took) $24,000 out of our checking account and over drew it. There is so much more to share, however safe to say, you may want to insure that you do business with a company that truly has customer service with someone interested in your welfare, and not just a number to call.
Chuck
Just sitting here contemplating, after reading all these complaints and seeing how they are all similar, what action ‘we’ as a group could or should take. A rough estimate of what they cost me in a span of 20 months is close to $3,000 and that made the shoestring budget for my shop more like a fine thread one. If anyone has any ideas or recommendations I would appreciate the input and would be willing to entertain the idea of a class-action or a group letter to the powers that be in D.C.
Marg
In March I signed up with a company called Flagship Merchant Services, when they were not able to deliver a terminal I did not go through with opening an account. Flagship told me they would refund me the terminal fee and I thought great I will move on to another company that can deliver what they promise. I now find out that since February, (how they mananged to go backwards I don’t know) a company called IPayment has been taking money from our bank account. Flaships gave my bank account information to IPayment. I phones to find out what this was about and Michelle was unable to help me so she transferd me to manager John. Both of them told me lie after lie and then told me it was my fault. I should have known that Flagship gave out our bank accout information to others. How was I supposed to know this? Now that I am reading all these comments I am glad I did not complete this transaction with either of these companies. Now I just gottat figure out how to get both to stop taking money and return all of our money to our account. Any ideas?
Jaya
I agree. Stay away from Ipayment. I used to be with them and they take every opportunity to charge you extra by small amounts so that you don’t notice. In addition they go out of their way to make sure you don’t have any information about PCI compliance so they can change you a an extra fee. They are working against everything that credit card security procedure are trying to accomplish.
They also have very poor customer service. If you have a complaint they don’t want to hear it.
Allan Sutton
Avoid this company at all costs. During my first year with them, they once refused to transfer an entire month worth’s of funds my bank account until I faxed them phone numbers for all of those orders (all of which were fine — not a single chargeback or declined card; in fact my company has had only had two chargebacks in the past seven years). Once that was done, it still took them several weeks to transfer the funds. There were no more problems for a few years after that, but then the hidden fees began to rise until by last year they were taking around 9% of my total sales between various fees and transaction charges. In addition, they began declining orders from some solid, long-standing foreign customers whose cards were perfectly good. I finally dropped I-Payment, but it took the threat of legal action to even get through to a real person to close the account. And today, a full year after I closed the account, I see they’ve just withdrawn $129 from my bank account for a “PCI compliance fee,” which I’m turning over to my attorney. (By the way, I’ve since switched to PayPal, which has been superb). This company is a very bad player, and has been for many years. Anyone know if a civil suit is pending (or want to start one)?
osman dayanc
Hey
I have the same problem with Ipayment and I really think of suing them. we need a class action against ipayment.
Chuck
Allan I got the same $129 dollar PCI Compliance fee at the first of this month and I closed out the account with I-Payments last December. Since I had no clue what it was for I called and was told it was the compliance fee for the previous 12 months and that it was in my contract. I had already checked my statements from last year to see if I had missed being charged a compliance fee for 2010 and I hadn’t. When I asked them why I was getting charged now and hadn’t then, the supervisor simply said “Well that’s a good thing for you”. It went right through me and I said the BS word and got hung up on. I have the same familiar story of the representative not disclosing any of the hidden costs. When those started creeping up, I called and got a total run-around with no explanations. Closing the account was a circus. It took about four weeks of calling and emailing to get in touch with someone that was semi-honest on how to do it. When I told her I wasn’t the least bit impressed with the company due to the way they kept raising or adding on fees , she told me that they have a lot of people close due to that. Hidden in the contract somewhere, is some clause about all the extraneous fees and she told me if they showed up you could cancel whatever service it was you were being charged for, all non-essentials. The biggest problem I had was when I did call to inquire about them, I was misled and got to take a nice ride on the pervibial ‘buck’ as it was getting passed around. This is only the second provider I have dealt with and I thought the first was a bit shady, but compared to I-Payments, they seem like a great company.
Lewis
Same issue here. My wife had a merchant account through First National Processing but closed it last summer to go with PayPal. Early this month we got that $129 “PCI Compliance” charge from iPayment–which is a company that we never actually dealt with directly (everything went through 1NP). I called 1NP and the somewhat harassed-sounding guy on the phone said “about 50” other people had called and complained about the same thing and that he would put in a request to get our money refunded.
Lewis
Replying to myself…it should come as no surprise that here it is 9 months later and we’ve never seen a cent of our $129 “PCI non-compliance fee” they promised to refund. Stay far, far away from iPayment.
Mike Weldon
I signed up with I-payment through my web hosting service Xeran. I was told that I would be charged a monthly fee of 20.00 and the ussual percentage for transactions. Even though my ussual transactions are $3000-5000 they limited me to $1500 which essentially made my processing useless and allowed them to collect monthly fees that increased to 60-80 dollars a month for nothing. Then when I cancelled I got charged $129.00 again for nothing. I am using Paypal now with no problems and no fees if I do not process!
Thereout to be a law! and yes we need to go to cash only like the good ole days.
holly
Don’t use this company. They are holding 2100 of money from my business and then this morning took 2800 out of my bank account won’t return my calls and will not return emails don’t use anything that has I payments name on it
Mary
Horrible horrible people. They are playing tough with our money. Everybody should stop excepting credit cards so they can be out of jobs. Who are they to hold our money. We make them our partners they go in to our accounts and they control our hard working money while they are rude and hang up the phone on us!! Stop accepting credit cards. They are holding 6000 dollars of mine and try to get explanation they play know it all they are rude and hang up the phone.
Matthew Andrews
Bad news! stay away from these scam artists. They will withdraw from you’re account without telling you for charges you never knew about! bad!
Don
Good luck on doing your due diligence on I-Payments. The service was marketed by Merchant Services Direct seeing an opportunity as banks were closing our or moving merchants to new accounts due to PCI requirements. After 3 months, I am just discovering who I am doing business with….. – I-Payments. Summary and above comments are unfortunately on target. Their “Risk Department” has locked up over $5400 until they can verify with the client..
Even though the nature of our transactions, over $4000 per transaction, was discussed with the Merchant Services Direct sales agent, I am discovering we have a “$900 high ticket limit”. The agent also would not leave a copy of the set up agreement. I am expecting the worst as outlined above. Anyone got an attorney on this? I may need to join up.
Holly
did you ever get this resolved if you ddid maybe you have some advice or anyone for that matter have any advice?
Dou Wade
Do not get nowhere near this company because regrets will follow. It has numerous hidden fees, nebulous statement and high cancellation fees. On top of all it is not easy to get it off your bank account. It is just a scam. It doesn’t deserve to be in business. We all have to fight until it simply disappears.
kevin
I got a statement with fees from this company for my company. I have never used this company before. It looks totally scam. If this company can do this to anyone, you could be the next victim. be very careful !
Dianne Bey
I had the same thing happen. I opened up a webpage with IPAGE. It was impossible to finalize my website without filling out a window with ipayment.inc…perhaps. Not sure. But I got an email the next day. They had my personal info and pretended to be ipage and asked how much sales volume I would have.. I had already been told by ipage I would be charged $54 for the year, no more. Six months later $404 have been taken out of my bank account from ipaymentinc…which is different from Ipayment merchant services??? Noone will take responsiblity. when I reported fraud to Wells Fargo, ipayment inc fabricated a false application with my signature..not sure where they got it… ipayment claims they used to be affiliated with ipage and are no longer…though Ipage has an ipayment icon on their services…not thrilled about being ripped off. I have voice recordings from ipage and ipayment that contradict each other…apparently I have no booking… I have never sold anything nor have had anything for sale….no credit card services.. They took out $5 then, $30, then $35 then $79.90 every month without my knowledge for services I didn’t use. I’m furious!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dianne Bey
Curious…Did they tell you that they had your application? They fabricated an application in my name with my signature after I signed up with Ipage…They got my personal info…I was ripped off $404…for services I didn’t need or use…a total scam…
Jason G
Worst customer service I have ever experienced in 7 years of business.
Will not release funds although I have a perfect track record for 7 years of business.
Never return phone calls. (no exaggeration)
I truly regret the day I made the switch to this company and cannot leave fast enough.
Remember, value is not always in the price and this company will end up costing you money.
Steve
Congratulations on looking up reviews of this company before you sign your life away. Now go do the reasonable and smart thing and find another solution for your merchant processing needs. Find any other solution. These people are the worst most dishonest and dishonorable people I’ve ever dealt with in the money business, which as you already know is full of dishonorable people. iPayment with their “ISO” amount to classic bait & switch con artists. They’ll tell you something that almost sounds too good to be true to get you to sign up and then they’ll hit you with reality and it ain’t pretty. We’ve paid an outrageous amount of money in fees. We were better off using PayPal to process credit cards. Run. Run for your life.
Jim Jones
Wow!
I should have stumbled onto this website before I signed up.
I agree with all of the “overcharging” remarks left on this forum.
I agreed to a flat monthly charge and the discount fees associated with each transaction. I got charged a PCI Non-compliance fee $24.95, a fee that indicated I needed to update my information ($19.95), even though I was unaware I needed to verify my information. A surcharge fee… the list goes on.
All these charges are conveniently “Masked” under the “MTOT” line item on my bank statement.
I guess contracts don’t mean anything when dealing with this company… it’s just a Buyer Beware type thing.
Brenda Day
I was severely disenchanted with IPyment.. Yes, they misrepresented costsn and their front line Customer Service is laughable. The one page signed agreement said nothing about a “PCI compliance fee”. In fact, it was a very straight forward agreement that show “….no other yearly fees applicable..”. Yet, within 1 month I was billed for an egregious amount and I spent 1.75 hours on the phone “attempting” to reach IPayment’s customer service (the same phone number I was told to use if I had a customer present and I needed IPayments assistance with merchant charges). What retail customer is going to stand around for that length of time while IPayment has their finger up their nose. Only to finally reach a representative who parroted some nonsensical policy statements repeatedly and then got rude with me. The rest of the day was spent communicating between a Cynergy Data Customer Service Manager and a manager at IPayment.. Both managers seemed efficient, knowledgeable and service oriented. I was assured that they would take off a considerable portion of the “hidden fee” if I was willing to give them another try. I was satisfied with the compromise but still leery of this enterprise. So, I was able to get the IPayment manager to agree to waive the $300 cancellation fee IF I again experienced any questionable practices within the next 3 months. You know the end to this song. I cancelled via email and phone call within 14 days. However, IPayment has continued to charged me $10 a month for Service Fee (Bahahahahaha). They do not know what service is and I have NEVER used their service. Additionally, I have yet to receive Any response from either company, And just to kick sand in my face? I saw an additional, nonsensical $25 fee (apparently for the hell of it), IPayment debit from my bank account today! I am beside myself with frustration and aggrevation! At this juncture I believe they owe me $145. That could be used to pay my auto insurance this month. Oh how I dream getting a letter in the mail someday that says a Class Action suit filed against IPayment and it’s affiliates. They are ripping off the little guys and we are left powerless to do a damn thing!
Jim Jones
Was overcharged $250 by years end.
Buyer beware… contracts don’t mean anything with this company.
ipayment Contact Information Primary Contact: Mr. Carl Grimstad (President)Complaint Contact: Mr. Dante Croupe (Dir of Risk Mgmt)Mr. Afshin Yazdian (EVP & General Counsel)Mr. Marcus Smith (Sr Dir of Operations)
Holly
Did you happen to get anywhere contacting the people that you listed?
LS
All of you researching about going with IPayment, do not go with them. I stumbled across this site researching about iPayment. I have been with them for a little over a year and my monthly fees have been consistently going up and up and up. The web is obviously loaded with complaints about this company and for good reason. I have had the same experience as many of you here , fees not at all what I signed up for and each month more and more comes out of my bank account. I have a small business and have been so fed up with them…I can’t afford all their undisclosed fees.
I have contacted them over and over about the why my fees are so high, not what I signed up for, etc. to which they reply back with a copy & paste response about PCI compliance, various discount fees associated with different credit cards, blah blah blah. (literally everytime I have contacted them, I get the same exact response back). Even when I contacted them as to why when I refund a customer’s credit card for a transaction it actually costs me more than what the customer was charged. Is that even legal?
In addition, you need to be a financial guru to figure out their monthly statement and where the money is really going between what actually gets deposited into your bank account, then ultimately deducted by them. My merchant service provider who I signed up with (paybyweb) said the PCI compliance fee would be waived if I could present them with the compliance certificate, which I did, guess what, fee not waived.
All of you who have posted here unfortunately know the drill. We have all been taken by this company. I own a small business and can’t afford what they are doing so I have been searching around trying to find out the real bottom line of who actually is the processor with different merchant accounts. It is like searching for a needle in a haystack. You don’t know who the processor is until your account gets approved by the merchant service provider, then its too late. Just spoke with Flagship and found out their processors are iPayment and First Data. It seems that no matter what Merchant account you go with, iPayment or First Data will be the processor and you will end up with more fees than disclosed. If anyone knows of any better merchant service provider, please post it. There should be a class action lawsuit against iPayment.
Chris
Absolutely the worst merchant we have ever signed up with. We are cancelling our account having only been with them 2 weeks. They are complete liars and their risk department will find something wrong with your transaction, tell you you have broken your contract and withhold your funds… BY ALL MEANS STEER CLEAR OF THIS COMPANY!
Jill Rodriguez
April, apparently the only person in the Activation Department asked me if I had anymore questions. When I asked if she could walk me through how many steps I needed to complete before I was able to collect payments online, she screamed,
“I feel like we’re going around in circles!” Then she interrupted me when I tried to ask any other question ultimately hanging up in frustration.
I have never had a worse customer service experience.
Tyler
I-payment is responsible for the worst business relationship I have ever had in 20+ years. Here are a few of my top complaints with these thieves;
> I had recieved a payment of $7K from a long time customer, I-payment requested all of my bank records, personal information and such, (this came in multiple request over three weeks) Finally they decided to not transfer the money to my acount, after three weeks! They told me to refund the money to my customer and thay I should request a check. They withdrew almost $300 from my account with out notice for processing fees! I called customer service and they could care less, and this was after multiple dropped calls and three days of trying to even get someone on the line.
> I have 0 charge backs, and my whole sale customer has a 4 year relationship with me with four to three simular transactions per year.
> hidden fee’s- the standard fee structure for I-payment is approximately $100 per month for not even running one transaction. here is what was explained to me
– PCI non compliant fee $30
– Statement fee $10
– Tax ID # $14.95
– Account FEE 4.95
– on line statement access $ 14.99
– minimum account fee $25
> I was told over and over that there wasn’t a contract and it was a month to month. WELL not so much,,,,,, now to cancel, they will charge me $500. This can be taken from my account at will since I provided them a routing #.
> I tried to dispute this with my bank and they said I had a contract with them, and all fees are legal. They also told me that this is really common and legally they can’t help. Though it was understood that I-payment are complete thieves.
> My average fees from I-payment per month are approximately 19.5%. ( this isn’t counting my $7K experience.
I hope this company gets what is coming to them.
Extremely angry !
Tyler Andersen
Eric Sams
iPayment ripped me off for $558. I never used the service nor had a sale. They just kept charging my account anywhere from $45 to $179.90 even though I never made a sale or used it. When asked about the fees, they just made up a bunch of B.S. How are they charging extra fees on an account that is paying. They are a complete fraud and stay clear from them. They have had over 222 complaints made to the BBB. Please file a complaint now!
dennis
I signed up a merchant account with Flagship and their payment processor is iPayment. Flagship will do anything for you to get you signed up. Once you are signed up, you are on your own. I have to jump thru hoops to close the account with Flagship & iPayment.
Here is my experience – When I first signed up, I didn’t have the bank account info with me, and the Flagship rep said it is ok, just give me the account info later on. He entered a phantom bank account number to get me signed up. I send over a voided check to him later on to confirm the bank account number. 2 months later, I got a “return fee” charge from iPayment because their monthly charge was not going thru my bank. Come to find out the Flagship sales rep gave iPayment the wrong bank account number. Long story short, I called iPayment, they asked me to get with Flagship. I called Flagship sales rep, he asked me to talk to iPayment. I wasted so much time resolving an issue that was not caused by me. Come to closing of account, I called iPayment, they said I have to fax the request in to close the account. I faxed in the request. They said they never got it. I am emailing it now, and hopefully they can respond this time to close my account.
Avoid Flagship and iPayment if all possible!!
laurel
I tried to close this account with ipayment. I sent in the requested form 1/6/12. My Feb. bank statement had another debit from them. I checked with my bank and they had debited 3/5 also. I spent over an hour on the phone tracking this down. They found the email after I looked up exactly when I had sent it. Then they would only credit the 3/5 debit. Very hard to deal with and very time consuming. Get away from them ASAP.
Neo
This guys are crooks, they make bogus “fees” and the lastest in the scam they offer “Free Merchant Services” .. I should have know better .. this guys are the worst – they have been charges for $ 60 last month November … now its $ 140 – and I have not processed a single card yet !! ( i’m a start up) — if someone planning to fall for their game – DON’T it is a company filled with crooks and thieves – period.
Bryan
iPayment is absolutely the worst processor I have every had the misfortune to work with. They are completely unprofessional. Signed up 28 days ago and now finally process my first transaction and they are placing a hold on it!!!!!! These guys are crooks and I am getting out as quickly as possible.
Anonymous
I have had a similar problem with 1st national processing and iPayment. They have held over $6k in payments for 18 MONTHS… William in the Risk Department will not refund them to me (merchant) or the card holder… And will not respond to any communication from me, my attorneys or even the California Attorney General, with whom we filed a complaint. There is a serious issue with this company, and if you have any problems, please file a complaint with the California Attorney General, and the FTC — 877-382-4357. They will do nothing until enough people lodge complaints, and your time is just as well spent there to help get this type of business stopped, as it is warning people to stay away!
Brenda
Biggest misrepresentation of services ever! I originally spoke with Robert Denson, who instructed me to print the application and fax it. Having second thoughts, I did NOT fax the application yet I was approved and issued a merchant account. I read the “Welcome Packet” and see that the account is activated when you process your first sale, so I do NOT use their services and call to cancel the account. In the meantime, I am charged $5.00 monthly statement fee (of NO activity)???? I leave many voice mail messages, email messages…no response! I call AGAIN and send a letter demanding iPayment to cancel this account. Finally achieve that only later to be charged $350.00 cancellation fee! This charge gets me a $28.00 overdraft fee from my Bank! iPayment claims it could be up to 30 days for a refund. Again, I never faxed the application to iPayment. How can they conduct business this way? SCAM SCAM SCAM
Nicole Campbell
I completely agree with you! This company is a Scam, we just recently changed merchant services from ipayment because we were tired of being charged outrageous fees… Well when we first were told about ipayment we could leave whenever we wanted NO CONTRACT. Well we found out the hard way and they took $350 from each of our stylist.There are 8 of us signed up for 1 machine. This story could go on and on. The most rediculous excuse for a business… they only word that I can use for them is criminal! Thank goodness my bank has my back!
Anonymous
You NEED to contact the California Attorney General, or these types of people will continue to take advantage of people.
My contact CLEARLY states what they can charge when the account is terminated, and they overcharged me. There is NOTHING legal about it, but until people speak up… they will continue to get away with it!
doug
what was in the welcome pack? did it list anything about the etf?
Cynthia
Representative that came to my place of businesses Gregory Antonetti have learned changed contract after leaving my place of business ” Bait and switch ” he added my initials to the contract for the equipment lease even though he was told I did not want lease equipment!!!!! Also other things where changed. Called and spoke with Chris Chapman he says Greg is an independent contractor and nothing he can do ???????????? Have never even started processing with them but now they say I’m locked into the equipment lease for four years. Tying at this time to get out of that since equipment has NEVER been unpacked from box let alone any processing done. Stay away from this company !!!!!!!!
Eric McNamee
Cynthia,
Contact your bank and show them the initial page to stop payment through your bank as well as file a fraud lawsuit against the representative. If the first two payments for the lease aren’t made then the provider gets hit with a chargeback, which then takes the commission back from the representative.
Also, all leases have to be verified either verbally or on a “acceptance of equipment and delivery” form. If you didn’t confirm the lease then they won’t deduct from your account. If they try to, contact the leasing company and explain to them that you never initialed the lease page and that the rep, Gregory Antonetti forged your signature.
I’m not sure what it is but over the past few months I’ve come across a LOT of merchants that have been thrown into your exact scenario with iPayment, Eliot Group and Bankcard USA. It’s probably because independent reps are commission driven with terminals and have succumbed to high pressure tactics to get that quick buck because they know terminals are a dying breed in merchant services as most merchants are navigating to POS systems.
Herchel
iPayment Inc., is simply the worst merchant processor in the US. They should be terminated for bad business practices and scamming their customers. Which ever comes first; being iPament changes your contract terms, fees and complementary add-ons. Therefore, don’t and I mean DON’T go with these guys.
You want professional service and a ease processor go with First Data or another service if asked by Authorized.Net which merchant processor you can use. I cannot emphasize the revenue I lost by using this site. Never the less, the service I got with this company was rather worst. They charged me $59.99 “fee” with no name. A $49.99 for “MISC-MOTO Merchant ACCT” – very discrete when hiding those fees on your statement. When asked why? The risk department simply said “because your a risk”. I have just started using their service not even a week and I got this treatment. They closed my account and the guy even laugh over the phone when I told him, “this was illegal on every way”.
I guess they just deserve the boot and I hope someone does something about it; the law department if you know what I mean. I just let it go, but I feel someone should not commit the same mistake I have.
Will
I should have read your message before I signed up with them. I have a line for ** ADDITIONAL FEES of $79.90 and other fees that don’t make any sense.
I tried closing the account; they will charge me again because it can take THEM up to 30 days to close the account. In the mean while they’ll charge me again because they’re in the process of closing my account.
WORST experience I ever had with a merchant EVER!
Dianne Bey
I agree. I had $79.90 taken out of my bank account on consecutive months. This company should be charged with fraud. They fabricated false application documents with my digital signature and sent it to Wells Fargo who won’t credit me for the unauthorized payments because this company provided them with this ‘application’…I can’t believe it…I have no recourse as Ipage hasn’t responded despite several phone calls and tickets..and the same with Ipayment…(Ipayment inc. not to be confused with Ipayment…separate companies I think..) I was told to phone the police and report it. I am hoping to get a refund. I got one salesperson to admit that I did not have a complete application and recorded on my phone…Help!!!!
Victor T
Sales agents can change prices and terms. To get a good deal you need to find a combination of good middle size processor and honest, professional Independent Sales Agent (ISA). You will have lowest possible rates, no early termination fees, no batch fees, no minimum monthly fees, no hidden fees, free PCI compliance and no surprises.
Randy Steinberg
Count me in – my business account got drained of almost $600 in the last 3 months for various fees – none of which are in their schedule of fees I signed up for and they cannot provide any documentation or evidence of any agreement or description of these fees or how they are charged, names, contact numbers or even an address of their company.
This sounds like fraud in my book and I am pursuing as such.
Aaron M. Wilds
I would recommend that every business STAY AWAY FROM IPAYMENT INC. This was my processor of 7 years. Like many small businesses I would review my statement from time to time and being busy perhaps I should have payed more attention.
Bottom line is that they use “MISCELLANEOUS FEES”..to the tune of $60.00 per month..with NO explanation of what these fees are for. They will not answer questions regarding the “MISC. FEES”..only directing you to send them an email.
They have very shady business practices including long funding times 3-4 days? no doubt so they can make money “on the float”. The worst is the hassle and way they rip you off when you try to cancel. When I finally wised up and decided to take my business elsewhere they would NOT take a cancellation over the phone. Instead they fax you a form and then you have to fax it back to them. Even then get this..they hit my account AGAIN. to the tune of $110.00. When I contacted them they said that all closures will take up to 30 days!!! so they can open an account in 1-2 days but it takes 30 Days to close it…NO this is simply a way of taking even more of your money or in hopes that you’ll forget about them and perhaps they will get 2-3 months more out of you.
This is a TERRIBLE company with horrendous customer service STAY AWAY!
Businesses BE WARE!…. They also failed to inform me when I cancelled that I needed to contact Authorize.net seperately to stop the 10.00 per month gateway fee I was being charged. UNLIKE ipayment Authorize.net was VERY professional and kind and took care of everything right over the phone.
Eric Gillette
Aaron, sorry to hear about your experience with iPayment, er. . .ahem: “iStealYourMoney”.
In any case I agree with you that Authorize.net had nothing to do with them, and is very professional — it is for this very reason, I simply kept my Authorize.net (since I got grandfathered into only paying $5.00 per month for their Automated Recurring Billing program), and I simply switched to a new payment processor (Cynergy Data).
Cynergy is a bit more expensive (my rate is now 5.95% instead of the low 2.59% I had with iPayment), but to me it’s worth it in the long run to work with a company that I can call and get answers from, and when I charge a transaction — whether it’s $40, $400, or $4,000 — they simply deposit the funds into my account within the agreed upon 2 business days (if I put through a charge on Monday, funds are in my account on Wednesday like clockwork).
I have now been processing through Authorize.net for 8 years, and have been processing with Cynergy for about 1 year and it’s like night and day.
Cynergy had a questions about one of my transactions — guess what they did??
Did they hold my funds? Did they cancel my account suddenly and label me a high risk?
None of the above, they actually called me (there’s a novel idea) and asked what the transaction was for, and asked if I had documentation demonstrating that the client participated in the transaction and asked if they could call the client to verify.
Of course my answer to all 3 questions was a resounding: “YES!”
I simply faxed them the contract, they called the client to verify, and that was that.
My client told me all they asked her was:
– if she knew who I was.
– did she authorize me to charge her credit card for $1,250.
– did she receive the services I promised her (building and hosting her new website).
Of course she answered yes to the first two questions, and for the last question she answered: “Eric is still working on it, but he told me it would be all done in about 2 weeks time as that is what we agreed upon from the beginning.”
They didn’t hold my funds, they didn’t go crazy and suddenly cancel my account — they called me back, told me they spoke with my client, and that the transaction was successfully verified.
I asked the VERY nice lady I spoke to if this was something they’d do with future transactions. Her response??
“We may randomly choose transactions to verify based on the amount or other criteria that we feel make it necessary to verify the transaction, but we will always contact you to inform you of such. As long as you comply with what we ask for documentation wise, and we can verify the transaction with the client, we will *NEVER* (emphasis mine) hold your funds.”
We also discussed my 0% chargeback rate a little bit, which she said was “excellent”, and that “as long as you take care of your clients, you should never have a problem with us holding your funds or anything like that.”
My reply to her: “Wow. I really have to say you guys are a bit higher with the fees, but it’s good to breathe easy when it comes to my transactions. You guys give me the freedom I need to operate my business and do things I need to do on the fly, like process transactions using my cell phone when I meet with a client in person, or process online if a client faxes me their contract. That’s what I need.”
Her response?
“My pleasure Mr. Gillette — let us know if there’s anything we can do to help you with your processing needs in the future. Have a good day!”
That is what I call customer service, and a good company to do business with.
UPDATE: on the $250 iPayment owed me. . .I got the run around on that for awhile, until I eventually spoke to a CSR who told me they had to mail me a check, and that I’d receive it within 7 business days. It’s been 9 business days. I’m gonna call them on Monday and see what’s up and let you folks know how it turns out.
Robyn S.
Watch out for this company and their $100 annual compliance fee that is buried in the contract in addition to all other monthly fees. Waste of money for a small business.
Phillip CPO
Hi Robyn, would you mind giving us a little more detail so that new merchants can better understands what to look for?
Eric Gillette
Hey good news all, after waiting 6 months, iPayment *FINALLY* deposited the funds to my account after closing my account suddenly back in early November 2010 after I processed around $1,500 or so in transactions.
They then charged me an “Early Termination Fee” — even though they were the ones who terminated my account ($500).
I got them to refund $250 of this fee, but it still hasn’t yet hit my bank account more than a month or so later. . .
Phillip CPO
Thanks for the follow-up on this, Eric!
Mark Boyce
Do not use iPayment. Fees are endless, statements are unintelligible and you can not get them out of your bank account. If I cannot get the bank to honor my stop payment I will have to change banks. Just do not use iPayment. You will be sorry.
Courtney W
I’ve experienced the exact same issue. I’ve tried to cancel (was told no fee by salesman and nobody said anything about a fee when I called). I’ve asked the bank to dispute the last charges and I’m closing my bank acct monday.
Joan
I made a purchase on my card on March 30, 2011. IPayment removed the funds from my account on April 6, 2011. As of today and NUMEROUS phone calls, they still have not released my funds to the merchant I made my purchase with. Since this was an ordered item, I had to pay for it in advance. Now, I am not sure if my merchant will give me my item when it does come in. This is a purchase of over $6,000. I do have my reciept and invoice. Do I have any recourse for this ?
Joan
Eric Gillette
Joan,
Welcome to the world of credit card processing.
In this world, the merchant is the one who takes absolutely 100% of the risk in doing business after accepting a credit card for the following reasons:
1) The credit card issuer will not hold the customer liable for the charge if they claim it was “fraud” of if they simply say they “don’t recognize the charge”.
2) If the merchant ships you a product and you claim your credit card “was stolen” or that you “don’t recognize the charge” and the merchant didn’t ship to your billing address and shipped instead to your work or other address, guess what happens?? The merchant loses the money you paid, and the merchandise they shipped you at an address other than your billing address.
3) Under no circumstances will the processor be liable for any charges, nor will the credit card issuer, so if the customer claims “fraud” or “unrecognized charge” guess who takes the hit in *EVERY* case?? The merchant again.
This is why I can say beyond a reasonable doubt that for a $6,000 charge, I highly doubt that whatever you bought for that price, if it is a tangible item, the merchant will likely not ship it — he’ll take a loss if he does.
Think about it. . .you’ve been charged, so from your perception you “paid” already, however, since his merchant provider (iPayment) is holding his funds and not paying them out to him, he has *NOT* been paid from his perspective, therefore, why would he ship you a $6,000 item when he has no idea when iPayment may decide to release the funds back to him? Could be 90 days, could be 180 days. Either way, on a $6,000 item, I know me personally as a merchant, I wouldn’t wait 30 days for those funds, let alone 3 months, or even 6 months!
I think your best bet at this point would be to contact the merchant and ask him what he thinks you should do.
I know that in May if iPayment hasn’t released my funds from my clients, I will inform my clients to dispute the charges on their cards, and I will rebill them with my new merchant account.
The good part about my business is that I work personally with all my clients, and have worked with most of my clients for 5-6 years or longer in most cases, so when they heard iPayment held my funds, yet I still performed the work I promised them, even without payment, my clients all understood how damaging it was to my business to have funds held by my merchant provider for no reason (I never had a single chargeback in the 19 months I had been processing with them, and my clients even called William to verify the transactions!).
That said, each of my clients told me whatever I needed them to do in regards to the charge, they would do, so basically, I’m giving them until May to release my funds (that would be 180 days), if they don’t I’ll instruct my clients to take action.
Phillip CPO
Hi Joan,
This has likely happened for one of two reasons, or both:
A single $6,000 charge may be over the merchant’s approved “high ticket” transaction limit, or unusual from in the merchant’s transaction history. In this case, most processors will place a temporary hold on the transaction to verify that the funds will be collected from the customer and that it wasn’t fraudulent. These type of holds usually only last 1-2 weeks.
Or, The processor decided to establish a cash “reserve” with the merchant, which holds money as sort of an insurance policy against losses if the transaction is fraudulent, or the customer disputes the charge.
The processor/merchant account provider actually does have a lot of risk is a situation like this because they are the middle man and can be left holding the bill. A merchant account is a line a credit and the processor pays the merchant before the money has been collected from the customer. If the transaction is fraudulent, or the customer disputes it after the merchant has been paid, the processor is the entity that takes the hit. The only recourse the processor has is to collect the disputed charge from the merchant. If they are unable to collect from the merchant, then they take the loss. This is why processors hold funds for unusually large transactions, or merchants they deem as “high risk.” The unfortunate part is that the merchant is often caught by surprise and many of these processors do a poor job of communicating why a hold is happening or a cash reserve is being placed.
victimized by ipayment inc
Ipayment has been successfully sued and the owner appears to be dodging a $300,000,000.00 judgment against him. Maybe this is why the company has such a huge tract record or poor customer service and shady business activity.
Ever since Ipayment began holding several thousand dollars of our money, we spoke to William in Risk management back in Sept of 2010. He was very rude on the phone and advised the funds would be on hold and they’d review the account in 30 days to see if they could be released. 30 days came and went, no funds released. We called William every 30 days for 6 months straight. Never answers phone, always goes to voice mail. Each time we were polite and asked for a call back. Not once did he attempt to call us. Either he doesn’t care about customer service or he is scared of a possible confrontation.
6 months later they again held more funds. Called spoke to another person in Risk Management (who was actually a nice guy–you can still be nice and deliver poor news) and advised they were closing our account and here’s the kicker–they would be holding our funds (back from Sept. and recent) for another 7 months. He explained it would take 30 days to cancel the account then they can hold the funds for another 6 months beyond that date. Contract says they can only hold funds for 6 months. Can someone say fraud????
Our business is now at the doors of bankruptcy and we’ve had to cancel and refund customer’s unshipped orders. William called us to see why we were refunding some orders. He was rude and proceeded to tell us how to properly run a business. Huh? He ended up hanging up on us during the phone conversation midway through my sentence. Didn’t even bother trying to call him back–why bother? Again, this was from a company we paid for a service. The good thing is we new what to expect from the conversation and recorded it!
If your reading this, most likely you already use this company, so there is no sense in warning you to stay away. Here’s what you can do, won’t get you much results but if your having a problem report them to the better business bureau. This will not force things in your favor, but in the very least you’ll get a call back. Report it to there state’s attorney general. Once they get enough complains on file, they’ll open an investigation. Once a company is being investigated by the attorney general, they’ll always find areas to focus on. Close your bank account and end your relationship with this company ASAP.
Eric Gillette
It’s disappointing to see that iPayment is still defrauding hard-working people out of their money by using the same deceptive practices over and over.
If they continue at this rate, they won’t have any merchants left to process payments for in the first place!
I can certainly agree with everything that has been said, and still have an open issue with iPayment where they held almost $2,000 in transactions from 3 of my clients, saying that my business model was “high risk”. I’d been processing with them for 19 months without a single chargeback when I got the phone call from William to let me know I was a “high risk” merchant. Oh, and to this day, I *still* have no chargebacks. Not even one, yet they’re still holding my funds which they’ve been holding since October of 2010. When I called in February of 2011 as William had instructed me to do to get my funds back (he told me to call after 90 days) he told me that their could still be chargebacks that they’d be liable for and that I need to call again in May 2011 to get my funds back. All this from me, a guy who has had NO CHARGEBACKS whatsoever, and still don’t to this day — even with my *current* merchant provider! My business is built on relationships that I develop with my clients to help them improve their businesses. This is the reason I don’t get chargebacks, because I provide a service that is invaluable to my clients. William couldn’t understand that. He also thought it was odd that I would use an app on my cell phone to process credit card transactions when I was face-to-face meeting with some of my clients. Either he lives in the stone-age, or doesn’t realize that it makes sense for me to process a card using my cell phone when I’m meeting face-to-face with a client.
In any case, we’ll see what happens in May. . .I get the feeling he’ll give me the run around again, but I’ll keep an open mind and post back here with what the outcome is, since at that point, the time-frame for them to be held liable for chargeback will be over, so they’ll have NO excuse to try and keep my funds unless they are just as everyone here has been describing them — a fraudulent company.
I’ll keep you all posted as to what happens in May when I call back — that’s about 2 weeks from today.
David
Avoid Ipayment. My experience is that they use deceptive practices. If one looks, there are several investigations against them. Whatever you do, don’t supply them with your banking information. My experience is that they will debit your account without authorization and make it very difficult to recover your funds. There are many good companies out there to process your credit card; Ipayment is not one of them in my opinion.
J
I have no idea how you could give this company an OK rating here. We’ve used this company for a while and has held over 10,000 worth of funds longer than 180 days per the contract. If you valid your business and financial goals, stay clear of this company!!!! If you are already a “customer” and you’re looking at reviews online because you are starting to have problems with them–don’t do what we did and hope the situation will get better. It will get much worse.
They do not return phones calls.
They are very rude when you ask them questions.
They will not provide any written documentation.
Rick Ranelli
ipayment is a rip off, there pci compliance program is a scam, i cancelled service because of it, six months later they debit my account $139.00 say it’s for previous years compliance fees. totally dissatisfied with this company.
Tara
Do not use ipayment they close your account and then commit fraud by trying to take money from your account the next day. And then get emails to tell you to call bank and reject charges thats great but should of not been taking in the first place.
http://www.ipaymentinc.com Stay away from this site
Dianne Bey
I totally agree with you. They fabricated an application and sent a copy to Wells Fargo…Wells Fargo wouldn’t credit me the fraudulent charges. I don’t recall filling out an application with them at all!!! I didn’t as a matter of fact. They took money out of my account for absolutely no services whatsoever…I didn’t agree to the money taken out, and had no services…no credit cards, no sales, etc… I didn’t need it in the first place. They pretended they were Ipage..and got my website name the day after I signed up, asked me how much volume, and started taking money out of my account. I said I am an artist and don’t plan to sell anything…I’m fuming.
Eric Gillette
I spoke to the guy William at iPayment’s Risk Department. I had been processing with them for over a year, and HAD (and still have) NO chargebacks — none! Not one or two. . .NONE. I literally have a 0% chargeback rate. Most of my clients I have been working with for 5 years or longer. In November at the height of my business’ busy season, iPayment decided to suspend my account (and hold my funds for 180 days) because I was in William’s exact words: “A high risk merchant”. I laughed at first because I thought he was joking, and I mentioned to him that I had a 0% chargeback rate in the 19 months I had been processing with them. He said that didn’t matter, and that my business model (I’m an online business consultant and help new and existing business owners get their businesses online or enhance their business presence online) was “risky” as he put it. They of course dipped into my bank account for an additional $500 which they claim was to hold a “reserve” in the event of any chargebacks, and as I mentioned I have a 0% chargeback rate! I told my clients what transpired, and they all agreed it was crazy. I of course, did the work my clients requested me to do at no charge to them, since they had already “paid” me via credit card and iPayment held the funds, but I wasn’t about to penalize my clients for my processors insane actions. Instead I went back to my old processor, who accepted me with open arms, and even matched the rates that iPayment was giving me, since it was the reason I left them in the first place. Avoid processing with iPayment at all costs. If you go through a merchant service provider, ask them who their processor is, and if they tell you it’s iPayment, ask them to set you up with a different processor. You do have a choice.
Adam b
This company does not give you a original copy of the contract. The salesmen gives you a copy from a small printer on the lab top. he adjusts the months form 12 to 48 on the lease. then gives you the copy of the original, after editing the sheet in the computer. Very bad. The state needs to move on first data global leasing that hires these jerks. ipayment says they are not linked to first data, but the salemen adjusts the contract to get commissions.
Cynthia winnie
Complaint Information
On 10/21/15 Gregory Antonetti representative of IPAYMENT ( credit card merchant provider) came to my place of business to talk about me switching to them as my provider. Actually it all sounded pretty good , we did tweek some things such as he wrote on the contract that I had a 90 day trial. How could you go wrong ? So we started the contract .he brought up that the lease on the equipment was $29.99 for 4 years. I told him no I can buy one for a lot cheaper then that.Greg says ” O no these new machines are around $ 2000.00 ” and to make it all better they would credit card my bill every month the $29.99 and that also with the leased equipment if there is any problems with the machine during that time that it is all covered and would send me out a new one no charge. So ok signed up.That evening got online just to check prices for the processing terminals found them for around $250.00. So was lied to about that.Called him first thing in the morning. no answer, left message. Told him to not turn in the equipment lease paper in.just going to buy one. Never heard back from him. Tried to call 2 other times no answer. Five days later here comes the processing equipment and a letter for the leased equipment stating that I could purchase equipment protection for $4.99 a month.,another lie that it would be covered for the length of the lease. Called GregAntonetti back he said if I had not leased the equipment through them that I would have been ” Raped on the fees”.I told him I was done & equipment had not been hooked up I had not done Any processing through them I want out. Greg said will you are on a 90 day trial you are free to do that .call the number on contract due to the fact that Greg Antonetti is not responding to me after numerous attempts. Speak with Chris Chapman, Now they say I’m locked into this lease for 48 months and that they don’t have a copy of my contract they just have a paper with my initials all over it for the lease? Asked Chris Chapman if he would he email me a copy. It’s the same one I have But has been changed !! omitted 90 day trial, omitted No annual fee ! initials added by the lease agreement ! signature page matches of course . Talked with Chris Chapman and informed me there was nothing he would do about it other then lowering my rates to keep me . Greg Antonetti is a representative of theirs and they don’t seem to care what practices he uses to get contracts signed.
John Griessen
I “signed” up with National Merchant Bancard and when it came time to start, they had changed the prices from $8/month to $35/month with sortof the same terms, but with a $75 to $150 yearly PCI compliance fee.
So they’re just a bait and switch sales tactic operation.
They had started a process with authorize.net and with ipayments.com for a web based virtual terminal app, so if you wanted to you could get going for $35/month. I’m waiting until I have some internet sales volume to support it.
Until then I’ll use paypal, google checkout, and amazon payments for
small volumes of credit card sales, and probably even more sales by image check.
John