Pivotal Payments Review

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2.5
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How did they treat you? ▼

UPDATE 2/1/2019: Pivotal Payments changed its name to “Nuvei” on October 23, 2018. See our Nuvei review for up-to-date information on this company.

Pivotal Payments (pivotalpayments.com) is a large super ISO with operations in both the U.S. and Canada. The company is headquartered in Melville, New York, and St. Catharines, Ontario, respectively. Founded in 2003, Pivotal acquired Cardex Corporation and Tangerine Payment Solutions and rebranded both companies under the Pivotal Payments name. As an ISO, Pivotal appears to be a reseller of First Data, Global Payments, and TSYS credit card processing services, but may also work with other direct processors. The company manages its merchant accounts directly and provides in-house customer support.

Pivotal Payments’ Acquiring Banks are Merrick Bank of South Jordan, Utah, BMO Harris Bank: N.A., Chicago, Illinois, and Wells Fargo of Walnut Creek, California. Philip Fayer is the president and CEO of Pivotal Payments.

Key Points

  • Sales & Marketing: Pivotal Payments hires independent sales representatives and has received a moderate-to-high number of complaints about its sales practices.
  • Costs & Contract: Pivotal Payments offers a three-year contract through Global Payments with an early termination fee of either $395 or $495.
  • Complaints & Service: Pivotal Payments has received more than 160 public complaints.
  • BBB Rating: Pivotal Payments has an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received 64 complaints in the past three years.
  • Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With Pivotal Payments

Pivotal Payments History Video

Pivotal Payments Customer Reviews

Here's What Their Clients Say

Customer Reviews Summary
Total Online Complaints 300+
Live Customer Support Yes
Most Common Complaint Cancellation Fees

There are a moderate-to-high number of Pivotal Payments negative reviews filed online for a processor of its size and time in business, including over 160 in the comment section of this review. The content of the complaints is fairly consistent, with numerous merchants reporting poor customer service, problems with accounts, processing errors, terminal problems, difficulty cancelling service, unexpected costs, and high cancellation fees. One contributing factor may be that Pivotal acquired Tangerine Payment Solutions, which also has very poor reviews. To get more details about Pivotal complaints, see actual merchant reports in the comment section at the end of this review.

It should also be noted that Pivotal Payments appears to have paid Ripoff Report to join that site’s Corporate Advocacy program, which allows Pivotal to replace the titles of negative reviews with bogus promotional blurbs that are all identical. Merchants should note that the full complaints can still be found beneath the lengthy promotional material that has been added to each review. It is our view that this approach demonstrates less of a commitment to customer service than if the company had simply provided professional rebuttals to merchant complaints.

Although Pivotal states that it has improved its customer service and improved on the areas of merchant dissatisfaction, we see little evidence to support improving its rating as of this update.

Pivotal Payments Online Ratings

Here's How They Rate Online

Online Ratings Summary
Product & Service Complaints 29
Billing & Collection Complaints 20
Advertising & Sales Complaints 14
Guarantee & Warranty Complaints 0
Delivery Complaints 1

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 review, the Better Business Bureau is awarding Pivotal Payments accreditation as well as an “A+” rating due to 64 complaints registered in the last 36 months. Of the total, 29 are regarding problems with products and services, 20 with billing and collection, 14 with advertising and sales, and one with delivery. Pivotal Payments has resolved 21 of the complaints, while the remaining 43 either were resolved to the dissatisfaction of the merchant or did not receive a final response from the merchant. Although these numbers are consistent with other BBB profiles for Pivotal Payments, it should be noted that the BBB lists a Plano, Texas, location for the company that is not consistent with the information provided by other sources.

At the time of an earlier update, the BBB also included the following notice:

BBB has identified a pattern of complaints concerning sales misrepresentation. Pivotal Payments has cooperated with the BBB by providing a response as to the steps they are taking to eliminate this pattern. As of August 5, 2015, Pivotal Payments’ complaints are being monitored for 6 months specifically to identify whether or not this pattern has been eliminated.

It therefore seems that Pivotal’s rapid decrease in complaints and improvement from an “F” to an “A+” occurred during this probationary period—a period that curiously aligns with the length of time that Pivotal has been an accredited BBB member. Considering Pivotal’s current complaint total and resolution ratio, we have adjusted the BBB’s rating to a “C.”

Pivotal Payments Fees, Rates & Costs

A Closer Look at The Contract

Cost & Fees Summary
Swiped Rate Variable
Keyed-in Rate Variable
Early Termination Fee $395 Or $495
PCI Compliance Fee $99 Per Year
Equipment Lease Terms 48 Months, Non-Cancellable

Pivotal’s pricing may vary greatly based upon several factors including the agent, franchise, sub-ISO, or partner setting up the account, and by a merchant’s processing volume and business type. Additionally, the company’s sales agents are known to lease equipment either directly or through First Data Global Leasing at varying costs. A company representative has stated that Pivotal has started to focus on offering free equipment and equipment rental programs to reduce the number of lease contracts it sells, but it is still possible for merchants to receive a long-term lease from a Pivotal rep. This reviewer recommends to always buy your equipment and to never lease it.

Pivotal Payments previously enforced a liquidated damages early termination fee in its standard contract. As of this update, however, a company representative has informed us that the company’s standard early termination fee is now a flat $395 fee for merchants processing up to $25,000 per month and $495 for merchants processing over $25,000 per month. Pivotal Payment’s standard contract (available below) appears to include a three-year service agreement with an automatic renewal for one year, but a few merchants have reported agreements up to five years. A company representative has stated that Pivotal does offer month-to-month contracts, but that these are up to agent discretion. As noted above, several reviews state that Pivotal agents often also market 48-month, non-cancellable equipment leases that can cost thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the lease.

In addition to the processing fees, merchants have reported various other monthly fees as well as an annual $99 PCI Compliance fee. It is strongly advised that merchants fully understand the pricing and terms of their Pivotal Payments merchant account agreement before signing. See the Pivotal Payments Global Payments Terms & Conditions.

Pivotal Payments Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs

Should You Work For Them?

Jobs & Marketing Summary
Employs Independent Resellers Yes
Advertises Deceptive Rates No
Discloses All Important Terms No

Pivotal does not appear to use any deceptive advertising or rate quoting in its official materials, but the company has suffered considerable damage to its reputation due to its marketing strategy.

The company relies very heavily on outside independent sales agents, sub-ISOs, telemarketing, franchises, and strategic partnerships to sell its services. Evidence contained in numerous merchant complaints seems to indicate that Pivotal pays varying commissions based upon the rates and fees that agents set during the activation of the merchant account and equipment lease. Many merchants report that agents misrepresented their pricing, terms and conditions, and lease agreements to persuade them to accept an account. Pivotal’s internal policies appear to be doing a poor job of regulating its resellers’ marketing practices.

A representative of Pivotal stated in an email to us that the company has implemented a “sales compliance” position so that all sales channels meet the company’s “internal standards,” but did not elaborate on the policies that define the standards. He also stated that Pivotal will buy back an equipment lease if the company cannot provide service to the merchant, or if there was a sales misrepresentation issue. As of this update, we have seen some evidence to indicate that Pivotal’s efforts have resulted in reduced merchant complaints regarding sales and marketing tactics, which has improved its rating in this section to a “C.”

Our Pivotal Payments Review Summary

Our Final Thoughts

Despite recent efforts to improve, Pivotal Payments appears to rate as a substandard merchant services provider. The company can better its rating in this review by greatly reducing future merchant complaints and reducing or eliminating the early termination fee found in its merchant account agreement. Merchants are encouraged to read all contract terms whenever dealing with Pivotal Payments and its subsidiaries.

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Which is Most Important for You?

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

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

Testimonials & Complaints

How Did Pivotal Payments Treat You?

176 User Reviews

  • Douglas

    I feel for you, I dealt with pivotal for 3 horrible years – at one point they accidentally hit my acct. Accidently for $3900 ($4 k ) about a year into my term, however they immediately agreed to correct the error however the funds were in “electronic banking limbo” 36 hours later the funds were back in my acct. I will say i got screwed bad in monthly fees and the annual $100 fee. Everytime i called to dispute charges ( dozens of times) no one had any real explanation of fees in any detail… I have been out of there grasp for 11 months now and i may go change my acct. Number out of paranoia after reading the newest complaints… wow.wow.wow


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

  • T Lehtinen

    We had a nightmare with them as well. However the first thing you need to do is close your bank acct and open a new one. Without doing this they have free access to do whatever withdraws they want it seems. As you have seen. So please protect yourself by doing this today. Hopefully everything else will work out in time but stop them immediately from any access. Chances are 99.99% that they will never refund you anything. And if so they can mail you a cheque. Protect what you have

  • Pivotal Payments

    Hello Emiko,

    Thank you for explaining your situation. Please rest assured that the necessary steps have been taken to address your problems and ensure this does not repeat itself.

    Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.

    Kindest regards.

  • Richard

    As an agent of Pivotal I would like to express a couple things. I’m disappointed in this review as it is not up front and honest. I have been in Merchant Services for 11+ years. I chose it because it is an ISO of TSYS.

    FYI – Pivotal Payments Offers 2 Contract Types – A Standard 3 Year and a Month-To-Month.

    We used to be an ISO for First Data – Going forward, when I came on with them a year ago, we had dropped our relationship to First Data. Also if you Google the WSJ Article “First Data Drowning in Debt”, I’m not sure as an agent I would put my trust in them or any other ISO of First Data for that matter. That’s my opinion take it or leave it.

    I have clients completely satisfied with my services and I take care of them well. Your company is only as good as it’s agents. I take pride in my personal customer service.

    Thanks for reading my perspective.

  • BC LTD

    Terrible customer service. Customer Rep’s refuse to get you their supervisor, they lie about details on your account, they told me they would create a work order for my issue and call me back, weeks went by without a phone call. When I contacted them again about the problem & not receiving a phone call back, they told me they’d call me back – this is my third time asking them to fix the problem, and the third time they’ve told me “they’ll call me back”. They changed their mobile merchant terminal system and it is far more complicated than need be, and it now takes my employees 3x the amount of time to process one payment for every single customer. The problem I still need fixed is: when they processed a mandatory upgrade with no warning on our mobile terminal, they changed the phone number without our consent, and now my customers have been phoning the wrong number for weeks! Business is slowing down for more than 1 reason due to this company, their lack of customer service & lack of efficiency. If I had known this beforehand, I would’ve never switched to them. Considering taking my business elsewhere, even though this machine is $1,500 and non transferable.

    • Pivotal Payments

      Hello BC LTD, we are very sorry to learn of the experience you have described and would like to assure you this is not at all consistent with the training and expectations we set for all our agents. Please contact us at [email protected] as we need additional information from you in order to identity your account and resolve the issues you have mentioned. We appreciate your feedback and value your business, always.

      • Tina

        I Agree with you Emily. Worst business ever! DO NOT SIGN CONTRACT with PIVOTAL PAYMENTS. There were so many problems with Pivotal Payments, Tons of HIDDEN fees*** , most unprofessional customer service I have ever dealt with, and regret leaving Moneris.

        Deal with them in email and always have a paper trail. My advice is to NEVER do business with Pivotal Payments. My company will be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. If you have a problem with Pivotal, I would recommend contacting with Better Business Bureau and filing a complaint

    • Jimmy White

      Having Same Problem from their Sales Rep. in Canada. Their Sales Rep. keep calling me. After I email the application with VOID Cheque. They tried to ask me for $10K deposit. We are not agree.
      They refused and not solving the problem, and they are trying to play games. They took money from our bank account with no reason, we spent lots of time to contact them. They said they will credit back in few business days. But there is no refund, and took money again and again. It has been 4 months now.

      We are going to small claims court for the damage next week. It is so annoying. We will not using Pivotal Payment for the rest of our life.

  • joe

    July 28, 2014 at 5:48 pm
    Your comment is awaiting moderation.

    Our rep switched us over to pivotal in 2013,we are had been using the omni veriphone terminals and had had no problems with our customer service.Then one Monday in June we walked in and the terminal would not batch or dial in,after spending time with their support,it was decided we needed a new more compliant terminal.Now this part really concerned us,It seems pivotal a large credit card provider CAN NOT TAKE A CREDIT CARD FOR A TERMINAL OR SUPPY ORDER,instead they needed to GET A BANK CHECK TO DRAFT YOUR ACCOUNT. We ordered a terminal and faxed over the approval which I will be glad to copy the email to anyone who wishes to read it,I am a stickler for emails so I asked what was included and the rep said terminal and pin pad in the email.Imagine my suprise when I received a terminal only,then as I was plugging it in the next day Fed Ex came in with a 2nd unordered terminal. I called the sales rep and email her that I received the 2nd terminal and to make sure I was not charged for 2 terminals.I continued trying to get the first one to work and had no succees with customer support,we also tried this 2nd terminal and finally figured out they only had it setup for credit and not debit,than after several days of trying things,we found out it would not operate without a pinpad,at least that is what they said. So we ordered a pinpad 106 plus shipping.the pinpad arrived next day ,plugged it in called tech support several hours later guess what,it still did not work.After several days of trying a GOOD TECH figured it out and got me up and running.Their tech support will spend hours on the phone and have you on hold and do not know what end is up.Now I have the 2nd terminal that I shipped back to them with a reciept where fed ex picked it up and at the end of june they hit my bank account for the 2nd terminal with no authorization. I have made over 15 phone calls,faxed the fed ex reciept and bank statement to some fax number where when you call back the person claims they have not seen the fax or received it.I have been dealing with this since 7/3 and today took me over the edge,after being on the phone with yet another rep whom I told it needed to be handled today,they finally supposedly received my fax and now will hand it over to another dept which supposedly has no direct number I can call and speak with anyone or they can not connect me to it. The extra 225 has been debited out of my account since 6/30/14. I hope I can help another merchant from being ROBBED by Pivotal and their SCAM tactics,DO NOT EVER BUY ANY TERMINALS OR SUPPLIES FROM THIS COMPANY AND DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR BUSINESS CHECK OR LET THEM HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT

  • Joe Saporito

    Pivotal is absolutely the worst payment provider that I have ever seen. No returned calls…Holding of funds for at least 12 days now. Foreign reps in customer service and nobody knows how to get anything done. Once they release my money I will cancel them or atleast install a much better reviewed company and not use them but ride out my contract as they have hidden cancellation clauses. I wish I would have read the reviews before signing.

    • TJ Wallis

      I have had the exact same experience. This company is a nightmare. Never return calls. I have been trying to solve an ongoing problem for weeks now. Had a conversation today with one of their reps who told me I had not received a call back because there is no record of my previous calls.
      The problem is that Pivotal has processed transactions two and three times.
      When we swipe cards, we often receive a message saying the “transaction was not completed.” We called and they told us it was a problem with our phone lines. So we ran the cards a second time, and they appeared to go through.
      Today, I discovered that the cards had in fact been processed twice, when a customer came in to complain. Pivotal claims they can see that several cards were processed twice, but they refuse to reverse the charges. They tell me I have to contact the customers and get them to come to my store, so I can reverse their cards. How does that make sense? How can I track these people down? Then they tell me whenever I receive a message on my machine that says “transaction not completed,” I must phone them to see if it went through or not. So every cashier needs to stop in the middle of a sale to call pivotal, be put on hold for who knows how long, while my customers line up down the aisles. Give me a break.
      I also asked why I hadn’t seen a deposit to my account since July 2nd (I had originally assumed it was because of the long weekend in the US) – and she tells me that the fraud prevention people have put a hold on my account. But she can’t put me through to them – and she cannot provide me with a phone number to contact them. They have never called me to tell me there is a problem.
      I believe this company is stealing from my customers by processing transactions multiple times. And I have no idea how to stop it from happening.
      DO NOT SIGN UP WITH PIVOTAL PAYMENTS, OR TANGERINE – this company is dishonest. In fact, they are more than dishonest. They are despicable in their practice.

      • Joe

        After leaving many many messages and posting 8 negative reviews.we did finally receive a credit back to our bank account.Let me say we never received a call or email from anyone Should I say thanks ,after getting the run around for so many weeks,I do not think so,instead have switched providers after calling to find out how to cancel service the merchant rep actually asked how could she keep our business. AMAZING

        We DO NOT Recommend Pivotal

  • ronald

    I had a similar problem with Pivotal a few years back and I’m amazed to see that they still have those same deceptive practices. First, when you sign a contract, if you need to cancel at anytime for any reason, they will charge you your average monthly fee for the remaining of your contract. That means if you had monthly fees of 250$ and you have 24 months left on your contract, they will charge you 24 months x $250 for a total of $6,000. Most other providers will charge you a flat fee of around $400 to $500. Second, if you don’t write them at least 90 days in advance before your contract ends, they will automatically re-sign you under the same terms and lock you in for another 3 to 5 years.
    When they signed me, they told me my fees would be a certain amount per transactions, but then they added in a connectivity fee for each transactions which double the fees they were charging me per transactions. If you have any doubt, do yourself a favor and go with a reputable provider that you can trust.

    • Pivotal Payments

      Hi Ronald,

      We would like to investigate the issues you have mentioned but require additional information in order to identify the account in question. Pivotal Payments is committed to addressing any client concerns, past or present. Please contact us at [email protected] and we will research and resolve any matter that arises.

      We appreciate your feedback and hope to hear from you soon.

      Thank you.

      • ronald

        Sorry, I did a mistake, it’s not a 3 month written notice that you have to give them but a six month written notice even worse. If you don’t, they lock you in for another 5 years.
        As for the Pivotal rep that seems to pretend to be concerned for Public Relation reasons, you don’t need to identify my account as I am no longer a customer and these conditions seems to be standard in your contracts as others have mentioned. I will gladly sent a copy of the contract to anyone that wish to contact me at [email protected].

        I was lucky as I was having problem with my terminal, I read my contract and discovered all these hidden fees. But because I never had full service with them I was able to get out of my contract without paying the lofty penalty because they had no history of my average my monthly fee. But If I would have been with them for a few months and paid $300 a month in fees they would have wanted a penalty of $300 x 58 months remaining for a total of $17,400 just to cancel a merchant contract. That’s ridiculous

  • Leslie Downey

    My company’s experience as a customer of Pivotal Payments was terrible. They are the sleaziest company that I’ve ever dealt with. That’s putting it too mildly. They are thieves. It’s amazing–and a sad testament to our financial watchdog agencies–they are still allowed to operate as a business!

    While they committed several types of misconduct, the following was the most egregious:

    My company did not commit to a minimum monthly sales number in our agreement with Pivotal. (Of course, we paid the normal monthly fees to Pivotal regardless of sales.) Nevertheless, when we experienced two consecutive months of no sales, PIVOTAL SIMPLY TOOK $500 OUT OF OUR BANKING ACCOUNT! They provided no notice or justification for their action. We cancelled our agreement two weeks later.

    I demanded to several Pivotal customer service managers that Pivotal provide contractual justification–an excerpt from our contract with Pivotal–for taking $500 out of our company bank account. They promised to provide it, but never did.

    Subsequently I filed a formal complaint to the Better Business Bureau. Pivotal also refused to provide the BBB with any justification for taking the $500. BBB said there was nothing they could do and closed the case.

    I also contacted my bank, the FTC, and my County government, to no avail.

    Pivotal stole our money in late 2010, but I did not enter anything on the Web. I pursued other channels instead. Had I been aware of this website at the time, I would have submitted this comment.

    My company’s current merchant services provider has been absolutely wonderful to deal with, so I know there are honest service providers out there.

  • jay

    I have met one local sale agent she told me that pivotal payment is the best service and lowest rat. I get in to the company not even in two week i got so much issue about lost fund, lost coma ero you slice one time the machine charge customer twice i call the company every day to fix for almost a month they could not fix and the sale person came to fix for all day long he could not fix and then he gave up they can not fix the problem so i write the letter to cancel and call then to send a cancellation form the say the will email me in two hour and fax me too but i have not get it until . sine that time i changing to new service now they bill me the bill $4,500.00 for the cancelation and also they already send to the collation department you thing that the pivotol is running a fair market . when you sing in that company you never see a contract you just see only an application . do not rust me see your self all serching be for you will gave invole

    • Mrs K (aka BEE)

      I’m so sorry you’ve had so many issues. Pivotal is the epitome of an unethical company. Go directly to your bank and tell them what is happening. They will help you. With the bank’s assistance and cooperation you will be able to block &/or send back / refuse any unauthorized debits that Pivotal makes to your bank account. Make no mistake – if you don’t change bank accounts they will continue to make unauthorized debits to your current account. They will take advantage of the original authorization you signed for debiting fees from your account.

      Your bank representative should help you set up a new account number that Pivotal cannot access and will guide you through the process of moving all your business dealings to the new bank account number.

      Depending on how many other preauthorized debits you have going through your account the process can be a little time consuming but at least you will have control over your finances again. We are a mid-size business. When I changed from Pivotal they decided we owed them almost $50,000 and just took it out of our account. Were I not for the good relationship we have with our bankers, those funds would have been lost and there is no legal means of getting them back once they are in Pivotal’s hands. I had to notify them within 24 hours but they were able to get my funds back.

      There is no legal way out of the trap or to avoid paying them a cancellation fee but you should be able to negotiate a settlement for 10-15% of what they currently are asking for. I ended up paying them less than $5000 but that was a far smaller loss than our company could have sustained had I not acted quickly with the bank.

      Good luck with it all and don’t forget to continue to warn other small businesses about this scam company.

    • Pivotal Payments

      Dear Jay,

      We would like to speak with you in order to address the issues you have presented here. We are sorry to hear of the negative experience you have had and would like to find a resolution that will be acceptable to you. We are unable to identify your account with your first name alone (Jay) so please contact us as soon as possible at [email protected]

      We appreciate your feedback and value your business, always!

  • Karen

    Pivotal payments representative told me six years ago that I was not under contract, three years later , I gave them a call because I was switching to a new company, I was then told to bad, I was under contract, and I should have sent a certified letter to cancel my contract, I had the original paperwork. I had them email me what I signed, there is a 3 page addendum that they do not give you, that states you ARE IN CONTRACT ,and you have to send certified mail to cancel the contract. Do not trust this company, they have a D rating with the BBB and to many complaints to mention. BUYER BEWARE. I got stuck using them for 6 years, never again.

  • A spa salon

    We spent 3 hours on the phone & customer service download did not complete wiped out our whole system. Now asking for supervisor and they said one might get back to you are you telling us you don’t want to be cooperative & and refusing assistance! We are giving them 24-hour’s to fix our machine to take credit cards or we will find some other merchant! Looking on the web I say that I can get much better deals than they offer with free machines! I’m so over this company! Madeline

    • Industry guy

      One piece of advice Madeline, whoever you decide to go with, don’t let the “free terminal” ploy make the decision for you. As someone that’s been in the industry for almost 20 years, processors are always coming up with new things to get people to talk to them. Terminals cost money and quite often you’re still paying for that “free terminal” through higher rates or extra fees tacked on. Find a company with a LOCAL presence with a list of local merchants that can back up what they say and you should be ok. :)

    • Mrs K (aka BEE)

      Oh please, please be very careful with Pivotal. These folks are deadly. If you attempt to change providers they will help themselves to whatever cash is in your account without notice and continue to do so until you change to a new bank account number.

      I assume you’re like most businesses who are told you have “no contract” and “no cancellation fees”. Not true – they will come up with a “contract” that you’ve never seen the minute you try to cancel or start processing through another company. They will send your account to their collection department who will assess a ridiculous amount of money you “owe” them. If you don’t pay up, they will debit whatever they want from your account.

      If you are going to change to a new POS provider, change your bank account number as well BEFORE doing so. The cost of ordering new cheques is FAR less than the cost of the stress you will have trying to get back your cash &/or keep them out of your bank account after you change providers. Even if you come to an agreement with them as we did, they continue to debit various “fees” from your account long after you’ve changed providers.

      There’s no point whatsoever wasting money with a lawyer. Been there, done that!! Pivotal debited over $48,000 from my account 2 days before I had to pay the down payment on our building. Talk about stress!! They then continued to debit mysterious fees from my account for months until I finally changed account numbers. There is NO need to change banks – just the account number.

      Please find my comments below from Jan 14, 2014. My entire experience is detailed from BEE (Sept 12, 2012)

      Bee (Mrs K)

  • Elizabeth

    Pivotal is the worst company for a small business to work with. Customer service is terrible. The outside salesman who sold me on Pivotal told me there would be no contract and actually took the 2 pages out of the service agreement that discusses contracts. So, thinking I could cancel at anytime, it was awful to learn that I had a 3 year contract. There are so many fees added to statements that you have no idea what they are for. I usually had to speak to 2 or 3 customer service reps to get my questions answered. Completing the yearly compliance survey that takes forever is a joke for a small business. Half of the questions do not apply, but I was told I had to answer them anyway. I highly recommend that anyone considering going with Pivotal Payments avoids the aggravation you will have working with this company.

    • Pam

      Hello Elizabeth,
      We would like to speak with you and get more information regarding the comments you have made. We do not condone nor tolerate sales agents behaving in the manner described. We would like to investigate this further but need more information; we are unable to identify your account using your first name alone. Please contact us through client care or on any of our social network pages. Thank you.

  • jjcho

    Has anyone successfully cancelled their contract without paying the 7000 dollar cancellation fee?

    I don’t know what to do and now I am afraid that they will steal my money because i inquired about canceling my contract.

    I thought it was a 400 cancellation fee, my new processor wont pay 7000.

    I’m i am stuck between paying a 7000 or a 400 dollar fee.

    please help

    • Mrs. K

      There has been for several years, perennial discussions regarding new legislation to protect small business owners from exorbitant cancellation fees. I can’t tell you if this has happened yet or not. Your local Member of Parliament office should be able to direct you to the right person to find out. In the meantime there is a strategy to minimize financial damages you will incur. I too was told our cancellation fee would only be $400 but Pivotal actually debited over $48,000 from my account 2 days before we were to pay the down payment on our building mortgage. I almost had a heart attack. I’ve been where you are!!

      Based on our experience I’d suggest this. Follow these steps in order to protect your bank account and your sanity. I figured this out through a difficult experience with the assistance of my bankers. This will allow you to retain personal control of company finances and disable Pivotal’s ability to make unauthorized debits. Remember they are a service provider only. They do not have “god-given” right to do whatever they want with your finances.

      1. Do not advise Pivotal you are cancelling until you are fully prepared and have completed these steps.

      1. If you don’t already have a good relationship with the head of customer service at your bank, get to know them today. Ask for a meeting to tell them exactly what is happening. If it helps, direct them to this website so they can learn for themselves the tactics that Pivotal employs and be more willing, dare I say eager, to assist you in transition to a new bank account number to avoid frivolous or possible credit damaging access to your finances. Scotiabank customer service supervisory staff and my account manager all went out of their way to help.

      2. If you don’t already do your business banking on-line, start doing so today. On-line banking allows you to know exactly what is happening in your bank account at every moment. By knowing immediately the day Pivotal debited my account I only had to contact my branch who returned/refused the debit to my account just like they would if I had written a postdated cheque that had been cashed early. They sent it back “arrangements not made” which within 24 hours put the money back into my account with no additional cost to our company.

      3. In order to retain control of your finances, you need a brand new bank account already set up, ready to go with new cheques printed for supplier payments, bill payments. The cost and hassle of opening this new account FAR outweigh the potential loss you may incur if Pivotal continues to have full access to your finances. Once the account is set up and you have decided on a switch-over date – say beginning of next month, contact and change your arrangements with any other pre-authorized debits that go through every month like insurance installments, bank loans, utility company, etc. I was reluctant to go through all the hassle to do this which caused much additional stress because Pivotal continued to make many, many unauthorized debits to my account. It’s not worth the hassle not to change your account number.

      4. Now is the time to make new arrangements with your new POS service provider – there are providers out there that don’t have damaging cancellation penalties. Finalize a switchover date with the new provider – that matches the arrangements you’ve made with your pre-authorized debit folks so there’s no chance a pre-auth’d payment will not be covered.

      5. Once your day-end settlement deposits are already being deposited to the new account by the new POS service provider, you are ready to formally advise Pivotal that you are cancelling.

      5. Pivotal has computer feedback at their location which alerts them to the fact that day-end settlements are no longer being processed thru their systems and are aware that you’re likely making a change. By the time I called to inform them, my account “couldn’t be found” and I ended up on hold forever….which I think translated into them looking up my account, transferring my call to a “high pressure collections person” who was ready to demand the ridiculous amount they figured I owed them. These people are not omnipotent. You do not have to cave to their demands.

      6. Now you are in a position of power where you have the time and ability to negotiate a settlement with Pivotal. Our settlement cost us less than 10% of the original amount.

      7. My biggest mistake was not following the above steps in proper order; I didn’t have the new bank account set up although I did have our funds being handled by a new POS provider. By informing Pivotal I was cancelling prior to having the new account set up, it left our bank account fully exposed and allowed them access to the $48,000. I could have avoided an enormous amount of stress by following these steps.

      You work hard for your money. Don’t ever lose sight of the fact that it’s your money and that you are fully within your rights as a consumer to negotiate a settlement you can live with. This is why they don’t provide you with a written contract – so they can re-write the details in their own mind at any time. Good luck with your change.

      • Steven Whyte

        The page you suggested does not exist. To my knowledge, there is no pending class action suit against Pivotal. I looked up pending class action lawsuits and the only thing I found was a law group soliciting clients not only for this but for a half dozen other companies.

    • Ashley

      Did you have your hard earned money held for weeks not deposited into your bank account? Did checks to your suppliers bounce because Pivotal Payments sat on your money collecting interest while your business started to crumble? All consuming nightmare while you had to run your business with a smile? THEN…When you tried to end the nightmare by terminating Pivotal Payments rights to your bank account did they steal THOUSANDS out of your bank account 5 -6 months later? Me too. That’s their MO. See Scam.com, ripoffreport.com, Pivotalsucks.com and see how many others this has happened to.

      1) Have your bank reverse the charges immediately. Time is of the essence. It is a Regulation E issue and an Unauthorized ACH transaction. Pivotal Payments waits along time (5-6 months to withdraw the money when your guard is down.)

      2) File a complaint to Delaware Secretary of State where they are Incorporated. Their 2 ID’s are 3622360 and 3945780. (Please include these numbers with your complaint.)

      3) File a complaint with your states Attorney Generals office Consumer Affairs Division. Make sure you put your Merchant Account Number on the complaint. They have 15 days to respond.

      A new lawsuit has been filed. Please see businessandelectionlaw.com, and select the blog. It is not a class action suit but Mr. Dutta will win and it will be easier for all of us thereafter and perhaps the judge will warrant a class action suit.

      Sincerely,

      A North Carolina small business owner FIGHTING BACK.

      Tags: pivotal payment scams, pivotal payments, pivotal payments lawsuit

      COMMENTS
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      Pivotal Payments, pivotal payments lawsuit, pivotal payments scams

  • KB

    This company “Pivotal” would better be out of business since they have been very bad reputation and kept ripping off by hidden charges and automatically renew the contract as you didn’t cancel your contract with in sixty (60) notices and there was a hug penalty charges for breaking a contract. I’m surprised that this company is still in business…I would strongly NOT recommend anyone to this company “Pivotal”

  • gary murphy

    terrible customer relations noticed on some of my checking acct statements money taken out by pivotal not on their statements called their cust relations spent 3 hrs (got cut off 3 times) on hold much of the time they could not explain an mount deducted of 82.50 this has been questioned back to sept plus other charges ps ive been A CUTOMER FOR AT LEAST 6 YRS how much other money not acted for?

    • Deb

      I wish I would have seen all these complaints before we took on Pivotal Payments. When you phone there you get a run around every time. Honestly I think they leave you on hold to see if you will hang up and if you don’t hang up they will answer in about 10 minutes, tell you they need more info and then put you back on hold again. They have no intention of supplying customer satisfaction or improving their reputation. Last time I called I got some stupid story that they needed to take up to 72 hours to verify Debit payments….BS and of course banks don’t work on weekends so funds can’t go in. I understand and have always understood that it might take a few days longer for Mastercard, Visa etc to be credited to the account but the company we dealt with a few years ago had all Debits into the account within 24 hours at the longest and often in the account by closing time of the same day. We are a small business we cannot afford for a company to hold funds that are rightly ours . I would like to ask Pivotal where the money sits in limbo because it immediately comes off of the funds the customer has available on his credit card or the amount he has in his banking account.

  • Cheryl Blair

    My advice is to BEWARE of dealing with Pivotal Payments. They lead me to believe I would pay less than the provider I used but I ended up paying $2000 / month more. Statements are also difficult to read.
    When I cancelled they took $17,000.00 right out of my bank account as a penalty.
    I will be seeking legal recourse.

  • Tama

    This company is truly awful. I don’t know what I was thinking the day I signed on with them. From the get go it has been one hassle after another: broken promises, questionable non-compliance fees, wrong equipment and now the loss of a sale for failure to perform under the terms of the contract I signed with them. I never had any issues with my former processing company, but was lured to Pivotal by their promises of lower rates. I would say “you get what you pay for,” but my bookkeeper now informs me that I am actually paying more through using Pivotal than I was before. I was told by my account manager that signed me up that he would return in a few months and show me all the money I had saved by using Pivotal. Needless to say, that never happened. I also had it written into the contract that I was to accept AMEX cards, however, when I went to run an AMEX card for a sale, it would not go through. I spent a huge chunk of time on the phone with their “customer service” department and their technical support to try and get the problem corrected. It still has not been corrected and I am now in the awkward and embarrassing position of having to call my client to get a different card in order to process the sale. This company does not care about you or your business and it is obvious after numerous calls to customer service that the general atmosphere around the place is one bordering on contempt for the clients who use their services. Shameful really that companies like this are allowed to operate with seemingly no oversight or boundaries.

  • Stacy

    Fraudulent, unethical how they treat a client who has used there services for six years. Don’t try to cancel they will charge you ridiculous fees for there losses. Ha Do not use Pivotal look to any other company for credit card processing.

  • James Morris

    Company really is one that is bad. The sales man that came to my office really didnt know what he was doing. He told me that I would be only charged for certain thing and I didnt trust him so I got it in writting and voice recorded. He
    said I wouldnt be charged for the first month because he brung us the wrong machine 1 time and had to reorder it because it wasnt wireless. Then when he was suppose to bring it back he come up with another excuse why he didnt have it. It took almost 2 1/2 weeks to get the machine and all after he told me it would be here. Then I got a bill from them for over 300.00 which I wasnt suppose to get any at all. I called and he said it will take us 30 days to get it all straighten out. Then when my bank statement was checked which was about 20 days, they had taken and put my account on hold because the sales man didnt fill out the contract right. When confronted with it they said we called you and wanted you to sent in some statements because you had to much money from credit cards come thru in a short amount of time, There sales man is the one that looked at the statement while filling out the contract. They held almost 15,000.00 to 20,000.00 of our credit card money back.. Today 8/15/13 I called there main company and was told they were still waiting on the application from the sales man to be sent. I called them and they said that the company was holding the funds because I haddnt sent them statements from my last merchant holder. They said they would correct that and my funds would be released today, we will see. The funny thing is they had no problem pulling almost 2400.00 out of my account. Be very careful using this company. I dont think they are a worthy company to do business with at all.

    • James Morris

      I finally got a contract after trying for over 3 weeks to get and come to find out it had been altered to go with what they really wanted, the only thing is I have a recording of the sales man and what I was to be charged to prove it had been changed. Then today I found out there was a second contracted signed, by me so to say which I then questioned them hard about it and told them I wanted a copy because I haddnt signed any other contract. They sent it to me and come to find out they changed the contract on it also. I really cant believe they thought they could get away with this. be very careful with this company. I was told they would let me out of the lease with credit card company but not with the lease on the machine. I told them I wouldnt deal with that unless they paid the money they had taken out of our account and payoff the other credit card company they had agreed to take care of and close. Now I am waiting.

      James Morris
      [Contact Information Redacted]

  • Raymond Hough

    One of Pivotal’s “sales agents” convinced us that our prior company was “ripping us off” and that we were due a rebate of over $1,000. She also indicated that she was a direct representative of MasterCard/Visa and would be our personal representative through the whole process of getting us a credit card processing system. She said we would not have a contract and that it would be “month-to-month” where we could cancel at any time (not true). She also told us that the equipment we were using was not secure and that we need to get secure equipment. She advised that if we ever cancelled our account that they would purchase back our lease for the equipment from the leasing company (again not true). When we tried to cancel, they wanted to charge us for the balance of the contract. They finally did cancel us with no charge but refused to honor the buy back of the equipment lease. They are using fraudulent tactics and lying sales personnel to con people into signing on with their company. I am seriously considering filing complaints with MasterCard, Visa, our State Banking Commission and the Federal Banking Commission. They need to be stopped before they cause more problems in the credit card industry.

    • Pam

      Hello Mr. Hough,

      We would like to speak with you and get more information regarding the comments you have made. We do not condone or tolerate sales agents behaving in the manner described. Please contact us at 1-800 795-6899 or via email [email protected]

      Thank you.

      • Jarrod

        Yeah right, you don’t condone or tolerate this kind of behavior??? I think they are trained to do this just so they can take advantage of people, like they are trying to do to me right now! when I signed up with A.N.P. in St. Louis I was given a three page ” Merchant Application And Agreement ” now they are feeding me a line of bull and took $3000.00 right out of my acct. and told me they canceled my contract and i now own two processing machines when i only have one! There is laws against deceptive practices and I will pursue any and all avenues to solve this. I have been a good customer and had not one chargeback ever. if they don’t want my business they could just say that, and i would give them the cancel fee if they must even though my three page ” AGREEMENT” says nothing about any cancel fee. They purchased A.N.P. in St. Louis and are looking for a quick buck! well I think its time for the BUCK to stop.

    • Karissa Lukenbill

      Yes they did the same to us. Rep. came out and we asked him many questions, when he left we thought what a great deal. Then we started getting billed for things he said were free, called to cancel (mind you it only took 2 weeks to know we were scammed) they wanted full contract paid. I asked to speak to the “liar” that told us we were not on contract but a trial period and they said he is no longer with the company. This was all 2 months ago and just now received an address to mail the unit back to. Of course they told me to have it ready and someone would pick it up, but that never happened I’m mailing it tomorrow and it WILL have to be signed for as proof. I just don’t trust them at all.

    • Ashley

      Having the same issue and I am not taking it! The over whelming amount of information I have found about these people is alarming ! Fraudulent tactics.. We should all file complaints with MasterCard, Visa, State banking commission and Federal Banking commission as well as the BBB. This has to be stopped. leased with them last November with a promise of a three month grace period for him to win my business, if he didn’t save us Money we can cancel service and send everything back with no cost to us ! Lie I called after the first month because they were not saving us money and all these hidden dee and charges were being charged . I called so. Many times and couldn’t get a answer from my sales rep or the local branch and the NY location gives u a run around . Tried to cancel and they are trying to charge me 600 per location! Tomorrow I will be on the phone to the commission and MasterCard and visa

  • Linda

    I joined in Jan 2013 “a month to month” contract. Called them in April to cancel due to very high fees for all different cards [never the same]. I was told by a gentlemen thats all i had to do and he would log my account stating I cancel and wish to have the eq. picked up. Equipment disconnected and boxed up. In May i had a fee taken from my account, called and was told they would research and get back to me. June another debit taken. Have sent every day calling. Was told I had to write a cancellation letter and return equipment before account closed! I faxed letter to where they said. I ask for confirmation of receipt from them [no confirmation] Have called daily trying to get a hold of supervisor. She has been sick for 2 weeks now. Finally got an address to return equipment. Got in touch with salesman….he assured me he will follow up to be sure cancelled. We will see….

  • Terri Dennis

    This is the worst company I’ve ever dealt with. No customer service what so ever! No desire to even try. You get passed around from person to person then given different numbers to call. No one ever calls back.
    “Fraudulent, unethical and surprisingly successful for this business to still be in business given their mishandling of their clients. I hope someone gets this information together to expose this company on a broader scale.” Well said.
    There was no mention of any cancellation fees in our agreement that was through the NJBIA

  • T Hans

    They lied through the entire process of setting up this thing. Had a problem where were not paid for 3 weeks. Promised next day and another day 3 weeks before we got our money and then they charged us a service fee because THEY could not transfer the money. We paid for their problems. This is how it has been for 4 years. Term is up in JULY 2013. My fee on Equipment has gone from $44.99 a month to some months they take out 4 times that. Double dip make up fees I have never heard of or are in the contract. When I told them I do not want to renew they said I have a 5 year lease and my contract say 48 months. They told me they have the right to change the term without notice. Sure right Contract is a contract. More lies. I am biting my time and filing a Statement of claim in Supreme court against them back tracking 4 years for all the extra fees that have been stolen from my bank account, and that not in the contract.Like my lease is $44.99 they take $59 and some times extra Fees $35 twice 7 days apart called extra equipment fee. Whatever that is. They are Cheaters crocks liers and thief’s
    Don’;t EVER deal with this company

    • Ronald

      Make sure you send them a written notice at least 90 days before your contract ends that you don’t want to renew your contract. If you don’t they will automatically renew for another 5 years

  • Melissa Goodman

    I went to sign up with Pivotal Payments and even before I was a customer I was treated badly. The salesmen was arrogant, did not tell me everything that was required from me up front and continually told me that he was giving me good customer service (should that not be determined by the customer). After being dragged in circles I went to call a manager and spent two days on the phone being transferred from one person to another, none of which where in a management position. No one would even give me their name or contact number. I still have not gotten a manager. I am happy my application had not gone through, if I really had a problem I do not see them helping me. Do not go with Pivotal.

  • Debbie

    I made the mistake of signing with Charge National/Pivotal Payments June 2012. I was surprised by how quickly I received the wireless unit. Although I was promised that I would have a connection anywhere in Canada, this was not the case and I could not use it at most of my market locations. When I was able to use it, the fees were in excess of my sales. Then I had $149 taken out of my account which overdrew my account. Combined with bank nsf fees and the continuous fees from THREE separate companies, my bank account is in arrears. I have not had any statements from any of these companies explaining the fees. I did get a call from First Data asking why they cannot withdraw from my account for the lease payment. When I told them that Pivotal and Merchant Services were charging me too much they suggested that I call Pivotal. I have not had any response from either Pivotal or Charge National.

    I have just received a collection notice today on behalf of First Data stating that I have 10 days to pay the lease agreement of $1,967.00. I still have the Hypercom unit and would like to send it back but I don’t know where to send it.

    Any suggestions?

  • J Liu

    We are customer with Pivotal Payment for at least four years until Jan 2013, when i noticed ever-increasing fee debit from our Bank account. Contacted our bank, but bank later advised that they could not help.

    For Nov 2012 alone, our card transaction is Zero, but Pivotal Payment added fee is nearly $ 160. I finally got hold of the rep at Pivotal Payment, they were not helpful, so we cancelled the account Jan 2013. When we cancelled the account, the rep told me that there is earlier Termination fee $650. I told them there nobody told us there is an earlier termination either verbal or in writing. I sent them two emails and left two messages from mid Jan, nobody from Pivotal Payment returned my email or calls. They debited the $650 from our bank account on Jan/31 without any authorization or approval… To put it simply, this is TERRIBLE company!

    I won’t let them take the money and run away easily! I am and will fight back!!

  • Rick M

    Recently had the same things happen to me. When I signed up was told no penalty for terminating. When we did switch had unauthorized debit from bank account. Company presented me with a document stating termination agreement with forged initials. I never saw this paper. I just recieved a phone call from Pivotal today asking how they can remedy the complain to BBB. Patrick B stated that my sales rep told me about this . Gary A is a snake oil salesman., never returned my phone calss prior to switching to new company.Pat A said if we return to them they would return the money. I state not only will I not return to them but would pursue legal action against Pivotal. Is anyone starting a class action suit. I would like any info pertaining to this. Dated 3-6-13

  • Furious

    I signed up with Pivotal 3 years ago through an independent agent who has now disappeared. I contacted her to sign up with Money Tree but she switched me to Pivotal, ostensibly because of better rates. (Higher commission for her is more like it.) My first requirement on finding a processor was that there was to be no contract. The agent said specifically there was no contract with Pivotal. I signed a Merchant Application and Agreement which was 3 pages long and had nothing anywhere about termination. In trying to terminate my account I’ve discovered there really was a contract, the agent’s lies are of no account, and I’m stuck with another 3 year contract term because I didn’t comply with the non-renewal requirements that I didn’t know existed. I still have no copy of the contract.

    Having read all the complaints about Pivotal I need information from others who have gone through this before. I am going to close my checking account so they can’t access it unexpectedly. I do owe them for this month’s fees and will certainly pay them. However, I am loathe to pay their $650 termination fee which is based on a fraudulent transaction. Question – if I don’t pay the $650, what can they do to me other than hound me with collection calls? If I do pay it will they then come up with other fees they say I owe? I have told them to keep my account open with them and I will continue to use it but after reading about someone else doing that who then had her account cancelled without warning and was charged the termination fee I’m afraid to do even that. This looks like a catch-22 mess there’s no way out of. Knowing I don’t have a copy of the contract, they can say and do anything they want. Is it best to just pay the $650 and chalk it up to experience?

    What’s the best course of action?

    • Mak

      I went thru a similar situation where they deducted $4000 from our account without notice because I cancelled them for failing to make a couple deposits into our account. I was able to reverse the fee. My advice is change your acct. numbers and get away from them – and stay away.

        • doug elkins

          I am a pivotal payments victim also . In Nov.2012 they tried to withdraw $5,900.00 from my account , luckily I realized the next day and had my bank do a chargeback. I then audited all my transactions and realizedthey had been skimming my account for “fees” every month in amounts up to $169.00. I am still fighting for the return of the stolen funds. TOTAL SCAM ARTISTS STAY AWAY

    • James Morris

      I finally got a contract after trying for over 3 weeks to get and come to find out it had been altered to go with what they really wanted, the only thing is I have a recording of the sales man and what I was to be charged to prove it had been changed. Then today I found out there was a second contracted signed, by me so to say which I then questioned them hard about it and told them I wanted a copy because I haddnt signed any other contract. They sent it to me and come to find out they changed the contract on it also. I really cant believe they thought they could get away with this. be very careful with this company. I was told they would let me out of the lease with credit card company but not with the lease on the machine. I told them I wouldnt deal with that unless they paid the money they had taken out of our account and payoff the other credit card company they had agreed to take care of and close. Now I am waiting.

  • Pissed O. Customer

    OK, WTF is up with the new “VISA NPF” fees that started showing up a couple of months ago?!!? I called, and was told this is a “Visa Network Participation Fee”, the money does not go to Pivotal. BS!!!! I have talked with other processors, and they say this is BS, no one else charges it. Seems to be a random amount per month. Can’t wait to be done with these jokers.

  • Mike

    I used to work with Pivotal, and know first hand their deceit and fraud. I have several customers whom had deductions for no reason, and contracts altered. I have 2 people who actually have copies of forged signatures after they submitted their paperwork? They were submitted by a sub-ISO known as Canadian Payment Services, from New York. Most of CPS” employees in Canada have been swindled…I know first hand. With a New York HO it is almost impossible to sue for damages. Beware and fill in all the blanks, and keep a copy.

    MS

    • Furious

      Mike -since you used to work at Pivotal, perhaps you can address this issue. There’s a lengthy and very scary section in the contract about their right to set up a Chargeback Reserve Account if they or the merchant terminate the account (or for any other reason they come up with). It is apparently based on their assessment of risk, chargeback history, etc., but it’s open-ended and doesn’t specify how they’ll determine the amount they’ll require for funding. They will then hold the funds for 180 days “and a reasonable period thereafter during which Cardholder disputes may remain valid under applicable Card Association rules.” Since cardholders have 60 days to dispute a transaction and the merchant’s account has been terminated (therefore processing no further charges), this time period is excessive. The merchant is in a no-win situation – try to terminate for any reason (move to a reputable provider with much better terms, liquidate business, etc.) and risk having them demand a reserve account in whatever amount they wish to hold for however long they wish. The question is how likely are they to do this to a merchant who has never had a chargeback in 3.5 years with them and has never done anything to raise a red flag? Is it best to wait until at least 75 days after the last charge processed before trying to terminate? This will cause an additional $127 in monthly fees just to try to avoid having to fund a reserve account and then possibly have them demand a one anyway). What’s your opinion on all this?

  • Bee

    My advice?? If you get into a disagreement of ANY kind with this company, immediately inform your bank fully of the situation and history, including including sending them to this site to see what type of company theya re dealing with. Your bank is just as anxious as you are to take unscrupulous companies out of the financial system as well. You just need to either go to your branch and insist on speaking to the customer service manager, or call and do the same.

    My bank made an arrangement with me that each day I monitor on-line all account activity prior to 10:00 a.m. If there are ANY debits or fees which I don’t agree with, I just call the bank customer service supervisor and the charge is refused and sent back.

    I too was given verbal assurance the cancellation fee was “only $400”. When promised discount rates lower failed to materialize and additional monthly fees were charged other than what was discussed by the sales person, we began to seek another provider – after all the “reasonable” cancellation fee would be no issue.

    After 19 months I found another provider and did the switch. When I called to inform Pivotal that we were cancelling, no one at their office could find our account – not by name, phone or Merchant ID. After several minutes of confusion I was told my account had been located and I was being transferred to their “Customer Loyalty Department” where I was given to Devin who immediately informed me that I owed their company in excess of $44,000.

    I called requesting copies of my signed &/or initialled copy of their agreement, but had no response at all.

    The minute you unplug their machine there is feedback through the system, making them aware. They immediately either flagged our account or removed all contact and mechant ID info from their “normal” system leaving us to deal with Devin, a smooth talking cog in this seemingly unscrupulous machinery. I worked in bank, consumer and corporate credit many years before we purchased our own business and know exactly how unscrupulous some “collectors” can be.

    We spoke to our lawyer who could offer little assistance. The “terms and conditions” are stated on-line which seems to be a scam as that on-line “contract” can be changed at any time through any whim of Pivotal Payments.

    We are an ethical company and so I lifted the stop payments we had in place to ensure that Pivotal could take their final monthly fees, which they did.

    This morning they debited our account their exorbitant fee, overdrawing my account. Fortunately my bank has been aware of the situation since day one and is returning the item as “no arrangements made”. I now am re-placing stop payments on not only Pivotal Payments Corp but the many other names which they are associated with including Axxess Payments, Mechant Services, Tangerine Payment Solutions, Charge National, Cardex, Cardex Corporation, PPG and Pivotal Payments Gateway. Who knows how many other entities they have in place to try to fool consumers who do not check their bank on-line every day

    I now have no choice but to close my bank account, spending hours and hours contacting those who hold pre-authorized debit instructions.

    Never NEVER deal with this company. IF THERE IS A CLASS ACTION SUIT WE WANT TO BE PART OF IT.

    • Hazel Platon

      Hi Bee,

      I am in the same scenario with Pivotal. They insisted on having a 3 year contract and are not able to supply me with signed/acknowledged documentation about a termination fee of a whopping $3000.00. And since I have been with them for a year they reduced it to $1900!!! The next thing I know my account was debited with $189 first week of the month for annual fee and PCI compliance despite my last transaction to them was Oct. 2013 as I have switched merchant processor and have spoken to them on Dec. 2013 indicating that I have switched company already. Then, they came up with the 3 year contract and termination fee. I found a class action lawsuit against them. Here is the link.

      https://www.chimicles.com/?s=pivotal+payment

      • Mrs. K

        Hi Hazel. Please read my reply to JJCHO at the top of all the comments, you’ll see there are ways to circumvent these people at minimal cost to the business owner. whether you’re in the US or Canada, a close relationship with your bank is one of the most valuable assets any small business can have.

        Once my bank was aware of the fraudulent activity on my account, I had only to call the customer service manager of my branch (on the direct line they were happy to provide me). You check your bank account every day on-line first thing in the morning. If you see any unathorized charges, your bank will refuse them. The onus is on you to do your due diligence every morning that ensures retaining control of your funds.

        Of course after a day or two at most, both the bank and you lose “recourse” to refuse the charges leaving you to then fight with Pivotal directly which is an endless abyss.

        Good luck with it all. We are in Canada and I highly doubt we’d be able to join a US based class action.

  • Zack

    Our Company was using Pivotal and after reviewing the processing fees they were charging us double the amount of what we agreed on. We decided to no longer use Pivotal and on August 2nd 2012 they decided to take out $7100.11 out of our checking account with out any notification. On the agreement that we signed with the Company it stated that at anytime we wanted to cancel the agreement it would only be a cost of $400.00. We contacted the company and they stated that we would need to speak with our Sales Consultant who was Stephen Sorenson. We contacted Stephen and he come into our office on August 16th and stated that he would have the money refunded back to our checking account. It is now September the 6th and we have not been able to get in contact with anyone at this company concerning our Money. I would not suggest anyone using this Company for anything what they put on the contract is not true. If anyone is in Charlotte North Carolina and the Sales Consultant Stephen Sorenson comes to you wanting you to sign a Contract with him do not do it you will regret it. This Company is shady and should be closed down. I would never recommend them to anyone for anything. I will be contacting everyone possible to make sure there is an investigation and they are closed down and I hope that everyone on here that has left a message will do the same.

  • Connie Paris

    I started a business in October 2011 and set up a virtual terminal with Pivital (no equipment) At first I was charged $14 a month whether I ran any cards through or not. Soon after, I had health problems and could not run the business. My monthly service charge then went to $29. They charged me for features that I didnt even have ,and every time I called (once a month) I was told that these charges would not appear on my next statement. I kept the account opened because I didnt have $500 for the cancellation fee, but one day I got a notice from my bank of a $500 over draft and a $34 over draft fee. Pivital closed my account and took the money without my permission! The bank is fighting this unauthorized draft for me.

  • Slick

    DO NOT SIGN WITH THESE CRIMINALS, THEY WILL ROB YOU!!! At the very moment you even mention another provider, they will close your account and slap you with a hefty cancellation fee($500+). Ask me I know. They are all fine and dandy until the exit. They are the most un-friendly, non-bussiness like people I have ever dealt with. Some more kind of Canadians. NEVER EVER SIGN A CONTRACT WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!

  • David

    We have only been with Pivotal for under a month. Their customer relations stink. The equipment is old and every day we have issues with “failed transactions” showing up on the pin pad. This results in double billing to the customer. We run over 500 customers daily. The system is far slower than Moneris or Global. From a bookkeeping perspective the system they use is not consistent with normal accounting. The settlement print outs at our business show M/C and Visa separately. They add the two cards together on their statement and then subtract the service charges. That leaves the merchant one giant problem sorting out what belongs where. I am still reeling from how they approached us. My partner said they must have called him 50 times at least over the past six months. He sent them on to me. We are still not sure if they referred to themselves as Moneris but say they have taped conversation of myself. I would love to hear that in court. The only good part of our short experience has been the people who have to fix the daily telephone calls for technical support. I would strongly urge everyone to stay clear of these people and their ugly threats to see me in court. Bottom line……sign nothing. Once you are hooked, your calls to the numbers they give you all go to voice mail.

    • kendrick

      do yourself a favor and pick another provider. I went back with moneris with better rates the second time around. Setup a new bank account for this new proivder. Then when your provider is all up and running, update your account with any company’s that you have on Pre-Authorised debit. Afterwards, unplug the pivotal machines and send them back, and close your old bank account. They will not have anymore access to your hard earned money.

    • Ania

      President of Axxess Payment, Mr. Maurice Verrelli was convicted of telemarketing fraud in US.
      According to web: Credit Mart Financial Strategies INC it was in 1999 in Washington.
      So now we know with whom we dealing with.

  • Michael

    Any one have a story how to terminate the contract with Pivotal without the penalty of liquidation damage. I’ve just received the statement for April 2012. They put a NEW CHARGE on me called SERVICE CONTRACT FEE, $59.00. When they said they would lower my discount rate and asked me sign the forms, I didn’t realize they actually set up a nightmare game for me. They told me I have to pay more than $5000 to terminate the contract since the forms I signed was a new application for 5 years. I asked them to show me which clause in the forms indicates it is a 5 years terms. They said it is another 5 years terms.

    I read all the reviews here but didn’t find a happy ending case. Hopefully someone read my story and tell me how to do that.

    • Fanita

      I’ts been 3 wks since one of our customers claimed to have better rates on merchant services, he went over the details and seemed very good for there was one major problem I did not want and that was a contract or lease. He said there is no contract or lease, although you do need to sign a approval application to see if you would be qualified first. Little did i know it was the actual contract for a 48 month lease and 3 yr contract with Pivotal, although its been three weeks, I am told there is not cancellation period, there is no way out. Pivotal said “we don’t recommend you cancel it will not be smart.

      Anyone know what to do?

  • amber

    So i’ve been with this joke of a company for 2 months now and I called to inquire about cancellation. They are asking for $650 because I am doing less than 10,000 a month in card transactions.

    How the hell they came up with that number? I cannot really afford to pay that. can i just mail them back the machines and refuse to pay and ignore them?

    I was also advised to close my bank account number and reopen to block off their access

    • Kelly

      Good luck. I asked my bank about changing accounts and she said that they can’t specificly block one account. She said they can come under my account using another name. So good luck because I can’t figure away to get out with them totally screwing me. And I don’t do anywhere near $10,000 a month in my small business. They took more out of my account last month for ‘fees’, I am hoping to get my statement in the next couple of days because by my last months sales they took out way more then the should:{
      I pray that some of us small businesses can see some kind of relief. Or we all pool together to get them shut down. NOne of the other small businesses I’ve spoke with have not had to deal with any of the fees, PCI crap and $99 annual fees like me.

        • Kelly

          So I was on Facebook tonight and I see that they have a FACEBOOK page, yikes. Not to many LIKES—–gee I wonder why.
          I talked to a lawyer friend today and she said yes it would be better for several of us to go with a class action suit. However, she also said go to BBB too.
          When I read my statement last month my hubby and I calculated they took 6% of my sales last month in fees:{
          about changing account, yeah I think you can. I guess let me know how that works for you.

        • Jeannette

          OMG!! I lost so much money on the weekend as the terminal did not work.. So frustrating!!! I called technical support and no luck in helping and told them to get a supervisor to call me today and no call back and also wrote a letter to the person that signed me up and no response either.. Whats funny is that when they want your business they call you back right away and if its there fault they dont call back!! I closed my acct today Thank god!! Please anyone with issues “CLOSE YOUR ACCT!! Screw them!! Now this scares me about getting another machine from another company.
          PIVOTAL PAYMENT is nothing but crooks!!

    • Michael

      after I signed the paper forms they sent me to lower my rate, they told me it’s a new application for anther 5 year terms. The cost to cancel the contract, they wanted me to pay more than $5000. is it crasy.

      • Olivia

        I’m still in shocked after being informed that Pivotal will charge me over $4000.00 for “liquidation damages!
        I feel dumb for trusting the agent I’ve signed up with since 2008 with “Low fee, NO CONTRACT, free equipments”.
        I’m still waiting for the agent’s response.
        I guess the first thing I should do now is to cancel my bank account.!?!

        • CLM

          Yes, Cancel your bank account immediately. Specifically block Pivotal from making any transactions even on your new account and most of all DO NOT LET THEM INTIMIDATE YOU. Log every interaction you have with them. Good luck.

    • peter vu

      I just talked to pivotal hour ago, and my sale was 14k/month, over 10k/month. Pivotal told me the cancellation is $ 650.00 base on my sales….Here is the point, your sale is under 10k/month,and my is over 10k/month, both cancellation are $650.

  • Tadd

    This company will call up businesses and say they are Visa,MasterCard But they are not. The way I see it they are Full of LIES.. If you don’t have the ethics to tell people the truth why would a business do business with people that can not even be honest on the phone..
    I don’t lie why should they..Why? Because it is the only way they can get your business. JUST STOP ACTING LIKE NOBODY HAS A CLUE>>>>>

  • Colby Sew & Vac,LLC

    I began with Pivotal Payments in Jan. 2011 with a specific rate quote and a no contract deal. I wanted to read
    the paperwork they sent me and their Salesman Leon Solomon said he would go over the rest of it with me. He said he needed the signed paperwork. So we did and I again said to him: You are telling me the truth that I am not under contract. He said “there is no contract. Then in Febr. 2012 I wanted to cancel my processing with them because I went to Point of Sale in January and initually did not do credit card processing and found it
    would be much easier if I did use our Point of Sale Card Processor. So I did. One thing I didn’t like about Pivotal Payments is they charged me a $99.00 PCI Compliance fee in November 2011 and they were also charging me a 6.00 monthly fee on top of it. When I called to cancel my service, they informed me I was in breach of contract and so I asked the gentleman where it was at and he told me where to go and find it and that
    is the one page I and Leon didn’t go over because there were no points that needed addressed on that page. So they hit me with a 650.00 penalty fee and faxed me papers to close my account and they weren’t even my paper which I actually just noticed today when I called and asked why I was still being charged monthly charges when I already faxed my account closing papers back to them. They said they never received them. Then I when they called back I told them that I didn’t have papers for my account but for another person’s account. He
    informed me that they had also gotten a call from that other person also today. Then went on to tell me that he
    had to check and see if I received my papers too because his computer showed they were faxed to me. I told him it was obvious that I didn’t get my papers otherwise how would I know the other persons name and company name and terminal number. He said he didn’t disagree that I received their papers but I could have received theirs along with mine and he would call me back. He did call back and said that I didn’t receive my papers and he would fax them over. I still have not received them after turning on my fax machine.

    • Another victim

      I too am another victim of the scams of pivotal. I sent an email to 60 minutes asking them to investigate this company. I urge everyone here to do the same. Hopefully they will expose the terrible business practices of pivotal and with enough exposure get them shut down.

  • Birgit Antos

    Pivotal Payments is the worst bankard processing company that we have ever dealt with in 89 years of business and they do not adhere to their own contract rules. We have tried to break our contract with them twice. The first time they took $8000.00 out of our bank account without permission and held us for ransom to continue our contract. After three more horrible years, we terminated our contract and had to change bank accounts to keep them from doing this again. They are still trying to get another $8000.00 from us even though we have all the certified paperwork of termination. They are very disreputable. Birgit Antos, Bookkeeper

  • Kelly

    OK, so I’ve dealt with these idiots for 3 years and I’m about to close my business in July because of high fees, PCI fees, terminal fees, yearly $99 fee, etc. I am so sad to see how they are ripping all of us off on here. So My question is how can we work together?
    There has to be some way for all of us to get something done. I just received my last months print out this week and found that ‘more fees’ will start to come out April 1. At this rate, they’ve made more money from me than I make. I cringe now when a customer wants to use a credit card or debit card.

    ANY suggestions? I to have contacted a lawyer and yes got no where. I hate to say I’m glad someone else knows my pain. Because I thought I was the only one that has this horrible company.

    • Cynthia

      I have tried to get a group of us together to start legal action against Pivotal and even have gone as far as contacting class action attorneys. The attorney’s really did not want anything to do with it. No one has the time to do the dirty work it takes to keep on task since we are all small business people who are just trying to make ends meet….HOWEVER:

      The CBC has got wind of this company and it’s unethical business practices are they are planning an expose’ on Canadian television. The person who is helping with the investigation is Holly Moore. She can be contacted right through the CBC web-site.

      I talked to her in person last week and they are going full steam ahead on this project. NOW is the time for a class action!

      • Dave

        I agree that a class action suit seems like an appropriate action. Pivotal is a company entirely based on scamming the customer from what I can tell. Pivotal lured us in with promises of low rates, but several months after we signed on they changed the percentages of transactions that went through as “Qualified” to a small number. The majority of our transactions were then charged the higher “Non-Qualified” rate and we were saving nothing. Numerous calls to their customer service department went nowhere. Our sales went up each year, yet so did Pivotal’s charges and so we began looking for another provider.

        Months after we canceled our account, Pivotal stole thousands from our bank account (the infamous “Liquidated Damages” fee). The amount lost was significant enough to make getting it back a worthwhile investment and so we sued Pivotal. We won the case and were awarded double damages because the withdrawal they made constituted civil theft according to the court. Surprisingly, they paid up fairly promptly.

        Unfortunately we can’t help with a class action movement since we already litigated the matter, but I wish you good luck. If you can’t get a class action together, you can at least sue in small claims court relatively inexpensively.

    • Informed

      Here’s some info most processors won’t tell you. When they add a new or extra fee on your pricing, you have 30 days to cancel the contract and they CANNOT stop that. If you keep processing however, that’s basically saying you agree to the changes and you’re stuck. You do have to call and give written notice though. I say call too because a scam company like Pivotal will say they didn’t get the letter. Everyone needs to go to their facebook page and leave comments as to what you think about them. These companies need to be STOPPED!

    • Kelly

      Ok here’s what we’ve dealt with over the last 2 years. First of all when I bought my existing business I took over her credit card reader and company. So in 2009 i was working with MMS, but Pivotal bought them out in 2010. But here’s the kicker I signed a lease with MMS not Pivotal, so when they bought them out I asked where my contract with Pivotal was? I said how can I do business with you and be locked into a lease if you do not have my signature. Their response, ‘Well when we bought out MMS those contracts are now our’s”. But then we started getting charged $99.00 PCI fees in Ocotober and then our $99.00 annual fee in November. then they tried to tack on another year on my lease when they bought out MMS. It’s just been one thing after another with these people. I’m closing in July only because of the lease is finally up on my rental space and thankfully my Pivotal contract. But now that some of you have responded to my last post I’m freaking out. Are all of you being deducted thousands of dollars or just a few of you. Because we don’t have that kind of cash laying around.
      I hope this lease will end smoothly, but in the back of my mind I know they might possibly screw us somewhere or sometime in August…….

  • Qi Li

    Sales rep phones in and offers a better rate than whatever you have

    few months after you switch to Pivotal, they increase the rate without any notice.

    2x charges last few months even they realize it is mistake

    another few months later, they tell you they will increase price in two months but not telling you how much.

    when you keep calling them, the most words you will be hearing is

    Unfortunately…

    Not only Pivotal, the whole merchant service industry are charging too much for too less.

    Significant reduction of rate is to be expected.

    Qi

  • Designs To Be, LLC

    Today I found out about Pivitol’s…HIGH HIGH close out fees….after 16 years in business and upon notifying Pivitol about this decision…they told me that they are charging me $400 to close my account…I am so outraged! I told two crediti unions that I deal with in our area and neither have heard of anything so ridiculous…..It is a total scam. Every single month they collect fees whether I use the account or not and of course they raised the fees from the company that we had previously done business with (that they bought out)…..This $400 fee just to close an account is a TotAL SCAM!

  • Vlad Orlovsky

    Very shady company. Starting from initial signing when we were promised no fees and then discovered that we were charged every year. Now they added bunch of other fees. We pay non-compliance fees PCF-PCI ($19.99) and compliance fees ($10.00). SO WHICH ONE IS IT???? Every year they try to squeeze some fees. This year managed to pass exenses thye had in order to comply with IRS rulling. They managed to pass it to customers. Rates are not that great, total overhead expenses can exceed $$50/month for nothing. Would never recommend this company to anybody. STAY AWAY!!! In my opinion not very honest people to say the best

  • Carla

    WARNING! Do not use this company. If you have them already you must cancel in writing 90 days before your contract ends or they will automatically renew your ” contract” for THREE YEARS! This happened to us and they withdrew 2400 dollars from my bank account.

      • Mike

        Sherry,

        What is the next after the bank chaged back your money? Recently Pivotal made me so mad about their services. When I found they charged me $10 for terminal maintenance fee(that’s our machine, they did nothing on it) in June 2011. I called and the girl Cheryl from Dedication department said she is going to cancel it and lower my rates. Then she sent me the forms and I signed and faxed it back. Later I found they were still charge that $10 from my account. I called couple time … Ok, I was so frustrated and asked to them to quote me a cost to terminate my contract. They told me the forms I’d just signed was the new application for another 5 years, the cost to cancel it would be $5143.82. I checked all the forms I signed in which it says nothing about the contract terms. They just tricked you. So I am wondering who could tell me the step by step to terminate the contract with Pivotal.

  • Call Me Andrew

    – The “owner” of one of their primary sales partners, Axxess Payments is Maurice Verrelli. He was convicted of telemarketing fraud in the United States a few years back. I put the word “owner” in quotations because Pivotal actually owns Axxess Payments and uses them to sell their services and their services alone, regardless of what Axxess tells you (they will say they will look at a number of providers to find you the best rates. It will always be Pivotal).

    Another of their sales managers, just recently hired to direct telesales, was also charged in the US for telesales fraud.

    Please warn everyone you know about Axxess Payments and Charge National. They are owned by Pivotal and will con them into an agreement.

    – Drug use is a regular occurrence in their sales offices. So much so that an email to the effect from one of their sales managers was leaked online a few months ago. Here’s a copy:

    “From: Chris Clark
    Sent: April 29, 2011 1:57 PM
    To: CanadianSales
    Subject: Weed @ Work

    Hi – A manager from another department just called me into the washroom to show me a large smattering of weed and tobacco on the toilet paper dispenser in the first stall of the men’s washroom. I don’t know which of you morons is that stupid but let’s say that people are less than impressed. We have been relatively tolerant of some of your habits but now we have two problems, some of you are clearly too stoned to do your job as evidenced by the sales totals this month and you are leaving evidence of your drug habits at work. I have had a Director complain about smelling weed in the washrooms, I myself have heard people rolling joints in there. This is all in violation of company policy so we’re now going to no tolerance, next person caught with anything to do related to drugs at work will be fired on the spot, don’t care who you are. Smarten the f*ck up.

    Chris Clark
    Sr. Manager, Canadian Telesales”

    – Pivotal has encouraged their employees to actually pretend to be business owners in order to more easily get their accounts cancelled once they sign on with Pivotal. They will actually call your old credit services (Global, Moneris, etc.) and claim to be you.

    – Their customer support staff is purposely under-trained in order to prevent them from knowing too much about how the company actually operates and they are often unable to help.

    – Despite their financial growth every quarter they are continually under-staffed in their customer service department causing hold times of over 5 minutes on average for customers with problems.

    – Some staff at Pivotal have tried to explain the various ethical problems to management, they have advocated for the merchants and asked for things to change, but these pleas are met with accusations of negativity and sometimes lead to unemployment.

    – Here is a breakdown of fees you will pay with them based on a wireless terminal contract (“H” = Hidden in fine print of contract):

    – Airtime Fee $15
    – Minimum Monthly Fee (Debit) $20
    – Minimum Monthly Fee (Credit) $10
    – Activation Fee $39.95
    – Annual Fee (Annual) $49.95
    – PCI Compliance Fee (Annual) $99.99 (H)
    – Assessment Fee 0.01% on all credit transactions (on top of agreed upon rates)
    – Communication Fee $0.03 on all debit transactions (on top of agreed upon rates)(H)
    – Terminal Maintenance Fee $9.95 (H)
    – Paper Loyalty Program Fee $11.95 (H)
    – Consumables Fee (Varies) (H)
    – Shipping Fees for Replacement of Faulty Equipment $39.99 (H)

    – Good luck in your dealings with Pivotal.

    • Phillip CPO

      Hi Andrew,

      Thank you for the review. You are making some serious accusations here which makes it necessary to ask where you are getting your information. Are you a former merchant customer? Do/did you work for Pivotal? If you do not answer these questions, I will have to remove this comment. Otherwise, the validity and accuracy of your statement becomes very questionable and we want to make sure that reviews are based in actual experience.

      • Call Me Andrew

        Hi Phillip,

        I used to work there. Many of their employees find their practices questionable, to say the least. It’s hard to reconcile your conscience when you’re paid by someone who you know is crooked.

        There were also “accidental” billings. For example, an annual fee that’s supposed to apply per account like the PCI Fee might “accidentally” be billed per terminal instead, meaning a merchant with 3 terminals under their account would be billed 3 times, etc. Anyone who called in to have it corrected would be added to a spreadsheet and corrections would be made, but what do you think happens to all of the funds of those who don’t call in to have it corrected? They stay in Pivotal’s bank account.

        • pete brag

          Andrew, Pivotal just stole $17,000 from me in ‘deconversion’ fees which i never signed for.
          What can be done? Know any ways to fight them? Class action suits? Good attorneys etc.?
          Anything at all?

      • Still bitter

        – Their customer support staff is purposely under-trained in order to prevent them from knowing too much about how the company actually operates and they are often unable to help.

        – Despite their financial growth every quarter they are continually under-staffed in their customer service department causing hold times of over 5 minutes on average for customers with problems.

        – Some staff at Pivotal have tried to explain the various ethical problems to management, they have advocated for the merchants and asked for things to change, but these pleas are met with accusations of negativity and sometimes lead to unemployment.”

        All of this was certainly true when I worked for Paysystems before it was rebranded to Pivotal Payments. Some things never change, I guess.

      • Frankie

        Hi, if anyone is getting involved in a class action or other legal action, complaint or media interview, let me know. my email is [email protected]. As of now, Pivotal took $17,000+ from me for ‘cancellation fees’ and they NEVER SENT ME THE ENTIRE AGREEMENT with the part with cancellation fee. Even Pivotal and the sales agent admitted to this. The sales agent even said he didn’t know there was a cancellation fee.
        Still, as of now, no return because they ‘have my signature’. I’m ready to sue for damages, but let’s see what happens. Any media inquiries or lawsuits, PLEASE contact me so I be part of it.

        • Cynthia Milbradt

          Holly, I am so glad someone is finally stepping up. I have tried to get attorney’s involved. No one was interested in even looking at the case. I was one of the lucky few who was able to get my funds back, but that was only because of timing. Nothing else.

          You can contact me if you like. My email is [email protected].

  • help me

    I have contracted with pivotal since dec, 2010.
    My contract ends in 2013 and wanna end earlier.
    I am foreigner with work permit in canada, but i have to renew my permit and it take around half year or year. during that time i can not work in canada (illegal).
    So I decided to cancel my contract with them and they asked me $400 cancellation fee.
    Another thing is they have not charge me monthly fee or any other but according to contract my monthly fee is around $80( I am in small business, and used terminal occasionally, so some time whole transaction per month is less than $500 ).

    but last month,all of sudden, they charged me around $40 without notice.
    I knew there is new policy about consumer does not need to pay cancellation fee if a company charged you more without any notice ( plz, correct me if i am wrong)
    so I wonder if I need to pay any cancellation fee plus remaining terminal rental fee(rental company is different but I have contract bcuz of pivotal).

    thanx

  • Pivotal Payments Texas

    – Received a cold call notifying us that our account had been flagged as possibly being overcharged by our card processing company. The caller was independent and authorized by Visa and Mastercard. They offered to do a statement review to determine that our account was hit by processing fees in excess of 2% rather than the legal limit of 1.79% – and anything more than 2.5% for all fees combined was illegal and could be challenged. We could get out of our current contract, obtain an alternate merchant account with tier 1 processing, or force restructuring of our current contract. We only needed to fax our statement to them for their review process at no charge to us (which is what every processing firm asks us to do when wanting to quote rates to change to them).
    – They were not to be confused with the Canadian company with the same name which has been subject to really poor reviews. They were a Texas operation (Pivotal Cdn. has opened an office in Plano, see press releases). Calling their 888 number returned the same PivotalPayments.com website out of Canada for the firm offering Canadian and USA merchant card processing services. No “statement review” services are listed for determining illegally high fees.
    – Pretty creative way to prospect clients, don’t you think?

      • Lee Hudson

        There are many INDEPENDENT AGENTS using different tactics to sell you processing. A company can NOT be judged by the misleading information of such agent. There is no way any company in the industry today would approve or tolerate such deception.

        • Phillip CPO

          Hi Lee,

          These companies are responsible for the independent agents they hire and often encourage/train them to use misleading sales tactics to sell expensive merchant accounts. Not only that, but the applications that the agents submit must undergo underwriting by the company itself. I can tell you with 100% certainty that processors can indeed be judged by the independent agents they hire and the results of their sales tactics. I have reviewed over 80 companies and the ones that score poorly have marketing and sales strategies that lead to problems for merchants. There are a few companies I have reviewed that hire independent agents and have zero complaints from merchants because they have tight controls of the sales process.

          As for the telemarketing call reported in this chain, there is no telling whether or not it came from an independent agent or an internal call center of Pivotal Payments. Either way, neither surprises me because I hear about calls similar to this one all the time.

  • Kevin

    Hey Everybody,
    Just an update on my case, Pivotal still calls once a day and leaves a message to call them. I am still ignoring them. I am not giving in to them. I don’t even listen to the whole message. I delete it as soon as he starts talking. Every comment I read about these clowns makes me feel like I am doing the right thing and not giving in to them. Stay strong everybody who is being harrased by their so called collections department.

    • CLM

      I think you are right. They log every conversation you have with them and can use it against you later. I think they might be recording the conversations but not sure. It’s not legal here in the US without consent, but that does not mean they don’t do it. They are always pushing the boundaries as it is. We are such a loose knit group. Wish we could get some Class Action attorney to take up this case. There has got to be some law being broken here since they seem pick on a certain class of user…the micro business such as myself who does not have the first idea as to how to go about it.

  • maryanne

    this company rips canadians off, i have been trying to reach the company for months, and they will not answer my calls. Not only that, we were being debited from our account twice the fees we had agreed to, when we asked for our contract from the First Data Processing company, it said something totally different than we had agreed to. Our signature was on there, but that was not what we signed. So the documents were altered after we signed them. After reviewing on the web. it is not the first time. Securus Canada is not even have an office in Canada but they claim they are. We have filed a complaint with the RCMP, and will be seing them in court.

  • Kevin

    Do not use Pivotal payments!!!! My story is the same as everyone else. After a year of being with them, they jacked my rates. I called them and never got a straight answer on why. I started with them May 2009. Stopped with them on May 2010. November 2010 they took out 8000 dollars from my account. I got it reversed. Change accounts! Pain the butt. They started calling me in Dec 2010. Told me if I came back to them they would dismiss the 8000 dollar liquidated damages fee or so they called it. I said I would think about it. Since then I decided not to go back to them after reading many complaints about them!!! They call daily and leave messages to call them back to get their money. I have so far just deleted the messages. I am not paying them. Hopefully they will just give up. Although this guy that keeps calling once a day is pretty persistent. lol
    Oh yeah they did agree to wheel and deal with me, which makes me think this fee they charge is just made up and the guy gets a commision on how much he can screw me for.

    • Corey Illingworth

      I cannot believe this company can continue to do business. Pivotal Payments had a forged contract on file for myself. The signatures, dates, or print did not match mine anywhere on the agreement and still they stole $1500 from my account which they called liquidated damages after canceling with them. This term is nowhere in there forged contract even if I had signed it. One of there agents would call on my behalf claiming to be a representative from my company furthering their fraudulent actions. When I explained this to them they were still unwilling to help. They just tried to pass me off onto the next representative, and in two cases, was the same representative that I had spoken to already. Even after explaining to them that two parties have to enter into an agreement and you can bind someone to a contract they did not enter into, they still refused to correct the situation.

      • CLM

        They could not produce a signed contract for me either and still sucked $3800 from my account. Here is another twist. They told the Oregon Dept of Justice that they were dropping the claim to show good faith. That was a few months ago. Now they are hounding me again on my voice mail. They are corrupt to the core.

  • Mark

    Pivotal has also ripped us off for over $3000. The following are the reasons we cancelled them:
    1. We started our association with them in April 2010. Early in 2011, we discovered deposits to our account from Pivotal were missing on 2 different occasions. By the time we discovered them missing, almost a month had gone by. They blamed us for processing our “end of day” batch-out wrong. We did it the same as we have every other night and have the “batch closed” receipt to prove it. They breeched their contract by not depositing the funds into our acct. the next business day. At best they made an error and refused to admit it, and at worst they intended to take the money hoping small business owners like us won’t audit our books, and hence, never dicover it.
    2. They said they would have to send us all the cc. numbers for the days missing and we would have to enter manually. When we received the numbers, they were so tiny that we literally had to use a magnifying glass to read them. This was even hard to do as several of the numbers were smudged and indecipherable. They said there was nothing they could do to make them larger.
    3. When we re-entered the numbers (a process that took 2 hours due to #2), some of the accts. were closed or overdrawn resulting in declines. It took us several days to recover many of the charges. There were a couple cards that had closed accts.- that we never did recover – about $60.
    4. I was so upset, that I sent a letter of cancellation to Pivotal and got a new credit card company. About 3 weeks later, I received a phone message from Pivotal telling me I had to cancel by phone. It clearly states in their instruction booklet that it must be done by letter.
    5. After all this they continued to service charge our unused acct. for about $17 each month. I finally got them to close our acct. by phone near the end of May, 2011 (we hadn’t used them since April 15, 2011).
    6. We did not receive a statement from them for April or May, 2011 even though service charges were being deducted from our acct.
    7. On June 30, 2011, Pivotal deducted $3057 from our acct. with no notification or an explanation of any kind. As this was the day before the July 4th holiday weekend, my bank was closed and will not re-open until July 5th, so I am unable to do anything about it until then.

    In our 20 years of accepting credit cards in our business, we have never had a “lost deposit” – which has happened with Pivotal twice within 2 months. This is a shady company that I wouldn’t refer to my worst enemy. I only pray that we can recover the $3057 that they deducted from our acct. without permission.

    • CLM

      You have until the end of the next business day to recover your funds. After that you will have to petition your bank to refund the withdrawal. Pivotal is very clever about when they take the “liquidated damages” from your account. They do it after the business day is over so that only leaves you the next business day to catch the deduction and have it reversed.

      If you get your money back count on Pivotal to come after you with threats and an invitation to come back if you reactivate the account (as if).

      There are things you can do to keep them from hounding you for the recovered funds if you manage to get them back.
      1. Report them to the Better Business Bureau. The BBB is toothless but at least you are on record about the incident.
      2. Report them to your State, whichever bureau deals with these issues. I had to go through the Oregon District Attorney’s office.
      3. Report it to the Feds.

      They dropped the case against me when the complaint was filed with my state and an inquiry was made.

      Good luck.

      • Mark

        After sitting around this holiday weekend and fretting about the $3051 Pivotal took from us – I decided to call my banker at home on Sunday. They were somehow able to reverse the charges, thank God; the benefits of having a small town bank…..Is there any way they can reverse our reversal?
        I had filed a report with the BBB of NY. Pivotal responded today. They still say it was our fault that the deposits weren’t made to our account! They don’t understand that when we batch out a report at the end of the business day – it automatically transmits by phone to them. Our machine won’t print us a receipt if this process fails – and we have a receipt for both days that were missing.
        You were right – they say if we re-activate them, they will refund our $3051 over 3 months (obviously they don’t know the charge was already reversed). I placed a permanent block on them from ever accessing our account again. Since they have our account numbers, could they change their name or access numbers and remove the money again?

        • [Name Removed by Request]

          Hi Mark. I feel your pain!!

          To be on the safe side, I shut down my business account as I was worried about the same thing (using a different name to pull money out of my account.) A real hassle that’s for sure but I am able to use my personal account to deposit funds with the NEW interac Service provider I am using. (Merchant One Payments – if you want their number I can send it to you – they have been more then helpful!!)

          I’m in Canada, and I’ve now contacted the Media (CTV Steele on your Side), my MP, my local MLA, the BBB (which had sent a formal complaint to Pivotal) and several other companies who may be able to help.

          Beware that Pivotal will try and contact you but you will quickly notice, they will never leave you a ‘direct’ number to you to call that person back. Additionally, each time they call, its a new person leaving a message – its a total crap-shoot!

          I’ve called them each time & left them messages saying “email me” but they don’t (of course); that would be a paper trail we could use against them! I’ve also told them to mail me a ‘registered cheque’ with the money they owe me & send a courier to pick up their 3 Terminals collecting dust in my Shop.

          I also filed a formal complaint with BBB and I’ve contacted my local Federal agency….laws are different down in the USA but if that fails and you still don’t see your money, you may want to take them to small claims court.

          • Mark

            An update to our case with Pivotal. They filed a re-buttal with the BBB. saying that their complaint resolving staff has been trying to contact me for 3 weeks and left return phone numbers each time with no response from me. Well, get this – all of the numbers were wrong numbers, here they are: 866-383-1494, 866-833-1494, 866-883-7494. They all look similar – but are all wrong numbers! As is Pivotals MO., they will blame us for writing down the numbers wrong. Maybe that could happen once – but three times? This is nothing but a further attempt to create confusion on their part – which is one of their delaying tactics. Stay away from this company!

          • CLM

            Take it to the next step. File with your state attorney general. They have teeth. The BBB doesn’t. Pivotal will back off. They prey more upon those they think are too stupid to take it as far as it will go. They do not want an investigation from the any government agency. I can’t believe they have got this far.

          • Will

            Hello fellow canadian. How did you do in the end. I can not get anyone to return my calls. They debeted two of my clients accounts and mine for the service charges but never deposited the clients moneys into my account. Is there any hope of seeing my funds again.

        • CLM

          You must block the authorization that allows Pivotal to make withdrawals. Then change bank accounts.

          Report this to your State Dept of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. This can all be done easily online.

          The BBB has no teeth but the State and the Feds do and trust me, Pivotal doesn’t want an inquiry.

    • [Name Removed by Request]

      I have been self-employed since 2004 working alone in my one rented room Studio.

      My recent and extremely upsetting experience since January has been with my interact company – which used to be Cardex but is now Pivotal Payments. Back in December, I called the 1-866 number which was the number I have always contacted when requesting assistance from my interact service provider. Upon calling this number I got a representative on the phone. The nature of my call was to ask for a replacement terminal with a chip-card function. The sales rep I spoke to said that she would be happy to send it to me however I would have to fill out some forms. I told her I was an existing account holder for 8 years and all the paperwork should be on file – all I wanted was a replacement terminal. She then said that the company that I was with before had sold-out to them and the paperwork needed was so she could upgrade my terminal.

      This did not seem right with me. She faxed the paperwork over December 23rd 2010 and I reviewed it. It looked like a contract. Each telephone conversation after that was me trying to make it clear to her that I was an existing customer. She continued to call me (almost daily) telling me to sign and fax over the contract with the void cheque in order to get the replacement terminal. I reviewed the contract with her on the phone however this proved to be quite difficult. She insisted t[Name Removed by Request]hat the paperwork was just formality. She promised that my fees would not increase; in fact she would give me a discount. However, I didn’t think she understood me because I had a really tough time understanding what she was saying because her English was very poor. I was really clear that I didn’t want any of my interact features changed; (I have emails to prove this) that all I wanted was a chip card terminal to replace my K23. She insisted that nothing would change that all I had to do was fax everything back to her. I complied and faxed everything to Rita Bharati at Pivotal Payments on January 20, 2011. This is when the nightmare began.

      In early February the so-called Chip Card terminal arrived – it was called HyperCom. I unplugged my K23 Terminal and plugged in the Hypercom, called their tech support where we spent a good ½ hour trying to download the software. I had clients that day and couldn’t spend any more time with the tech support since after that ½ hour we were unsuccessful at downloading the software I had to re-plug the K23 back in to continue to operate my business. When I had an opportunity again, I called them. This proved to be quite challenging because after several daily attempts for countless hours each time, the Tech support rep finally had the terminal operating. However, it never did operate as a chip card reader!! Since then they sent me two more terminals; each of them un-functional. More time was wasted and by the time the 3rd terminal arrived and still un-operational, I told them the send a courier to pick them all up – I wanted my old terminal back.

      Then I started noticing my bank account charges with more hundreds of dollars withdrawn. Plus duplicate charges for the old terminal (K23) and the new terminal (Hypercom) plus additional fees and charges!

      I was back on the phone with Rita. At this point, she claimed she was no longer ‘responsible’ for my account and that I should call customer service.

      I called customer service and spoke to Sophie Rau. She provided me with her email address and began correspondence with her. I told her that no one has come to pick up the old K23 terminal and I was being charged for it. She said that I had to call LFG and cancel my lease agreement with them. After another few days of painful phone calls I finally contacted the lease company by email. I found them through the internet and wrote an email to the Underwriter on February 15th. At this point, more unknown withdrawals were now being sucked out of my account. I have correspondence from a Marc Barbanell. He said I was responsible for returning the leased terminal and I had to pay for the means of returning it to them. This was ludicrous and taking more time away from my business! I called Pivotal payments and asked them why they never told me this back in December!! No one knew….no one could help me but everyone I spoke to was really, really sorry….

      Upon another phone call and some more emails Sophia promised me a credit of $250 which would be deposited to my bank account for all troubles…..I’m still waiting. (did i mention it’s now July??)

      I have spent hundreds of hours, sent countless emails, spoken to Managers, Presidents, and Corporate Executives, photo copied bank statements, faxed documents….blah blah blah…..with no avail. I am now out of pocket by $1742 and time wasted that I will never get back. Everyone I spoke to would promise to fix the problem – in fact I know most of customer service by a first name basis! I have a file full of documented conversations and the representatives I’ve spoken to over the past 6 months from Pivotal payments “PROMISING ME” that they will close the additional accounts mistakenly opened and they would refund me the monies that they owe me tomorrow. I’m still waiting.

      Fast-track to June 15th: I had been in touch with Ernesto, (Manager at Pivotal) and he “admitted” to me that Pivotal had screwed up, and that he was ‘surprised that I’ve been as patient as I have been for the past 6 months’….he also said that he was going to ‘take care of this personally and he would close all my accounts, reimburse me my monies and send a courier to pick up the 3 terminals that they provided that do not work. I’m still waiting!!!!

      I just want to say that being a single, owner operator of my Esthetics business, my Merchant fees have NEVER exceeded $1000 per year including the cost to lease the interact Terminal. As you can see I’ve been ripped off by this company for $1742 with the aggravation of continual promises that this would be resolved. This is $1742 that I do not have – this is my property taxes. I’m fed up and still they have done NOTHING to fix this mess!!!

      I’ve put stop-payments on my Bank account.

      I’m in the process of draining all funds in the event they try another company name to rob me, they can not get any more money from me.

      My banker knows of this issue – he helped me with stopping the electronic debits from this and all affiliated companies. (Cost me $60!!)

      BBB has been informed.
      I’ve also contacted “Steele on your Side” with CTV.

      Now I keep getting phone calls from all sorts of different 1-800 numbers, each time from a different person asking for me to call them back because they want to ‘resolve this’. Yaaa, RIGHT!!! Then they’ll want my first born too.

      Anyhow, all you out there, let’s pool together and expose these bastards. Shut down your accounts – its not worth it. You’ll be bankrupt before they’ll give you your money back. Might as well go into business with one of those email guys from Nigeria…..

      My lawyer also recommended I contact you. I’ve got more grey hairs from this horrible, distressing incident then I did when I went through my divorce. My health has been affected by the stress of this.

      I work way too hard to have these bastards clean me out of what little money I have left after the day is done. And being an Esthetician, making people feel good is my business…..this isn’t as easy as one might think in this day and age especially when this is happening in my life.

      • Don

        I feel for you as I am going trough similar experience. I have started a Pivotal Payment group on facebook. We need a place where we can all get together and do something about this. This is luducrious that so much of our time is wasted on this. We have a business to operate. I was even willing to pay the cancellation fee, but no one wants to give me the amount, they just tell me they will calculate and withdraw from my account without any notice. That was in February and still haven’t heard from them. I blocked my account and when they’re ready, they’ll be calling me. But what I hear from other posters, they can take months. Funny thing is it took me 1 day and 300$ to cancel my previous merchant. Pivotal is the biggest mistake I made since I am in business

  • Still Waiting...

    I have had a HORIBBLE experience with Pivotal Payments.

    First I signed up with Axxcess payments who uses Pivotal for processing and the first 2 terminals would not work so they agreed to return my money after many phone calls I recieved my Credit to the account in April when I recieved the terminals in January.

    When I later signed up with Charge National for the same reason; rate, I found out when setting up the terminal that they process through Pivotal as well. Well the rocket scientists could not figure out that I now had 2 accounts with them and started charging me again for the first terminals and the second ones. Finally Today (May 26) I recieved credit in my account for the first terminals.

    I have literally been calling their “help” line every day for the past 3 weeks, and literally everyday they tell me 1 of 2 things:
    A) I will have a manager call you back when they’re out of their ‘meeting’
    B) I get transferred to a manager’s voicemail
    Both equal the same response… NOTHING!!!!

    Everyday these people answer the call and tell me the same thing, I am so sorry for this, can I put you on hold while I try and find someone for you? So I agree, knowing what they will say but still hoping that one day I’ll get someone that answers the call that will ACTUALLY help me. Still nothing. I have left direct voicemails on their Managers answering machine… and still nothing.

    When a manager cannot deal with a customer then you know the company is all about. This is ridiculous! They have taken money out of my account for terminals that have long been returned already. Not to mention, the 2 transactions that I was able to put through… they did not put the right amount into my account and I have proof of the amount that went through the machine! Do they think I don’t check my statement? Businesses beware, your books will not balance with this company!

    • Cynthia Milbradt

      File complaints with the Better Business Bureau, The Federal Trade Commission and your States Department of Justice. The more complaints that filed against them the harder it will be for them to defend their lousy business ethics. Sincerely, Cynthia

    • Ready to break down...

      I must agree that Pivotal gave me the exact same run-around!

      I am a single owner/operator providing Esthetics services in a one-room business. I made the the mistake of wanting a chip-card terminal to replace my existing terminal which was through Cardex – a K23. Unbeknownst to me, Cardex sold their client base to Pivotal. Now the nightmare begins.

      In January I called and asked for a ‘replacement’ terminal. Yet I was told to sign documents as a ‘formality’ for this replacement. I told the Sales Rep that I already had an existing account with Cardex. She said they were now Pivotal and needed this for their files. I was promised that ‘nothing was going to change with my fee structure…” That was a load of crap! To date, I have been charged $1742 in Merchant fees, Admin Fees, duplicated account fees…my leasing fees have increased. That is twice as much as what I’ve paid annually in the past 8 years of doing business. my annual merchant fees never exceeded $1000 per year!!!

      Then Pivotal sent me a Hypercom Terminal which is NOT a chip card reader. Then they sent me a Verifon which didn’t download…then another Verifon which did also didn’t work. I now have 3 terminals that are not compliant to my business needs!

      I have spent COUNTLESS hours phoning, faxing documents, emailing and am still waiting to get the “promised: I’m really sorry about all this, I will escalate this to the Manager….” blah-blah-blah…. Once I do get the Manager on the phone, he tells me he will close all my accounts, reimburse me my money & personally resolve this issue as he had ADMITTED that Pivotal had screwed up. yet here I am 6 months later still…..with no resolution – and out $1742.00!!!!

      I have 3 terminals that are not chip-card readers in my possession and have asked numerous times to have them picked up via courier. Pivotal is well aware that these terminals are not compliant to my business needs. in order to not go broke, I’ve had to place a Stop-Payment on all electronic debits from Pivotal & LFG. I had no choice. I’ve changed Interact companies and am now dealing with Merchant One Payments – based out of Canada.

      My business is suffering at this point because of this mess. I’ve lost sleep and not to mention the money. I have reported them to the BBB & to my Bank. I don’t know what else to do. I have a file of all documented conversations with Pivotal’s Customer service and managers as thick as a telephone book.

      Check the Credit Card industry Code of Conduct – Federal Government website and see for yourself how Pivotal doesn’t comply.

  • Cynthia Milbradt

    My small coffee shop found Pivotal to be less than satisfactory in many respects. Their fee structure was indecipherable and seemed constantly in flux. I could not get through to customer service on several occasions. I finally closed the account and went with another provider. Six months later they charged my account $3,580.00 with no heads-up or a chance to dispute the charge. They called “Liquidated Damages”.

    They said they would waive the fee if I broke my contract with my new provider and re-instated my old account. This stinks like a rotten carcass and wonder if it is even legal since they say their contract buy-out is only $500.00.

    Is that coercion?

    • Phillip CPO

      Hi Cynthia,

      The “Liquidated Damages” clause is a sneaky way for less-than-ethical providers to charge outrageous early cancellation penalties by saying that you caused them financial damage when you cancelled early. Many times the contract will say something like the cancellation penalty is $500 or Liquidated Damages, whichever is GREATER. So, that might be where your confusion about the “buy-out” is coming from. Since it is probably a perfectly “legal” contract that you signed, it may be difficult to get a resolution. My advice would be to contact the Better Business Bureau to file a complaint. Pivotal will be much more likely to work with you when you bring the BBB into the mix.

      • Cynthia Milbradt

        That is the point. I had no contract with Pivotal. They had bought out my old provider with whom I had a “no term contract” agreement. Pivotal said they sent letters out with new terms and conditions. I do remember someone from Pivotal calling me and saying I was bound to the new agreement and if should deactivate my account I would loose $500.00. My new provider agreed to pay for the buy-out.

        6 months later I get a $3700 (plus) withdrawal from my account with no warning, no assessment of fees. Now half my capitol for operating my very small business is gone. This is putting me out of business.

        When I called Pivotal to complain they said they would reverse the charges if I reactivated the account. Hmmm…sounds a bit like abuse of the system and perhaps bribery and coercion.

        This is not sitting well with me. There is a thing call “business ethics”. Apparently they skipped that class. I am not going down lightly with this matter. I will fight it with every tool available to me.

        Sorry Pivotal. You picked on the wrong flea!

        • Gerald

          That’s exactly what happened to me. Pivotal bought out my previous provider and instituted the fees without, in my opinion, any notification other than was provided in a multi-page “provider aggreement” written in a font that was miniscule (barely readable) and crouched in legal-eze verbage. We had such a hard time getting them to respond to us that we decided to just drop their service. Then they refused to terminate the accounts for several months (charging us monthly fees, of course). We finally sent registered demand letters to close the account, and to be sure, we closed our business account and went to a diffierennt bank. They are very unethical. I’m surprised that their isn’t a class-action suit against them, but I believe the laws are biased to protect the banks, not the merchants. Beware of what you sign up for.

  • Mary

    We are a small non-profit organization that was using Pivotal until we switched providers, and what a nightmare it was. They debited our account for over $900. They never explained how they arrived at that incredible sum, nor provided any documentation to prove their math. They claimed it was all in our contract but our contract was a dingy, smeared, over-copied document that spelled NOTHING out.

    I called daily asking to speak to a supervisor. I was told a someone would get back to me. No one ever did. When I asked for the name of the supervisor, the agent on the phone flat out refused to tell me. My particular agent spoke smugly. He wasn’t concerned with my complaint, and more importantly he wasn’t the least bit afraid of me.

    I am appalled that Pivotal has an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau in Canada. The number of complaints against this company is staggering. I am continuing to follow this up with the Attorney General and Better Business Bureau. If anyone has had success with these people, I’d like to hear it.

  • shani

    we are currently trying to cancel our account with pivotal due to the fact that the rates they promised they cant commit to im deeply disturbed to hear all the problems people go threw with the cancellation process i can see we have a long journey ahead of us and we are ready to fight this with media anything and everything it takes if you have any suggestions please email me at [email protected]

    • Gerald

      Hi Shani, I had to cancel my bank account and open a different account. They can’t charge something that doesn’t exist. It seems to have worked. Make sure you document everything- all of your phone calls, time on hold, etc. Good luck with this.

    • Cynthia Milbradt

      I used the same tactic, but only after they debited my account over $3500.00. I got the money back but only because I was on the ball. You only have a small window of time available to get the charges reversed.. They made the withdrawal at 1 minute to midnight, eliminating half a business day to discover and reverse the charges.

      They did this 6 months after I closed the account, with no warning, no assessment of fees no explanation. The biggest issue here is I never had an agreement with Pivotal. They bought out my old provider and would not honor the existing terms and conditions which was a “no term” agreement.

      I highly recommend that you NEVER enter into an agreement with a third party provider. I go directly through my bank. No problems.

  • Don

    Pivotal review
    Their cancellation fee is more than 500$. They want me to pay a large penalty for breaking my contract 3 months into a 60 month contract. The penalty consist of the amount they would make from me in a month x the 57 remaining months which would equal over $11,000. On top of that, I do have to pay the remaining 5 year lease on the terminal. To make matter worse, their 5 year contract would automatically renew if you don’t cancel 6 months prior to the end of the contract. Plus they are being deceptive the way they get you to switch. I was promised 2 cents per transaction, but they added a connectivity fee of 3 cents per transaction in the fine prints, so I hand up paying more than my previous provider with all the fees they add up.

    But can someone explain to me how they can justify collecting such a large penalty when they have no money attached in my business. The writer of this story needs to do a follow up to this article. Please help!. I know I’ll hand up being responsible for the terminal lease, I just don’t want to pay $11,000 for transaction fees, that’s ludicrous.

  • Kristin

    I recently had to cancel my account with Pivotal. It was a nightmare. I have been in business since 2002 and I have never experienced a worse company to deal with. I would warn all business people to STAY AWAY from Pivotal because they are extremely crooked.

    The highlights of my experience using them:
    -Outdated machines with no chip enabled software
    -They make you buy out the machine so you are stuck with old technology that you have to pay to upgrade in order to have a working machine
    -Difficulty with processing sales (our line would always go down)
    -Most expensive processing fees
    -Extremely sneaky contracts: I was on a 5 year contract – they automatically renewed this without sending me any notice or renewal form or option for new technology and then nailed me with the full penalty for canceling “early” in my 7th year with them.
    -At my second location I received a machine that did not work from day 1 (bought in 2008). I immediately called customer service and let them know but received no service call or help for the next 2 years, just plenty of me calling into Pivotal and chasing them down trying to get service

    After 7 years with this company and two processing machines that did not work they told me to cancel I would be responsible for paying $500 plus three months of processing fees…they had absolutely no accountability to their grave errors technically and in regards to customer service. It didn’t seem to matter to them whatsoever, they were just determined to squeeze the last little bit of money out of me.

    They did offer me one “deal”. If I kept my online contract with them, they would waive my cancellation fees for the 2 shops with machines not working. However, if I canceled my online account early they would charge me the cancellation fees for all three accounts. It’s shocking to think that a company can offer no service and be charging you through the nose for all processing fees and STILL have such a hold over customers because of how expensive it is to cancel their horrible service.

    I hope this message gets to other business people. I would not want anyone else to have to experience this company.

    • Damian Tanenbaum

      Dear Kristin, I am sorry to hear of of the technical and cancellation issues you experienced. If you send me your account details I will have your specific situation reviewed. I can be reached at [email protected]. Please include your merchant name and a contact number. We are doing everything possible to further improve the service and the products we offer.
      Sincerely yours Damian Tanenbaum Vice President of Operations.

      • Cynthia Milbradt

        Kristin…are you a joke. Pivotal Cares. You have got to shilling for that black hole of evil. I have never, and I mean never had such a bad experience as I have had with Pivotal. Mean, nasty, switch house pool of heartless creeps.

        Never, I mean never get involved with these vultures. YOU WILL REGRET IT! They sucked half of my operating capital out of my account. I cannot function as a business. Checks are bouncing. Payroll not honored. It’s a complete nightmare of epic proportions. No warning. No statement of how they arrived at their “liquidated damages”. The worst part is I never had a signed contract with them. They bought out my old merchant account and changed the terms and conditions. They are not honoring the contracts they bought. This is a a company with no conscience, no sense of business ethics. BEWARE>>>>BEWARE

  • Gerald

    We have been trying to cancel our Pivotal account for two months. They will not cancel it without talking to the Cancellation Department, who is never available and won’t return phone calls. We have been on hold for 30-40 minutes at a time before someone picks up the call, and they just give us the same message. We have wasted many hours trying to get this done, and we still get monthly fees from them even though we are not using their services, simply because they will not cancel the account. Stay away from these guys.

    • Damian Tanenbaum

      Dear Gerald, I am sorry to hear of your recent service experience. If you would kindly contact us at [email protected] with your merchant name and a contact number we would be happy to discuss your account with you. We have over 300 employees dedicated to servicing our customers accounts. In 2010 we made great strides in lowering our wait times and improving our quality. We have several more enhancements scheduled for 2011 and I would enjoy hearing your reason for wanting to cancel and welcome the opportunity to prove to you that we are serious about improving the service we provide! Damian Tanenbaum Vice President of Operations.

    • JJ

      Hi Gerald. That cute little trick of Pivotal payments is just one of many that they have to rip off their customers month after month. They are the worst of every processor I have used so far and on a scale from 1 to 10, I give them a -600. Need I say more. Good luck with these rip offs. Pivotal Payments is the worst of the lowest.

  • Lana

    Hi Phillip,

    I have small professional massage office. I would like get credit card processor for r my I phone because sometimes i lose clients . Also I go to Yoga retreats and need to have this service.

    I don’t want to pay monthly fees only when I process the CC.

    Which card payment service do you recommend?

    Lana

    • Cynthia Milbradt

      Regarding merchant accounts that go bad…Beware any provider that uses a third party processor, that includes Pivotal Payments. Go through your bank. At least you can go to your branch and talk to a face. If you have a withdrawal that does not seem right…go directly to your bank and have the charge reversed. You only have until the bank closes on the next business day to do this. These sharks will make the withdrawal at 1 minute till midnight which only gives you that next banking day to have the charges reversed. You have no power to have the money returned unless you go through a long, drawn out process that will break you down emotionally and psychologically. That’s the bet they make. They will break you down into little pieces and eat you alive. Take my word for it.

  • Priscilla Gray

    we have just joined up with Pivital payments but our machines do not show any monies going thru .. and we can not access Visa or MC , we are wanting to get away from this company as they can not give what we want .. can any help us in getting rid of these jerks

    • Tanya

      Have you had any success? I’m in the same boat I only signed on two weeks ago and received the machine 5 days ago The past 5 days have been a nightmare I tried to cancel within 24 hrs and couldn’t. They have a document with a forged signature on it. I cant believe it! I unplugged my machine within 36 hrs as no money’s have been deposited to my acct. I am terrified right now what I can do,

  • Display Name Guy

    Pivotal Payments has used a “Power of Attorney” form in order to outright impersonate some merchants. They offer to cancel your services with your other provider on your behalf if you sign the Power of Attorney granting them the power to do so. But when they discovered that these previous providers were not compliant in timely canceling merchant accounts for a competitor they simply began having their representatives call in pretending to be the merchant. They continue to do this on a daily basis. This is of questionable legality at best.

  • Criston

    This company in particular looks awful. While looking online for some feedback about them from current of former customers I found almost zero positive feedback and a whole lot of anger and bad experiences. A hard company to recommend indeed.

  • Screwed by Pivotal

    I have switched effective Aug 1st, 2010 from Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global Payments to much more reasonable merchant payment provider. On August 1st, 2010 I notified my Bank Branch of the change and of the stop payment to Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global Payments on my account.

    I cancelled my contract with Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global Payments
    under the pretence of the Finance minister’s new “code of
    conduct” policy released on April 18th, 2010, and put into effect
    August 16th, 2010.

    On August 16th, 2010 I notified Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global
    Payments that Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global Payments no longer had
    authorization to debit my account. On Sept 7th, 2010 Cardex/Pivotal
    Payments/Global Payments withdrew over $3,000, from my Bank account that they were strictly informed that they were to have NO FURTHER ACCESS. My bank manager agreed and my bank manager
    reversed the withdrawl immediately.

    I now take a barrage of daily harrassing calls from Pivotal Payments
    Collections department.

    My latest obstacle has now become LFG. I was sold a Hypercom T4210 on a recommendation made by CARDEX (Jesse Schwartz) The Unit was to work over the Internet via TCP/IP base. It worked maybe one year, and then became almost a strict dial up machine, as it could not hold a “net” connection. The silver numeric coating on the number buttons started flaking off in less than a year. The numeric pad that I keyed in amounts was also the pad that clients would use to key in their PIN. Nearly every time I would pass the machine to the client it would power down and re boot. I would physically have to go to the “other” side of the counter and instruct the client to NOT MOVE the machine and then process their payment. The unit finally powered down for the final time and upon rebooting it just showed an error code and appears to have had it’s memory wiped clean, and is no longer functional, and then would no longer even power up. Just a dead machine.

    Every time I contacted Pivotal about the issues they said it is not their problem, but they could have a service technician there to look at it within a few days at a totally astronomical price.

    I have put a stop payment on LGF and have had the monies they have debited from my account reversed. LFG has contacted me and requested absurd amounts of money due to me cancelling their NON-Cancellable lease. Even if I ship them back they’re broken down POS terminal the credit that LGF would be willing to give me is nominal.

    They are threatening me with legal action that would result in them seizing my assets and ruining my credit check.

    Is there any way to get rid of Pivotal and LFG and not have to pay the crazy astronomical fees they are demanding?

    Any advice on how to get rid of these clowns?

    • Phillip CPO

      Unfortunately, there may not be many options with this situation because it is likely that you signed contracts with these companies agreeing to the terms they set forth. I’m curious to learn more about the $3000 dollars that Cardex/Pivotal Payments/Global Payments is attempting to collect because I’ve never heard of an early termination fee being so high. I can only assume that the $3000 is a collection of various fees, including transaction fees that they might be rightly entitled to receiving. If you can elaborate on how they have come to such a large amount, I would be very interested in getting more details.

      If anything, your story highlights the problems some merchant account providers cause for their “customers” and shows just how greedy they can be. It is absolutely critical to read the merchant account agreements word-for-word before signing up with any of these companies. I frequently hear stories like this, and get many questions on how to avoid bad merchant account providers, so I wrote an ebook to explain it all in an easy to understand way. It’s called “Fee Sweep” and it’s a must-read for anyone who is about to get credit card processing for the first time, or merchants wanting to switch providers.

      • Cynthia Milbradt

        Phillip, You must be kidding. These are not fees that Pivotal wants to recover. They are collecting for services not rendered. This is a corrupt company that is pushing the boundaries of the law. They are on the radar screen witha B rating. BEWARE, BEWARE., Totally corrupt with no business ethics. NONE.

        • Phillip CPO

          Cynthia, a “Liquidated Damages” clause is not related to the recovery of owed fees. It is a cancellation penalty based on the future fees they expected to earn from you based on the contract you agreed upon. Although it’s a very sneaky and shady practice, it’s considers as perfectly legal. That being said, I would still encourage you to fight it.

          • Cynthia Milbradt

            Phillip, I got my money back only because I got to the branch on time to have the charges reversed. I am now expecting Pivotal to go after my business but they will have a hell of a time collecting the fees.

            Pivotal cannot produce the letter they supposedly sent informing me of the change of terms and conditions. They sent me a copy of some computer generated form letter with no address, addressee or date. They can’t prove the letter was ever sent or where it was sent to.

            I don’t think they will have much of a leg to stand on here.

            Pivotal Payments is a predatory, third party banker with terrible ratings and unethical business practices. The most honorable thing you can do is help get the word out to others.

            There is much, much more here than terminal lease issues. Pivotal has completely blurred the lines between legal and ethical, achieving neither in my opinion. I suspect that there could be wire fraud issues here.

            FYI Pivotal ranks fifth from the bottom of 100 rated providers. I was surprised they rated so high.

            Thanks for your contributions. Cynthia

      • Samira Tahtawi

        I started doing business w/ Pivotal in Feb 2012. After 3 mos of not receiving the online tracking ability for client payments, I cancelled this service and went back to the old credit card program I had. Pivotal called me to inform me of my cancellation fee – > $4600 based on their lost earnings over the 3 year time frame that they claimed I was contracted for.
        I reviewed the contract – no mention of this cancellation fee/lost earnings/etc. I spoke w/ John in Canada – he informed me that the contract that states this fact is not handed to the merchants at time of signing!!! It is a 5 – 7 page pamphlet that “is understood” at time of signing. I was appalled.

        Anyhow, I would like to know how to proceed. I shall contact the BBB. I have contacted the bank. Pivotal did inform me that they will debit my account for the $4600.

        Fraudulent, unethical and surprisingly successful for this business to still be in business given their mishandling of their clients. I hope someone gets this information together to expose this company on a broader scale.

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