Retriever Medical/Dental Payments Review

According to a company representative, the standard Retriever Medical/Dental Payments contract is a multiyear agreement through National Processing Company with a conditional termination fee, no annual fees, no PCI compliance fees, and no monthly minimum fees. Multiple merchant complaints state that the company charges a monthly fee of about $30, but this may actually be a monthly equipment lease payment through a third-party provider. It does appear that some Retriever Medical/Dental Payments agents package long-term equipment leases with their contracts, so merchants should be sure to watch out for unfavorable or excessively long lease terms.

Retriever recently revised the conditions of its early termination fee. According to a company representative, the Retriever Medical/Dental Payments early termination fee now comes with the following terms:

OUR GUARANTEE:

We have no early termination fee. Our processing agreement may be cancelled at any time, upon written notice with NO CANCELLATION FEE TO_______________________(Client).

ADDED SERVICES GOOD FAITH GUARANTEE:

As a good faith courtesy, if you have a cancellation fee for your existing processing agreement, we will pay it for you or assist you to avoid one. We will also provide you with any necessary custom installations and staff training seminars and special account set up services.

IF YOU ACCEPT THESE ADDED SERVICES, WE HOLD A REASONABLE EXPECTATION THAT YOU WILL HONOR THE TERMS OF YOUR PROCESSING AGREEMENT ACCORDING TO THE FOLLOWING PROVISIONS. (Failure to follow the provisions below may result in the client’s obligation to pay the cost of these added services when applicable):

If Retriever Medical Dental Payments cannot beat any valid written offer or if our program should fail to reduce accounts receivable balances and our processing services may be cancelled at any time and at no cost.

In other words, if merchants do not receive custom installation or training from Retriever and do not ask Retriever to pay their prior cancellation fees with a different processor, then they may exit their contracts at no cost whenever they wish. However, if Retriever Medical/Dental Payments pays a merchant’s termination fee with their previous processor or provides custom installation, training, or account setup services, then the merchant may be responsible for reimbursing Retriever for the costs of those services unless they allow a representative from Retriever Medical/Dental Payments to perform a rate review and attempt to beat a competitor’s valid written offer. This policy appears to have resulted in a number of disputes between merchants and Retriever Medical/Dental over whether the early termination fee was appropriately charged. Multiple merchants claim that they were not informed of the company’s early termination fee (which was previously $700) or this rate match guarantee at the point of signing. When these merchants cancelled their service with Retriever, they were hit with the full $700 early termination fee. Retriever insists that this fee was appropriately charged because the merchants did not first allow the company to perform a rate review. In some cases, merchants complain about the inconvenience of scheduling an in-person rate review with a Retriever representative and obtaining a valid third-party offer that Retriever cannot beat.

We feel that this guarantee would be a reasonable way to recover acquisition costs on expensive accounts if it did not apply in perpetuity. However, in its current verbiage, it holds merchants to excessive obligations long after the life of the initial processing agreement. For instance, under the policy’s current language, it’s possible that a merchant could cancel with Retriever Medical/Dental Payments after 15 years and still have to reimburse Retriever for large setup costs or early termination fees—long after Retriever has likely recovered the cost of acquiring the account. On one hand, this new policy represents an improvement over the company’s previous policy due to the fact that some merchants can cancel without facing a $700 penalty or the need for a rate review. On the other hand, the only way some merchants can avoid an undefined, uncapped cancellation penalty is by obtaining a competing quote that Retriever cannot beat. Since Retriever is free to lower its prices to whatever amount is necessary to retain the account, this policy essentially functions as a retention ETF.