Smart Card Merchant Services Review

Deceptive Sales Tactics

Smart Card Merchant Services utilizes a combination of telephone appointment setters and independent agents to market its services. In general, this hiring strategy can create a team of unsupervised or untrained sales agents and is commonly linked to merchant complaints. In this case, we have located a large number of complaints about Smart Card Merchant Services, Eschelon Merchant Services, and EMV Payment Systems that consistently cite issues with nondisclosure or misrepresentation. In particular, many negative reviews describe aggressive telemarketing and deceptive tactics with regard to the company’s equipment leases.

Nondisclosure Complaints

Multiple merchants allege that Smart Card sales agents failed to disclose the 36- to 48-month non-cancellable leases that came with their merchant accounts or claimed that the equipment was “free.” Some complaints also describe tactics that closely resemble “slamming” scams, in which a Smart Card Merchant Services agent will call and claim to be with “Merchant Services” in order to persuade a merchant to purchase new equipment. A few complaints from the company’s employees back this up with descriptions of a high-pressure “hiring mill” environment. All of these claims are corroborated by an account mistakenly posted in the comment section below our CardSmart Merchant Services review:

Smart Card Merchant Services cold called me and said our business rating had changed and wanted to know whether I wanted to accept an upgrade to our account for better credit card processing fees.

The telesales agent made it seem like we had a relationship with them, but when I asked they said we did not. I asked them to put the upgrade offer in writing but she said she could not, but could schedule an in-person interview. We scheduled a date and time and I asked her to send email confirmation, but it never appeared. Strike 1.

On the date in question, I called the number on the website and reached someone who confirmed there was an appointment and they had my email address wrong. So obviously they don’t know much about my business, and when I said it was a cold sales call, they insisted it was not since they knew our credit rating had improved.

I told her I would be a little late for the meeting since it wasn’t confirmed. I was five minutes late – the rep was 45 minutes late. Strike 2.

During the meeting, the rep would not put anything in writing and proceeded with a number of hard sell / hard close sales gambits. He was vague about details and said I have to commit, they only review accounts once a year and I have to decide now. I told him I needed to talk to my partners and he continued to try to close the sale.

He finally wrote some things on his business card with a *not guaranteed* on it. He said he was not selling me, but rather his goal was to screen me out.

I called the next day and told him we were interested and whether he could send me the contract so we can review the terms and sign. He told me he can only meet in person. Since my partner is in another state, I told him we would be happy to do that but he would have to fly across the country. He said he can’t do that. Strike 3.

We decided the sales process and business practices are too sketchy for us to engage with them. They promise great rates, but won’t put anything in writing and keep saying “it depends”.

While we have not done business with them, they managed to waste a lot of my time and proved to be incompetent with sketchy business practices at best. At least as far as we are concerned, they are out.

It’s strange they behave so unprofessionally. We are currently paying sky-high rates for credit card processing and it appears they can save us a lot of money. But we can’t risk a core part of our business dealing with a vendor who:
1) Has deceptive sales techniques
2) Insists on meeting in person and is 45 minutes late
3) Won’t send a contract to review

Specific Sales Agent Issue

In addition to merchant complaints, we have located a news story from December 2016 that actively warns business owners about the conduct of some Smart Card Merchant Services sales reps. One rep in the story, Michael Lee, is named in numerous Smart Card complaints across the web. As of that article’s publication, he was still selling for the company, but it is unknown whether he is still an active salesman.

Supposedly Transparent Pricing

The Smart Card Merchant Services website actively promotes interchange-plus pricing, which is the most transparent pricing model available. Although there is no indication that this pricing structure is misleadingly promoted, the company’s reputation with regard to its equipment lease sales inclines us to warn merchants against taking the company’s word on this. Business owners should be sure to confirm that the rate structure they will receive is true Interchange-plus rather than a tiered model that has been misrepresented. If you suspect that Smart Card is charging you undisclosed fees, we recommend seeking an independent statement audit to spot hidden charges.