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Tell us about your experience with TransTech Merchant Group in the comment section below.
UPDATE 2/6/2019: The TransTech Merchant Group website is no longer active, and the TransTech brand appears to have been discontinued. We therefore will no longer update this review. It is reported that many of the people involved with Certified Payment Processing, Apex Merchant Group, and TransTech are now operating a business by the name of Cypress Bay Solutions.
TransTech Merchant Group (tmg-360.com), along with Summit Merchant Solutions, is a direct sales division of Certified Payment Processing that specializes in marketing merchant accounts to small businesses in the United States. TransTech may also be under the same ownership as or otherwise affiliated with Apex Merchant Group, Appstar Financial and First American Payment Systems as suggested in several merchant reports. The company claims to have been in business since 1996, but the BBB reports the business as starting in 2005. Additionally, there are no complaints filed online prior to 2005, so it appears that TransTech Merchant Group may be listing the start date of Certified Payment Processing as its own. The company’s corporate headquarters is located at 3350 Boyington Drive, Carrollton, Texas 75006. TransTech Merchant Group is a registered ISO/MSP of Fifth Third Bank of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Walnut Creek, California. Tony Norrie is listed as the general manager and principal of TransTech.
Key Points
- Sales & Marketing: TransTech Merchant Group hires independent sales agents and has received a moderate-to-high number of complaints about its sales practices.
- Costs & Contract: TransTech Merchant Group appears to offer a three-year contract with an early termination fee of $495.
- Complaints & Service: TransTech Merchant Group has received more than 140 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: TransTech Merchant Group currently has an “A-” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received 99 complaints in the last three years.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With TransTech Merchant Group
Should You Trust TransTech Merchant Group?
Lawsuits, Reviews & Complaints
Complaint Summary
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Total Online Complaints
140+
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Live Customer Support
Yes
|
Most Common Complaint
Hidden Fees
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We are currently able to locate over 140 TransTech Merchant Group complaints on this and other consumer protection websites, many of which outright accuse the company of being nothing more than a scam or a ripoff. This is a high number of complaints for the company’s size and time in business, and these complaints are being filed both by dissatisfied business owners and by former agents/employees.
On the merchant side, many are reporting deception by agents during the account setup process, surprise over unexpected fees, and unauthorized debits from their bank accounts. There are several complaints specifically mentioning predatory equipment leases that include high monthly fees and five-year non-cancellable lease terms. A few merchants even reported paying $5,000-$6,000 in lease fees for equipment that would have cost $200-$300 to buy at retail. This reviewer was especially struck by the numerous unprofessional complaint rebuttals from TransTech Merchant Group. In several instances, TransTech’s rebuttals are rude, attack the merchant, accuse the merchant of ignorance, and carry an overall air of condescension.
As for the former agents and employees, there are many complaints of being misled by TransTech Merchant Group recruiters and management. A few agents detailed their experiences of being “lured in” with promises of high quality leads only to show up for most of their appointments completely unexpected. Several agents stated that they incurred costs in travel and supplies that were never recovered.
Is the BBB Rating for TransTech Merchant Group Accurate?
Better Business Bureau Profile
BBB Summary
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Product & Service Complaints
28
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Billing & Collection Complaints
14
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Advertising & Sales Complaints
57
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|
Guarantee & Warranty Complaints
0
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Delivery Complaints
0
|
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, TransTech shares its Better Business Bureau profile with Certified Payment Processing, which has an “A-” rating based on 99 complaints filed in the last 36 months. This is down from 196 complaints the last time we reviewed TransTech’s BBB rating. Of the complaints, 28 are regarding problems with products and services, 57 with advertising or sales issues, and 14 with billing and collection disputes.
The BBB report states that TransTech has successfully resolved 28 of the complaints but that it did not make a good faith effort to resolve five complaints, resulting in its lowered rating. The remaining 66 outcomes either left the merchant dissatisfied or did not receive a final response from the merchant. It appears that TransTech’s reduced complaint total may simply be a result of the company transitioning away from the TransTech brand, so we have left the company’s CPO-adjusted rating at a “D.”
How Expensive is TransTech Merchant Group Service?
Rates, Fees, and Contract Terms
Cost Summary
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Swiped Rate
Variable
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Keyed-in Rate
Variable
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Early Termination Fee
$495
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PCI Compliance Fee
$125 Per Year
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Equipment Lease Terms
Variable
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As with most merchant account providers, the costs and fees of a TransTech merchant account will vary from one merchant to the next based upon the agent setting up the account and the merchant’s business type. Numerous reports from merchants state that their processing rates ended being much higher than original quotes and that several fees were never mentioned during the signup process. In addition, TransTech’s standard contract is stated to include a $125 annual PCI Compliance fee, a three-year service agreement with an automatically renewing clause, and a $400+ Early Termination Fee (ETF). These fees are deducted directly from a merchant’s checking account and there is only a small window of time to cancel service before the contract auto-renews. Some reports suggest that TransTech’s contract may also include a Liquidated Damages clause, so merchants are strongly encouraged to read it fully before signing.
Aside from fees for the merchant account itself, there are many reports from merchants suggesting they were set up with predatory equipment leases through Merimac Capital or Lease Finance Group. These merchants report being misled into long, non-cancellable leases that ultimately cost thousands of dollars for equipment that was worth only a few hundred dollars.
Does TransTech Merchant Group Use Deceptive Marketing?
Advertising & Sales Strategy
Key Points
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Employs Independent Resellers
Yes
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Advertises Deceptive Rates
No
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Discloses All Important Terms
No
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TransTech appears to rely primarily on recruiting and hiring independently contracted agents in a “hiring mill” fashion to market and sell its services. In addition, there is evidence that the company heavily participates in telemarketing. Although we found no uses of misleading advertising or false rate quoting on its website, numerous reports from merchants and former agents alike describe rampant unexpected fees and nondisclosure of terms. These reports suggest that agents receive very little oversight and are encouraged to sell expensive merchant accounts and equipment leases in exchange for large commissions. Several former agents have stated that they were very poorly trained by TransTech and encouraged to use unethical sales tactics.
Does TransTech Merchant Group Deserve Your Business?
Review Summary & Our Thoughts
TransTech Merchant Group rates as a substandard merchant account provider according to our standards. The company is receiving many troubling complaints regarding its sales tactics, contract policies, lease agreements and service quality. Certified Payment Processing shares responsibility for most of these problems since it appears that TransTech is essentially an alternate DBA of the company. TransTech can improve its rating by removing predatory fees and conditions from its merchant account agreement and lease contracts and eliminating complaints of deception from both employees and merchants.
John Riley
DO NOT DO ANY BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. YOU WILL BE RIPPED OFF. UNFAIR, AND SHOULD BE, UNLAWFUL BUSINESS PRACTICES. It has cost me and my company 3,753.74 to get rid of this company and NOT use their services. As a business man I believe every company has the right to try and make money. I believe in paying for services rendered, heck I am in the service industry. I do not believe what they are doing to small businesses is legal and I would love to see them come under some kind of scrutiny to expose these unfair business practices. I paid them for 4 years to rip me off and then I am paying them almost four thousand dollars to not provide me any of their services any longer
Lt
DO NOT do business with this company I repeat DO NOT! I closed my account in Dec 2015 called them and even sent a letter. 8 months letter I get a bill for 597 from collections. I called Crystal W bout the situation she was straight b*tch. I don’t know how she has a job there must a be a miserable person. Anyway they stated I never sent a paper closing my account when I have a paper from them Saying I did. I even paid the termination fee to get away from this crook of a company. The collection paper they sent me has both of my names misspelled and the last name was somebody else’s.
Mike Stroud
Worst mistake I ever made in business. Do not do business with them. It will cost you more than you can imagine. Trust me, that low rate is not worth it in all the fees, and charges you will be accessed. Stick with your local bank. Not Customer friendly or service friendly at all. Don’t sign the contract.
Elida vogli
They told me they are going to save me money and they charge me triple thiefs soon a lawsute
Rick Allmen
FOR GOODNESS SAKE: STAY AWAY!! These folks need to be put in JAIL. I worked for this crooked company for three weeks. I put nearly 1500 miles on my vehicle paying for my own fuel. I attended a one-hour ‘webinar’ and was sent to ‘set’ appointments. NO ONE knew I was coming. My ‘manager’ insisted I did not leave any business without getting the owner on the phone with him. He claimed I was ‘soft’ ‘had no testicles’ and was further rude each time I did not get the owner on the phone. I can easily read people and when someone is not interested, they are not interested. I was even sent to a funeral home. The owner was not interested, the manager insisted I go back and perform the entire ‘pitch’- there was an active funeral at the time. I did make one sale, and the sale was their flagship product. A wireless point-of-sale system. The business owner implied that the only reason he was signing up was the fact that he liked me, we had lunch together a couple of times during the process of setting up his system. The business owner had to obtain different internet access than he had for it to work properly. This being after my manager explicitly told myself and the owner that what he had was sufficient. The commission was supposed to be $700. My manager gave the merchant a $5 a month ‘discount’ on the lease which ultimately reduced my commission to $100. I received calls and texts from the business owner well after I quit- he wanted to know how he could get out of the horrific contract and that I needed to do something for him. Following my departure. Peter, my manager called me over 10 times each day for a week. Karma- that’s all I can say, because I’m not going to Texas to confront the worms.
Erin
Salesmen aren’t knowledgeable AT ALL on what they’re selling. My salesman didn’t even know the rates they offered. Long story short, the “manager,” Sherman lied about giving me a trial period so I had to pay a cancellation fee just to be done with these jokers. THEN, they got me locked into an equipment leasing contract because they failed to inform me that the equipment was leased through a different company. They’ve cost me almost $2500 just because they lied. Total jerks and very unprofessional. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. I rarely write negative reviews but these guys have really ticked me off.
Ally
This is what is currently happening to me! They are total crooks!!! If you read these please please please have nothing to do with them!!!! I had never heard of this leasing company that called. So I called transtech to ask what was going on. The frist person I talked to, along with the person I talked to get out of the horrible mess, told me I had to lease agreement. After I called the “leasing agent ” and told them that my card company had no lease agreement, I called transtech back to get more information to fight it. The third person I talked to told me that I absolutely did have a lease agreement. So I was lied to twice and “signed” a lease agreement that they slipped in there without telling me!!!! These are aweful people who rob small business owners! Worst mistake I made!!!!!
Mike Causey
The worst company I’ve ever dealt with.
Do not sign anything with these unscrupulous
thieves. Tell everyone you know to stay away
from these legal scam artists.
Even after you go out of business And close your
bank accounts, they – or their
“subsidiaries”will hound you relentlessly for
more and more money.
The entire Trans Tech Merchant group is one
big scam that sucks in unsuspecting small
business owners and proceeds to rip you off
month after month. Once you sign their contract
you owe them forever.
Selph
Stay away from this company! I realized that this merchant was overcharging me for years. When I finally found another company that worked with my present credit card terminal and POS, I tried to terminate them. They explained to me that even though I signed YEARS ago, the ONLY time that I can leave them is on the anniversary of the signing each year. The only other way is to pay over $400. They state that they have an infinite contract on you. I have terminated other merchants when their rates increased and never had this problem.
Julie
I signed up to work for this company not too long ago. Me being the “smart” person I think I am, I decided to do some research before I went to work for them. I mean that’s what you do with any company – mainly because you want to get to know them, so you can explain to them exactly why you would want to work for them and are not just another job seeker.
I came across some negative reviews, but a few positive ones as well, so I figured I should give it a shot. I am personable, good with people and love being a sales person. It’s in my nature. I like talking to people and helping them out with a a better product if I can. I do want to say to the one or two people that are defending this company, saying that merchants understand exactly what they are getting into, employees shouldn’t expect just to walk into a business with a pre-sold sale have really not experienced this as the field sales rep. THE STORIES ARE TRUE!! The problem is not the appointments, its the fact that they lie to you that these appointments are set. They tell you no door to door, but that’s exactly what they want you to do. I live on the east coast. According to Texas time, they wanted me to go to an appointment at 7:00am in the morning my time. What?? What business is open that early except coffee shops that are too busy with a rush and couldn’t give you the time of day even if they wanted to. I was able to negotiate starting at a later time. 9:00am my time. Still, no one expected I was coming. Fine, I turned them around and was able to pitch them, even sold a few. If it happened once or twice, ok, but every single business owner says one of the following:
– They told the person on the phone they didn’t want to talk to anyone.
-The person on the phone randomly called, asked if they were the owner, asked them what their business address was and that was it.
-No one ever called them about anything.
-Nothing – because the business was either a residential or didn’t exist.
I went into this expecting that I was going to work. I was going to have to make the sale and I was going to have to win over the business owner by assuring them we can beat whatever rate they have going on. I am not a person that expects to get paid “the promised” kind of money without putting some sweat into it. Well after two days, I’m done. One can stick with it longer until they realize they are paying to work, but I don’t have that kind of money. I’m trying to find a job, because i need income. Yes, I get it. Even a set income job will take a while to pay me and I’ll have to use my own finances for the first couple of weeks for travel, but at least they wont have such complaints all over the internet and I’ll know I really am getting paid. None of these employment games.
All I have to say is do your research. What other company have you applied to that had so many negative reviews from both the employee and the consumer? There’s no smoke without fire. If you know what I mean.
Jeff Wille
I posted on here previously about my awful experience with this company, and thought I should put a follow-up.
Luckily I can say I’ve gotten away from these crooks, but it was quite the ordeal. First off, if you want to get away from them, switch all your bank accounts so they no longer can dip into your account whenever they feel like it. Before cancelling I closed the account they had access to, and opened new accounts. It made it much easier to deal with them since they no longer had any leverage to steal my money directly.
It was quite an awful experience finally cancelling my account however. I called them up and was transferred to a customer retention department with a rude employee. I told her I was unhappy and wanted to cancel my account. The contract I had actually signed said there would be a $495 early termination fee, which I was expecting, but this awful employee managed to dredge up over $150 in additional fees, including a $100 debit cancellation fee that wasn’t listed anywhere in the contract I signed. Once again they referred to the terms and conditions, which were never given to me when I signed up for their service. When I told the customer service rep that I never received the terms and conditions when I signed up for their service, and that I didn’t think it was fair to be charged fees based on materials I was never given, she was extremely rude and condescending. Her only response was that “well, you should have asked for them, shouldn’t have you?”.
I’m convinced the only thing that saved me hundreds, if not thousands, of additional fees is that my account had been closed and they no longer had access to my money. They kept stating how they would take the fees out of my account, at which point I told them several times “you don’t have access to my account, what do I need to send you as a check to be done with your company!”. I ended up sending them a check for over $650 just to be rid of this awful company.
Avoid these crooks like the plague!!!
Janene
All I can say is please do not use this company. I have never had to jump through so many hurdles in my life to just speak with a customer service person. Ex. Every time you call in you must give them your company name, your name, address, phone number, fax number and e-mail before they will even talk to you. When you do get a live person you are constantly put on hold for an ungodly amount of time. I am extremely upset at the moment and here goes my complaint as calm as I can muster. Pulling up our checking account I realize a large amount of money was withdrawn today from our account. Upon researching I find out that TransTech withdrew over $8k from our account without our knowledge or authorization. The reason: They informed me that they charged us for 4 machines, 4 printers and 4 docking stations (much needed complaint on this issue but will stick with this one because of the financial hardship other small companies could face) because they had not received the old machines back which I was informed they received today. Apparently I did not return them fast enough and was charged over $8k???? I was only told they had every right to withdraw the money from our account because it was in our contract and it did not matter that I was not informed of this ahead of time. After explaining to him that I was not told there was a time frame to return the old machines he said it didn’t matter because it was in our contract and it did not matter that we were not told ahead of time. If I would have known this was going to happen I would have immediately returned the machines. I was told that the machines were received by them today and that a credit for the machines, printers and dock stations would be credited but it would take approx. 7-10 days before we would see that credit, putting our business at a standstill financially and hoping that a credit is actually issued to us within the next 10 days. Please take my word and do not use this company, you will regret it as we have for the last 3 years and still have 2 more years to go in our 5 year non-cancellable lease that will end up costing us a small fortune and then some.
S. Follett
Thieves. sent us equipment that wasn’t compatible with our phone system. Kept our account open and charged us $48 a month even though we couldn’t process a single charge through them. Unethical thieves.
Mike Causey
TransTech Merchant Group, TMG, is nothing more than a “legal way” to rob a small business, or any size business for that matter. LEASE FINANCE GROUP or LFG, Chicago, is the worst possible company that will steal whatver they can from your business checking account, and they will always “have a contract” that “allows” them to do so, EVEN after your account with TransTech (TMG) has been officially closed.
Over 1,000 complaints with the Chicago Better Business Bureau doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of lies and deceit that this most unscrupulous “company” (LFG) thrusts upon unsuspecting small business owners.
The entire operation of TMG and LFG needs to be shut down. Notify your states attorney general AND your local Better Business Bureau of any complaints you may have against them.
Thank you!
Jennifer Neill
I was a new recruit from TranTech, that said I would make all this money, yet I spend over $200.00 just in gas with a 1 1/2 weeks. My team leader has he was called, was more like a baby sitter. He wanted me to call outside of the business, while I was in the business, speak to owner. I raised hell. I got 5 hours of training one day and was literally through to the wolf’s the next day. I was not given my daily schedule that morning. After one appt., had to call and get the next one. I was having car problems, he wanted me to use my broke car and go 45 minutes from my house, this is a sure sale today. Also, I went to business owner, that has helped me in past with charity work that I do ALOT!! My team leader wanted to speak with him, the business owner said he was going to research and get back with me, which he did, and I researched myself, and found yall. I am know alot of people, and retired papalegal. I do not and will not ripe people off, I help people not hurt them. That is why I specialized in Personal Injury and out of retirement of being a paralegal, and do still to this day support and help with 5 annually charities. Thanks for being my sound board. I told my team leader, I am just the pretty face that gets in the store and you make that the sell. I am not learing or earning any money…Just spending mine. Currently I am in the process of suing the company, because I have all the conversation recorded…Sincerely, Jennifer D. Neill
Nicole Miles
We signed up with Trans Tech at the beginning of October. On the 18th of October they withdrew over $350 out of our business account (there was to be no annual fee, no charges for equipment, no start up cost and a monthly payment of only $40 on the leased equipment!!). We only had 4 transactions prior to that equaling a little over $950 (not including percent taken from credit card transactions BEFORE they credit payment to our account). They mislead us when they explained it, didn’t tell us about several different fees that we later found out about, promised us low interest rates/no annual fees/cancel at anytime and when I received my COPIES of PART of the agreement (still have not received a copy of most of it) it was beyond their 15 day cancellation period. I don’t think companies should be allowed to just withdraw money from your account until you at least receive a statement of the charges! I am LIVID.
Jeff Wille
I’m writing to tell about a recent experience I’ve had with my merchant processing company, Transtech Merchant Group, as well as numerous irregularities and concerns that have come to light.
I own a small, family-run furniture store in Eugene, OR, and on Thursday, October 3rd 2013 I received a phone call from a customer wanting to order furniture that was to be shipped to a condo in Las Vegas, NV. I took the customer’s order, including his credit card number, expiration date, and CVV code, and keyed the information into my credit terminal manually. The transaction came back approved, so I then placed an order for his products and arranged for their shipping.
Monday I then received a phone call from TransTech’s loss prevention department with questions about this transaction. I answered all their questions, and gave them all the information I had, including all information related to my customer. Over the next couple of days I, and my customer, received numerous calls from them as they asked more questions, which was quite disruptive to the daily operation of my business. I asked if they had any indication that the customer was dishonest, and they told me that my customer’s card had approved the transaction, and they had the funds in their possession. I wasn’t sure why they were holding the funds since his credit card had approved the sale, and there were no disputes from either side of the transaction, and they told me it was because they didn’t like that it involved different states. I was fine with this and then waited to hear back from them.
The following day I finally received a call where the TransTech loss prevention representative (Stacy), informed me that the funds weren’t going to be released into my possession, and were going to be returned to my customer’s credit card. I told her that part of the order had already shipped, but they did not care. At this point, due to the numerous calls to me and my customer, I was quite frustrated and asked them “What am I supposed to do? His products have already shipped!”, and their only solution was that I should just get some other form of payment from him. Because of the delay in informing me of any problems with this transaction I was put at considerable risk while thousands of dollars of merchandise was shipped with no fund being released to me. In the end my customer had to send a check for payment instead, which did clear, but he was also quite frustrated with the fact that both the funds from the check and the funds from his credit card were in limbo at the same time. My customer, who was once happy, is now frustrated and upset with his order, and this process has greatly tarnished my company’s reputation. Never once did I feel like TransTech was anything but apathetic towards protecting me as a customer, and didn’t seem to care the jeopardy they had placed me in.
Another huge problem I had is that from the date this transaction occurred (10/3/13), to the date I was told my funds wouldn’t be given to me (10/8/13), not only was TransTech holding the funds for the sale ($3305.00), but they also held ALL my other transaction deposits (over $4000)! In addition they were still withdrawing the daily deposit merchant fees from all these funds, even though they weren’t releasing the payments to me. This has created another entire problem in the fact that I now have to back track and verify they don’t double-charge me for any of these fees. So far all the other funds they held were deposited in my account, but it was quite inconvenient for the daily operation of my business. They also attempted to keep the fees for the money related to this investigation, even though they were never released to me, which was around $120! Luckily to date they have reversed the daily-deposit charges related to this transaction, but they’ve acted like they were doing me a favor by not keeping fees on money they arbitrarily refused to release to me.
I then thought it would be best to re-examine my recent statements and my original contract. When I signed up to use Transtech as my merchant processor I filled out and signed a 5 page application and agreement, of which the terms and conditions were never attached. There is a line that states I read the “terms and conditions” but they were never provided to me. Since this experience I have now received a copy of the terms and conditions, but even if they had been provided to me, they are comprised of 16 pages of 6-point-font, legal-ese that no personal without a team of lawyers could possibly understand. Even with the relevant sections pointed out it’s difficult to understand how they allow Transtech to accept funds from my customer’s bank, wait a week to inform me there is an issue with the sale, then choose never to release the funds to me. I guess I was stupid for thinking I was dealing with an ethical company, and assuming I didn’t need to comb ever page of the terms and conditions for new ways I could be screwed. The fact TransTech has to hide so many important facts in a sea of legal garbage, and the fact they stick you with exorbitant fees if you’re not happy with their service, points to the integrity and ethics of the company.
By examining my contract and past statements several other irregularities have also shown up.
I noticed that the previous month I had received two bankcard withdrawals, instead of one as usual. I called the customer service line and asked what this was, and was told it was a PCI compliance fee, though she couldn’t explain to me what that fee was. The actual PCI fee is never mentioned anywhere in the paperwork I filled out, but rather there is one line that says that I must “ensure compliance with cardholder data security and storage requirements (PCI)”. Of course there is more information and the actual fee amount once again hidden in the 16 page, 6 point font legal mess. I still have no idea what the fee is for, and many other companies don’t even charge this fee, so I’m not even sure it’s valid.
I then started to examine how they had been calculating my credit rates on a monthly basis. Their statements are next to impossible to read. There are numerous fees and additional costs, so you never know what the statement will be. They also don’t list what any of the interchange types are for any of the transactions that had been processed, and instead just group all transaction into these tiered categories. Of course when they first approached me as being a customer they always quote the lowest, best rates, and most cards don’t get this rate, but this bait-and-switch is fairly common in the dishonest merchant processing world.
The vast majority of my credit sales are done face to face, with a signature obtained. This type of transaction should, in most cases, fall into the qualified category, with the occasional transactions in the mid-qualified category, which has much worse rates. By reviewing my past statements it has become clear that Transtech has regularly downgraded payments that should be in the Qualified or Mid-Qualified rate level to the Mid-Qualified or even Non-Qualified rate levels. Even though the vast majority of our sales are done with face-to-face customer transactions (should be qualified or mid-qualified), only 16.27% of our transactions fell into the qualified rate. The other 43.97% were mid-qualified, and 38.06% were put into the non-qualified rate – which should only be reserved for high-risk, over the phone transactions where extra information (billing address, zip, CVV) is not provided. Of course by downgrading all my charges Transtech is able to charge me a rate closer to 3.5%, rather than the 1.74% that should be charged for all my qualified transactions.
TransTech may have acted in compliance with their terms and conditions in this situation, but their ethics and concern for, me, the customer, are greatly in question. An honest company doesn’t have to hide important fees and restrictions in a gigantic sea of legal garbage, and an honest company doesn’t have to charge you $500 if you want to get away from them. Even if they had the contractual right to investigate the transaction in question, by not informing me sooner they put me at a huge risk since the products were already being shipped, and I was counting on the payment being released, which could have ended in disaster for me. I don’t understand the point of having the transaction run through, and authorized by, a credit card terminal if Transtech can arbitrarily decide to hold whatever funds they’d like.
There are a multitude of other companies out there that don’t have term contracts, don’t have cancellation fees, have clear statements, don’t downgrade all your payments to give you worse fees, and don’t charge you cryptic additional fees. Transtech represents the worst of the merchant processing world: hidden fees, questionable rate scales, unhelpful customer service, and penalties just to get away from their dishonesty.
Robert
Transtech will bind you with a contract and charge you $500 dollars to close the contract and end the abuse. The customer service is horrible. The salesperson we gave all of our financial information to was fired and never turned in our paper work. So this angry employee rode around with all my financial info SSN, tax ID# etc.. We contacted the company and they finally got some of our information back from this employee and we had to resubmit the info for them again. As if that was not shady enough. I was dumb enough to stay with them 4 years. We recently decided to change companies and they told us to send in a letter so we did. The letter was a week late because their policy is to allow you to cancel with them during a 30 window of your anniversary date. So they charged us $685 to cancel. I said Nevermind, I will stay with them for another year and quit when my anniversary time came around again and they said NO they want the $685.. GOD knows how they get away with such a horrible company. WHAT a RIPOFF!!!! don’t take my word for it.. They have a F rating with the BBB and from what I read online there’s enough people mad at them to open a class action law suit against ..
Mick Lawless
Horrible Experience!!!!…, they deducted almost $70.00 in monthly fees for a machine that i had only 10 days and was not even set up and had NO TRANSACTIONS on it, when I questioned this they conveniently told me that the system was automated to take the fees every month……10 DAYS !, is not even close to a month and the machine did not even work ! Absolute Nightmare of a company , typical big business Scum !
Cher
Do not !!!!! and I mean DO NOT !!!!!! us this company.
Our business used them for our gift cards and they locked my partner into a 2 year agreement and we never received any help on how to set it up . So after many attempts we just let it go . I called to cancel they said that we could not and that we had a two year agreement and they were going to keep taking it out of our checking account 14.64 every month for something we don’t have for two years. Then I noticed this year that this company is now tacking out 16.65 out. So we called today and tried again to cancel and they said ” Oh were sorry but you had a three year agreement . Really!!!!! I wasn’t aware of that because last year you said we have a two year plan so you just switch plans as you go. So now that have all of our account info and we tried twice to block them but it only works for a little while.Please that are many other credit card companies that don’t scam .If your smart look elsewhere.
Jim
I paid my bank $5 to block them for 6 months. If I wanted it to continue just pay it again. They stole $35 from my account AFTER I ended the contract. Every time I called it was a different lie for their reason and not paying me back. I sent a letter to their legal department detailing every call, every lie and asked why the lies and why did they steal my money – miraculously I got the check in a week. They are truly thieves.
Nancy Bassett
Immediately after signing our 3 year commitment with Trans Tech we regretted it. The rates were okay, bu the additional fees and PCI fees were unexpected. We tried but were unable to cancel our account without paying the additional outrageous penalty fee. So, at the end of our contract I tried to switch, but found out that I had to cancel 30 days in advance… The next year that window went by and now I am trying to switch again, but have missed my 3 month window by two weeks. I am so frustrated with this stupid auto renewing clause that I cannot seem to escape. I have refused to sign any documents extending our service for 3 years now, but still I am stuck. I feel like I am imprisoned in a very abusive marriage to this company. So sad I signed that contract with the pushy, deceptive, salesman who did not give me full disclosure or the time to review the “small print”, while interrupting my workday. I heartily recommend taking the time to do the research, and choose an “A” rated company instead of this “F” rated company. (rating from BBB)
dennis
I signed up with TRANS TECH on 2-17-2011 (first mistake). their fast talking salesman (carl French)knew less than I did (which was not much) and his boss knew less. I started out
with several problems. first of all the wireless terminal did not work as stated, after two downloads of new program, they replaced the terminal (which did not solve the problem). after complaining to the head office of the problem they stated it would work, the service dept. said that if the wireless signal was not sufficient I would get a message that said termination unsuccessful. After several tries to discount the service I filed a complaint with the BBB, only to find they were not compliant. So I quit using their service. Dennis president & CEO of Dentronics .
of all
LCobb
I just started with this company yesterday and had the worst first day exp. on the job. Two of the businesses were closed and due to the lack of knowledge my team leader Ted Smith had of where I lived…he sent me to an area I was not familiar with and almost ran out of gas because no gas station for miles. Luckily we ended back with my last preset appt. in my zip code and the woman was not available to talk. I was under the distinct impression that these were preset appts that the store owners had knowledge of me walking in and being able to present them properly with the material and possibility of just transferring companies because “We” can definitely beat the rate they are currently being charged. Now I am supposed to check in with my Team Leader, Ted Smith, to start my preset appts for the day and now I am so cautious as to whether or not to even go with it due to my exp yesterday. Are there any other employees out there that have any advice or business owners not have correct knowledge of these so called preset appts?!?!?! Any info would be helpful so I can get out now!
Tim
Dude,
I am realizing that the preset appointments are a lie. Ted Smith sent me to an address in a town around 30 miles from where I live and the Address didn’t even exist so he tells me to hang on as he “pretended” to call the customer and he said ” all I got was a fast busy ” so now go to. I went to one out of about a dozen “preset meeting” I entered the business a dentist office actually met the person who he sent me to and she laid me out. “I told those people I don’t want anybody to come. we don’t even do the processing here, we send it to our corporate office”
She told me two different BC called her and she told them both NO and they sent me there anyway, Another appointment wasn’t open the day I first showed up so, I went back that day her husband called me about 7:30 PM and read me the riot act don’t come back leave my wife’s business lone…
I only respond because I actually sold a deal, can you believe it, I’ve been waiting a week to get my commission, the stories I have been told by Ted are amazing…
Run my friend run.
T
Miriam Durand
Trans Tech is a scam their machines are not good when you try sending it back, they dont send send you the return sticker and then they say that you refused it so they charge you $535.00. They go straight to your bank account and take the money. they are a rip off. i would not recommend anyone with business to use this company. They are very unprofessional. They don’t really care about how you feel, they just take your money and not even apologize when you speak to them on the phone.
PLEASE PEOPLE DON’T USE THIS COMPANY//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Mike Causey
Trans Tech Merchant Group, or TMG, and their affiliated companies are not a friend of their small business customers in my opinion. As a TMG customer, I have been “under contract” for more than 3 years and can hardly wait til the “automatic renewal” that TMG triggered recently (without any prior notifaication) expires this year. As soon as I can get out of this one-sided lease contract, I will never again do business with this unscrupulous firm and their accomplices in unfair trade practices.
With 3 different accounts, TMG has made more money from the many fees and charges than my business has earned during the time under contract. The companies they have contracted to draft monthly fees and charges include J.P. Morgan, Fifth & Third Bank and First American payment Systems.
Once they get the merchant fees, they will never refund or credit any fees as they consider all fees “legitimate charges” under their contract. Very poor customer service! My advice is to steer clear of TMG as a customer or employee.
John
As a new employ I have found what you are saying to be true. I am happy to say that I only sold two systems so not many people will be hurt by this company and one who just signed is already about to cancel the contract. It is only been in effect for three weeks. This company once a salesperson gets to a certain point in the presentation we are to call the sales manager and then they take over from there. We have been told the same things that you have been told so I believe that many salespeople come in good faith but find out that they have been mislead as well. I am sorry for what happened to you and I am experiencing the same thing that you are but from the other side.
TED
transtech is a big fat zero!! customer from 2006 to 2013 now they need $495.00 to stop service thanks
K
Yep–I just found out the same thing when I called to cancel service today. They told me the cancellation fee of $495 and I have ‘obsolete’ equipment that just stopped working a week ago….conveniently 2 months AFTER the automatic agreement took effect. Guess who would like to sell or lease a new terminal to me? Of course I did not realize this was going to happen as I have been with transtech for 8 years and haven’t read the contract since then.
I just read that some states have laws that limit termination fees. For instance Arkansas is supposed to be limited to $50. If I can find that stands for IL I’m done and on to Square or something with no contracts! With this sort of new competition brewing you would think transtech would get a bit more customer friendly and start bending over backwards to keep people happy.
Tammy Cool
OMG!!!
These people tried to stick it to us and although we lost some money it was not as bad as it could have been. Please go straight to the bank and STOP AND BLOCK THEM from getting into your account. Some lady came in and she ask about the machine we currently had and in the process she told us how she went to church and everything!!! Well lets just say she fed us a line of crap so long even God himself would believe her. We had the credit card machine/check cashing machine and a pin pad plus one machine for our drivers. All for a small fee. Well the small fee turned into alot of fees and we could never get a straight answer what the fees were for. 300.00 gone. We had an appointment for her to come in and talk with us and she never showed up and her boss that we tried to call was never in and never call us back. When we did finally talk to him he says “well you did not think you could do all that for nothing , we charge for this and that and on he went on and on about extra fees. They said nothing about any other fees. LIES,.LIES,LIES. Our bank is helping us right now tring to get some money back. These people need to be stopped and if anyone knows what to do legally and needs help I’m in
Ginny
I’m a booth renter in all small salon that has only been open for a year. In the middle of August of this year a salesperson come into the salon saying that the owner set an appointment for her to come in. (Which was a lie) I let her in and let her tell me what she was there for and she was telling me how transtechs equipment will help me increase in sales and tried to tell me so many of the older salons in the area do business with them also. She said I would only have to pay $80 a month and no extra fees were having to be paid. For a card reader customer pad and check reader I figured it was a fair deal, so I signed a noncancellable lease for 3 years. I’m not kicking myself for it because she was so quick into talking me into signing and feeding me lies I didn’t have time to read the contract and had a customer coming in within ten minutes. I pay 102 dollars a month and a third of what transactions goes through the machine every month and they sent me something in the mail to the salon saying they were taking $130 out of my bank out for security! I called them to ask what I could do about canceling service. I had to send a letter telling why and pay $795! Being young and trying up build a new business that’s definitely a life lesson being paid for. I would not recommend small businesses new or old to transtech!
Grashoppr
I signed up with TransTech in 2005. I was aware of the auto-renewing contract and other fine print. Adhering to the contract, I opted out in August 2012, effective October 2, 2012, which was the legal window of opportunity to exit (and I’ve moved to another provider). I paid the recurring fee for October, but now, in November, they’ve charged my account again.
When my window of opportunity opened to exit the contract, I contacted them by phone, confirmed the termination date, got their fax number and physical address, faxed them a letter of cancellation and then sent it to their address by certified/return receipt USPS.
I’ll be disputing the recurring fee charge with my bank today, and I’ll be contacting TransTech today to make it stop. They’re all the same, these processing companies. Biggest boondoggle on earth.
another sucker
Business owners !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am telling you right now !!!! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY !!!! If you have no clue to what you are doing when it comes to merchant services . Then you better do you homework. Company’s like this are out there to bleed you dry. This company can care less about you or you business. This company is here for one reason and one reason only. They want your money !! Company’s like them are the reason small business will never make it from the get go. I have never been treated so ugly by a company . I was getting hit with so many fees twice a week that the sum total for each month was around 800.00 a month. And trust me that is just the begging. Sales person signed me up for two contracts with them and I was getting hit with double fees. When I called to ask why I was being charged double . I was simply told that I had signed two contracts . LOL!!!! why would any business owner sign two contracts for one single business ? of course they refused to reduce any charges or cancel either contract. The only way out was to change my banking account all together. But then the harassing phone calls start . PLEASE PEOPLE SAVE YOUR SELF THE AGGRAVATION. NEVER USE THIS COMPANY !!! TAKE IT FROM SOMEONE WHO HAD TO LEARN THE HARD WAY!
Mud Freak Customs
We had a Transtech sales person come into our business on 7/12/12. She asked for my current processor statement to see if they could beat their fees. The sales person faxed the statement to her supervisor who then called back and told her to tell me they would beat my current processing fees. So I said sign me up. Then the night mare began! I was charged 37.00 for July 2012 in which they didn’t even process a transaction for me. So when I received my statement I immediately called and asked why I was charged fees when no transactions were processed. I was told there was a minimum monthly fee and then a fee if I didn’t meet the minimum fee. I told them I did not know about any minimum fee. they told me it was in my contract. And that I should have read it! I told them I was believing what the sales person that was standing in front of me was saying. I also told them that they were charging more per transaction than what was written on the paper. That is when they explained that that fee was only if I charged a certain amount. I told them I was not made aware of that from the sales person either. Once again they told me it was in the 26 page contract and that I should have read it before I signed it. I told them I should be able to trust the person standing in front of me. To make a long story short they ended up charging more money in fees for two months of service than my old processor would have ever charged me!! This is ridiculous and they need to be stopped. We are a very small family owned business and there deceitfulness has caused us hundreds of dollars in fees from them and od fees from our bank because we weren’t aware of there fees being deducted. Please shut this company down!!
Lynn Williams
We signed up with TransTech because the representative said we would save money and we had 90 days to try it. On the 30th day, October 12th, we called him and said we had just received our statement and it was costing us quite a bit more than our previous provider, plus they did not pay off the lease on our old machine as promised and we were still be charged for it. What cost us $49.23 in fees/lease rental with our old provider cost us $67.78 with transtech, plus the $31.83 for the old machine they didn’t pay off. When I called customer service, they said we would have had to submit a letter by October 12th in order to cancel. Even though we called the rep (would did not return our call), they would not let us out of the contract. This is the poorest customer service I have experienced. Why would a company want to keep a client on aboard, if they are unhappy with the product?
John Smith
As a former business owner. I have no clue how Trans Tech employees called and said that I applied for a Sales position at their company. They stated that I applied online which I never did! Long story short, they make it sound so good through webinar training for about 4 hours training just 1 day only. Right away, they want you to go out the field and make some sales with little training and knowledge about their company products. I kind of already felt suspicious during their training so therefore I moved forward anyway. They said you will work with your team leader when you are out to meet business owners. They assigned me with a team leader name, Drew Clanton, he was a nightmare to me! He thinks very highly himself and talking down on you like you are nobody. He was a rudest person to talk to and he scheduled the appointments for me to go which its were all bad leads as they called a teamwork. I fell really bad for all the Sales Reps are driving and running around for nothing like myself! As many as people already complained about how ignorance a guy like Drew. I have called their corporate office in Dallas several times to complained about how rule Drew is. Obviously, they have not done anything but still have him working there for about ten years already. That to tell you what kind of company they are!!! I am glad that i quit before i have signed any merchant out there. Please, please everyone don’t work for these scam company or do business with them. Drew, i hope you put yourself in that situation like other than you now how it feels or maybe not like your cold stone heart. The day you are FIRED than the day you will know where you are stand. Last advised everyone, please do google search if you ever look for a job for any company or do business with them if you never heard of the companies’ names. I have learned my lesson!!! I hope with my bad experience and other people had would be helpful to you.
Richard lee
Horrible and unbelievable! I am one of their sales consultant under a team leader name, Drew Clanton (horrible liar). Like so many other people have complained about Trans Tech, it’s so truth everyone! For a worst experience that I had working with Drew Clanton. My first day, he sent me out with three appointments were all bad and worse leads! 1st appointment, owner wasn’t there! 2nd appointment owner wasn’t there again and aware about the appointment! And last and worse, Drew sent me to an appointment where the business has close about one year ago!!! Then he tried to go around and give me a new address of that business. When i asked and confirmed with him that all appointments are good to go! Please take my advise and others so you don’t have to waste your time…Good luck everyone!
JjEFF BURLINGAME
Was a client of TMG, the credit card reader that they sent me broke after a little over one year. When I called to see about getting it repaired they advised” we do not repair those units, we will send you another but there will be a re-programing charge of $175.00.
I cancelled my contract; needless to say I had to pay a penalty.
VERY DIS-SATIFIED WITH TRANSTECH
Brandi
I am the owner of a day spa in the Greater New Orleans area. Yesterday, an incredibly pushy lady called and asked if I would be in the following day as a rep from TransTech Merchant Group would be in the area. I told her yes, I would be in, but I would be busy most of the day. No appointment time was made. Today, a rep from this company, James Kelly, came in to the spa. When I saw what he was offering and that it was NOT compatible with my POS system, I declined and sent him on his way. He then said he had to call the office and would I mind talking to his supervisor. I said yes, I minded, I was busy, and thanked him for his time and pointed to the door. Not one minute later I received a phone call from the supervisor, who was incredibly rude and told me that I shouldn’t have made an appointment with his rep if I wasn’t interested in their services.
We get pushy salesmen calling on the phone all the time, but if you walk into my place of business and expect me to possibly be a future client, then treat me and my place of business with a little respect. This sales call was completely unprofessional and if this is the way they handle an initial encounter with me, I am so very grateful that I didn’t do any business with them.
J
Former Employee! DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY ARE JUST THERE FOR THE MONEY, NOT SERVICE. I signed up to become a TransTech salesman after going threw the training I started doing my daily appointments every single appointment I had was ether no longer there or was closing down, then after I called and complained to my so called “manager” he sent me on one last appointment I went in and had a nice heart to heart with the women who was managing the place and it turns out THEY HAD NEVER BEEN CONTACTED BY ANYONE FROM MY COMPANY AND HAD NEVER APPROVED FOR ME TO COME IN AND TALK TO THEM ABOUT THE PRODUCTS!!! I told her I was sorry for the mix up and handed my phone to her to speak to RICK MY so called “MANAGER” HE told her I did have an appointment there that day and after she told him once again no I didn’t he started to ask her if she knew anyone in the area that would be interested in what we had to sale. She said no and that his company was no longer welcomed in there store! THIS COMPANY SOUNDED WAY TO GOOD TO BE TRUE AND IT WAS! THERE GREADY AND ARE ONLY THERE TO SCAM NICE HARD WORKING PEOPLE OUT OF THERE MONEY! DO NOT WORK/ GO INTO BUSINESS WITH THEM PLEASE!
James Wojey
Calling TransTech Merchant Group a Preditor is an understatement. They just plain out lie about everything. I had a Merimac lease on my credit card machine that odly enough when my lease was up I was bombarded with calls from millions of places offering visa processing. I called merimac lease and was informed that I still had a few months left on my lease. The calls continued at a crazy pace until I pulled out my lease agreement and found I had been paying 5 additional months on an expired lease. Then when I called merimac I was informed I would not be refunded the additional payments and the lease was automatically renewed for another year per my contract. Once I cancelled my lease and found another processors all the calls stopped, I was getting 20-50 per day! Not to mention all the mail and contracts from merimac and transtech for visa machines and processing on a daily basis. Now I am trying to cancel transtech processing and they are also telling me that my lease automaticlly renews every year and they want $600 to cancel my contract that I did not know or agree to continue with. I wish I could do something to impact there business to let everyone know that they are nothing less than a real bad business model. I also would like to know how many other businesses the are connected with.
Rita Hicks
Trans merchant group started off with harassing phone calls to get the owner of the salon where i am renting to upgrade her machine to something unaffordable for her,so she switched companies which left me with a contract to fulfill. for two more years( i thought) . I tried to cancel after two years and they said it was three years, so i waited a bother year and tried to cancel and now they are saying it automatically renewed for another year, Poor service poor help when needed and it is a totally unethical business.
A.M
NEW BUSINESS…Tile Store needing a higher sale ticket.
I was paying high rates from bank services and was looking to reduce my rates.
As some of the others listed I did not want to be locked into anything. I specifically did not want to go forward till the under writers approved my business for the ticket level I needed. Next thing I know same week I recieve my equipment but I wasn’t approved yet. The underwriters called on week 2 to tell me I am a high Risk high ticket business. I told them to STOP, not proceeed and we would relook at switching next year when I have more of a business history. I told them I recieved the equipment and need to send it back. I put the box aside unopened and several months went by. They charged me $2,147.00 (talk about flipping out) They said they sent me a return ticket but I didnt see it.
In researching this charge I find out I am also locked into a 3 year contract and I was approved for online charges only (why did they send me the equipment) for an amount to low for me to run my business. ***I finally received today the return ticket, I took pictures of everything, documented all the items (4) and hope to get refunded.** The ticket said if the equipment is not returned within 14 days they will charge me $400 per item again…I couldn’t pack fast enough!!
If there is a class action suit against Transtech I will join in. They are a total scan company. They know very well what they are doing. They are the scum of the business world and unfortunately we can’t see their true intentions till it’s to late. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH TRANSTECH MERCHANT SERVICES!!!!
Dave
They’re still out there. Just had a transtech rep in my store today. Same as above, mentioned the “Durbin Act”, didn’t seem to know much about his business, kept calling his supervisor, but couldn’t get through so wasted a lot of time. Promised he could save us $4000 a year in costs. Wanted to rent us terminals (ours are so out of date, don’t you know) for $70 each per month for 5 years! No thanks!
courtney wheeler
Some how transtech got the number to my restaurant and keep calling me and asking me to just speak to a sales rep. I kept telling them that i already had a merchant group and was not interested. The calls keep coming and finally i had to get rude but the person on the phone insisted that they were sending a rep over and then hurried up and hung up. On 7/20 a sales rep walks into my store and starts his sell pitch, i decided to listen. He promised me that even with me leasing the new equipment, i would come out way cheaper than with my other merchant group. several times i asked why i couldnt use my current machine and he told me that due to laws that will go into effect within the next couple of years would make my machine illegal and out of date (saying that it wouldnt have the proper capabilities). He also explained to me that if i was unhappy with their service that i could call and cancel within a 30day period and would not be charged for canceling nor would i be charged for the equipment as long as i returned it. One of my main concerns were if my business would last. He assured me that i was not “locked in” as long as i contacted transtech within 30 days. From here i was sold and anxious to save some money monthly. i receive my machine on 7/26 and the sales rep was so kind to come back to my restaurant and help set my machine up. He even came in and ate later in the evening and told me that he could reward me for any referrals. Today, which is 8/2, i was not at all happy with the fees that were coming out of my account so i decided to call customer service.Mind you i only had the machine for six business days and already i was well past the rates that he promised. The first customer service rep i talked to assured that they had overcharged me one fee and that he would refund my money. I then told him that i was not satisfied with their service and would like to opt out. He transferred me to the proper department and a lady gave me the proper steps to submit a letter stating that i wanted to cancel. She informed me that transtech had nothing to do with the lease of the equipment so she gave me the proper number. Now this was a complete surprise because the sales rep kept referring to that same equipment as “ours.” He even showed me a brochure of “our” equipment. After contacting the leasing company the lady there informed me that i had sign a non- cancellable lease. Wow! What happened to my 30 days? This is day one and i will be very persistent in trying to resolve this matter. If anyone could give me any info that could help it would be greatly appreciated.
Min
have u get ur problem solved?
What did u do?
My nightmare with them has just started.
Dawn
This company is a bunch of lying ignorant thieves. I tried to cancel within the 30 day, faxed to a number I KNOW she made up. never went through…hmmm. then by that Monday it was to late. this piece of equipment is from 1980. now im stuck paying them?? NOT. I paid a fee to my bank so they would not be able to draw from my account. ILL SEE YOU IN COURT TRANS TECH.
cyborgs gaming
I’m not going to bother with my list of complaints against transtech. It is more of the same as others have typed. Admittedly they haven’t stolen as much from me as they have from others here. I was quicker to act and change banks so they couldn’t steal more money from me. Also I’ve been making heavy use of the Better Business Bureu and the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC told me that the best way to fight them back is to get together with other victims and work together to bring these criminals down. Most likely this would be done through a Class Action Lawsuit. Now I would have personally been satisfied with Transtech leaving me alone and not stealing any more money from me. They pushed the issue to try to con me out of even more money though and forced me to become more aggressive in fighting back. I also got to thinking that it is in huge part because of criminals like these that our country is in the troubles it is in right now. If they are not stopped they will continue to exploit and destroy other small businesses. We owe it to ourselves, our country, and other small businesses to fight back and work together to put Transtech and the related “companies” out of business, and get some of our stolen money back in the process. Please contact the Federal Trade Commission both using the online reporting and by phone, and follow up. I’d also like to get in contact with other victims to work this out and gather evidence against them, but I’m not sure if I can post my email on here. Knowing my company name though it should not be too hard to find me and contact me. Know also that any employee of Transtech has already been ordered not to contact me and any contact from a transtech employee will be reported as another case of harassment and attempted theft.
dana Summarell
We as a small business was duped into siging a contract with these people. They were to pay off our old lease agreement, and the early termination fee. We were told this could take up to 3 or four months for all the leases to be paid off. So imagine our surprise when not only have they not paid off our old lease nor the early termination fees, so we are being double charged each month and we are told that even though we have a contract that states that they were to [ay it off that becasue they have not done so we as business owners cannot go to our bnk and doa stop payment on TransTech as a company….how is the small business gonna make it with companies like this one taking all they can get there hands on. Tried calling one of the 1800 numbers yesterday and it h ad been disconnected,but you had better beleive they are still taking money from us. I want to get rid of this equipment, i would love to have all the money that we have paid ,being doubled billed, returned and I want someone who can or will help to contact us.What ever happened to people doing what they say they are gonna do..apparently no one at this company has ever heard of the American Way…..
B & B Auto Service
I am co-owner of a automotive repair shop in Walkertown, NC. we had Trans Tech/Secure Chex service rep aproach our shop aprox 8 or 9 months ago and con us into switching providers and paying our old contract off-to this day they have not, we are paying for two providers and we have tried numorus times to get this problem resolved with no success.I tried again today to contact them just to find out the phone number has been changed or no longer in service!!! any help with this would be greatly appreciated–I also need to know how to get out of our contract and get a good provider.
thank you, Billy Summarell
Martha
These people will lie to you a thousand times. Drew Clanton is one of the people who work there and he is a pathological liar. Do you work for them. You will not get paid.
Kelly
I have never done business with this company and they just tried to debit my business bank account for $850. Not sure how they got the information. Very upset about this. We called our current credit card processing and they called the number they had for them and said they had no record of us but the number the bank gave us was to a full voice mail. I would be very wary of this company.
Jean Adams
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY ARE JUST THERE FOR THE MONEY, NOT SERVICE.
Salesman was nice but did not know much about the services. She got on the phone with her supervisor at TransTech to answer my questions. Their pitch sounds good, but you must fill out a contract application with you bank account information. To make a long story short, I called and cancelled before the 3 day federal requirement for cancellation then followed up with a letter to cancel the service (which I never used). This happened midApril and the first of May they took their “processing fees” of $37.42 out of my bank account.
I call every couple of weeks to try to get my money back. They say they submitted my refund, BUT it was rejected. Rejected by whom??? They can’t say. It is over one month of phone calls (about once a week) and I still do not have my refund. Today I called again and they said they would “submit a refund request.” Guess I’ll have to wait for hell to freeze over for the refund for services that they never provided!
Jim
Jean, they took about $30 from my business acct AFTER the contract ended, they had the machine back and we properly canceled the acct. They took 3 months to send the money back, by check. Check was because they said when they tried to credit the money back to the acct it was rejected – a lie. My bank said they did not reject it. I mailed a letter to their legal dept, faxed it to several numbers I had and that was the first time a manager bothered to return my phone call and dispute that I had been lied to 3 times about why they took the money. Put it in writing. They’re horrible.
Brian
Can’t believe all the similar related reviews here. The same thing happened to me by Transtech Merchant. We kept seeing $45.95 monthly fees on our bank account. We inquired about why this was happening even though we weren’t using their services nor authorized these fees. They claimed we had signed a contract that committed us to 3 years of using them. We told them to discontinue our account after the 3 years was up as they threatened us with a early termination fee of $490+ dollars. 4 years and 2 months has passed and after carefully reviewing our statements again, i realize they have still been charging us. I contact them again and the same story. They are saying that the period of cancelling the account is already past and we would be charged a $490+ Early Termination Fee if we cancel at this point. I claim that we have already asked them to cancel after the 3 year period. They say they have no record of that. I ask to speak to a supervisor, and/or their management.
Of course, that was fruitless.
Am attempting to take this to small claims.
Ray
Thank you all for the warnings!!!! …I was considering a position with this company, and completed the “one day training” , yesterday. I guess that my bull detector was working, because I certainly did not feel ‘trained’ and have more questions about the company now, than I did before the ‘training’ started…..As a business owner, myself, the non-cancellation clauses and the extremely overpriced equipment seemed more than excessive….Thank goodness that I have some income, as I can see how desperation could make this an attractive job for some.
Abby
Hey, i did that excruciating one day training too, and i also DID NOT understand the company afterwards even less after the training. After all these comments i think im going to go ahead and stay home tomorrow and not begin my first day of work. Not once have I heard about how we will be paid. And did i even get PAID for the webinar, you’re supposed to be PAID for training….im disappointed because i thought this was a good company, but id rather not work for a company that has so much negative -ness behind it. I LOVE HOW YOU PUT, “I can see how desperation could make this an attractive job for some.” and that’s true, i had heard that you can make up to 1100 a week and that sounds great…but i dont feel comfortable.
Peggy Mowrey
Ditto, ditto to all of the above! This company has unscrupulous practices and needs to be terminated.
Rick
I spoke to a lady about cancelling our merchant services account with Transtech and was told that our “contract” automatically renewed and that it would expire in a couple of months so I then asked for a copy of said signed “contract” and was told that I would receive it in 24-48 hours. I did not receive the “contract” in 48 hours so I then called Transtech back asking for the contract and was asked to verify the business by our Fed. Tax ID #, which I did, and was told that Transtech did not have that number on file, even though on Monday 5/7 I provided that very same number to Kara and nothing was said about it not being on file. I then asked Denise to speak to a supervisor and of course one was not available. Denise said that she’d have to put in a “queue” for the supervisor to call me back and it would take 24-48 hours for that to happen. I then asked Denise to speak to any supervisor and of course one was not available, that I’d have to call back in and talk to someone else. This company is a SCAM.
Sharon Keggan
This company is not worthy of it’s name
Phillip CPO
Hi Sharon, can you provide more details of your experience? Otherwise, we’ll have to delete this comment since it’s not technically a review of the Trans Tech’s services.
Key Elements Resale
We were taken by Transech for several thousand dollars, the amount is still to be determined,.They turned our business over to a coillection agency which has practically destroyed our credit & good standing in our community. Their machine didn’t work, they violated the terms of the contract with overcharges placed on us that weren’t in the contract, we’ve had the contract reviewed for violations & so many were found it was almost comical. We’re small business & the damage they are still causing with the bully coillection tactics they are using has just about driven us out of our minds as we are a down to earth, award winning small business & they are trying to sully our name by ruining our credit. I refuse to allow these people to stay in business in the state of Arkansas any longer & ruin my business & our lives. Please follow up every complaint you get & run these people who commit brutal business fraud on good people out of this community! Thank you, Key Elements Resale
Chris
I was recruited to work for trans merchant group. I was sent on their calls to local businesses on the east central coast of Florida. They use a bait and switch tactic ( using the durbin bill to get into businesses to solicit business) which is ineffective and an archaic approach to generate leads. I was asked to lie to a supervisors superior to state that a deal had been consummated to protect my superiors job. More than 66 percent of the appointments I attended ( via the call center) were under false pretences using ” Legislation” as an in to solicit business. I worked for them 3 days, during which time 10 local business owners reported to my supervisor that they had explicitly stated not to send a rep to their business. I had to say ” I am sorry”. I live in a small community. I live, work and attend church in a small town. This company uses bait and switch tactics to get reps in to visit businesses. Today I lost a sale to a competetor who had superior pricing and provided a small mom and pop business with better customized service. I was glad to lose the sale. Having spoke to the rep of the competitor, I was glad to see a struggling business stay afloat. I presented a package that was the best TMG could offer and the offer was beaten……Thank God. As a former business owner and a retired Registered Nurse I know A SCAM when I see it . This company is it. Beware if you are solicited for business or are recruited for employment. The product is actually good, however the tactic is poor and the contract is 5 years ( too long for technology cycles). They take advantage of employees and of small businesses. I sincerely hope that businesses on the east coast of Florida and potential future employees of this company read this blog. Any individual with a conscience could not or would not work or do business with this company……………
Biba
Report them to all 3 Credit Bureaus.
TransTech is the merchants who scam you into the contract they work under First American Payments as field agents, Fidelity is contracted to them to collect the money and have the power to report you to Bureaus. I was scammed and my signature was forged onto a contract that I never saw after I was asked to fax my ID to resolve the issue of the sales rep ordering a machine, in which he called FED EX to see when it was being delivered then waited at my business on my week off, signed for it activated it and stole it.
Here are the steps to resolve issue and protect yourself.
TransTech Merchant Group
3220 Keller Springs Road
Carrollton Texas, 75006
First American Payment Systems
1-888-733-4265
Fidelity Creditor Service
Jonathon Sylvia
Louis Brown
216 S. Louis St
Glendale CA. 91205
(818)502-1981
Report all three above companies listed above to the companies below.
BBB
Federal Trade Commission
1-877-382-4357
Texas Attorney General
1-800-621-0508
http://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov
Equifax
TransUnion
Experian
Cindy's Flowers and Gifts in Pocola OK
I have been using Trans Tech merchant group for the credit card transactions in at my flower shop since September of 2010. I had some trouble with my credit card processing unit and called the company for assitance. I had a bad experience with customer service and never did get any help from the woman I spoke with. I ended up so upset I hung up the phone, and that is not something I do. I did get another unit in the mail, switched it out, and since have had trouble again with this unit. I received the unit on March 21, and on April 10, noticed my account had been debited over five hundred dollars without my knowledge or approval. Now, my finances are in the red and when I called the company and spoke with customer service, again, I received the statement “well, it’s in your contract”. I cannot do anything about this, they have no business just taking money out of a business account without notifying me first, or checking to see if this would put me in a bind. They didn’t care, and would not get a supervisor or anyone who could help me or exlplain this to me. I am used to doing business with people who care. We are supposed to be on the same team, I am a small business and get absolutely no respect from your company. I was lied to from the very beginning by Curtis Weir, and he no longer works for you apparently because of his lying and scamming small businesses like me. HIs phone number is [redacted]. I was not given the proper information from this man when he signed me up for your services. He told me all I had to do was go to the bank and stop payment and change my checking account number to stop this service. Also, I was charged aproximately six thousand dollars for not paying and changing the account number. So I was stuck with a service I didnt want, I couldnt do anything about this, and now I am another five hundred and forty dollars in the red as of yesterday because I didnt return the equipment within the fourteen days, I was waiting for my usual Fed Ex man to come in, which he usually does a couple times a week, and he has not been here. However, I called Fed Ex this morning and this box of equipment will be picked up in the morning and on its way back. I expect my account to be credited by Friday April 13, as you should have received it by then. I refuse to wait on a credit as you did not wait for the return of this unit. You could have been curteous and at least called me first before destroying my financial situation and causing me a lot of unneccesary upset.
Angry business owner wanting to change companies. CIndy Bell (Owner/Operator 12 years in business)
Monica
I have been a customer of Transtech for the past 9 years. I have recently reviewed my statements from them and was in shock to see how many additional fees were on my statement than what they originally stated. What caused me to begin reviewing my statements more closely was that I had two transactions to come into my office one for $4500.00 and the other $1100.00. Both transactions were approved by the customers credit card service, however, Transtech said that both transactions were over my ticket limit of $700.00 therefore, they were going to hold the money until I secured another form of payment from the customer. (So they are basically asking the customer to pay TWICE). Transtech had each customer to call in to verify the services rendered, they asked me to fax over a copy of the signed ticket and my invoice for services and still denied releasing the funds. They then told me that they have the right to hold the customer’s money for 6 six months without releasing until the customer calls to dispute the transactions. What a nightmare, and what a negative reflection on me as a business owner. After the my customer and myself continued to contact Transtech they finally agreed to reverse the transaction back to the customer and still charged me the normal fees for swiping the card. If Transtech treats me this way after 9 years of business with them I can’t expect any better behavior in the future. I want my customers to feel confident with me as their service provider, not to look at me like I’m shady because of a shady merchant processor! I am done with Transtech!
sld
First of all,Ii would have to say that these customers that are signing up know up front what they are getting into and it just blows my mind that these complaints are even documented. I would say to the people that think they have been scammed….how can you be scammed when you know in advance what your getting into. The lease clearly states that it is a NON-CANCELLABLE LEASE! It clearly states that you will be paying on the machine for 60 months, and if your not leasing and just using the reprogramming, its a three year contract. I think buyers remorse is the problem. Personally, I think the service is wonderful and a great opportunity for small to medium business owners. It’s a cut throat business due to the fact that there are over 7000 processing companies throughout the world and it is a very competative business. You will find complaints on the majority of them because with that many customers, your bound to have some unhappy people. Bottom line people…..you want to pay less for processing? Trans Tech has state of the art equiptment and they will bend over backwards for the customer. I work for them and I love my job. i have to deal with the backlash of the salesperson(s) who gave us a bad name…one actually went to jail over it. I just want to say that I am sorry if you have had a bad experience with them, but I personally think they rock.
Brian
Hi Sid, can you help me with my account? They have been charging fees on a business that is no longer in business and I have been trying to get them to stop sending the bills to our business.
Thanks in advance.
Jeanine
I had a TransTech salesperson come into my business to tell me about how much money they could save me. This guy didn’t seem to know anything about the company so he handed me his phone with a representative on the other line named Jeff Mackey. I wasn’t interested even when he claimed they would pay off our contract cancellation fee because I am happy with my provider and they were currently in the process of negotiating a lower rate for me anyway. The rep claimed he would just give me a “quote” that I could provide to my current provider to see if they could match their offer…if they could he was glad to help out a small business(bullcrap) and if they couldn’t then we would be glad to assist me in signing up for the services. I said “Sure, I’ll take the quote and let you know if I’m interested after I talk with my current provider”. I handed the phone back to the sales guy who commenced taking instructions from Jeff to fill out the “Application” for me and AFTER he had filled everything out, he showed me the “quote”. It wasn’t until after he left and I researched the company that I realized he had flat out lied to me and that I had actually signed up for the services. Luckily I caught it quick enough and went to my bank which went above and beyond to assist me in making sure the “application” was canceled and that I wouldn’t be charged for something I had no intention of signing up for.
So when you say these people know what they are signing up for, I have no doubt that you and the rest of your coworkers at TranTech did everything they could to make sure these people didn’t know what they were signing up for. And you can’t say this was a result of a sales person not knowing his stuff…this was the representative on the phone sitting in front of a computer with complete understanding that he had blatantly lied to me. I have never dealt with such corrupt people in my life, which is why I didn’t realize at the time that this wasn’t simply a “quote”…but thanks for teaching me a valuable lesson in business Sid, “Don’t trust anyone ever.”
Gerry
If TransTech is so great why do they have the Sales Rep. fill out all of the contract pages by hand but the ones that are the final drafts are all typed meaning those signature are not legal. You can’t legally copy or transfer signatures to another copy of the contract. If you are a up and up company why would there be a need to do this. Also would like for everyone that was coned into the equipment company that TransTech uses Lease Finance Group LLC. If you received a copy of the final contract threw the mail then look at the very bottom where it says on the “mailed copies” Page 1 of 4, Page 2 of 4, Page 3 of 4 and Page 4 of 4. Now look at the copies that was left by your rep. it probably says Page 1 of 2 and Page 2 of 2. Which is TT and LFG way of hiding the cancelation policy and form. Now why would a Great Company hide these simple but very important facts. By the way this is just two items I’ve pointed out. There are several more .
DOUG CARLSON
I was told by trans tech rep that I would “save a ton of money, due to new laws is reference to debit card transactions”. Our business already is and was using a different credit card machine. When reading the small print, I stated to the rep, we dont want to locked in with this company if the rates are more expensive. I was told by the rep ” dont worry we can do a 30 day trail” He hand wrote it on the contract and had me intial the paragraph. Our company waited for the monthly statement from trans tech to compare with the one we where currently using. It is now March, and found on my bank statement that this company is currently charging our company a monthly fee. Called the company and their response is you signed the contract and are obligated for three years, I told them this was a 30 day trail nothing more, their response is we are going to charge you $ 730 dollars, put your company on a black list and place into collections. What, all this for a trail, nice. If a rep comes into your store, tell him or her to get the ##@@*& out! If you dont all that will happen is your company will get $#@&ed.
Former Employee
Sounded legitimate so I did an all day training webinar. I used up half my monthly data allowance and accumulated 96 minutes overage on my cell phone to do it but thought it was worth it to get some income flowing again for my family. The next day I began running “appointments”. The “clients” either had no clue I was coming or told me that they had told the caller that they did NOT want the appointment. I was told to get the supervisor (whatever his real name was) on the phone with the clients to “thank them for their time”. The second time I did that, he started arguing with the business owner on the phone! I finally motioned for her to hang up on him and deeply apologized. I was able to smoothe things over on a personal level–my name and reputation were at stake, too and I was incredibly embarassed at how he was abusing/harassing the potential clients. The supervisor, after the phone argument was over and I was back in the car, assured me that there was still potential for a sale and that was just the kind of client that he is an expert at winning! But that poor small business manager wanted absolutely nothing to do with either him or the company and had declined the appointment in the first place. I expressed my concerns about not being expected or wanted at the businesses and my manager assured me that this happens alot but that the business owners were lying to me! He advised me to make sure I did not look like a salesperson and to not let my purpose be known until after I chit chatted for a short bit and had befriended the owner. But they should have been expecting me and been eager to learn about the benefits of what I had to offer–so why did I have to sneak in?
I was assured during some additional “training” that evening that the reason for the poor results was that my approach was wrong. He again assured me that the “clients” were all, every single one of them, lying to me. But he himself admitted to using lies and disceptions! He also had lots of examples of recent closed deals and of employees making thousands of dollars weekly. I could not believe any of that since their appointment setup was so flawed. But I was still hopeful and needed income so I thought I could just work on self-generated leads instead.
But before I did that, I needed to make sure that all of their services etc. were really as good as they sounded. I began researching and found that their BBB rating is atrocious. And the internet is full of complaints about them from business owners and former employees! Former employees described their experiences to be exactly like mine. No, the small business owners were not lying but Certified Payment Processing/TransTech Merchant Group and their employees sure are!
The next morning, while I was calling the businesses I had visited to appologize and warn them, my “supervisor” called with my assignments for the day. I told him straight up what I had learned and that I will not accept or be a part of lies, abuse, and disception. He had some patheticly lame comebacks/excuses/explanations that I could not believe after my research. He claimed that “people just post stuff”–but that would be a lot of people spending a lot of time building a vast conspiracy to harm a company! I believe the posters. Some of the details vary but overall everyone was telling the same story–except my “supervisor”. He began trying to argue with me on the phone and I had to hang up on him. That is only the second time I have hung up on someone that I can recall. He was that bad. A little later, I got a phone call supposidly from my “supervisor”s supervisor to interrogate me for an “exit survey”. He also tried to argue with me (bullying/intimidation the only tactic these people have). He seemed to be trying to keep me on the phone as long as possible and this made me nervous–it reminded me of the old movies in which they try to keep the criminal on the phone long enough for a trace to go through. Why did they want me on the line so bad? It was clear that I knew they were/are scum and liars and I took a clear stance and was obviously not going to be won over to their evil ways. [overly dramatic? Not at all–just ask their victims] I told him firmly not to have any further contact with me and hung up on him, too. Have any former employees had trouble after quiting? These guys are sooo dirty and I read one (though only one) report about them showing up unannounced at a former employee’s home. A second account alluded to that being a possible problem. Regretably, they have all of my personal information that I gave during the hiring process and I do NOT trust them with it. Anything that can help warn and inform small businesses and jobseekers that this company is a fraud must be done. I intend to post my story everywhere I can and will petition to have them removed from the online job postings. They may change/add company names in order to continue operating but the truth doesn’t change and “a dung pile by any other name” still reeks and is full of maggots.
Debra M
This company should not be allowed to do business! A sales rep came to my business to offer me lower rates for processing my credit card transactions. She brought the contract with her and told me to fill it out right then because this “deal” was only good that day. I told her my only concern would be cancellation fees because due to running a very small photography studio, and the bad economy, I was worried that my business might not make it another year. She assured me that there would be NO early cancellation fees and even wrote that on my contract and initialed it. Sadly, I was only in business a year and had to close my doors. When I did everything the Rep told me to do to cancell my service, they told me they would not cancel without a fee of $495.
I faxed them notice of going out of business, my bank faxed them proof that I had closed my business and all business accounts. When I called them, they were extremely rude and didn’t care what the facts were… Only kept telling me their contract is uncancellable and I would owe them $495 or they would keep the account open. Two weeks after this phone call, I get a letter (a BILL) from American Payment Systems for $1079! I called again to try and resolve the issue only to have them tell me again that they “don’t care what their Rep told me, and I owe the money.”. They also said that if I didn’t pay, this will be on my credit report.
Needless to say, I am furious with this company. I plan to contact my attorney general,
And Texas Attorney General.
Roger
Please contact Greg Abbott, Attorney General for the state of Texas immediately and let his office know the situation. They are trying to say they cannot accept the word of a “contract” employee , but……they accepted the contract and approved it with the initials and did not offer to contact you about it. Once you have contacted the office of Greg Abbott, call TMG/CPP/Summit/etc. and tell them what you have done. Offer to take them to small claims court with the copy of the contract you were given by THEIR rep.
I know this due to I worked there for about 4 years as one of their trainers. You have the copy
THEIR agent left you, the one they used to finalize the sale……….
Nancy Burks
Trans Tech materially misrepresented their fees and attempted to charge me for two businesses, when in fact I was only operating one. They asserted they could save me a substantial amount of money, when in fact there was no savings. The sales rep was very new and was depending on the senior sales manager, Drew Clanton,at the home office, to deliver the proposal via phone. I was pressured to sign the contract right away without reading it and of course, now that I have cancelled their services, they are demanding $495 in “liquidating damages”. I have filed a complaint with the Missouri State Attorney General’s office. I would like to see this company banned from doing business in Missouri. They take advantage of small business owners who are unable to wade through the maze of fees, rates, discounts, etc. that they throw at you at a rapid fire pace.
Deb
I had an account with these people also and they would take money from my account without notifing me and caused me to be over drafted where I would have more fees to pay and the same thing they wanted their money but when yoou called to talk with someone that person no longer works for us,
The sale rep that came to my business I was able to reach by phone and he told me that he no longer worked for these people because he could not stand himself for riping off people like me and if I needed help in court with these problems he would help me in anyway he could! The rip you blind and that why us small businesses can’t make a go at it and I never got my web site that they said they where goiing to set up because they never did it but charged the fees for it. Hope everyone see the light and gets away from this company!
Gary
I would rate Transtech as a “Zero”. They have charged my account over $1600 but were never able to process 1 single transaction. I had 3 accounts with them and canceled all three within 30 days as per contract. But Transtech delayed entering the cancelation and it required 3 separate follow-up calls to finally get all three accounts canceled it was obvious they were trying to stall past the 30 day trial period. They have also charged my account with several equipment charges for the processing equipment but have refused to send any return authorization information or address to send the equipment back. I don’t dare send it back without some return authorization of confirmation because I am certain they would claim it was never returned. At this point Transtech has cost me almost $2000 in fees and I cannot confirm that that can actually process credit card of if it is all a scam and the equipment they sent me actually works or they sold me faulty equipment that they nerve intended to allow me to return.
Irene zhang
Same here, I feel I am so rush to trust a new credit card company which just wanna sale their business through the phone and without doing any research about them, it’s totally a ripoff company and did nothing as they said! When I call them, no one gonna take care of my situation and also the interest rate is so high, they just write down a rate randomly which is so low that u thought u will save money! But when the statement come out, that’s totally a different story, they just wanna grab ur money right away, and when u talk to ur salesman, he just said he is not working for this company at all! Anyway, do not put ur business to TransTech!!! This is a ripoff!!!