TSYS Merchant Solutions Overview
Acquired by Global Payments
TSYS is one of the largest credit card processors in the United States. The company has two primary areas of business. The first, which will be the focus of this review, is its direct sales channel called “TSYS Merchant Solutions.” The second is its processing platform, “TSYS Acquiring Solutions.” It’s important to understand the difference between these two entities because your relationship with the company will be different depending on which channel you’re dealing with. First we’ll cover the acquiring side.
On May 28, 2019, Global Payments announced its acquisition of TSYS in a $21.5 billion all-stock deal. The acquisition had been speculated upon for some time in the months preceding its confirmation. TSYS is among the largest merchant service providers in the world, making Global Payments acquisition of the company a seminal moment for the industry. The announcement follows a flurry of acquisitions among competitors as FiServ announced its acquisition of First Data in January for $22 billion as well as FIS’ acquisition of Worldpay for approximately $35 billion.
Backend Credit Card Processing
TSYS Acquiring Solutions is a merchant acquirer located in Tempe, Arizona. The company specializes in acting as a backend credit card processor for non-acquiring banks, Independent Sales Organizations (ISOs), and companies that create and sell credit card processing technology. In other words, it supplies the credit card processing for other companies that sell merchant services. As a merchant in this scenario, you would have a third party company between you and TSYS that would be setting up and managing your merchant account.
Direct Merchant Services
On the direct sales side, TSYS has its own sales offices with dedicated sales staff that can set up a merchant directly with credit card processing services. This channel is called “TSYS Merchant Solutions” (tsysmerchantsolutions.com). In this scenario, there is no third party company between you and TSYS, and you will be dealing with TSYS directly for account setup and management.
Direct Processing vs TSYS Resellers
It is important to understand that a very large part of TSYS’s business is supplying backend credit card processing services for other sales organizations that resell services to small businesses seeking merchant accounts. In many cases, TSYS does not supply merchant accounts directly to merchants although the TSYS brand name may appear on the merchant account agreement. The banks, subsidiaries, and partners that resell TSYS credit card processing can often set the terms of their own contracts and mark up the processing rates and fees as they please. This practice can cause confusion with merchants as TSYS may have had nothing to do with the terms and pricing of the account. To add to the confusion, some partners manage the customer service of their accounts in-house while others outsource it to TSYS’s Back Office Support program. Depending on the partner, a merchant may either deal with the partner’s customer service or TSYS’s customer service. For the purposes of this review, we’ll focus on TSYS’s back office support and direct sales channel.
TSYS Location and Ownership
Headquartered at 1 TSYS Way, Columbus, Georgia, TSYS has been processing credit card payments since the 1970s and is one of one of the few processors listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TSS). TSYS has acquired several other processors in its history, including First National Merchant Solutions (FNMS), Clarity Payment Solutions, Card Tech Ltd., TermNet Merchant Services, ProPay, TransFirst, and, most recently, Cayan. Some of these companies have remained independently branded while others have been absorbed into the TSYS brand name. Troy Woods is the chairman, president, and CEO of TSYS.
TSYS Merchant Solutions Review Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: TSYS typically offers a three-year contract which automatically renews for one year and includes an early termination fee.
- Complaints & Service: TSYS has received more than 40 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: TSYS has an “A+” rating with the Better Business Bureau and has received 69 complaints in the past three years.
- Sales & Marketing: TSYS utilizes independent sales agents and has received some complaints about its sales practices.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With TSYS
TSYS Merchant Solutions Statement Analyzer
Find hidden fees, pricing errors, and overcharges in your TSYS Merchant Solutions merchant account statement. Not with TSYS Merchant Solutions? That's ok, we can find excessive fees in any credit card processing statement. We've already found $1,156,834 in hidden fees this year! Submit a recent statement to try it out for free!
Highly Rated Industry Competitors
Our unbiased reviews are supported, in part, by helping you find highly rated merchant accounts. You can learn more here.
Our Opinion of TSYS Merchant Solutions
A Decent Option for Most Businesses
As one of the largest processors in the industry, TSYS Merchant Solutions scores well in most sections of this review. The company can raise its rating by removing its three-year service agreement, auto-renewing contract and early termination fee. Merchants considering TSYS as their processor are encouraged to negotiate pricing and terms assertively and to compare TSYS’s offerings to top-rated merchant account providers to get the best deal.
We rely on your feedback about TSYS Merchant Solutions to keep this review accurate and up-to-date. Please take a minute to tell us about your experience. We and the small business owners of this world thank you!Other Industry Leading Merchant Account Providers
About Phillip Parker
Thank you for reading my review. I hope that it has helped you with your research.
Why I'm Qualified to Write About Credit Card Processing
I'm a former credit card processing sales director who left the industry to start my own a small business. From the time that I starting working in the merchant services industry to when I left to write about it, I've been on the pulse of payments for nearly 15 years. It didn't seem fair to keep this insider knowledge to myself, so built this website to help small business owners research which service providers to use and how to save money on rates and fees. I've reviewed hundreds of companies, read thousands of user reviews, and learned the pricing tricks of every provider. If you have questions about credit card processing, you can find the answers here. I can help you save money with your current merchant account or help you find a new one. Message me here to get started.
Get started right away! I've help businesses save $1,156,834 this year alone! Submit a recent statement and I'll take a look at it for free.
I would never recommend this merchant processing company to anyone. From the jump, my rep with this company was inefficient, bordering on incompetent. I clearly explained the needs of my business to her, and it still took 3 attempts to get me what I needed. Somehow during these initial transition my lease number and Merchant ID were not entered properly into the system by my rep. Therefore ensuring a nerve, fraying experience every time I had to call support whenever there was an issue (of which there were many). After the initial setup, I did not hear from my rep AT ALL. I would call my rep for guidance and would receive a vague text about “meetings”. When your company’s main hook line is “well we are cheaper”….. should have told me all that I need to know. I would never recommend this company to any business owner (small or large). Get square. Its much easier to deal with and I promise you will have less headaches.
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-Phillip
I ordered a POS through them and it wasn’t supposed to be sent untill we were ready. They sent it early and sat in my office for 2-3 weeks. When we were finally ready we used it for 3 days and had to take it down because they didn’t program anything right. I told them in sending it back and want a refund. They said no because I had it for 30 days. They were instructed to send it when I was ready. Now I’m out $2200 for a machine that wasn’t programmed right. When we were ready I had to hire somebody to set it up because I couldn’t figure it out. Come to find out they sent the wrong POS.. So few days later they had to bypass something. So got that fixed then we couldn’t get printers to print in kitchen. Again they sent the wrong printers and had to wait for another week to get the right printers. Get ready to use it on a busy night and the menu and drinks were wrong…drinks and food were not added. Total mess. So now I have this pos that is sitting in my office. I ordered another one through a different company and they are absolutely amazing. My rep was Marybeth Erps and Taylor Frank did nothing to help with all the problems we went through. I am going to leave the Better Businesses Bureau a complaint.
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-Phillip
TSYS never fully activated my service yet continued charging me monthly for the service. I had a customer service representative who never called me back to try to set up my account, and his manager failed to return my calls as well. I called the toll free customer service serveral times and would be placed on hold for 30 minutes plus, then disconnected from the call. No one there seemed to care what happened to my account or how to make it right that I was being charged for a service that was not working. I have never had this kind of experience with any other company in my 11 years as a manager. The most unprofessional, uncaring company I have worked with to date.
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-Phillip
Horrible experience from the begin! I have been lied to over and over. I questioned My sales representative Gary Compton several times before I sign up about what fees I would Incur. He repeatedly told me that if I signed up before the end of month that they were running a special that the monthly fee,annual fee and fee for devices would be waived. The only fee that I would be charged would be if I ran any credit cards for purchase which i would be billed 1.7% for each purchase. He said he would send 2 card readers and get me the I formation to set up the app on my phone, tablet ect. And get trained on how to use it.
The 1st month I received one card reader, i didnt run any cards the 1st month. But the 1st month invoice $136 was deducted from my account!! I made several phone calls, emails and text messages to Gary Compton about it. He said to email a copy of the invoice and he would take care of it.
2nd month invoice came and they deducted $83 from my account! I again emailed Gary Comptom and he said that I shouldn’t of been billed any of those fees and he would get it refunded. By end of month still no results so I emailed Gary Compton and he said that it would be refunded on the 1st of month. I waited till the 6..nothing. so I emailed Gary Compton and TSYS and talked to a supervisor Mr Ian Oves. He was going to contact Gary Compton and get back with me to get this resolved. Nothing..
3rd month received another invoice that they deducted $67- I only made one transaction of $340. I emailed Gary Compton, left 3 voice messages in 3 days for Mr Oves and on that friday talked to a escalation manager Brendan. He said he would contact Gary Compton And Mr. Oves and resolve this. I emailed Brendan the last email correspondence chain that I had with Gary Compton showing that I was telling the truth in what I was told. Week later still no resolution. I’m contacting the BBB as well.
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-Phillip
They are robots and only go by “policy” even when they are incorrect and are not allowed or willing to resolve mistakes they have made! There is no one there allowed to use common sense to resolve errors that they have made! I would recommend using another service provider over this one.
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-Phillip
I have been with this company for years but I’m done! Recently something has changed. It must have to do with whatever merger is happening but there are nothing but issues now. Wait times for customer service are high because of constant technical issues. We had gotten a call in Feb saying we could get a big savings by switching our account. We said sure not realizing the upheaval that this would still be causing almost 6 months later. There is constant ineptness and mistakes happening and everyone seems clueless. You’ll get 2 total different answers to the same questions. The reps are rude. There are 5 different systems you have to cross reference. The Transaction ID numbers are different for each so it’s impossible to reference specific payments. Their new Vital swipe app crashes constantly and double charges customers. This is not a payment solution as much as a payment nightmare! Stay away!
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-Phillip
This Company should be under investigation they do what they want they make up charges even if your pci compliant,they have random people signing you up who have nothing to do with the company then tell you they will take care of all the fraudulent charges but dont. Anytime you take money out someones account before receiving a statement tell you everything.The worst customer service i have ever seen.They also hold your money witch is a crime worst decision ever.
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-Phillip
Tsys had an account open for me that was not actively being used and they were charging me $25/month. I asked them why they had opened an account and were charging that amount and they had no answer. I was told by the customer service rep that they would refund the $25/month that had been charged over the past 2 months as a statement credit that would appear on my statement the following month after a 45 minute phone call. Low and behold no such credit appeared on my statement. I called again and they gave me the same run around for 20 minutes and I asked to speak with a manager and they connected me with Kevin Lavery a “Subject Matter Expert”. I told Kevin I was unwilling to wait another 30 days for the the amount owed to show up as a statement credit again and he agreed to send a check. It’s now been 2 weeks and I still have not received the check. When I do email Kevin, he takes several days to get back to me and his response is that the accounting department sent out the check and they have no tracking for it. Wonderful to hear after waiting for the reimbursement for 1.5 months. Typical bureaucratic BS runaround that these merchant companies give to you pointing fingers at other departments and not actually helping you resolve anything. Most likely hoping that I forget about the amount owed so they can pocket it. Still waiting for that check Kevin…
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-Phillip
This company charges between 6 1/2% and 7% with the fees and added services. I hadn’t used them in a couple months get my bank statement in the mail and they had taken $197.90 for bogus fee’s and I have since closed the account and they will not refund my money. THEFT!!!!!
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-Phillip
TSYS has been a very good card processor for the time that our business as used them. Even when I called to close my account they were very helpful, with no high pressure such as is given by many company’s when you are leaving them. I would highly recommend TSYS.
TSYS is a criminal organization. It took me 5 months to get them out of my bank account and to refund the money they stole. I was lied to many times by this company. No business should take money they are not entitled to, and no customer should have to fight for so long to get it back. They should be in jail.
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-Phillip
This company raised my base rate from $5/mo to $40/mo without notifying me. They did not respond to my inquiry from their own website. After three weeks, I called and the rep barely spoke English and would not let me explain. She said they had the right to charge me any additional fees they chose because of the fine print in my contract. I did not have a contract with them, mine was with Cayan before the merge, and my contract did not say this! She told me I had been notified of any increases and additional fees on my statements which they do not send me because they are paperless. She agreed to have their internal team “investigate” my case. A couple hours later, I received an email response repeating the above. Worst ethics ever! Do not use this company!
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-Phillip
Disturbing business practices. They take your money and threaten to hold it for 180 days. Contacting the authorities with the lack of communication.
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-Phillip
*Warning * This company TSYS Merchant Solutions only cares about taking money from you.
Do Not connect your business with this rip off company.
Rep : Offered services with zero monthly charges for first 2 years. I have this written. We signed up with company. Took 3 weeks to get up and going. Well, we never got going with there services. First week, tsys, charged our account $36.00. I had called and explained our deal. They didn’t care. The next week , I followed up with my bank to do a charge back. Being our bank is signed with this company. Our bank would not do a charge back. All this time going back and forth over $36.00 dollars. Nothing. The next month tsys charges our account $51.00. Of course we have been trying to cancel. I finally have the account cancelled as of today march 8 2019
tsys has been charging our account for months.
I have been emailing the rep since October 6, 2018 till current march 8, 2019. We have never even logged into the account, we have never used the services. Our business is out $246.00. All they had to do was listen to us customers and refund all there charges and I would not write this review. I know the importance of having a business and how reviews affect your business.
I repeat to the rep, reason I am cancelling is our rep for your company wrote on our contract no fees for two years,no monthly fees. Rep say thats impossible, I say; why you charge my account all this money and it clearly shows I have never signed into the account. Yes- I asked for a refund, or at least tried. Rep say well at least your not going to have to pay for the early cancellation fee. I wish I wrote down her name, I could use it here. She started arguing with me. I have had enough. I just said keep my money, please cancel. I just want off the phone. I really hope this helps someone else make a better decision for your business and save your money, efforts and time.
stick with square or someone that does not charge you monthly fees and lie too you about it.
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-Phillip
Buyer Beware. Well, I too fell for the lies. Please, do not waste your time with these people. They are like politicians and used car salesman. Trust neither.
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-Phillip
Very dishonest and difficult business to deal with. Unfortunately this seems to be the case with almost all CC merchant accounts. TSYS loves to add fees down the road . After having them as a processor for 15 years, I noticed that for the past 2 years, they just went and added about $50 in fees per month..things like service and maintenance, and “insight essential” fees and several others. None of which were on my original contract. Customer service is atrocious. It will take hours to have a meaningful conversation as you get transferred to different branches in different states in the hopes that you will eventually just get tired and hang up. Fees will eventually be credited, but the whole MO is to just make up fees and charge them and know that only a small percentage of customers will go through the headache of getting them reversed. I really wish there was more oversight for these criminal banks. The fines they do receive when caught for fraud are a fraction of the profits they make because they committed it. I’m so tired of getting robbed by banks.
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– Phillip
This company makes all sorts of promises in order to get your business. For example, they promise next day deposit of your credit card receipts. But, don’t fall for it. In real life they do not deliver. It has happened to my business three times in the last two weeks and nobody wants to help us.
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– Phillip
By far the absolutely worst processing company I’ve dealt with in 12 years. They are thieves, customer service personnel are nasty and the entire company stinks. I would never use this company and I strongly advise against anyone even entertaining the thought. They do not care about their customers. they did a horrible thing to my company and I have an attorney on it. The Better Business Bureau will be notified as well. Horrible people.
From The Editor
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Reporting unethical, unlawful, or misleading business practices.
On 12-2-2018 I processed a credit card payment with TSYS (Cayan) for $1738, which was taken from the card holders bank but was never deposited into my account. It is still missing as of this writing 12-16-2018. I went back and also found 2 more transactions that TSYS took from money from my customers but never deposited to me, 11-20-2018 $377, and 12-4-2018 $309.
After days of my complaints and TSYS promises, a Case Number was issued by TSYS, Case #1006736, but nobody has bothered to call me this week and no solution has been forthcoming.
Their website promises “You can trust us to be honest and transparent and depend on us for stability and security. We will hold ourselves to uncompromising standards. We will never settle, never make do. We will earn your trust, and your business, every day.”
Really?
AS OF THIS DATE 12-16-2018 I AM REQUESTING TSYS and CAYAN TO STOP ALL CONTACT WITH MY BANK. I AM ASKING THAT NO FURTHER ACTION BE TAKEN IN ANY WAY, DO NOT REMOVE FUNDS FOR PAYMENT OR DEPOSIT FUNDS. ANY ACTION WILL BE SEEN AS UNAUTHORIZED AND FRAUDULENT.
From The Editor
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Tsys sucks. Period. They are snakes – worst company I have ever worked with. They opened accounts in my name that I did not sign for under different group numbers and proceeded to charge me monthly for those accounts and also charge me monthly for not being PCI compliant. All on accounts I never opened. These accounts were not visible from my Transaction Summary account because they were opened using a different group number. They refuse to refund me the money on these accounts that do not have my signature on the paperwork. Mr. Kinney , Tsys employee in Colorado who opened these accounts – I have reported you to federal law enforcement. And I’ll just leave that one there.
Find a different processor. Anyone but Tsys.
From The Editor
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Becareful when you sign up with Luise Garcia he tell you month to month and turn around get you for 3yrs contract these company is scam they charge you all kind of fees every month he his a liar and to sign you up and when you have a problem call him he don’t respond he promised all kind of thing just to get you signed up stay away these company I just get charged for early termination fee $250.00 it suck learn a lesson.
From The Editor
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As a merchant, I had a CC scam and TSYS and VISA would not help or do anything about it. Even if I had all the information needed to run the card. They pulled the money out of my account without asking. Each Customer Service rep was trained to explain why you messed up and that you should be more careful. Like do only Face to Face transactions. It amazing that a 200 billion and 700 billion companies don’t help the small retailer stores.
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This company is absolutely horrible. They have a fake pci compliance service the refer out to try try and justify fees, and then upsell you on items, they have HORRIBLE customer service, their website and interface looks like something out of a bad html website showcase, they have unjustified fees, and every little aspect of functionality is somehow handled almost like it’s a different company with a different fee, and a different login. It’s just awful.
Worst of all without my permission, when I applied for a merchant account they did a HARD HIT on my f’ing credit just ot open the account what I did not authorize. When I contacted them to request s letter of deletion they declined, after initially not answering for almost 2 weeks. They are shady as F***. DO NOT USE THIS GARBAGE SCOW of a COMPANY.
From The Editor
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Been using them for a year or so now and they have started holding funds for up to a week until I provide them with a invoice of the buyers name and the merchandise they purchased. Seems illegal to me and will be checking on it further.
TSYS treated me very un-fairly and I would never do business with these people again.If you are looking for a merchant account DONOT choose to do business with these people. They will lie cheat and steal from you. They still owe me over 7,000 dollars and say they will release it in 120 days Maybe… Im not holding my breath.
From The Editor
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Hey Paul, did you ever get your money back?
I would highly recommend not to use this company. I was told that I had no contract or obligation other than to return equipment if I decided to leave. My current Merchant service decided to sharpen their pencil and give me a better rate! So I had no need for the service. But guess what? It cost me $500 to get out of a contract that I didn’t know existed. Terrible Stay away from them. I am so mad because they were not honest with me! 1 star review!
From The Editor
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I have been extremely dissatisfied with TSYS Merchant Solutions. Their marketing was abysmal and the sales rep I spoke with had very little knowledge about the whole process. I was finally given a satisfactory price and decided to try this service. I have had nothing but trouble – multiple calls for service and assistance, being locked out of device but worst of all being charged for services that I was not notified were extra. I am in the process of ending this business relationship and would not recommend TSYS to any other merchant.
I’ve been in this position for 18 years, and I have to say that their customer service is probably the worst I’ve ever encountered. I ordered a card reader to attach to a laptop, mailed in the order form a month or so after I expressed interest in the product. Received the reader in two days! Then I received the bill! Shipping and handling costs were almost as much as the product itself, which weighs about 8 ounces. I requested a refund immediately. That was several months ago. It’s been about 6 weeks since my “account representative” has corresponded with me. They really take the cake.
I was enouraged by my bank to “try” TSYS. I was referred to a branch call TransFirst who is connection with TSYS. I am a small business owner and work primarily out of my home and ship purchases. I signed up in March and started using the service toward the end of March. I was told after of course I started using it, that someone needed to come to my home to “confirm” I was a business. The woman did not come for 3 weeks, which was no fault of mine. Then they were not satisfied with the amount of inventory I had, so another 3 weeks passed with no deposits to my account. Of course they withdrew their fee, but held my income. I then contacted them and cancelled the service and told the reasons. I was charged for the month that they held the funds and charged a second month. There were absolutely no transactions in the second month, so I called and was told I would be refunded the monthly fee. I called today because it had been 4 weeks and no refund. After being transferred 4 times, was told I would not get a refund because upper management did not feel that it was the correct decision. On the phone for an hour and that was my result! I would definitely NOT reccommend this company…..I appreciate security, but I feel like I was treated like a thief the entire process and the professionalism of the “management” was a complete joke!! DO NOT GET CAUGHT IN THEIR TRAP!!!
Completely unprofessional, joke company.
The long list of negative reviews below say it all. TSYS obviously cares a lot more about money and fees than they do about business owners or people.
My three-year contract is up, but they still want to hit me with a $149 cancellation penalty that does nothing other than penalize people who have found a better deal somewhere else (such as QuickBooks Online).
This is the credit card processing company for Regions Bank. Your credit card processing department is horrible. First, you mailed my husband’s credit card late. You mailed my husband’s business credit card to the wrong address so he never received it. Fortunately, our bank was sympathetic and the card was canceled and another one was sent to us expedited, but the label had the wrong address AGAIN. It is a miracle that my husband received it at all and FedEx delivered it here. Then you printed his last name incorrectly and merged his middle initial with his incorrectly printed last name. Unbelievable!
Biggest rip off company I have ever dealt with! Do not do business with them. I constantly have to call about their BS fees they add on and still awaiting credits to my account! I have had enough I have changed companies and will save money!!!!
I have had a terrible time trying to work with tsys. They processed one transaction that was then returned. Business did ok but sales were made with checks or cash and only the one credit card transaction was processed. Upon trying to cancel they demanded a 500 dollar early termination fee. So they provided no service but instead wanted to collect many fees.
just retired from 37year practice of Urology, attempting to close business account, found that monthly withdrawals were made by credit card cervices dating back to year 2000, 3 different contracts we thought were cancelled . Northern leasing ,argus merchant services, prodigy all dishonest , never knew what TSYS was. I had to payoff northern leasing over 11 hundred $. Argus merchants still withdrawing 3 months after cancellation. TSYS still withdrawing monthly though I have no existing contracts . I had a private solo practice for 37 years and lost immense amount f money. I wish I knew this industry was criminal. sincerely David A.Nachamie M.D.
Cancel your bank account, so they can not withdraw anything.
Lying scum. Despite a contract saying “The application will be boarded with the Early Termination Fee (ETF) in effect and a notation to waive the ETF if the MERCHANT agrees to contact TransFirst by telephone to cancel the Agreement before its expiration date and prior to entering into an agreement with another processor.” I did and Jay said “management has declined the ETF waiver.” They purchased TransFirst.
I have 2 more months on the “contract” which I will pay the $15/mo minimum, I’m buying a new terminal, and I’m suing these [people] for the damages plus punatives. The judge should like this one as they have acknowledged that I called them almost 2 weeks ago to cancel and I’m not signing with the new processor until this afternoon.
They also add new services and charges and claim they can do so, according to the contract, “anytime we want” and I have to catch that notation on the statement and call them each time to get them removed.
It doesn’t get scummier than this.
Since the chip card initiation, Tsys service has been very poor. We received errors in declines, approvals and batch closures. Sometimes batch closing would fail 10 times before being accepted. After a year of poor service we switched to another company, and have had no problems with any transactions. When we cancelled our service Tsys insisted on charging us $140 for terminating their service, even after relating the problems to a supervisor.
These people could care less about customers as others have indicated above. It’s funny they’re still in business being the way they treat customers. Like the gentleman said about PayPal is twice as good as these people. They should never have been allowed to last this long. The nice thing is they will cut their own throat.
I retired from business and to close the inactive account they stole 200.00. Look around because even overseas operations are cleaner than this
What are some of better Credit card Processor options other than TSYS. We are two months in to operation of our new business and we have more problems with them than running the actual business.
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How can TSYS have a 4 out of 5 rating? That’s impossible. Read the complaints. TSYS are a bunch of crooks, that should be in jail. We close our business in May. We called to cancel their service. Worse customer service ever. When they do answer the phone they are rude and never helpful. As of today, they are still taking money out of account. Oh and their fees are outrageous. Stay away from this place.
Horrible Company!! I purchased a business and the previous owner had used Tysis. I was forced to sign up to continue accepting card, then in TINY print I signed up for 3 years. When I explained they were rude and uncooperative. Will be paying the minimum charge for 3 years. VERY VERY UNHAPPY!!! STAY FAR AWAY! SNAKES
Worst experience; set up issues to timely payments to our account caused us major financial costs. Basically a fraudulent company.
I called these people in February and requested that they cancel my account due to the high fees and exorbitant equipment lease charges that were being posted to my bank account each month. I was told that the equipment lease was handled by First Data Hardware Services division of Global Leasing and that there would be a $244 and change early cancellation fee to terminate the contract which we paid. We sent the equipment back FedX per the instructions given and assumed that everything was taken care of. On my March bank statement, a charge in the amount of $44.94 was debited to our account. When I called Tsys, I was told that I had not closed out our merchant account with them, only with First Data. Dealing with a company like this is like peeling back the skin of an onion, layer upon layer of scam. Stay away from these scammers at all costs. I learned the hard way.
I wanted to cancel my account due to terminal connectivity issues, heavy fees and delayed payments on our transactions. I was told the equipment was leased through a third party which I had to contact and there would be fees of more than $500 to cancel the lease. This company is a scam. Worst experience ever!
Horrible, Just horrible customer support to resolve extraordinary fees of 40-50% on one of my accounts :(
Whenever you call them, you receive the message that call volume is higher than normal. Every time? Pay to get someone to answer your phones and stop putting us into the decision tree. Press 1 if you agree with this…
I have been doing business for over 15 years and last 2 years TSYS sold me a machine for the new Credit card processing machine that accepts EMV chip cards, Not only have I not had anyone resolve the issue but they have charged me for sending a new machine. This is absolutely horrible, so one of their customer service agents said that Shilo is the one that creates and fixes the program and so I googled and found that on Facebook this person who has their profile open and works at TSYS is the one responsible for fixing issues related to EMV and credit card programming issues.
[REDACTED – personal contact information]
Look over her profile and see how horrible a employee she is stating issue back when EMV was pushed on us, having to buy new machines and then TSYS are even able to provide the service to run the credit card
I am disgusted with this employee and now will be cancelling my service and contract, as in the contract the fault lies with TSYS and BREACH OF CONTRACT WE WILL SEE HOW IT HOLDS UP IN A COURT OF LAW AS FROM PROOF ON HER PAGE IT STATES THEY BREACH CONTRACT WITH OUR CONSUMERS
This review is actually about TSYS’ affiliate Certegy, which TSYS recommends to all their clients for check processing.
We have used Certegy check approval services for over 10 years.
After receiving VERBAL APPROVAL from a Certegy Rep., weeks later, certegy declined a transaction.
Months after jumping through hoops, providing additional info, waiting, waiting, waiting…….
Certegy still did not stand behind their verbal approval.
TSYS is the company that processes our cc’s, they use and recommend Certegy.
We contacted TSYS and they have been no help.
CERTEGY- stand behind your employee’s and your approval!
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TSYS took $410.27 out of my account without permission. I had already closed my account with them, out of contract. They have been contacted repeatedly by myself and the BBB without response. I would recommend not using this company.
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After advising this company in writing, by mail, that I was going to close my account due to changes in my business, I never heard from them acknowledging my letter. A few days later, they removed $492.26 from my business account. When I called to find out what happened, they said that I had not returned the credit card machine. I immediately went to UPS and returned the machine. Not once since then have they ever sent me a letter about closing my account, or returning the machine.
I contacted my account executive and customer service, and it seems that no one knows when the money will be returned. I get no response from customer service via email and their phone operators have hung up on me twice when I try following up (after holding for over 20 minutes each time). This company is not professional. They do not sent out correspondence explaining their actions and expectations, their customer service people are rude and I am at wits end. I returned the credit card machine 2 weeks ago (and got proof of delivery from UPSS) and still the money has not been returned to my account. At one point, someone said it would be returned at the beginning of next month!
I need to know who the governing body for this type of merchant services is so I can file a complaint. Now, rent is due and I have no funds in my account! Help!
Horrible customer service, technical support and sales force! Terminal was disabled by a TSYS technical support staff member and TSYS did not replace the equipment for weeks! It took many phone calls and complaints for anyone to send it to me. I have never talked with the sales person because he will NEVER return my calls or emails. All I got in my inbox was a new contract. No person to talk to or even exchange an email with.
TSYS is a rip-off. They are unprofessional and unorganized. After numerous calls and hours of being on hold, I cancelled my account and they continued to withdraw fee’s for 5 months. TSYS has been promising to refund the fee’s and deposit it to my account. Every month for the past 3 months – they don’t refund me and I end up calling them back after an hour on hold. They promise to reimburse me on the 2nd of the following month. This has happened for 3 months. TERRIBLE company.
Worst company ever!!!!! do not use them. I called customer service 3 times and each time waited 40-55 minutes. Unacceptable. They are resolving a transaction in their risk department and have held the their for a week. I have given them all the information they need and they have not released the funds to us. Plus they went ahead and charged me their fee when I haven’t even received the money. I had to speak directly to their risk department to get it resolved. Currently checking bank account to see if it comes through. Horrible experience! currently looking for a different merchant card company.
I have used this companyf or 10 years. I recently terminated my service. I sent back my terminal in April. And was charged $347 for the terminal on May 4th because they said they never received it. I have called back several times and no one will return a call. Absolutely disgusting! Has anyone else ever had this issue??
I have been working with TSYS for several years. The problem I have with their chargeback process is they will often time process the same chargeback several times even after it has been resolved. This results in our business eating the chargeback fees and they have never reimbursed us on these errors. To provide an actual example. We had a purchase for $5.99 and this purchase was made fraudulently. We received the chargeback from TSYS and was charged the normal $25.00 fee. That is fine in my book because we signed up for this, however, we received 4 more chargebacks on that exact purchase with different case numbers and were charged $25.00 fees another 4 times. They would not refund the chargeback fees and this tends to happen quite often. I would say every month we have at least 1 or 2 duplicate chargebacks that were resolved months ago. We are now leaving over this to a competitor.
TSYS has got to be the worst merchant service provider EVER!!!! In addition to all of the complaints above, I never received a monthly statement or end of year tax forms from them unless I called. Their web site was worse than useless, and they never did get access to my account set up correctly. Minimum monthly nut even if I didn’t run a card was about $70 (MAJOR RIPOFF), the $250 cancellation fee was absolutely NOT disclosed when I initially signed up and I do have copies of everything I signed to prove it, there was a $150 PCI compliance fee out every year even though I do not do eCommerce or online sales, and for months after I cancelled TSYS continued to pull some other $35/month fee out of my account, which they refuse to refund even though they admit they should have never continued to collect that fee! I called many times to complain and never got anything but the runaround.
I have been trying to cancel my account with TSYS for 4 months. Having signed up with them back when they were Termnet Merchant Services, we filed a stop payment with our bank back in May, because the confuctionated business processes to close the account weren’t working. They changed their name, at some, point, and continued to charge our account for services we haven’t used for years. Having called Rachel, who demanded that we show a copy of the cancellation form to get our refund, I got ahold of Jerry, who told me that the cancellation would be done by him and that we had to file a form he emailed me. The bank said they will handle the refund from their end and we closed the account. I believe this company is knowingly withdrawing money from accounts that people have tried to close under their new name. Notice that there is no personal phone numbers? Notice that the Board and CEO don’t have their emails or phones on the website? Hinky. Shady. Don’t do business with them. I will be talking to my Fed District Attorney next week to see if there should be an investigation into their practices. I think they know exactly what they are and aren’t doing, but they may just be a nothot mess.
Do not use TSYS as your merchant account provider. We had 8 consecutive months of mischarges on our statements and they still owe us refund money from 4 months that they will not pay. Every time I call and talk to a customer service rep I get a different story. Two have said I’ll process this right away and you will see the money in 3-4 days and it never shows up. The rest say I have to wait until the next billing statement but it hasn’t showed up in 4 months. When I closed my account the rep never told me what exactly that meant as far as batches and refunds. Stay away from TSYS! There are far better Merchant Account Providers out there that are professional and offer knowledge and helpful customer service.
I was “sold” two seperate accounts for one company under the premise that it would save me money to have the two accounts. That did not happen I was getting fees at unbelievable rates and now I am being charged two seperate early termination fees. I don’t mind following our contract, but now I am feeling duped into double indeminty. Of course, when I called, no one cared. Stay AWAY from these guys.
No follow through with any of the problems I had, constant overbilling, no reasonable temporary solution for trade shows. My Rep will say the right thing, but never actually DO it! It took two years to get paid back for some wrong charges and to stop some others.
Your rates may be good, but your savings there will be destroyed by miscellaneous charges added on your bill.
The final straw, they only keep one year of statements online. I called to request the first six months of the previous year. They said they charge $20/hr and $4 a page to look up “archived” records (It’s new to me that 18 months is now considered archived).
Switching to Chase/Paymentech, one of the contacts called me and told me that would not charge me their monthly $10 fee because I’m using Authorize.net. Hopefully they continue that way.
I am a stylist at a small hair and make up studio. I, along with two other stylists used TSYS merchant solutions for credit card processing for a couple of years. We decided to cancel our contracts early due to another company’s rates working out better for our studio’s financial needs. When the owner of the salon called to handle the cancellations, she filled out the cancellation papers and was under the impression that all stylists using TSYS Merchant Solutions working in our shop were cancelled and no further action needed to be taken. Unfortunately, that was not correct and I continued to receive statements that my account was still being charged 40.45 per month. I tried calling to resolve this issue a number of times. Each time I would call, I would be transferred to a woman’s voicemail. I had a difficult time getting a hold of her. Eventually, after going through several different customer service reps I asked if I could speak to someone other than the elusive woman with the voicemail. I was finally able to speak to a supervisor who was very nice and offered to cancel my account. This was after speaking to one particular employee who seemed angry from the start of our conversation, refused to listen to my issue, cut me off with every word I tried to speak to her, even though I remained calm and collected despite my frustration. I was not able to receive a refund on the fees for the months the issue went resolved, but CJ, the supervisor was able to waive the cancellation fee. I appreciated her speaking to me in a civilized matter and ultimately solving the problem to say the least. The initial error was perhaps due to a communication error on our salons part. My suggestion is that there would be a less frustrating way to achieve customer service issues. It seems as though the woman who is in charge of canceling accounts is never in her office and extremely difficult to reach. Perhaps more employees could relay the information to clients needing to cancel the accounts or resolve simple issues like mine. Everyone else that I spoke to at TSYS was fairly pleasant, although powerless to resolve the issue, so no major complaint there other than it causing frustration on my part. The inconvenience of essentially having to play “phone tag” just to find out that all I needed was a simple form to resolve my issue is enough for me to cancel my account with TSYS all over again! I remain disappointed that hundreds of dollars were drafted from my account in the meantime, due to the inefficient means of processing cancellations. I probably wouldn’t bother to utilize my time writing this review had I not had such an unpleasant conversation with the last employee. Overall, my experience with TSYS lacked the customer service that I might like to expect from my merchant provider.
TSYS has been a good company with fair processing rates until we realized HOW WE WERE TRICKED into doing business with them. This TSYS representative, David Brown, calls us and tells us that the POS company that we utilize recommended him. He dropped names of the people at this POS company, as if they had a close working relationship with him. In short, he swindled us into giving him our merchant statement and eventually signing us up with TSYS. Sure enough, our costs were in fact somewhat reduced with TSYS but we later found that this particular TSYS rep was telemarketing us out of some other state and had no affiliation what so ever with our POS provider. Infact, our POS provider stated that this had been an ongoing issue with this particular rep misleading and misrepresenting himself in this way.
As soon as we realized the TSYS rep had flat lied to us to get our business, we canceled with TSYS immediately. That is NOT how to earn new customers. Watch out for TSYS telemarketing reps. Especially one named David Brown (could be his alias for all we know after being tricked by him)!!
Our small business had been affiliated with TSYS credit card processing for several years. We switched to a different processor in mid 2012. To our fault, believing that the new processor had closed our TSYS account, the account remained open and we incurred rent, card compromise assistance plan, reg and compliance and monthly maintenance fees. Again, to my own fault, I did not realize the account was still open until Dec 2012. I called TSYS in Dec to close the account and was advised of a $250.00 early cancellation fee in addition to the other fees we were already being charged. I spoke to a CSR initially and then to Adam, a manager. They refused to waive the cancellation fee or work with me on any of the other fees we had been incurring for no processing. I decided to just pay the monthly fees and let the contract run out instead of incurring the early cancellation fee. In the mean time, I realized that the CARD COMPROMISE ASSIST PLAN charge was not needed because I wasn’t processing anything through them. I called in January to cancel that plan through their automated phone service. I continued to receive the charge each month. Finally, I called again today and because we are not PCI compliant through Trustwave they will not let me cancel that card compromise plan (again, they have not processed any of our card transactions since June 2012). They had transferred me to Trustwave who said that they have nothing to do with cancelling or waiving fees; that that is TSYS’s policy. I was very disappointed that TSYS was not willing to work with us regarding any of the fees and that I could not cancel the card compromise plan. I felt that since I was a small business, they did not see the need for compromise.
TSYS is a fruadulent company. I feel like I have been a prisoner to thier company. They repeatedly charged me for monthly charges when I repeatedly told them to cancel my account. I was with them for over 4 years and my custumer rep even admitted that the charges were not suppose to happen and that he was going to give me a credit that never happened. He then never returned my calls. Apparently, the person who has authrity to handle complaints is the Office of President. I tried to contact the Office of President who never responded to my emails, faxes, and letters. I have been so stressed from this whole ordeal and there is so much more that goes into this story that I don’t even have enough space. I truely feel this company is violating our rights and needs to have serious reprecussions. The problem is that it is happening to people like us who are trying to run our businesses and make a decent living that we don’t have the money or the resources to fight a giant company like this. So we cut our losses and they continue to misuse their power and get rich off helpless victims like ourselves. I really hope someone fights for justice!!!!
We had TSYS merchant solutions for 2 weeks. I should have known from the day the sales rep came at the wrong time for our meeting (meeting @1p.m., she came @9 am) that things were not going to go well. We agreed to try them at our dental office. Money was not being funded for over 5 days.. After many calls to our rep she discovered that she gave our account incorrectly to the set up people..She only dug into this after we pursued her many a phone call. Then the money came in every 3 days as oppossed to the 2 days it was set up to do… Then people could not pay if the Visa was tied to a medical account. After many unreturned phone calls, she said it needs to be programmed for this. When programming a health care provider office one would assume this would automatically be done. We cut to contract after 2 weeks. It was very stressful.
Now 2 months later, they are still charging me because she did not close our account. She told us we were to do that. The 800 number says she needs to.. get the picture. Very aggravating.
I spoke with Jackie today on the phone. She was wonderful! What a pleasant person to speak with and she helped me with all of my issues.
AND she recommended a great game on the iphone. Thanks Jackie!
Using tsys for a year and agreeing with other reviewers regarding non-existant customer service. Dealing with my first chargeback and they are not answering their phones so I can speak with them on this. Used other co’s for last 15 years and never had a company not answer phones in the morning and afternoon. Am considering going elsewhere now where I can actually speak with someone to assist.
This is the most fraudulent processing company I’ve ever come across. I do PCI compliance security for the financial industry, and they follow their own rules with PCI compliance – just as a way to charge you an additional $35 per month if you don’t comply. If you complain and end up cancelling your contract they try to charge you $299 termination fee. DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY.
We were customers of Termnet then TSYS for 15 years. We had a glitch with our power cord on a terminal and TSYS wanted $90.00 to replace. Between the higher processing fees and pricey products we switched to our local bank. We bought a brand new processing terminal for $295.00 that was much more efficient than the one from TSYS. I returned my outdated rental to TSYS. The charged me $385.00 for a cracked screen that must have happened in shipping. They did not report the damage to the shipper or contact me before debiting my account. I have tried to contact TSYS to work out the problem. So far no luck. Time will tell. Be careful
Customer service is absolutely terrible. I agree 100% with the comments above. They need to train their whole staff on what “customer care” actually means. No matter what, you never hang up on a customer unless they are using profanity which I NEVER did. I have had to make multiple phone calls with no resolution. I could not wait to cancel my account after being with them for 3 years. They also charged me for the PCI annual fee for the year after cancellation even though I no longer have an account and will not be using a credit card machine. You cannot talk to any supervisors or the OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT except in writing but that gets you absolutely nowhere either. They are a very deceptive company indeed. I am considering legal action.
I have a small company and I am sure I am just a pebble of sand when it comes to the amount of money that goes through their hands. However, I am still a costumer. Here is my story. I had to put a freeze on my bank account because of fraudulent activity. It just so happen it was the same day they tried to take their fees. I ended up having to close that account and opened a new account. Still not knowing they tried to get their money. The first contact I made after opening the new account was to my rep with TSYS. I provided all the information he needed and he repeatedly assured me that he was on this and he would take care of everything. I have been in contact with them every day for 6 solid working days. even though I have done everything required they seem to take their sweet time in making the needed change. We are starting into week two of my income and it seems because my fee was not accessible the second their atomized program was scheduled to take it they are entitled to my income and the interest they will accumulate while holding MY funds! If you want a company to handle your funds that has NO customer service and takes advantage of everything and anything that might be in their favor . . . TSYS is the merchant server you want.
Our little company was just hit with the same complaint we have seen over and over on the web. TSYS designates a $250 early termination fee within the initial 3 year agreement. We are over a year past our 3 year agreement but are still being charged the early termination. Why? Because TSYS automatically renews for 1 year after the initial 3 year agreement, HOWEVER, if you don’t notify them 30 days prior to the original renewal date, you will still be charged the $250 early termination fee. TSYS is one of the largest processors and (oh boy) on the NYSE, and apparently view themselves as “big business”. Thanks for stepping on the little guys TSYS. When is this industry going to adopt best practices to keep this from happening to so many unsuspecting customers???
TSYS is a HORRIBLE company! I have been using them for almost a year and my advice is Do NOT use them! Their fees are outrageous, have long wait times when you call the 800 number and has bad customer service!
Sandy, I am in the same boat with you in regards to tsys. Try calling your sales rep. Also maybe call the BBB.
Heather
Make sure that if you decide to use tsys merchant solutions that they remove the early termination fee from your contract. After buying a business that has used them for over ten years, we have found it impossible to have them either update the account with new ownership information or let us cancel. Our choices were to either pay a large termination fee or sign a new three year contract. Considering the $40 monthly increase on fees that showed up on our statements one day, a new contract is out of the question. Turns out that had we taken an online survey, our fees could have been less. Wish that could have been communicated to us years ago, think of the savings we missed out on!
The only positive encounter we have had with tsys is our sales rep. He has been able to negate some of the frustration customer service bullying has left us with.
How would one find someone to talk to at TSYS merchant solutions that has any authority? Recently there have been two problems that I have tried to get customer service to help with. One manager told me that unless I signes a new 3 year contract he wouldnt help.
I recently switched from TSYS Merchant Solutions after OVER 10 years with them (previous Name). I found that they were charging me $49.00 per month for using an outdated terminal. I called several times trying to find out how I could remedy this situation, but NEVER heard back from anyone. Finally I decided to go with Merchant Warehouse and am processing on line. I terminated my relationship with TSYS and thought nothing about it. Then I received a statement from them with a $250.00 account closure fee. When I called their office about this charge I was told that I cancelled in the middle of a contract term. Since I had been with them for so long, I asked when I was advised that the contract was automatically renewed. I was told “we don’t have to let you know when we automatically renew”. The person on the phone had a TERRIBLE customer service attitude. I asked for a copy of my signature allowing this type of behavior from him and he asked if I wanted it faxed or mailed. When I asked for it emailed, he replied that they could not email and that I should “get ready because the contract is 50 pages, so make sure your fax machine has paper’. He was rude and a real idiot. His professional behavior was not lacking, but completely absent. Is there a class action lawsuit against this company?
TSYS Merchant Solutions is a complete joke. Stay clear of them at all costs. They will continually try adding bogus fees to your account each month without telling you, and you’ll have to spend hours on hold just to have them removed.
In my case, I discovered they were adding on an erroneous $20 fee each month for nearly a year on two merchant accounts. They openly acknowledged their fault, yet they refused to reverse the charges. Totally bad business, unethical, and IMO criminal.
I have had a very bad time with this deceptive company. They insist I’ve signed and agreed to terms that I have not and they cannot provide these documents. i have used them to process my credit cards for 4 years and they have time and again debited my account for random fees. The last was a $250 early termination fee that i never agreed to. This company is dishonest and actually laughed at me when i wanted to know why they had taken the $250 from my account without my permission. Stay clear of this company there are many other processors out there that would be happy to have your business for much lower rates.
Anytime I need anything from TSYS I call my sales rep Patrick Stevens. I’m always satisfied with the results, and service I receive. He is quick to respond and often goes above and beyond what I am asking for.
Much better than the crappy service I received from fifth third.
Customer service at TSYS is non existent! They are not at all concerned with retention and actually go out of their way to be difficult. I used them for 3 years and I just cancelled. Each time I called over the last 3 months I was insulted, treated rudely, or just ignored. Stay away from TSYS for Merchant Processing. Try M&T bank or any other one. Even Paypal is better.
The batch from 10/01 did not settle as usual and as 10:00am on 10/02 batch has still not settled and therefore NO transactions cannot be conducted until that settlement is complete. I’ve called customer service 3 times and each time the wait time went from approx. 20 minutes the first time to approx.30 minutes on the second call and approx. greater than 30 minutes on the third call which is now 12 minutes and still holding. This is totalli9ng unacceptable so for I have lost 7 sales due to not being able accept cards and if you call customer service “someone will respond within 24 hours” what am supposed to do close my store or maybe I should find a better credit card company. Now after being kept on hold for more than 32 minutes an agent answered asked my name then immediately lost the connection which means I have to start the process all over again