United Bank Card Review

I was hired by UBC to do bank referrals for 2 banks in CT and MA – was previously w another company, so I had already been educated to the good the bad and the ugly – Within a month of working for UBC, I saw deliberate abusive practices in what I feel were taking customers money w illegitimate fees -an example was a car dealership that was paying approx $500 in gateway fees a month for a stand alone terminal… That was plugged into an analogue phone line! The customer had NO idea they shouldnt have gateway fees – when I contacted my UBC director -he told me they would remove the gateway fees but raise the merchants rates. I told him “”I” am NOT going to tell a customer that- so you’re still stealing!”. I went to the Bank and informed the head of merchant relations there that “they had NO idea who they were sending their customers to ad explained the various experiences i had w seeing unethical practices and that i “knew” the difference because I lucked out and had worked with an ETHICAL company- Central Payment Corp, for several years prior. Even CPAYS Proposals break everything out in printed black and white so merchants can verify the valdity and math… NO scribbling or just throwing out savings #’s. The head of the Bank Merchant Services – DID NOT CARE!
Why- Because BANKS are making LOTS of MONEY off of their customers as they are PRETENDING that their relationship will put merchants in a better place and safe – NOT!
From my experience, and i have survived this industry since 9/2007… About ONE PERCENT of the companies in the industry are ethical and DISCLOSE EVERYTHING upfront and make sure merchants are NOT Taken advantage of. UBC… Is NOT one of them!

Merchants DO have some responsibility in ending up in bad situations, however. They do business without checking references, reading and making sure they have hard copies of contracts with all info DISCLOSED “before” signing – and also DO NOT take it upon themselves to educate themselves as to what is normal and what is not. Also- merchants are SO quick to switch to save a buck and let someone else rush them into it (ie; you let someone control “your” business decisions) merchants often end up poundwise and penny foolish.
The FIRST door I walked into in ’07 said “Get out I hate you people”. WHY am “I” different… Because I asked WHY and I learned and each door i went into I listened and learned and became the EXCEPTION to the rule.
I “ALSO” learned… It is NOT always the company that is the issue – there IS a reason companies in this industry don’t HIRE employees- rather keep independent contractors – THIS way, companies have NO liability when Reps do wrong – some companies LOVE when Reps do wrong and fill their pockets and they can say -theyre independent contractors so we have no control over what they do- and they actually encourage thievery for greed.

Some companies are the thieves and their agents are UNKNOWING, as I was when I first began working for UBC. Believed I was doing a good thing and putting people in a better place – once the contract was out of my hands… It was OUT of my control.
There ARE companies – Central Payment Corp that I returned to, is one of them… That WILL get RID of and NOT do business with AGENTS that represent them poorly with integrity lacking practices and greed for fast pocket padding. Some companies understand if you respect a relationship and appreciate what you have and handle it properly, long term you keep your customers – whish is MUCH more cost effective also in the long run over having to rebuild new files and terminate acts over and over again. Though the integrity lacking companies that steal and people get fed up with, steal more when people go to cancel. A merchant taught me how to protect merchants in that situation from having even more losses.

Unfortunately, our government doesnt make or enforce enough laws to protect merchants.

Why – perhaps it also is making lots of money… Who knows~

Would you buy a car or home without reading all the fine print and makins sure you HAVE a legal document to stand by?

Consumers also have responsibility in what has been allowed to continue- uneducated ones or those expecting everyone else to handle their business – assist it.

It’s not just the companies – UBD -DOES have good Reps and good people working with them. BUT – like the world we are in, there is good and bad everywhere and degrees to which it impacts us – Choose wisely when your allowing someone to have their hand in your piggy bank.

A UBC sales agent signed me up and then disappeared. We never received any service but we did receive a 390$ bill for signing the contract. I refused to pay until they hit my credit report 2 years later. Every department I tried dealing with at UBC just kept telling me that since I signed the contract that I owed the money. I don’t have time to post complaints but if I do not take the time then UBC will have more victims.

We once wrote most of our business ( about 60 merchant accounts )with UBC. We thought we signed up directly with them. We had terrible problems with getting excess charges or services removed and credited back to our merchants. As an example , it took over 60 e-mails and several months to remove a $12.95 fee and get the money refunded for just one merchant.
After two years of writing contracts with them our monthly merchant history reports stopped and about 9 months later our residuals also stopped. This was said to a be low volume takeover of my accounts. Proof was never produced and we doubt if that was true.
We also discovered that we were evidently signed up under River Cohen and his separate company, who worked for UBC and not signed up directly with UBC. He must have altered the original UBC app after we sent it to him. We also found that some credit card machines he or UBC sold us were still owned by UBC. We bought them to lease out to our merchants. There are more issues and questionable practices. Together UBC and River Cohen and his company screwed everybody !