Overview
Vantiv (vantiv.com) is the merchant services and credit card processing division of Fifth Third Bank. The company is one of the largest payment processors in the United States and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under “VNTV.” Vantiv entered the merchant services industry in 1991 under the name of Midwest Payment Systems, then changed its name to Fifth Third Processing Solutions in 2003, and then again changed its name in 2011 to Vantiv.
Since its founding, the company has acquired several other credit card processors and ISOs, including ACI Merchant Services, Card Management Corporation (CMC), TNB Card Services, National Processing Company (NPC), and, most recently, Mercury Payment Systems. Mercury and Element Payment Services have since been combined and rebranded to create Vantiv Integrated Payments. Vantiv is a direct processor sponsored by Fifth Third Bank. The company’s corporate headquarters is located at 8500 Governors Hill Dr., Cincinnati, Ohio 54249, but Vantiv also has offices in Illinois, Indiana, and Texas. Vantiv’s CEO is Charles D. Drucker.
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Vantiv Bottom Line
For Vantiv’s size and time in business, the company appears to be performing at an average level in terms of overall merchant satisfaction. The factors that lower the company’s rating are extensive use of sub-ISOs, resellers, and subsidiaries (a tactic which makes measurement of merchant satisfaction difficult to quantify), reports of poor customer service, and reports of nondisclosure of the early termination fee prior to setting up accounts. Additionally, a few of Vantiv’s sub-ISOs and subsidiaries have numerous complaints, for which Vantiv may or may not bear some responsibility.
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About Phillip Parker
Phillip Parker is a former merchant services agent turned small business advocate and the author of "Fee Sweep," which teaches merchants how to dramatically lower their processing rates, eliminate junk fees, and avoid fine-print scams. He founded CardPaymentOptions.com to help merchants enact positive change in the credit card processing industry. Schedule a Consultation with Phillip
Schedule a Consultation with Phillip
I have been with vantiv for seven years. I signed a three-year contract. They have been raising my rates and charging me Annual fees PCI compliance fees so I decided to go with another company. I just called to cancel my service and they told me that I would have to pay $175 cancellation fee even though I have not signed another contract after the 3 years because they told me after the 3 years your contract automatically renews. I have to call back March 31st to cancel my contract they just took $129 annual fee out of my account. I am absolutely Furious. I never signed another contract with them after the 3 years I should be able to go to whoever I want. I am a small business owner I do not have this kind of money. The company I went to is actually saving me more than half of what vantiv has been charging me
This is the worst company I have ever dealt with! They will try to sign you up for a 3 year contract, never do this! They want over $3,000 just to cancel the contract. They have horrible customer service and are a huge pain to deal with.
I have been dealing with Vantiv for 6 years and have updated my rates with them on three different occassions only to find out that my rates were never lowered. I left them and am saving over 100k in my 2 restaurants. Vanity wants me to pay a fee of 60k for leaving them even though they didn’t hold up there end of the contract. The fees they charge are outrageous and almost impossible for the average person to understand on their statements. I called Vantiv and asked them to explain my fees and could never get a straight answer.
I would be very cautious dealing with them.
This company has the worst customer service and policies. It has just cost us $350 to CANCEL our account. DO NOT USE THEM! There are many other alternatives that are cheaper and much more responsive.
Vantiv is a criminal, incompetent company. I changed providers after 10 years of being with Vantiv (including several years with a company they bought out). I called to cancel my account with them on 7/12/2016. I was never able to get through to anyone after trying for an hour. Finally I left a voicemail with their “loyalty” department, explaining that I am cancelling effective today and that I need someone to call me back as soon as possible to confirm. I gave them 3 days. I never got a call back from them.
I called them on 7/15/2016 to try again to get the cancel processed/confirmed. After 4 and a half hours on the phone, getting the runaround, I finally emailed the required Request Close Form to the customer service department. They were so incompetent that they said they were not able to send me an email reply confirming that they received it. I told them I was not hanging up the phone until I had something in writing stating that my account was canceled. I told them I needed this because I did not want to have to call back in a month when they drop the ball and have to dispute any future charges. They assured me they got it, finally sent me an email from [email protected] stating “Email received with close letter attached.”
I did everything I could to cancel the account and even got a confirmation number 04408848 for the cancelation call. The agent said I could call back with that number if I had any trouble with future charges.
Well, guess what? My 7/31/2016 statement came in the mail and they charged me $189, including a brand new $169 annual fee for the next year!
Today on 8/17/2016, I called them again. Over an hour on the phone with another incompetent agent, she says there is no record of my “Request Close Form” and they have no record of the email confirmation they sent from [email protected] (which I have a printed copy of), and my account is still listed as Active. She asked me to hold, came back with the same thing that she did not see my email or request close account. I told her I didn’t care and that I needed my money back now or I was going to the police to file a report and then to my bank to report the fraud. After a long time of trying to get through to her that the account was already canceled and I wanted my money returned to me now, I told her she has 8 minutes to figure it out or I was hanging up and heading to the police department. She came back after 2 more minutes and said the same thing that she could not find my close request form. I told her she was out of time, told her off, and hung up on her.
I then went directly to the police station and filed a fraud report against them. From there I went to my bank (Chase) and filed a fraud report with them. I showed them my evidence, which they did not collect, and paid $30 more to put a stop on Vantiv’s future ACH transactions. I informed Chase that if they side with Vantiv, I will be closing all business and personal accounts, which I have held there for over 10 years.
Now, my wife is on the phone with Vantiv telling the same story and still getting nowhere with them.
My advice – do not use this company, they are crooks and it is impossible to cancel. They are incompetent and unable to help when you need them. Plus they add ridiculous fees constantly which is why I left them in the first place.
I tried to cancel this yesterday assuming the fee would be about $400.00 to $500.00, no problem. The guy named (Tim Fugua) said, we would owe him $22,000.00 because we still have 17 months left on contract. He was nice and said he would reduce it to $16,000.00 to cancel the account, (nice guy lol) which was ridiculous, and then he became rude to us. I can’t believe this company still operates like this and gets away with legal extortion, I thought lawyers only did this. I’ll see where this takes us in the next few days. I’ve been in business since “74” never seen anything like this. BEWARE
@Florents Malo. Please let me know about the result, if you’re able to resolve your case with them. We both have the same case.Mine is still in the process and we just exchange emails, so we’ll see what will happen the next few days. My account is now closed and charged my account a termination fees of $295 and yet they still claimed that I owe them $$$$ for some damages for cancelling the contract. What a rip off! Always check the reviews before signing up with any Merchants. Almost all of VANTIV REVIEWS ARE BAD!!!
I was billed for Omnishield Assure ($24.95) my first two months using their credit card processing service, while page 2 of my contract with them states $0.00. I still have not been refunded for those amounts. I revised my contract on 4/26/16 to remove the Omnishield Assure fees, then without notice I got billed in June for $169.00 PCI COMPLIANCE and $79.50 REGULATORY COMPLIANCE FEE. Nether fees were made aware to me, and especially with the REGULATORY COMPLIANCE FEE they alerted me on my bill statement that closed on June 30, 2016 that “Effective June 2016, you will be assessed a semi-annual Regulator Compliance Fee of up to $79.50. This fee will be assessed each year in May and November.” Quite plainly, they charged me then let me know afterwards. I’ve contacted customer service and they refuse accountability in the initial contract error ($0.00 Omnishield Assure versus the $24.95 they charged) and refuse to offer a refund. I was told that a manager, Ned, will get in touch but he has not. They’re only offer to me is to cancel the contract, at no penalty….. no penalty except the nearly $300 that I am now out.
I hear ya, man. It’s just what they do.
I just noticed the fee on my statement too. Labeled as “ASSURE BUNDLE”. I just revised my contract a few weeks ago, and I had just recently purchased an EMV reader from them too.
You have to watch EVERY statement you get from them EVERY month. They like to make extra money from forcing everyone into these plans. There’s a plan for almost anything, and they seem to always auto opt-in you into it. There are so many of their plans which I don’t need/want and I always have to call them or fill out forms and fax back to opt-out.
I think this is how they actually make their money, by “auto opt-in” everybody and see who notices and cancels. I feel sorry for the people who don’t watch their statement every month. I’m sure they’re paying way more than what they should be each month, and probably have about 3-4 plans they don’t need.
So again they have held a large transaction and it is impossible to get through on their phone line. The website has a feature wehre you can leave your number for them to call you back. You probably have better luck waitibg for Santa Clause. I used to be with Mercury and pretty happy with them. Vantiv have been a nightmare and so far I have also had no luck trying to cancel the account.
I’m surprised this site gave Vantiv 2.9 rating. We had a large online transaction last month Vantiv has hold the fund and not releasing it, even they confirmed transaction with our customer.
I been calling them for last few weeks now they even don’t answers my phone calls.
I tried to refund the customer but this time this transaction went straight to my bank.
DO NOT USE VANTIV.
Massive junk fee and un disclosed protection fees!
Will sign you up on their security and protection plan without your consent, then will charge you directly from your checking account their annual fee for termination!!! unless if you continue with their merchant services. Big scammers. BEWARE!!!
Do not signup with these guys.
Horrible company, policy and procedures failed. Tim on 7/4/16 was so rude he ended up hanging up on me as I was trying to respond to my credit card alert. You never should be asked for your full credit card number over the phone and Tim was pissed that I wouldn’t which made me wonder is this company a SCAM. Charles Drucker CEO has no idea what he is doing and hires incompetent people paying them minimum wages with a high turn-over and putting millions of card member at risk for fraud of a company suppose to be protecting the card member. I am demanding my bank to stop doing business with Vantiv or I will leave my bank. It is not safe to do business with companies like this.
Small businesses beware!!!!
I have been using this company for years. In reality we did start off with a different company that was bought out by Vantiv.
In the past couple years the rates have skyrocketed. I recently switched to a new company (Square) was VERY HAPPY and cancelled with Vantiv. Or should I say attempted to?! I did the normal thing and called customer service to speak to them and let them know we want to cancel. I called at least two dozen times and never got through. I waited on hold anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. When I finally spoke to someone they told me I had to fill out a form and fax it in to cancel. It took me a month to get this information. We never processed one card during that time and I was charged over $200 for processing nothing! What a rip off! Also my service was not canceled. About a month later I got a letter back saying the wrong person filled out the paperwork and the account holder had to fill out the paperwork to cancel, when the paperwork clearly stated it was the person on the statement that mean the cancel (me). I started all over again and have my husband fill it out and fax it in. Here I am four months later $1200 plus stolen from my bank account and it’s still not canceled! What does it take to get rid of these people? Maybe a lawyer? That’s what we’re doing tomorrow. We have processed over $8 million with these people and this is the thanks I get. I’ve never written a bad review but today’s the day.
I should mention I have spent over 12 hours on hold at this point trying to get through to customer support and speaking to no one. They do not answer ever!!
a local food co op here in Cambridge NY uses this company i discovered a double charge…resolution is not as swift as taking of my money twice was…still waiting 15 days so far…
Do not use Vantiv. Just DON’T. You will regret it. There are so many other smaller companies that will appreciate, respect, and work for your business….this company takes the word “exploitation” to another level. I’ve tried to close my account for 3 months, still unsuccessful. I hate them. Simply hate.
This company is the WORST! Has been stealing money from my business account for months and they wouldn’t cancel the account the business’s former owner had set up. Beware!!!!! Fees and Auto Renew and lengthy contracts.
This company is a fraud and a scam. Their PCI DSS report is a fraud. They will charge you non compliance fees for months before they inform you of a report that a small, new business owner may not know about. I had two other credit card companies before Platinum Choice Bancard who is associated with Vantiv. Never did I have an issue with any non compliance fees. These two companies charged me for equipment fees that I already owned, and regulatory and non compliance fees of a report I was never informed about. No one in charge will return my calls, and when I call back with my case #s I am told the refund is denied. Scam, Scam Scam. SMALL BUSINESS BEWARE
This company is awful. I used them to process my credit cards for 8 years. In this time my rates kept going up. Upon finding another company that cut my rates in half, they would not match them so I preceded to cancel my service with them. After 8 years they wanted to charge me $250.00 because I was in an automatic renewal period. So I’ve been paying $16.95 a month for 9 months now. I called again today and the lady was rude telling me that every company does this. No they don’t! This company charges higher rates and will not let you get out of your contract. I have 2 businesses and have had them since 1994 and have never wrote a negative review in my life, they’re that bad.
I have also never written a negative review. I have been charged 4 months of fees when I cancelled already. I have proof!! $1200 in fees so far and I don’t know what to do anymore. They are disgusting. Fraudulent monsters.
BEWARE!!!!!!!! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!! I would not wish this company on my worst enemy!. This company started out by sending me a W9 which I filled out incorrectly. (Filled in Tax ID number when they wanted SS#. ) This in turn sent my company into a tail spin. Vanitv started garnishing my credit card daily deposits by 28%!!!! When called customer service no one at Vantiv could understand or figure out why this was happening?? it took over a month for my bookkeeper and I to get a answer of what we need to do to fix what was happening. After all said and done they took out $30,000 out of my account and gave it to the IRS. When I went to cancel Vantiv as my credit card processor. I was first told that the credit card reader was still in a lease and that I need to pay $550 to pay that off. Now I am receiving phone calls that I had closed my account early and that I owe them $9000!!!!! It is time to get a attorney. THIS COMPANY IS RUN BY BLOOD SUCKING PEOPLE! AND ARE PREDATORY CREDIT PROCESSORS!
Do NOT use Vantiv under any circumstances. They are a big dumb company that move extremely slow and rarely fixes their issues. I was a customer for over a year processing around $6,000,000 with them. Their platform goes down constantly and they do not respond to emails or voicemails. You would be doing your business a disservice by utilizing their service. Use Stripe, Paypal Payments or any other processor… event Auth.net – and they are horrible too.
DO NOT USE VANTIV UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
Years of horrible customer service, and more than 200 hours logged on hold. FINALLY we were able to change to a new processor and focus on growing the business. For the record, we have $60,000 worth of old CC deposits still at Vantiv – to release they are requiring a signature from an employee that has passed away. After 3 1/2 months of being on hold, faxing forms, and arguing we decided to eat the 60K just to get away from Vantiv. And, it was worth every penny!
Every company manages to hire a few idiots, and normally if you get bad service you can just call back. Somehow Vantiv has been able to exclusively hire idiots and/or convert normal human beings into idiots. This skill is their one and only competency.
Anyway, finally free from Vantiv!
I had a small business and used Vantiv for processing. This is a warning, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE use Vantiv. Vantiv uses an another merchant that is called Lease Finance Group out of New York. Lease Finance Group leases the credit card machine and when you sign up with Vantiv. With Vantiv you will be signing a 48 month lease for the credit card machine which cannot be canceled and will cost you THOUSANDS of dollars. In addition, the Customer service for Vantiv/ Lease Finance Group is Horrible. The salesman of course does not let you know you are signing up for this machine through another company during the the paperwork. Avoid being ripped off and do not do business with Vantiv or Lease Finance Group. The contract doesn’t even go over all the terms and conditions of the lease for the credit card machine.
DO NOT USE VANTIV/ LEASE FINANCE GROUP FOR YOUR CREDIT CARD PROCESSING AT ALL COST FELLOW BUSINESS OWNERS!
Ohh and Lease Finance Group was sued for multi million dollar suit and lost for DECEIVING small business owners and withdrawing mone AFTER their accounts were closed. Of course the salesman for Vantiv would not tell you this because they need their commission. You have bee forewarned!
HORRIBLE customer service. I’ve had an account with them for about two years now. Every single time that I call in, I am on hold for hours. It does not matter if it is a small problem or a big problem. The wait times are especially long if you are transfered to a Level 2 support team.
One time it was so bad that I had to drive to the branch (while on hold) and have the branch manager call an internal phone number to get assistance with my problem. Vantiv is horrible!!!!!
Worst credit company.
Please be careful with “liquidated damages” and the 295.00 early termination fees.
Horrible customer service.
I change 6 business to another credit card company and they try to get @ 10K in liquidated damages from me.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND vantiv AT ALL.
What did you do to get out of the liquidated damages. They are trying to say that I owe then $9000! because I closed the account 7 months early…. You can read my post farther down.
No happy with the service or lack there of I received about fees on a machine I never used. I requested $7.50 of the $52.50 in fees I has incurred and it was denied. My suggestion is to find a different company to use. This one will nickel and dime you to death.
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I have been a customer of this company for so many years, I can’t remember ever not being their customer. We have been ope for 27 years. We run our business with the utmost integrity and am just stunned by the way we have been treated by this company. I purchased a credit machine last September when we were all told we had to change to the new technology. Then the troubles began. The machine did not work properly which led to me having to contact Vantiv numerous times. Each time I had to sit on hold for at least an hour, sometimes 2 – 3 times a week. Then the rude comments started coming by one of their *sales executives* John Mills. He even at one point said I didn’t own my own machine and I had to prove him wrong. I finally had all I could take and changed companies. I sent them a letter cancelling their service. They locked my credit card machine. Which remains locked to this day since the first week of January 2016. My next move will be to hire an attorney, as well as educating as many people as I can to their unethical business practices. If you are considering a credit card processing company, do your homework. Check them out. Some of them are not worthy of your business.
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This review is from the standpoint of a 5/3 customer. Since 5/3 pawns off their “fraud detection” to this department/company and it hasn’t been reviewed, I will be happy to be the first. This company has successfully frustrated me to the point that their very name makes me angry. I’m normally a very patient person but these guys definitely don’t have their act together. I run a successful IT business that is very security conscience without any credit card transaction issues, yet somehow these guys seem to think it’s ok to continually block my card after simple transactions from the Apple Store or any other 3rd party I try to make purchases from. Long story shortened (I know too late right?) After 8 attempts (the first 3 times I was nice, the last 5 I will admit I was downright nasty but for obvious reasons) and a visit to my home branch to resolve the problem it still never got resolved. I will be moving my money away from 5/3 this week because enough is enough. It’s enough to make a customer feel personally discriminated against and if I could bill Vantiv for all the problems they have caused me it’s would be $3200.
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We opened 4 cellphones stores in April. The POS system we signed up with only integrated with Mercury so we opened up an account with them. Their Customer Service Agent was wonderful and provides with everything we needed, sent me the terminals I needed without charging me. We had even had an issue a couple months in with one of the terminals and they shipped it out next day at no charge to me. Everything was great up until around beginning of October. I noticed that my accounts got debited an oddly large amount. Knowing what each store was producing, I looked at the recent statement that we had received for the month of September. Low and behold I saw a charge of $169 per each of my stores under the Fees portion listed as Data Security. I called it a little irate because I had just been debited $676 out of my account since I had 4 stores with 4 merchant accounts set up. I immediately called in do discuss and the person in charge of discussing this told me that this was a PCI Compliance and that there was nothing she could do. I informed her that not only were we not notified properly but that $169 per location was a little apsurd. She said that the only way to avoid that charge I could sign up for a monthly compliance of $39.95 per month. I told her that it was crazy that I would be signing up for a monthly charge x the 4 locations I had. I told her that I wanted to cancel immediately at the end of the month since I was already mid month. They send me an email with the RMA to return the terminals. I replied to that email and informed them that I would send the terminals at the end of the month. At the beginning of November I sent by their terminals. I waited a couple weeks to inquire about whether everything was completed and how I could go about getting those $676 refunded since I had cancelled because of them. The same person I spoke with when I called to complain told me plain and simple that I was not going to receive that refund. They never cancelled my account at the end of October as they were suppose to and didn’t cancel my account till December 12th when they finally sent me the paperwork to fill out. Therefore I was charged for the month of November all of their fees plus 79.50 for some Reg Comp. 79.50x 4 locations is another $318 plus all the fees for that month of November that I should not have been charged for. This company seems to be great on the forefront but they are scammers and charge you all kinds of hidden fees and then claim they can’t give you back your money. I will never do business with this company again and it’s a real shame. Not only did them manage to loose my business since I recently opened another store, making that 5 locations but I am well vested in the industry I am in and I will make sure nobody that I work with or any of my colleagues every use this company again. They owe me $1216.
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I would not recommend this company to anybody. Our credit card machine has not worked in a week. We have spent over 6 hours on the phone with customer service and tech support only to be transferred from 1 person to another with no resolution to our issue, They do not provide the service we pay them for.
The worst company I have ever dealt with in 30 plus years of business, 29 minutes on hold and counting and three employees on hold at the same time here, we are trying to get through. It is the same thing every time. You and I would be out of business if we treated our VALUED customers like this. They should close up shop & go out of business because they are so horrible. My fees are 2.85 % for MC, 2.84 for Visa, 3.50 for Amex & 2.84 for Discover so all will know.
ALL we wanted to do was add more of the mobile swipe devices for our people in the field so we were going to give them more business and this is how they treat you! I’m not big on excuses, if they say “they must have been busy” unusual call volume, whatever they try to say to make an excuse it will not be acceptable. DO NOT do business with this organization unless you want to deal with a lot of grief, waste a lot of time and have NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. NOTE EVERY SINGLE REVIEW IS BAD. I would bet that I could write a book while on hold here about how horrible of an experience this has been. I will stop doing business with them when they pick up we are cancelling. We actually have already called & scheduled for our banker to come by and he will be here in the morning to review all. He also said he will bring the customer service number for us to call so we can see how they do things there! (great idea) . So now its 38 plus minutes on hold . DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH VANTIV
I love how all of these people who comment about the contract and own or run a business, DIDN’T READ THE CONTRACT! I used Vantiv for a few years until I sold my business and I let the contract lapse, no fees or problems. I have a few problems over the years with outages or things that break, which I figured happens. I never waited as long as anyone else did for support, 5 or 10 minutes maybe. The fees were cheaper in the long run then other processors. Overall I’d say I was happy with them, if I ran another business I’d give them a shot while comparing them to the competition.
C’mon people, learn to read the contract. Read the whole thing, every line and mark it up with questions and ask. If you don’t do your due diligence then its YOUR fault. Take some responsibility for your actions.
Hi Mike,
Please respond with your former business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
As another post said…I wish I had seen these reviews, which is why I have made it a goal to find at least 1-2 review sites every week to post our negative experience. Hopefully it will help others avoid the bad experience.
As stated by others, Vantiv is NOT the company you want to use for processing. We had a bad experience from the start with being sent the wrong equipment. We later experienced problems with multiple charges, overcharges, and failing equipment. Anytime my manager attempted to call support he was put on 20-30min or longer holds and if he did get someone on the phone, they would shuffle him to someone else for another hold time.
When we finally had enough and wanted to cancel, we explained to Vantiv that we did not expect a cancellation fee. They said they would look into it. They then charged our account a $500 termination fee, although the termination fee was stated to be $295. When asked (a phone call that took over an hour to get through) they said our complaints held no merit and that the other $205 was for processing the $295 termination fee!!
There are decent processing companies out there….Vantiv is NOT one of them. Do your business a favor and stay clear.
In June, 2013 I opened two credit card processing accounts with Vantiv, one for retail and one for online. I understood them to be one-year contracts (but they turned out to be 3 years), and the sales agent didn’t mention an early termination fee.
I closed my Vantiv accounts in April 2015, and the first week of May, Vantiv took $750 out of my bank account for early termination fees.
I talked with various folks at Vantiv on April 30th and asked for the $750 to be refunded. One person said they will look into it, and that I should call back in 3 to 5 days to check on the status. When I called back on May 5th, the person I talked to had no information on my request, and transferred me to the “Loyalty Department.” The man there said there was no way I can get the fee back, as it is in my signed contract. I asked to be transferred to his supervisor, and he refused.
I also called Vantiv on May 1st, and asked for the $750 to be refunded. That person said she would have it looked into and someone from Vantiv would call me back within 48 hours. They never called me back.
I filed a complaint with the BBB yesterday.
NOTE: I will admit that I had good results with Vantiv until I closed my accounts. Vantiv did save me some money compared to the previous CC processing accounts I had with another company.
So how do we start a class action suite. They never deposited some money in my account and it’s taking month for them to investigate!
Worst processing company I have ever dealt with. Rude agents, if your lucky enough to get anyone at all on the phone!
I wish I had read these reviews. UGH. We are in a living nightmare with VANTIV. We are a small grass roots paralegal assn. Not much in budget. We wanted credit card processing as an aide to our members and vendors. Our bank rep recommended Vantiv. Not knowing anything about this side of the business we sought their assistance. The monthly fees are way too high and practically depleted our reserves. We cancelled our agreement with them in March 2014. I called repeatedly asking them to stop sucking $100 from our account for their credit card processing fees when nothing had been charged. I’ve been calling and writing, and getting no where. Finaly today (Dec 2014) I was informed that we signed a 4 year non-cancellable lease and that I’m personally liable as guarantor to the tune of $1350. Money which I don’t have personally and our small association doesn’t have either. The Vantive rep didn’t care and threatened to sue our organization. We are closing our bank account to stop the bloodsuckers from accessing our tiny reserves (believe me we have less than $100 in our bank account). Apparently we still have 3 years left on this contract. No worries, they won’t see another dime from our organization but I’m sure they’ll be calling and harrassing us and me personally. We’re going to have to hire an attorney to see how we can break this contract since we want out and don’t have money. Best advice I can share: Don’t use VANTIV period.
DO NOT EVER work with this company!!
This is a very dishonest company!! actually the worst I have ever worked with.
They kept taking money by “mistake” from my account. Every single time a “mistake” happened I had to call this company to get reimbursed and argue about it for hours!
The sales person also lied about many things before selling her products, after the sale never answered the phone anymore.
I will have to close my business account to stop these thieves from taking my money.
Do not read it and think it is just one more complaint from a frustrated customer and that this is not gonna happen with you. It will!
TERRIBLE COMPANY TO DO BUSINESS WITH! do not recommend to anyone!
I have been told that VANTIV is owned by VISA. Anyone have any info. I do not find it in anything I’ve seen.
Do not do business with Vantiv! You will regret it! Have been trying to cancel service now for weeks, and am just getting the run-around. Despite faxing the close request form from multiple Fifth Third Branches, they keep claiming different parts of the form are being cut-off. Oh, and the only way I found that out is because I called them. They did not call me to say I needed to re-fax the form. They just charged more fees. They refuse to accept the form via email, and they refuse to give me any kind of confirmation in writing that account is closed. We are no longer under contract. Wish I had read all of the negative reviews before signing on with them. Last time I called customer service the rep, Victoria, refused to transfer me to a supervisor, refused to wait on the phone while I attempted yet another re-fax, and then hung up on me.
This company is the most dishonest company I have ever encountered and policy that obviously caters to them. I have replaced the original contract signer and so he obviously is no longer with the company. NPC tells me they cannot deal with me or with the owner of the company that they only can deal with the individual that signed the original contract. I guess there isn’t a clause within the document for that.
Also, I have tried to follow procedure outlined in the original contract but hey that’s not the way they do it anymore. The phone numbers have since changed, etc. Wow, really. And guess what, monies are still coming out of the account, because even though I have documentation that I sent to terminate the contract timely, it was somehow not received. Hmmmm…now the contract can continue says the tiny print at the bottom and your locked in and monies continue to come out of your account. I believe this to be fraud. There must be a clause within any contract in the case that the signor is no longer capable to serve that position. I was told that a fax was needed to terminate the contract from the original signor so I did find him and he kindly obliged. Now I’m told that he would need to delegate someone to take his place by yet another fax.
I’ve been yelled at by this company, hung up on and I just want to end the contract and stop them from taking our hard earned monies that they are not authorized to take.
Yes, I am a bit frustrated as this has cost me many man hours of research and being on the phone, etc.
If I close the bank account maybe then I will get resolution.
Worst choice ever! If you value your money and business. Never, ever choose Vantiv! ACH Compliance Fees…Non-Regulatory Fees, Hosting Fees…..and many, many more hidden charges you are never told about up front and then told by Vantiv it was my fault for not knowing. I feel like is was legally robbed by Vantiv.
How their license hasn’t been pulled by the SEC is beyond me. They hired a new manger from the now defunct Icon, then Axiom, and finally Oracle (Sean Mecham – look him up) who was wanted by the SEC (and currently sits in jail) without vetting him first. I had the displeasure of meeting this crook. If Vantiv can’t hire the right people, stand behind their word, or stop deceiving consumers, they are going to be a has been organization with a lot more people sitting behind bars.
He’s a little something from the Phoenix Business Journal. This is the type of people who are employed by Vantiv and I’ve had many of the following examples happen to me in less than a year of Vantiv services. I am currently cancelling all present and future dealings with this organization and I would urge everyone to try someone else other than Vantiv. I hope you read this in it’s entirety. It’s from 2013.
The proprietors of Valley credit card payment processing companies have been indicted on money laundering and wire fraud charges by a federal grand jury in Phoenix.
Sean Clinton Mecham, 36, Ashley Brisbin Mecham, 27, Jonathan L. Cannon, 31, and Jake Brisbin, 26, were indicted on various charges this month. They were executives and employees at Icon Payment Solutions, Axiom Merchant Services and Oracle Payment Services, according to court documents.
Prosecutors allege the Mechams deposited $2.9 million worth of ill-gotten gains into accounts they controlled and used the money to buy a luxury boat, Mercedes and Maserati cars and off-road trucks for racing.
Their companies processed credit card payments for retailers and other businesses. The indictment charges the quartet with misleading customers into signing leases for credit card machines and forging as many as 200 business owners and managers signatures.
They also were charged with changing contract terms after business clients signed other agreements. Sales prospects were told they would pay lower credit card fees if they signed up with the defendants’ companies.
The Better Business Bureau and other consumer websites also list complaints against the company and the executives. One consumer complaint says there may be some family link between Sean Mecham and deceased former Arizona governor Evan Mecham.
Ashley Mecham and Jake Brisbin were arraigned on charges Nov. 7 in Los Angeles and were released. Cannon was arraigned in Phoenix on Nov. 12, according to prosecutors. Sean Mecham is still in custody pending trial, according to prosecutors. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona want Sean Mecham held arguing he is a flight risk, skipped court hearings for civil complaints against his companies and has previously withdrawn large amounts of cash. Court documents also show prosecutors claiming Sean Mecham threatening employees, family members and others from talking about his business dealings.
Mecham and other defendants could not be reached for comment. David Eisenberg, a Phoenix white-collar defense attorney, could end up representing Sean Mechem. Eisenberg said he has not yet been assigned to the case and declined further comment.
The numbers of that business in the investigation have been disconnected or are no longer in service.
As you see…things can change when greedy executives get their hands on your money. As of today…Vantiv won’t give me all the money we agreed upon like they said they would.
Good Luck and don’t ever say I didn’t tell you so.
Ripoff I tried to cancel this agreement after 9 years and wad help hostage by Mitch Gross. worst company to do business with ..charged my account $700. cancellation fee.
I am contacting the Better business bureau to get this vulture out of the credit card scam
Vantiv charged us an early termination fee even though we only had a 1 year term and we closed our account after 2 years. We’ll be filing complaints with the FTC and our state AG as well as taking legal action. And their customer service was the worst of any company we’ve ever dealt with. Someone should file a class action against them.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. They are a rip off. They have taken money from our account without authorization. The Customer Service pretends like they care, BUT THEY DON’T! I am still fighting to get our money back that they say are credible charges. Oh how I regret ever working with this company.
I signed up with 5/3 processing (Vantiv) as a brand new business owner. I had had accounts with 5/3 for years, and had been happy with them, so after being inundated with merchant service providers and not understanding much about it, I signed with someone I thought would be fair. Big mistake. The fees are an average of 2-3 times what many other providers offer. The contract is 3 years, and automatically renews unless sufficient written notice is given–fine, I can do written notice.There is an early termination fee of $295, again, that is fine. I would gladly pay that to get out from under them. But hidden midway through a very lengthy contract is the liquidated damages clause. As I apply this to my own situation, this could run $6000 to $10000, and I am a very small, very new business. This kind of charge would bankrupt me in an instant. So I am on the hook to this company for exorbitant fees for about another year, and see no way out.
As an additional bonus they required me to lease a terminal for $45 per month for 4 years ($2160). The terminal new would cost about $200.
DO NOT DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY…. I have never sign a contract with this company but somehow they worked their way into our system from taking over the previous company that I have used Novus. I have asked with verbal and written confirmation to terminate our contract, even though I don’t have one. It took me a year to finally closed out the contract, but recently they debit and annual due of 89.00 out of my account without my permission. They refused to refund back to my account. Their fees area outrageous!!! Can you guys help to bring this company to justice!!
Cancelled with them due to massive fees, and then they deducted $250 from my bank account for early termination (after 4 years!). This fee was not mentioned when I signed up and I asked and wrote down every fee that they did admit to, nor was it mentioned when I cancelled. Really scammy.
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.
This company is scam. i sat down with the sales representative and discuses about my current credit card processing company how they are charging extra fees and their rates are much higher than theirs’; they promised me that i will save money by signing up with them, so i did. what a biggest mistake i made.
Right after i sign up the contract, this sales person changed my contract rate that he quoted me without me knowing, i am now paying more fees and higher rate than i have ever did. I call Vantiv about this and they admits the wrong doing and send me the refund. however, a month after the refund of the extra fee, all my rate went up. i call them once more and this time i was told this is want i will be paying. i required to have the contract cancelled, which stated on the contract that i can do so, but i got rejected.
Do not do business with this company. They charge excessive fees and when you try to cancel they will charge you a $295.00 early termination fee plus liquidated damages which would be in the thousands according to Virginia a customer service rep. They are also charging us a $500.00 PCI compliance fee that other companies don’t charge along with a $139.50 monthly breach assistance fee per location, this is also a fee no other company seems to have. I was a customer of Fifth Third Bank and mistakenly trusted them when they approached us about using them as our credit card processor (BIG MISTAKE). I spoke with Jason at FTPS and he was little to no help and now he doesn’t even bother to respond to my e-mails. I will be contacting the BBB to file a complaint along with FTC and E-commerce.
Do yourself a big favor and find another company to do business with Vantiv is the worst.
My experience with Vantiv has not been positive. The sales rep did not disclose a $5 per ticket “pass through” fee that made it prohibitively expensive to use their service. They have twice imposed fees without notifying me and after I have addressed the issue with them. The different departments are isolated from each other, and I have received three different sets of instructions and information about how to close my account. I would not do business with them again, knowing what I know now.
Caution; Vantiv fees are excessive, inquire with intuit solutions or any other carrier for better value. Upon discovery of the excessive fees that Vantiv had been charging us, we cancelled with them in writing. 15 days later they continued to access our bank account(without authorization) deducting additional charges for early termination fees. In addition, they charged us another 179.00 for annual fees for the next year that we are’nt using, and refuse to refund even a prorated refund. I would caution anyone from doing business with or allowing access to any accounts with Vantiv as they have shown unlawful and dirty business practices.
Our lawyer informed us that they lost automatic deduction authorization the minute we cancelled in writing and additional charges should have been invoiced by mail as a final explanation of charges. We are going to start proceedings against Vantiv with our bank, the Federal Trade Commission, and then in court after steps 1 & 2 have been fulfilled .
Save yourself this trouble and don’t use Vantiv.
Richard Clos
Poor customer service and long wait times at Vantiv. Disputed a charge I specifically had a confirmation number for my call on in which I was told I wouldn’t be seeing any further charges. Had to call yet again when I did in fact see further charges. Spent over 90 minutes in runaround calls to be told I was wrongfully informed and my fees would not be removed. TERRIBLE COMPANY TO DO BUSINESS WITH!
This is a review that was left about our business thanks to Vantivs aweful service…..very frustrating!!!!
“My dog was happy and they seemed nice enough. She is a runner, and did not get away, so that’s always good.
I get a bad feeling about their billing practices though. They charged my credit card twice. FIRST time I called them, they said to wait to see if it was a repeat transaction. SECOND time, they said wait 7-10 days, as it was the credit card company’s fault, and it will be refunded. THIRD time, they said 1-3 business days. 2.5 weeks later, I finally have my money back, but who wants to go through all that mess, especially after what was supposed to be a relaxing vacation??
Bottom line….cash is always better at small businesses, for you and for them.”