In the late 2000s, as a broke college student struggling to make ends meet, I was contacted by a merchant services company after uploading my resume to a job listings website. This company promised substantial commissions and ongoing residual income for simply persuading businesses to accept credit card payments. It seemed straightforward enough—after all, what business doesn’t need to process credit card payments? Following a phone interview with a persuasive “sales director,” I found myself embarking on what I believed would be an easy job that would significantly boost my bank account with reliable monthly income and large sales commissions. However, the lessons I learned would profoundly change my life in ways I could never have imagined.
After completing my sales training, I hit the ground running, eager to make sales. This broke college student was determined to improve his financial situation! My first attempt at a cold call, with no prior appointment, ended with a burly man in his 50s yelling at me to leave, claiming he had been “totally robbed” by someone like me before. As I hastily exited, puzzled and intimidated by his reaction, I couldn’t help but wonder what he meant. Throughout the day, I encountered similar hostility from other business owners, all expressing disdain for the industry I had been so excited to join that morning. Confused and curious, I decided to shift my approach from selling to listening.
I quickly uncovered that the merchant services sector was riddled with unethical practices, including hidden fees, deceptive marketing, fine-print traps, and much more. It dawned on me that I had nearly been tricked by a dubious company into selling overpriced services under contracts with long-term commitments, all without being fully aware of what I was promoting. Outraged, I resigned from that company but learned that there were indeed ethical credit card processing companies that treated their clients fairly. Over the next four years, I worked for one such company, assisting hundreds of businesses in securing cost-effective processing solutions. Yet, I also met many more who had been misled and trapped in onerous service agreements. Determined to help people steer clear of these unscrupulous providers, I launched this website in my spare time, dedicating myself to researching and sharing my findings on every merchant account provider I could investigate.
Gradually, more and more business owners began to discover my articles. As word spread, search engines started to rank my content highly, amplifying its reach. My efforts were making a difference! Eventually, the website garnered enough traffic to enable me to leave my job and focus on it full-time, a journey that has now spanned over a decade. This path has not been without its challenges; unscrupulous company owners have tried to intimidate and sue me into silence on several occasions. Yet, I have stood firm against each threat. Here I am, continuing to publish reviews and articles, hoping to safeguard others from the pitfalls of the credit card processing industry.
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Sean Moon
Just like other small business owners, I got scammed by this company. The sales person lured me by offering month to month contract that I can cancel the service anytime I want and no terminal rental fee that will be covered by other monthly fees. There are many things that she hid behind such a low rate like per transaction fee, settlement fee and so on. Also, she was such a friendly person up until I signed the contract and got the machine installed and now she is avoiding my messages and told me that she just had a surgery and currently out of commission. I’m being very skeptical that she had a surgery last week. When I called the head office to address the issue, of course they are going to tell me that they can only see what’s written on the contract and there is no way they can verify if the sales person lied about the contract. After all, I’m the only one to blame and have to pay $500 to cancel. Who knows if more is coming after the cancellation. I wish I had seen these extremely negative reviews before signing the contract and I truly hope other business owners to see my review and make a wise decision not to do any business with this company whatsoever.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
Aaron Robert Offutt
I work for Heartland Payment Systems. My client just called stating that a Tiffanii called from this phone number and this Merchant processor. Their tag line is “You overpaid last month for your credit card processing.” My client called me and gave me the name and number. I called Tiffanii, who hung up on me. Then I called back and talked with Lawrence Walker, who said her real name is Jamie, and that once they find out they are working with Heartland, they no longer pursue these merchants, and hung up on me. I then called back and Brandon answered. When asked if it is a common practice to tell merchants they overpaid on their credit card processing and that they need to review their previous statements, he hung up on me. The next call went to Carol, who claimed to be the Vice President. She said that they do not pursue Heartland Customers, they do not condone misrepresenting their names, and that it is not a common practice to claim that merchants overpaid on their credit card processing, and that any further communications need to be dealt with from our attorneys. This is a SCAM, do not fall for it!
Richard Fletcher
Much like the complaints about this company I am seeing on this website mine is the same. Canceled services with them early. Expected the $395.00 early termination fee, but they never took it. This was in 2012/2013. Fast foward to March 2016….over 3 YEARS LATER they debit my checking accoount for $1,288.98 with no notice what so ever. I didn’t catch it until April….almost a month later. Too late to dispute it with my bank because it was an ACH Debit to my account, I had to catch it within 24 hours. I called the company and tried to resolved the dispute, that it was really ethically wrong to come back over 3 years later with no notice and just take the money from my account. They were rude, would not budge and kept stating that there is “No statute of limitations on B2B contracts” and that they were owed all the money they took. They started stating paragraphs from my supposed contract that clearly states all the fees related to the $1,288.98. Funny….I did not have that portion of my contract or merchant application and I save all the papers from them. I would warn anyone and everyone to NEVER do business with this company EVER.